When Royal China first opened here in 2003, I wasn’t very impressed with the food and even less so with the service.

But the restaurant on the third floor of the Raffles Hotel Arcade has been improving steadily on both fronts, judging from subsequent visits over the years.

Still, nothing prepared me for its recent makeover, the result of six weeks of renovations under the direction of local architect Colin Seah.

The restaurant, a local branch of a famous London chain, reopened on May 1, and the results can only be described as jaw-dropping.

First, there is its baby-blue colour. The original structure of the dining room has not changed much, with the same high ceiling supported by two rows of columns. But everything has been painted a cool baby blue.

Boasting white furniture and subtle gold accents including gold-mesh curtains to divide part of the room into semi-private niches, the look is calming, contemporary and classy.

But the changes are not just cosmetic.

The executive head chef of the Royal China Group, Mr Kelvin Man, has been sent here from London to revamp the menu for the reopening.

I was invited by the restaurant’s public relations consultant three weeks ago for a casual dinner, and the cooking that night was good but not spectacular.

But when I went back unannounced for dinner again last week, almost every dish was a stunner.
The meal was so good that I was back the next day for lunch where the dim sum – save for a few new creations – was equally impressive.

Most of the a la carte menu still features classic Cantonese dishes involving roasts, shark’s fin and live seafood. But if you want to try something new, ask your waitress for ideas. That’s because some dishes with ordinary- sounding names can be very interesting.

An example is the baked sea perch fillet with mushroom meat sauce ($13 per person). It comes wrapped in a piece of banana leaf and a lovely aroma wafts out when the parcel is unwrapped. The minced mushroom and pork topping is a tad salty on its own but is perfect when eaten with the fish.

Then there is the mashed melon broth with conpoy ($6.80 per bowl). The mashed melon makes the broth look like a thickened soup, but take a sip and you find your palate filled with the sweet, clear flavour of the melon bits.

The soup of the day at my dinner, a peanut and pork rib soup ($8 per bowl), is equally good but in a totally different way. Here, what charms is the robust flavour that comes from hours of brewing.

The dessert to try is the chilled Japanese pumpkin puree with black glutinous rice in coconut ice cream ($8). It seems like a lot of things in one dessert – there are even toasted peanuts in the puree – but everything goes so well together.

The Royal China brand is famous for braised Boston lobster noodles with ginger and shallot sauce ($88 for a serving with a whole lobster), but chef Man has introduced a slightly different version with crispy noodles.

I prefer the original braised version though, as cooking the noodles in the sauce allows the flavours to soak in well. For the new version, the sauce is poured over deep-fried noodles just before serving and I find the slightly floury gravy rather stodgy.

In terms of service, the waitresses have also come up with the right recipe of efficiency mixed with equal parts friendliness.

Having dined there earlier, I was recognised by the staff the moment I walked in.

In such cases, what I do is to see what happens at the other tables instead. And my guess is that no one had cause to complain both times I was there.

Royal China At Raffles
Raffles Hotel Arcade, 328 North Bridge Road
#03-09
Tel: 6338-3363
Open: Noon to 3pm (Mondays to Saturdays), 11am to 3pm (Sundays and public holidays), 6 to 10.30pm (daily)
Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Ambience: 4/5
Price: Budget about $30 per person for dim sum lunch. For a la carte, budget from $50 per person but more if you order the lobster noodles or shark’s fin dishes.

» Editor's Note: Read review of Royal China by Business Times writer Geoffrey Eu here.

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on June 1, 2008.