Thursday, March 7, 2013

Jade at Fullerton Hotel

We went for a "pre-tasting" at Jade Restaurant at our own cost. A few snap shots as we walked along the river to Fullerton.



People were crowding along Singapore River on friday night




 Entrance to Jade would be quite cramp for reception table
2 VIP rooms at the back for more than 30 pax 
Love the floor to ceiling windows

We ordered the CNY set meal. The food was served in fine dining style. It was quite disappointing except for the starter. Well, I really loved the place.
The starter was good especially the prawn with pumpkin puree. The roasted meat was crispy and at the same time, not very oily. 





Updated on 15 Jan 14

Recently, we had our food tasting with both our parents. It was the first time they met and we thank God that it went out smoothly. Prayer works wonder. My uncle and auntie who came along for the food tasting commented that the travelator from carpark was quite confusing. Hope our guests especially the folks will not have this problem on the day itself. 



 The boy toying around with the camera.


First Dish
Fortune Combination - Roasted crispy pork belly in five spices, crispy prawn coated with pumpkin puree, oven baked honey glazed chicken wing, roast duck with plum sauce and tea smoked bean cured sheet carrot roll. Every single dish was good. Full of praises! I especially love the prawn coated with pumpkin puree. The prawn was fresh and nicely fried before coating it with the light tasting pumpkin puree. I don't usually eat pork but this pork belly was so crispy that I believe I could have finished the whole plate of it. The smoked bean cured sheet carrot roll was innovative. The look wasn't that appealing but it was good. Generally, the combination plate they served was very innovative, something different from the other hotels. 


Second Dish - Braised Bird Nest's Soup with Bamboo Pith
 The shark fin's soup was replaced with bird nest's soup. The restaurant was generous with the ingredients and the soup was served in a huge bowl. After finishing the soup, we were too full for other dishes. Well, a generous serving is better than a small serving at a banquet.

Third Dish - Sauteed Scallop, Macadamia Nuts and Asparagus with XO Sauce 
This dish was equally good except that it was slightly spicy. The 2 shell like things at the sides were yummy. No idea what they were though.

 Fourth Dish - Steamed Marble Goby Fish in HK Style
No negative remark for this dish too. It was good. The disadvantage about being served was not having the part that you like most. 

Fifth Dish - Roasted Chicken with Fe-Tiew Wine Sauce
We asked the chef to replace this dish because my dad doesn't eat chicken. So we changed it to roasted duck which was served in the first dish. As for the roasted duck in the first dish, it was replaced with pork rib. By the fifth dish, most of us were full already. 

Sixth Dish - Braised Sea Cucumber and Sliced Abalone with Spinach
As I don't eat veggie, I couldn't comment on this dish. 

Seventh Dish - Wok Fried Noodle in HK Style
The noodle was good and the chef was generous with the ingredients like char siew and prawn. 

Final Dish - Chilled Cream of Mango with Pomelo, Sago and Green Lime Jelly
Being known for their creativity, the restaurant added the green lime jelly to the commonly found mango sago. 

The food was so good that I didn't have a single negative remark. We hope that the chef can uphold this standard on the day itself. By the way, the chef is young and handsome!

Updated on 26 Mar 14

­It has been almost a month since my wedding. I just came back from honeymoon. It’s time for me to share on my experience with Jade Restaurant. I’ll update again with photos on a later date.

Tea Ceremony
It was really sweet of my coordinator to arrange a private room in the Post Bar for the tea ceremony. It was a lovely and spacious room with high ceiling and sofas for my relatives. The Post Bar was a short walk from Jade Restaurant.

Cocktail Reception
My wedding coordinator offered the space outside the restaurant for cocktail reception. As this space was a part of the hotel lobby, we decided to have the cocktail in the restaurant instead. There wasn’t exactly any reception area. My guests would go straight into the restaurant for drinks and peanuts.

Table Setup for Photo Album and Reception
I had a table outside of the restaurant for reception. We placed the Chinese “xi” character angpow box on the table. Both the young and old loved it! We also placed our initial i.e. A & L beside the reception table.

There was a display cabinet along the corridor into the restaurant. The restaurant covered it with a white cloth and placed our photo canvas and a pair of Fullerton bears on it. We also customised a Chinese display piece for the wall panel.


Pictures of the props from IM Perfection
1.     Chinese “xi” character
2.     A & L

Table Arrangement
The capacity was min 10 tables and max 12 tables. The 2 tables in VIP room could take up to 15 pax per table while the 10 tables outside could take up to 11 pax per table. We assigned the center of the restaurant as the stage area. Our stage area was very simple. There was no elevated platform, just a table. We even opted out for cake and champagne fountain.

We requested for a projector at one end of the restaurant at an additional cost while we brought our own TV for the VIP room. The guests in VIP room were unable to see the projector screen. The projector was placed at the far end, near to the kitchen and toilet.

For the table setup, we chose pink roses and red table cloth for VIP tables and ivory for the guest tables. The table cloth options for VIP tables were gold, pink, silver, ivory, grey and red while the options for guest tables were ivory, red, gold and white. Both were subjected to availability. As for the show plate, we could choose from the following:  square plate without any border, round plate without any border and round plate with either gold or silver border.  

Many of us have heard that hotel banquet would usually charge by table basis. Let’s say the agreement stats that each table has 10 pax. Despite there are only 8 pax on the table, the hotel will still charge 10-pax price. In another scenario, there are 8 guests with normal diet and 2 guests having vegetarian/halal food, the hotel will charge 10 + 2 pax. The hotel commonly explains that the food is prepared in portion intended for 10 pax. I was worried. My tables were unevenly distributed as some of the relatives had their requirements for the seating arrangement. I had tables with 9 pax only and a table with 4 vegetarians and 7 guests with normal diet. To our surprise, they charged by per pax basis. We only realised this when we were asked to sign the acknowledgement slip after the banquet. Bear in mind that the minimum no of pax stated in the agreement must be met.

Food
I was really glad that the food was good on the day itself. I’ve received many positive feedbacks from my relatives. Also, the portion they served was huge! So by the fourth dish, my relatives were almost full. The kitchen was located at the side of the restaurant and hence, the food was prepared and served warm to the guests. A week before the wedding, the coordinator went through our program with the kitchen as the food would only be cooked just before being served. My relatives who had vegetarian food commented that the food was great too.

Service
Generally, the service was excellent! Sometimes when we dropped by the restaurant, the restaurant manager or/and her staffs would always be there to assist any questions we had.


However, the package did not come with any wedding favors. The restaurant could do it for us but at an additional cost. We decided to get it from a wedding shop in KSL City, JB instead. As most of our guests were elderly, we chose to get peanut sweets. The peanut sweets were placed in a lovely candy box i.e. Chinese character “xi”. It was around RM1 for each candy box. Some of my relatives even brought them home to display in the living room. 



Saturday, March 2, 2013

Wedding Bands

This year's CNY was different from the past as my mum decided to go Tawian. My mum and I did a stopover in HK on our way home. Earlier in Jan, I was in HK comparing the prices for wedding bands. We wanted to get Bvlgari for our wedding bands but ended up with Omega. Before confirming the rings, we even made a call to the boutique in SG to check on the prices. 

To our surprise, the white gold was more expensive than the rose gold and yellow gold. We were told that it was the same across all the brands in HK. Trying to convince ourselves, we went into Bvlgari boutique to verify and it was true. Till now, we still couldn't comprehend.

 Our trip in Jan to select the rings
 This design caught our eyes. I loved rose gold and the wavy design which could not be seen in this photo. 


Received the rings with our initials engraved.

TIPS: Plan early to get the rings oversea. The amount we saved for these wedding bands could allow us to make 2 return trips to HK. That's provided you take budget airline and getting the tickets during promotion.