👎 The signature 100-ring cucumber was surprisingly underwhelming.
With all holidays cancelled for the entire year (and perhaps even into 2021), the darling and I (fortunately) have a little excess disposable income to spare, so we decided to visit a couple of atas restaurants that we wouldn't otherwise visit ... which is how we wound up at Raffles Hotel's Chinese Restaurant: Yi by Jereme Leung!
Unfortunately we forgot to take a photo of the gorgeous entrance (lined floor to ceiling with handcrafted white flower petals), and elegant dining area. The restaurant is a nice place to be in, and sound dampening is above average (for Chinese restaurants) so you don't get too much crowd noise from other diners. Service was great, too!
The little one was a little hungry so between trying to set him up in a baby chair and getting his feed on we didn't really have much appetite to browse the menu properly. We gave up quite quickly and chose the (Set) Dinner Menu II (s$138/pax), to be washed down with a pitcher of Yi's Herbal Tea (s$18)
The eight-course Dinner Menu started off with three Appetiser / Cold Dish items: Hundred-ring Cucumber & Poached Sea Whelk with Soy Sauce Vinaigrette, Sichuan Style Chicken with Peanuts & Sesame Chilli Dressing, and Okra, Tiger Prawns & Arctic Shellfish with Soy Sauce Vinaigrette
Surprisingly, despite the Hundred-Ring Cucumber being a signature dish, we found it a little underwhelming (perhaps we're not huge fans of sea whelk). On the flip side, the Sichuan Chicken was terrific: The cold, juicy chicken constrasting perfectly with the tongue-numbing heat from the sichuan peppers. The Okra dish was well balanced, but ultimately neither particularly impressed nor disappointed.
Moving on: The Fish Cartilage Soup with Abalone & Fish Maw was amazing: Gorgeous, thick, umami-laden broth with tender abalone, fish maw, and hokkaido crab leg. We would come back again just for this soup alone.
The two Main Dishes were Baked Cod with Wild Honey & Soy Sauce Reduction, and Iberico Pork with Golden Garlic & Savoury sauce.
I really liked the pork, which was tender, fatty, juicy, and crazy good with that gravy. And the fried garlic chips. Everything tastes better garnished with fried garlic chips. The cod (technically 'chinese' cod i.e. 鳕鱼 i.e. Chilean Seabass i.e. Patagonian Toothfish) was also executed really well, with the sweet & salty glaze (from the honey & soy sauce reduction) just strong enough not to overpower the delicate fish flavour.
Rounding off the savoury dishes: Crispy Egg Noodles with Shrimp, Crab Meat & Scrambled Eggs. This was a decent (if somewhat forgettable) end to the meal, seasoned lightly as to let the ingredients take centre-stage flavour wise.
Oh and for dessert ... a small platter of pineapple, grape, rockmelon and watermelon. Do let me know in the comments if I'm being picky here, but at over s$160/person after service charge and taxes, surely it's not unreasonable to expect a proper dessert rather than these common fruits?
Nevertheless, the meal was overall solid, with decent value-for-money. I think the strength of the outstanding dishes (pork, soup, chicken), service standards and ambience have more than earned a return visit - this time to go ala-carte and try the restaurant's other signatures.
Yi by Jereme Leung is located in the Arcade of Raffles Hotel. Reservations recommended, non-halal.
