I've eaten at Marina Bay Sands Hotels's (MBS) in-house Chinese Restaurant several times (on my own dime, so this is an unsponsored post.) Here's a Blossom review so you can decide whether it's worth it!
Blossom Restaurant is the only Chinese restaurant in Marina Bay Sands Hotel. (If craving Chinese food, you also have the option of ordering room service or eating at 1 of the Chinese restaurants at the MBS shoppes side. For a full review of whether staying at MBS is worth it, click here.)
Being a hotel restaurant, the food is good, but it is a little pricey. The first time I dined there, we saw some abalone dishes for a few thousand dollars! Of course, we can't afford to order those, so luckily they have other more regular-restaurant-price dishes!
I would be happy to return for some dishes, but not for all of them. (Will go into more detail about this below.)
Location
The restaurant is located on the ground floor of the MBS hotel i.e. the middle of the lobby.
Address: Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Lobby Tower 2, #01-05/05A, 2 Bayfront Ave, 018972
As MBS is a huge hotel, it's a distance to walk in from the main entrance, if you have mobility issues, but the hotel has wheelchairs that you can borrow.
Ambience
From the outside, the restaurant looks quite nice, especially when the sunlight streams down on a clear day.
However, when you walk in, it's very different from a typical Singaporean hotel Chinese restaurant. As it's open to the lobby (i.e. the restaurant is not enclosed), it feels more like casual dining than a high-end restaurant. (But some of the prices are very high end.)
There's not much privacy, depending on whether you sit, and it can also get pretty noisy, as you have the noise from the restaurant and the lobby.
There is the option of eating in a private room but you have to spend a LOT.
Food
The first time I dined there, we had:
- Double-boiled Fish Maw in Supreme Chicken Stock ($108): not worth it. Pricier than other hotel restaurants, such as Conrad Orchard's Summer Palace, but not tastier. Almost wrote off the restaurant
- Sautéed Beef Cubes with Crispy-fried Garlic Slices ($58): this was recommended by the waitress and so good! The stir-frying skills were excellent and you can really taste the wok hey (breath of the wok, which all Good Chinese Stir Fried Dishes should have.) It made me see the restaurant in a different light and give it another chance after the disappointing soup.
- Seasonal Vegetables ($30): again, much better than I expected, probably due to the chef's superior stir-frying skills.
Since then, I've tried:
- Slow-cooked Fish Slices (Trout FIllet) with Salted Vegetables in Sichuan Pepper Sauce ($78): not cheap but the fish is SO fresh so I have been back for this.
- Dim Sum: not great. The congee is awful.
- Poached Fish Noodles with Seafood in Lobster Stock ($23): so-so (See below- looks good but a bit bland for me)
I will keep updating this list as I try new dishes!
I recommend trying the Sichuan or stir-fried dishes.
Drinks
We've always only had Chinese tea here. It tastes pretty much like any other hotel restaurant's tea.
I like how it is left at your table (easier to refill- some high-end restaurants place it at the side, but the waiters aren't attentive enough to top up on time) and placed on top of a candle, so the tea is always warm.
Service
The staff here are extremely warm, but they're much more casual than the staff at a Western restaurant, so you may feel that they are a little too familiar, if you're used to Western dining.
Note that they can be a bit inflexible. For example, I once arrived about 10 minutes before the last order time stated on the website and was told that the restaurant was no longer accepting orders.
Any questions about this Marina Bay Sands Chinese restaurant Blossom review? Let me know in the comments!
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