East Phoenix, Zetlands

Following the lovely nuptials between Mr&Mrs N at Blackburn Gardens, the remnant MSG Cafeteria peeps lingered in the gardens to fancy artistic shots (by Ivanhoe) before heading to the Intercontinental Hotel in Double Bay for sustenance in the form of coffee and fries.

With 20min to go till the start of the night-time reception, we then headed out on the short drive south to East Village, Zetlands. Set inside the relatively new shopping centre, East Phoenix is located on the third level and has ample capacity to fit at least 300 (there were 23 guest tables at the reception, with at least 12 people per table and room for a large dance floor), with three private function rooms.

Front Entrance

As per usual Chinese Banquet receptions, it looked like another full venue.

Bridal Table

Reception Area

Each table was decorated with fresh flowers (leftover from the ceremony?):

Table Decor

Table Decor

Table Decor

Wedding Favours

Not before long, the reception started and the various courses in the Chinese banquet were gradually served (yipee! cos I was starrrving). Interestingly, for each course, a waiter split out the food on a small table off to the side before serving the bowls to guests on the nearby tables.

Suckling Pork with Combination BBQ Platter

This is actually Lenni's plate cos her one looked much better than the dog's breakfast that I got served. The suckling pig had crispy skin and the meat was well-seasoned and tender. Roast duck, roast BBQ pork (cha siu), and marinated sliced jellyfish were served as part of the combination BBQ platter - duck had crispy skin; jellyfish is probably served pre-marinated straight out of the packet (available from Asian groceries). I can't really comment on the roast BBQ pork as my plate didn't have it - there were a lot of random long strips of meat (suckling pig), two pieces of duck and some remnant jellyfish.

Prawn Cutlet with Mashed Taro

The crunchy exterior of the prawn cutlet is identical to the deep fried taro dumping (a.k.a wu gok) that you can get at Yum Cha. The 'cutlet' is full of fluffy taro and a whole prawn - rather tasty and not too oily.

Sautéed Scallops with Snow Peas

Scallops were stir-fried with snow peas, carrots, straw mushrooms, ginger, and what I think may be julienne strips of broccoli stem. The scallops were tender and the sugar snaps still had a satisfying crunch to them.

Shark Fin and Shredded Chicken Soup

There wasn't really much flavour in this soup, which contained thin strips of chicken and (fake) shark fin.

Lobster with Ginger & Shallot

Lobster was stir-fried with ginger and shallots - however, the lobster meat was a bit mushy, which is usually a sign that the lobster is not fresh and/or is over-cooked.

Abalone and Sea Cucumber with Shiitake Mushroom and Broccoli

The slice(s) of abalone was braised with sea cucumber, whole shiitake mushrooms and fresh broccoli. Personally, I'm not a fan of sea cucumber (the real thing looks weird *shudders*) but I still ate it - just soft and squishy flesh with a texture similar to the mushroom...

Steamed Live Coral Trout with Ginger and Shallots

The coral trout was soft and tender, flavoured with the accompanying ginger, shallots and soy sauce.

Crispy Skin Garlic Chicken

The chicken skin was covered in some minced garlic so the skin had a strong garlic-y flavour hit. The chicken skin was well-seasoned and crispy, and the chicken was moist.

Braised E-Fu Noodles

Interestingly, the waiter just handed out bowls of either e-fu noodles or fried rice (if you asked for it) rather than both as per usual. Hence I can't really comment on the fried rice but I thought that the (vegetarian) e-fu noodles - cooked with strips of shiitake mushroom and shallots - were a little bland and boring.

Red Bean Sweet Soup

The Chinese banquet finished off with dessert in the form of red bean sweet soup, seasonal fresh fruit (oranges and watermelon), as well as some "fancy cakes" (i.e. deep fried sesame balls along with some baked pastry thing...).

Seasonal Fresh Fruit Platter

Double Happiness Fancy Cakes

And for the vegetarians out there - unlike at the previous Chinese banquet I went to, they actually served a multi-course vegetarian banquet:

Vegetarian Banquet
(San Choy Bow; Spring Roll; Dumpling (eaten))

More Vegetarian Banquet Food
(Fried Rice; Stir-Fried Veges; Stir Fried Noodles;
Deep Fried Button Mushrooms)

Corn Soup

Fried Rice

Quite a lot of bowls of vegetarian food were offered so all of it wasn't consumed.

Overall, I had a good experience as a guest eating the Chinese banquet at East Phoenix. The volume of food served was reasonable and probably closer to being realistic than the usual copious amounts of food leftover on the table by the end of the banquet. I ate most of the food offered (whereas usually I eat about half the food offered, else I would never reach the end of the meal), which was all standard Chinese banquet fare.

The only things I would comment on are:

1. There was basically only one waiter serving out food and retrieving used plates/bowls on our and nearby tables - the guy could have done with some assistance.
2. They should have waiters going around to all the tables to check if there is any need for drink refills. My table had basically depleted the juice, soft drink and most of the (two) wine bottles by the third course and had to locate staff to get drink refills when our glasses were near-empty (can't really do any toasts, eh?).