Orchard Hotel Singapore | Michelin Guide Selected
THE ARRIVAL: FESTIVE GRANDEUR
The restaurant is beautifully dressed in grand CNY décor, with elegant red lanterns, auspicious ornaments, and festive touches that create a warm and celebratory atmosphere Yelp. After a major renovation, the restaurant features more spacious corridors with wooden wall panels that add modern touches complementing oriental interior aspects The Ranting Panda. The venue branches into various sections including a dining hall, a 20-seater Chairman’s Room, three 12-seater Grand Rooms, and three private 4-seater rooms, all featuring contemporary and modern decor with traditional and elegant touches Sagye Korean Pot.
The atmosphere exudes understated opulence—neither overly traditional nor coldly modern, but a refined balance that allows the celebration to take center stage. The new entrance and reception area appears grander and more impressive, with a wide selection of wines greeting guests as they enter the spacious corridor DanielFoodDiary.
THE CHINESE NEW YEAR SET MENU: A PROCESSION OF AUSPICIOUS DELICACIES
Hua Ting’s Chinese New Year set menus range from $168 for four diners to extravagant offerings reaching $6,888 for ten guests, each course meticulously designed to honor Cantonese culinary heritage while celebrating the symbolism of prosperity.
COURSE ONE: THE LO HEI CEREMONY
Fortune Toro Yu Sheng
The signature Fortune Toro Lo Hei Yu Sheng showcases premium Japanese tuna, with the prized otoro cut celebrated for its luxurious texture and rich flavour, symbolizing abundance, prestige, and good fortune as an elegant prelude to a prosperous year ahead TripadvisorTin Hua Restaurant.
The platter arrives as a visual symphony of colors—crimson tuna glistening with marbled fat, verdant shreds of vegetables, golden crackers, and ruby-red pickled ginger arranged in concentric circles. The otoro, that most indulgent belly cut, melts on the tongue with a buttery richness that requires no chewing, its fat content so high it dissolves into pure umami. The accompanying citrus dressing cuts through the richness with bright acidity, while the crackers provide satisfying textural contrast—each bite crackling and shattering before giving way to the silken fish.
The lo hei ceremony itself transforms dining into participatory ritual, chopsticks reaching across the table in choreographed chaos as guests toss the ingredients skyward, voices rising in auspicious chants of “huat ah!” The higher the toss, the greater the fortune—a belief that turns a salad into theater.
COURSE TWO: THE SOUL-WARMING ELIXIR
Mini Buddha Jumps Over The Wall with South African 4-Head Abalone and Superior Bird’s Nest
The Mini Buddha Jumps Over the Wall features South African 4-Head Abalone and Superior Bird’s Nest, alongside Stewed Bird’s Nest with Crab Meat and Crab Roe Dania Experiences.
This legendary soup arrives in individual teapots, steam rising in fragrant wisps that carry the concentrated essence of hours of slow simmering. The broth itself is amber-dark and remarkably clear, testament to careful skimming and patient reduction. Each spoonful delivers layers of savory depth—the sweetness of dried scallops, the mineral earthiness of Chinese mushrooms, the oceanic whisper of the abalone.
The 4-head abalone (meaning just four pieces comprise a catty, indicating substantial size) has been braised until it achieves that coveted texture: tender enough to yield easily to the teeth yet retaining gentle resistance, neither rubbery nor mushy. The superior bird’s nest adds delicate, almost imperceptible strands that provide subtle textural intrigue and carry the soup’s flavors in their gelatinous embrace.
This is restorative cooking at its finest—a dish designed not merely to nourish but to fortify, its collagen-rich ingredients believed in Traditional Chinese Medicine to strengthen vitality and enhance beauty from within.
COURSE THREE: THE TEXTURAL MARVEL
Braised Crispy Fish Maw with Seasonal Greens
The chef’s learned techniques and skills have transformed fish maw in a soup into crispy crunch like that of a vegetable, creating food that can make you weep Burpple.
The fish maw—dried swim bladder rehydrated and masterfully prepared—presents one of Chinese cuisine’s most fascinating textural achievements. The texture is silky, gelatinous, and cloud-like with a pleasant chewiness that adds luxury to soups and braised dishes DanielFoodDiary. When prepared in the crispy style featured at Hua Ting, deep-frying creates a delightful crunch that enhances flavor by creating a delicate balance of crispiness and tenderness Sagye Korean Pot.
The exterior shatters with audible crispness, giving way to a soft, almost spongy interior that absorbs the savory braising liquid with remarkable efficiency. It’s essentially flavorless on its own, functioning as a textural vehicle that carries the umami-rich sauce—oyster sauce, superior stock, touches of Shaoxing wine—in every bite. The seasonal greens provide verdant contrast, their slight bitterness balancing the richness.
This dish exemplifies Cantonese cooking philosophy: premium ingredients, technical precision, and textures that keep the palate engaged.
COURSE FOUR: THE CENTERPIECE
Signature Irish Roasted Duck
The Smoked Peking Duck infused with aged Pu-Erh tea and yuzu sauce is an iconic signature, alongside the Hua Ting Signature Crispy Roasted Duck DanielFoodDiary. The roasted duck’s skin is paper-thin and packed with oily, savory goodness, with fatty meat that doesn’t have an overly strong gamey taste Sagye Korean Pot.
The duck arrives whole to the table for presentation before being expertly carved tableside—a performance that draws appreciative murmurs from neighboring tables. The skin gleams lacquered mahogany, evidence of meticulous glazing and high-heat roasting. That first bite reveals the mastery: skin that shatters like spun sugar, impossibly thin yet deeply flavorful, its rendered fat creating an almost confectionery sweetness that contrasts with savory depth.
The meat beneath remains succulent, its richness tempered by the Pu-Erh tea’s earthy, slightly smoky notes and the yuzu’s bright citrus perfume. Each slice is accompanied by delicate steamed pancakes, julienned scallions, and cucumber batons—the traditional accompaniments that allow diners to construct their own perfect bite, balancing richness with freshness.
COURSE FIVE: THE LUXURIOUS INTERLUDE
Pan-Seared Diced Kagoshima Wagyu Beef with Lotus Root
The Pan Seared Diced Kagoshima Wagyu Beef with Lotus Root appears as one of the auspicious delicacies featured in the festive menu TripadvisorDania Experiences.
The Kagoshima wagyu arrives in perfect ruby cubes, each piece seared to develop a caramelized crust while maintaining a butter-soft interior that practically dissolves on the tongue. The marbling—that characteristic web of intramuscular fat—renders slowly during cooking, basting the meat from within and creating an almost obscene richness.
The lotus root provides essential textural contrast: crisp, slightly fibrous, with a mild sweetness and attractive lace-like cross-section when sliced. Its pale ivory hue and delicate crunch cut through the beef’s unctuous quality, while its porous structure absorbs the pan sauce—likely enhanced with soy, mirin, and perhaps a whisper of truffle oil given the premium nature of the menu.
This course represents the modern Cantonese approach: international premium ingredients treated with classical Chinese technique and flavor profiles.
COURSE SIX: THE SYMBOLIC FINALE
Steamed Platinum Pating Fish
The Steamed Platinum Pating Fish appears among the auspicious delicacies that tell a story of heritage, artistry, and auspicious beginnings Tripadvisor.
In Chinese culture, fish (鱼, yú) is homophonous with surplus or abundance, making it an essential component of any New Year feast. The Platinum Pating—a premium freshwater fish prized for its delicate flesh—is steamed whole in the traditional Cantonese manner: minimal intervention to showcase the ingredient’s inherent quality.
The fish emerges from the steamer with flesh so tender it flakes at the mere suggestion of chopsticks, its natural sweetness enhanced rather than masked by the preparation. The steaming liquid, enriched with ginger, scallions, and superior soy sauce, becomes a sauce that’s poured over the fish tableside, its heat causing the aromatics to release one final burst of fragrance.
The flesh is snow-white, silken, nearly translucent—each bite clean and pure, a palate cleanser after the richness of preceding courses while still delivering satisfaction through its delicate umami and the sauce’s savory depth.
COURSE SEVEN: THE SWEET CONCLUSION
Double-Boiled Hashima with Red Date and Glutinous Rice Ball
The feast rounds off with a sweet, modern note of beloved favourites such as Double-Boiled Hashima with Red Date and Glutinous Rice Ball, or the refreshing Chilled Mango Sago with Peach Gum and Pomelo OpenTable.
The dessert arrives in individual bowls, the soup crystal-clear with a subtle golden tint from the red dates. Hashima (snow frog fallopian tubes) is prized in Chinese cuisine for its supposed beauty-enhancing collagen content and its unique texture—gelatinous, slightly chewy, appearing as translucent wisps suspended in the sweet broth.
The glutinous rice balls, traditionally filled with black sesame or peanut paste, provide comforting textural satisfaction. Their exterior maintains gentle resistance before yielding to reveal the flowing sweet filling within. The red dates contribute natural sweetness and a fruity, almost caramel-like depth, while also adding symbolic significance—their red color represents joy and good fortune.
The soup is served warm, neither hot nor cold, allowing the delicate ingredients to shine. It’s a restorative, nourishing conclusion that embodies Chinese culinary medicine’s belief in food as wellness—ending the feast not with heavy indulgence but with gentle, beautifying sweetness.
SERVICE & EXPERIENCE
The restaurant receives praise for service that is very attentive, genuinely caring, and often anticipates guests’ needs, with staff taking the time to build rapport with guests which adds a warm and personal touch to the experience Chope. Importantly, Hua Ting has preserved that invaluable personal touch element in Chinese dining, which many chinese establishments have unfortunately lost over time Chope.
Management, including Master Chef Chung and F&B Operations Manager, take the initiative to personally drop by private rooms to check on guests and greet them, ensuring they are well taken care of, which speaks volumes about Hua Ting’s and Orchard Hotel’s commitment to hospitality and guest satisfaction Chope.
THE VERDICT
Hua Ting’s Chinese New Year set menu achieves what all great festive dining should: it honors tradition while embracing refinement, celebrates abundance without vulgarity, and creates an experience that nourishes body, spirit, and relationships. Having won multiple awards for its timeless signatures, roast delights, and home-crafted dim sum, Hua Ting Restaurant continues to create exquisite dishes that are redolent of tradition yet crafted with new generations of diners in mind The Yum List.
The progression of courses demonstrates masterful menu composition—building from refreshing to rich, light to substantial, culminating in restorative sweetness. Each dish justifies its place not merely through flavor but through cultural significance, technical achievement, and the seamless integration of premium ingredients into Cantonese culinary vocabulary.
For families seeking an authentic, elevated Chinese New Year dining experience where tradition is respected and service remains genuinely warm, Hua Ting delivers a feast worthy of the most auspicious occasions.
Hua Ting Restaurant
442 Orchard Road, Orchard Hotel Singapore
Tel: 6739 6666
Chinese New Year Menu: 12 February – 3 March 2026
Price Range: $168++ (for 4 pax) to $6,888++ (for 10 pax)
Sonnet 4.5