WADA rating: (42 to 52) +22.5= 64+ to 74+ pts
QPI: 6 ($60 per pax
WFI: C ($35 corkage per bot, Schwott Zwissel stemware but glasses are not well polished, wine list is deplorable for such an atas-class restaurant
Tasted twice in 1H 2008. Most recently with my family and bro in May.
Min Jiang (@ Goodwood Park Hotel) used to be a favourite food haunt for my family back when I was still attending pri school. Back then, it had already established itself as a premier sichuan restaurant famous for its smoked duck and kung po prawns. Its only appropriate that we have my bro's farewell dinner here before he leaves for Perth. My rating has been given as a range due to the fact that during the most recent visit, I had been down with a sore throat which would definitely have impaired my judgement. To add salt to wound, half of the restaurant had been booked for a wedding and the other half was explodingly full. Signs of stress were evident in their less than adequate service standards with spillover effects on food quality as well. Fortunately for them, our first visit had nullified any negativity caused by the second.
What's Good
Smoked Peking Duck
If there is only one dish to order here, you CANNOT NOT order the duck! Pre-ordering is required, this is worth all the trouble just because of its uniqueness and pains taken to slowly cook this goose (by goose ..i mean the duck). The smokiness of various fragrant woods are infused wholly into the crunchy skin and half-juicy meat. This dish is eaten in three flights. Firstly, the light crunchy skin is taken with a coating of sugar and this pairing is absolutely fabulous! The thin layer of fat with each slice of the skin perfectly gels the woody smokiness with the granules of sugar. Second flight consists of freshly steamed crepe wrapped around a nice sizeable delectable piece of duck meat with skins on and throw in a sprig of spring onion and sweet sauce. The difference this dish brings with the normal peking duck is the smoky spice flavours infused into duck meat instead of just crispy duck skin. The third flight is my favourite eaten also in a crepe but with exciting spicy sourness contributed by sichuan "archar"...v interesting.
Chef Goh's Tasting Platter
Spectacular fireworks-like presentation...in a high class way...a great start. A constellation of four of the Chef's star specialties - Salted Egg Yolk Lobster, Sichuan Fried Chicken, Fried Eel, Scallops with Sweet Chilli Sauce. The scallops were so-so with sweet thai chilli drizzled over. The chicken reminded me of KFC's popcorn chicken...add in a dash of chilli powder. The lobster is quite nice with powdery salted egg yolk coating that is pleasantly just salty enough not to totally cover the taste of the lobster. I really do like the fried eel...its like eel fries with fragrant sesame oil and sweet honey aromas. Good crunchiness that makes this a perfect accompaniment to a mug of beer...but in our context.. maybe a dryer white wine. This has the longest lasting aftertaste with the fishiness of the eel showing on the end notes.
Soups
We ordered a few selections of their soups to taste but two left a deeper impression. The Sze Chuan Spicy Sour Thick Soup can be summed up as "elegant". Perfect balance between the sichuan peppercorns spiciness , the red vinegar sourness and the sichuan preserved vegetables saltiness. I thought there was a dash of sugar on the near finish as well. The other was a clear chicken soup broth which my failing memory remembers as very refreshing, delicately savory sweet and appetizing.
Durian Mochi and Durian Pudding
This is the other NOT-TO-BE-MISSED! dessert dish besides the smoked duck. As all foodies would already know, Min Jiang is closely associated with Goodwood Park Hotel, which in turn is famous for its durian puffs. However, the chefs at Min Jiang (Rochester) have taken it up another level by using the same high quality durian fillings and presenting them using different mediums. I especially like to give two thumbs up to the mochi... its like a chewy durian fruit bomb that explodes with sweet durian goodness in a bite.
What's Not
The high expectations I had of this establishment probably meant that I had unfairly expected ALL their dishes to be special or at least above average good. So here are some of the expectation mismatches I have....
The Fried Sichuan Style four season beans were a little too salty and tame to warrant anything more than one thumbs up.
The Kung Pow Prawns were also not as exciting as how we remembered it to be years ago at their Goodwood Park location.
A lil on the sweet side and not spicy enough...maybe they brought the dish down a notch to attune to the many foreigner palates that patronise this outlet. Once again, good but not great.Other Dishes Tasted
Black pepper beef and Pork Ribs....both as can be seen from the photo, looks and tastes pretty good with good "wok hei" showing for the beef and perfect sweet-savory balance for the pork ribs. Also, do try their steamed xiao long bao and other dim sum dishes
.
Comments
After two visits, I am getting mixed feelings due to the vastly different vibes felt on the two occasions. No doubt, this is an above average restaurant but at the same time...maybe I had expected much more given the prices.
The service on the second visit had been bad but probably they were too packed and had to employ newbies to fill up the waitering void. We had a nasty tussle over Durian Mochi when we were told that they had run out of it even though we had suggested to pre-order desserts at the start. After some haggling , they finally relented and told us to wait 15 mins for it...but guess what..after 20mins later with no mochi in sight...we had decided to live with the disappointment.
The serving staff can be best described as a Camry...feels and looks like a luxury car but its really still not a mercs or beemer. However, all said they did waiver our corkage fee! Definitely a redeeming factor.
I want to reserve final judgement until my next visit (hopefully when its not so packed) but until then...my recommendation is go try the Smoked Peking Duck...its definitely worth its price in quality and uniqueness.
Wine Pairings Done
2005 Devil's Lair Chardonnay, Margaret River (JO92, JH95, WS91)
Disastrous! This wine went bad! Most probably tainted during the bottling. Will re-taste this some other time.
2005 Fish Rock Chardonnay, South Aust
WADA rated 78pts
We had to order this wine of the month (@ $80!!!) to replace the Devil's Lair. Have never heard of this label and the bottling looks cheap...most prob its supposed to be a entry level table white. But...suprisingly enough...this was actually quite good! Very intense white fruit aromas...some lychees and pineapples even...sweetness borders between real fruit sweetness and fakey sugar sweet. Good effort but prob not worth $80.
2001 Woodlands Kevin Cabernet Sauvignon (JO87)
WADA rated 87ptsDark fruits ..plums...chocolate and nicely integrated oak. This seriously tasted like a good bordeaux...it shared some similar characteristics of the Pape Clement 01. Really serious and elegant wine. A pity the cuisine here doesn't seem to bring out its full complexity.
2005 Kooyong Haven Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula (JH96)
WADA rated 83pts
Red cherries with hints of strawberries. Good fresh acidity that goes especially well with the smoked duck. Silky texture with mid length finish. Could improve with age as complexity develops.
Pairing Suggestions
Except for the Smoked Duck, all the other dishes would definitely do better if paired with a white...I would say a less complex chard or a clean crisp new world riesling / gurwurtztraminer. I suggest you bring your own wine or recommend that they get a wine sommelier to redo their wine list...its SUX! big time...not many recognisable names and its bloody expensive. It makes paying $35 corkage a much better alternative...so pl...BYOB!
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