Crystal Jade Golden Palace

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dinner at
Crystal Jade Golden Palace 翡翠金閣

Use of top grade and freshness of ingredients, stick to the preparation a Cantonese dish should be, and taste of authentic are appropriate terms to describe the Crystal Jade Golden Palace Restaurant.

The interior of the restaurant is on the contemporary side, smart and elegant. The restaurant was divided by a wine cellar wall into two dining section. One section with 6-12 persons tables attached to a big fish tank with live seafood order-to-cook while the other section with 2-4 persons small tables attached to a stairway to the mezzanine private rooms.

On our recent revisit to Crystal Jade, we treated ourselves a table of banquet although we were only five. We started the feast with the Peking Duck B850++, crispy Duck Skin were skillfully peeled fat-free in front of us and we were served the peeled skin with the condiments, which were celery, green onion and small rice flour wrapper together with thick brown house sauce. Waiter took the meat back to the kitchen and returned with the Stir-fried Duck Meat with Fried Garlic. Followed the duck were our favorite soup in Crystal Jade, the Almond Soup with Pig Lung B650++. The soup is complicated to prepare even in Hong Kong nowadays only very few eateries can do this soup right.

Although we had the Peking duck, the lure of scrumptious roasted food in Crystal Jade tempted us for a portion of Roasted Duck together with a portion of Suckling Pig. Both were roasted follow to strict Hong Kong recipes and came out so crispy in skin as well as so moist in meat, yummy! In Bangkok many eateries claimed themselves are roasted duck specialists but I found out fewer of them do the duck right, they only use the sauce to enhance the taste but fundamentally the duck was not that well prepared.

Dishes to go with jasmine rice we ordered the Stir-fried String Bean in Mild Garlic Sauce, Braised Bean Curd with Seafood in a Clay Pot, Baked Frog Leg Gluten in a Clay Pot, Steamed Minced Pork with Preserved Salty Egg, and Steamed Chicken with Cloud Ears (black fungus).



A feast without a steam fish wasn't a feast, so we took the Steamed Coral Trout in Warm Soy Sauce, the steam fish in Crystal Jade has always lived up to my expectation.

Before our dinner concluded we had the Amaranth with Silver and Golden Eggs to clean our taste buds for the desserts. The 'silver eggs' were preserved salty duck eggs while the 'golden eggs' were actually preserved duck eggs wrapped in mud and ash mixed coating. Amaranth soaked in a broth with fried garlic and cooked silver and golden eggs.

Our desserts, the Mango Pudding and Double Boiled Hashima in Whole Grilled Coconut were never better choices to wrap up our delightful dinner.

Crystal Jade is my most favorite non-hotel Chinese restaurant in Bangkok.

Our Ratings (1 to 5 the higher the better): C J dinner has [4.1]
(Ratings are based on Food, Service and Ambience, with Price taken into account in relation to Quality) Food =4.5, Service=4.5, Ambience=3.5, Money Worth=4

Price range for two without drinks (incl. local water) in Thai Baht = BBBB
(B=below 200, BB=201-500, BBB=501-1,000, BBBB=1,001-2,000, BBBBB=over 2,000)

Details: Open daily Lunch: 11:30am – 2:30pm, Dinner: 6-10pm
Crystal Jade Golden Palace, G/F, Siam Paragon Mall, Rama 1 Road, Prathumwan, Bangkok. Tel.:02.129.4343

* (Update 2008-10-03: Crystal Jade Chinese Restaurant had been renamed to Crystal Jade Golden Palace Restaurant)

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yumcha @ Crystal Jade

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yumcha at
Crystal Jade

Last week we went to Grill Tokyo in the Siam Paragon Mall we promised a revisit to the Crystal Jade situated at the next door. Crystal Jade is a famous Chinese restaurant chain in Singapore and also with extension to Hong Kong by offering Chinese Northern provincial cuisine such as xiao-long-bao (steamed mini rice flour bun with minced pork filling), dumplings, noodles, and authentic Northern provincial dishes. Crystal Jade Chinese Restaurant in the Siam Paragon instead offering Cantonese (Canton is a province includes Hong Kong in Southern China and better referred as Guangdong in today’s knowledge) fine dining while the sister Crystal Jade Lai Mei Xian Long Bao (in the Erawan Plaza) offering a more casual array of Chinese Northern bistro delis.

Like most Chinese restaurants catering Canton specialty, Crystal Jade Chinese Restaurant offering us a yum-cha (drinking tea eating dim sum ready in a small bamboo basket) experience during lunch. The yum-cha culinary arts of Chinese Cantonese cuisine are unique and practical. A decent basket of dim sum requires the preparation and expertise of a dim sum chef with matching high quality of tea to become a treat. It is a routine eating habit for Hong Kong people going yum cha during lunch, or foreign visitors to Hong Kong will be advised to copy so.

In Bangkok, there are handsome amount of Chinese restaurants do the dim sum right, mostly in hotels’ outlets. Stand-alone likes Crystal Jade Chinese Restaurant, the quality was among the top three that we have sampled in Bangkok. Here was the treat we had.

A complete yum cha experience should start with the roasted dishes, such as a portion of Roasted Duck, Soy Sauce Chicken, Suckling Pig, and Roasted Honey Pork Ribs. Those roasted dishes were among the best we have sampled in Bangkok.

Followed by bowls of Canpoy (dried scallop) Soup Dumpling with Shark’s Fin or Meat Fillings, and Cheong-fun (Rice Roll filled with Prawn or BBQ Pork) enhanced our yum cha pleasure. In Crystal Jade the cheong-fun skin was too thick and sticky, but the fillings had the right taste. Not the best but definitely above average.

On the dim sum part we had a real treat that day starting with Har-gau (dumplings of shrimp wrapped in a thin wheat starch sheet), Siu-mai (dumplings of shrimp and pork fillings wrapped in a thin wheat flour wrapper), and Char-siu-baau (steam buns of BBQ pork fillings). These dim sum trio were the most popular dim sum choices in the Cantonese yum cha culture. In the old days a dim-sum-lady carrying the trio would announce in loud ‘har-gar, siu-mai, char-siu-bauu’ together to attract awareness while cruising around the restaurant. We also picked a basket of Rabbit Dumpling with Vegetable Fillings.

Further we sampled the Steam Spare Pork Ribs, Steam Beef Meat Balls, a popular dim sum item in Hong Kong but hardly found in Bangkok, Foo-pae-gheun (deep-fried bean curd sheet wrapped in prawn fillings), Lo-bak-go (daikon radish cakes), Ham-sui-kok (deep-fried salty meat puff), and Durian-sou (pastry filled with durian).

Also served were the Wok-fried Vegetables (Tong-O) with Garlic, and the Fried Rice Yin-Yan (fried rice of tomato sauce with meat and cream sauce with prawn). Although the fried rice wasn’t impressive but we appreciated that Crystal Jade include this once popular fried rice in the menu. Maybe it was the first fusion offer in the Cantonese culinary history.

We ended the scrumptious yum cha journey with some sweets. They were Dan-ta (egg custard tart), and Mango Pudding.

In Hong Kong, quality dim sum served everywhere; however, in Bangkok please make sure only enjoy yum cha or eat dim sum in a 4 or 5-star hotel or a prominent Chinese (Cantonese) eatery otherwise you may never want to eat dim sum again. Avoid Thai-Chinese eateries and local small vendors as they don’t provide authentic Cantonese dim sum and lack of using fresh ingredients unless you would like a round of Thai-Chinese version.

Crystal Jade Chinese Restaurant 翡翠酒家 ****

G/F, Siam Paragon Mall, Rama 1 Road, Prathumwan, Bangkok. Tel.:02-1294343.

Open daily : lunch 11 am - 2:30 pm, dinner 6 - 10 pm
Pay (food only for two): lunch around THB 1,000, dinner around THB 2,000

yumcha @ Emporia

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yum cha
Emporia 猷茜樓 @ the Emporium Suites

I had an appointment with one of my associates, a Sukhumvit guru, at the Emporium Shopping Mall for dim sum lunch. He kept asking did I mean the Imperial Queen's Park Hotel or the nearby Novotel as within the shopping mall there shall be no decent Chinese eatery. Well my Sukhumvit guru was half wrong and half correct only have to blame local media low attention to the Emporia, a Chinese restaurant in the Emporium Building occupying on the hotel wing. I walked him to the entrance for the Emporium Suites, a serviced apartment cum hotel, through Starbucks Coffee on 2nd floor of the shopping mall to the Emporium's office lobby. There we took the hotel lift to the EL floor, only to sample Emporia's all-you-can-eat dim sum lunch in this luxury version of the city's hole-in-the-wall.

The Emporia is run by the Bangkok Club, a Bangkok Bank's private club for fellow tycoons of which membership by invitation only (of course), has one of Bangkok's top Chinese eateries head by Chef Fong from Hong Kong. When the Emporium Suites decided to put an exquisite Chinese restaurant in the hotel property to replace the unwelcome coffee shop, they had Bangkok Club's Ivory Palace (a Cantonese restaurant) to help building a solid foundation for the Club sponsored Emporia Chinese Restaurant in the Emporium Suites. Five years have passed, although the Emporia doesn't fly high, but it does well in her low profile presentation.

Emporia, with modern interior featuring contemporary Asian in green, brown and gold color scheme, it is surrounding elegant and quiet, with a sense of tranquility and style rarely found in a downtown Chinese restaurant.

During lunch, both a la carte and all-you-can-eat (Baht 499++) dim sum were offered. We picked the all-you-can-eat dim sum offer. Started with a bowl of soup (with choices), followed by hau-gar (dumplings of shrimp and bamboo shoot wrapped in a thin rice starch sheet) and siu-mai (dumplings of pork and shrimp fillings wrapped in a thin kansui flour wrapper), a must. Also delighted were the lo-bak-go (pan-fried daikon radish cakes), though less impressive than fu-pae-gheun (deep-fried bean curd sheet wrapper in shrimp paste fillings). I also took the cheong-fun (steamed rice roll filled with BBQ pork), steamed fish fillet, and the e-fu noodles. They were steamed-to-order and kept my mouth busy most of the time.



No one would describe the food as outstanding, but it is good having Cantonese yum cha near the cloud with the hustle and bustle Sukhumvit Road beneath. In terms of service, you can expect no less attention from Emporia's service staff compared to what you could get at a five-star hotel, but without any trace of pretentious. This is an excellent place to entertain visiting guests, or even dine-with-a-view alone to cheer up the mood.

All in all, Emporia's all-you-can-eat Dim Sum Lunch at Baht 499++ is a venue for value-for-money fare and is recommended if you are in and around the Emporium Shopping Mall. Stunning panorama view is complimentary from the restaurant.

Emporia Chinese Restaurant 猷茜樓 ***1/2

EL Floor (25/F), the Emporium Suites
622 Sukhumvit Road
Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110
Tel.: 02.664.9999 ext.1608

Open daily : lunch 11 am - 2:30 pm, dinner 6 - 10pm
Pay (food only for two): lunch around THB 1,300, dinner around THB 2,500
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