Friends brought us to Paradise Dynasty, I already saw some of their advertising when roaming in Causeway Bay - their colourful Xiao Long Bao. What I didn’t know was it was a Singaporian restaurant, specialising in Shanghai and Szechuan food. There was a long queue outside the restaurant the day we went.
I ate alone the original Xiao Long Bao (didn’t take any photos), it was better than Din Tai Fung, the pork had more taste with a thin skin. The Bao were hot and soup was good.
Dynasty 8 flavours XLB - since it was sharing with friends, I only tried maybe 2 flavours, pretty good, I couldn’t say the flavours stood out a lot. The centre bao was the original taste.
On the whole, the meal was delicious, since I didn’t expect much, it turned out much better than I thought, especially for the XLB, since I was trying to taste in several places. I think in this Hong Kong trip, it was the best I have eaten. I ate a half a dozen of XLB, I wasn’t very hungry but I tasted most dishes. The Szechuan dishes were good. Happy with the meal. Will be back for their baos!
Paradise Dynasty
6/F, Lee Theatre,
99 Percival Street,
Causeway Bay
Tel: 2177 0903
11:30 am - 10:30 pm
(need reservation)
Paradise Dynasty is a spin-off of the Paradise Group, which started off as a humble “cze-char” spot(Singaporean version of “dai pai dongs” in HK or “dai chow” in Kuala Lumpur) in MacPherson, a blue-collar industrial suburb on the eastern part of Singapore. That was back in the early 2000s. Its first foray into Chinese fine dining was when it opened Taste Paradise on Temple Street in Chinatown, where its pan-fried XO carrot cake attracted attention from foodies all over Singapore.
By 2009, Taste Paradise has ensconced itself at ION Orchard, one of the poshest malls on Orchard Road, Singapore’s main shopping belt. It also opened Paradise Dynasty then, specialising in “xiao long bao”, “la mian” and other Shanghainese dishes. The Paradise chain has had its ups and downs - at one point brought to court for tinkering with gas meters by Singapore Power utilities company.
Still, the story of the Chua brothers, Eldwin and Edlan, is a true rags-to-riches tale, where the Singapore Dream did come true at a stage.
We just loved this place. Actually a few days later after our second meal (just both of us), we had to meet some friends, and they reserved this place! We loved the place, but still wanted to try other places, so we declined politely… But Paradise Dynasty is strongly recommended, we loved all the dishes.
