Cassia At Capella

Another favorite venue of ours for Sunday lunches is Cassia at Capella. We like the serenity of the area, the sunshine on lush greenery and the effusive service.

The thing is, if you want hearty dim sum and traditional flavors in your Chinese food, you'll be disappointed by Cassia. Head over to Yan Ting at St Regis or Hai Tien Lou at Pan Pacific instead.

Cassia reminds me a little of Lung King Heen, in terms of lighting, table setting and feel. I'm fond of Lung King Heen. It's fine-dining at its best. But the decor is where the similarities more or less ended. Food wise, the moment you taste their amuse-bouche, it tells you how unique the respective restaurants are.

The food at the 2 restaurants is prepared with a contemporary mindset. Both restaurants' soups are beautifully boiled with a depth that many commercial kitchens don't achieve nowadays. There're of course subtle differences in its flavors. Cassia is clearly the more innovative. It succeeds in its motto of culinary fun in most dishes, but not for some. The pork and century egg porridge at Cassia tries too hard to be 'upmarket' in its ingredients. That, in my books, kinda failed. The texture of the porridge is lumpy and the taste and meats used don't quite gel well together. i.e a more expensive cut of pork might not result in a tastier finish. They don't use minced pork. They use a saltier cut of ham-like bits. It should take a leaf from Lung King Heen's kitchen on how to do a traditional tasty yet refined century egg pork porridge.

However, the friends like its roasted pork belly. I forgot, but I think Kurobuta pork is used. I assure you, the quality of the pork makes a huge difference to whether it stinks when put into the mouth. Purists will turn up their nose at Cassia's version because it's very delicate, well balanced and non-salty. The fats aren't exactly gooey. It's unlike the hearty and rough versions offered out there. The crackling effect is not uneven and perhaps not as thick as some would like. But for the friends, they prefer this version. As pretty as the presentation is, I can't be persuaded to try a slice.

Cassia's Chef Ooi seems to be very into abalone as it appears rather frequently in his dishes. It could also be that each time we dine at Cassia, we somehow order dishes which heavily feature abalone. This won't work very well because at the end of the meal, I remember nothing but the taste of abalone and all the brown superior stock/gravy I've had in various forms. :p

It isn't a big restaurant, but it feels spacious. The tables are intimately placed without being cramped up against one another. There's a good measure of privacy created between chairs. It's nice that we get pretty stools for our bags to sit on. I like Cassia because its menu offers alot of food options that appeal to finicky eaters like me.