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Food review: Peking duck for S$9.90? Cheap and good Chinese food at Mansion 7

NEW RESTAURANT Mansion 7 30 Maxwell Road #01-03 Singapore 069114 Tel: 6038-0295 A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself. Sign Up Sign Up Open daily for lunch and dinner: 11am to 3pm; 5.30pm to 10 pm. (From 9 am on Sat & Sun) IF you had S$98 to spend on dinner for two, what would you choose? A few tapas in a sharing plates joint? Or a blow-out, one-for-one abalone set menu served with a side of Broadway Beng? You find the latter at Mansion 7, a strangely unlikely Chinese restaurant that we can't help but like. It's just six months old, but it feels as if it's been hidden in an obscure corner of Tanjong Pagar since 1987. Yet it's so unattractively retro, it would fail any audition to be the filming location of a period drama. You don't so much find as stumble into this nondescript low-rise, industrial-like block that houses Mansion 7 and a fitness equipment showroom. This is also where you'll run into Alex – part restaurant manager, part fastest tongue this side of Maxwell Food Centre. Ok, he's Beng without the Broadway, but just as entertaining, unleashing corny zingers as easily as he reels off the day's specials. 'Are you open?' We ask him tentatively, 20 minutes before opening time. 'For you, of course,' he deadpans without missing a beat. He's service in a no-nonsense way, letting us in and making us comfortable, needlessly apologising that the kitchen isn't open yet, while offering drinks as we wait. He works with an equally friendly and down-to-earth service team, immune to his constant ribbing. When it comes to the food, though, Alex knows his stuff, so just leave it to him to sort out your order. You know that business is on the slow side when you see one-for-one offers on the menu, but in this case, take advantage of it while you can, because it's a genuine steal. Pick from the lobster set menu at S$118 for two diners, or abalone for S$98. We decide on the latter, and, like a gift that keeps on giving, Alex says we can top up an extra $9.90 for an order of Peking duck. Mind you, this offer is only until the end of June, and who knows if there'll be similar deals after that? Even if not, the a la carte menu is priced quite sensibly, if not cheap. And it's reasonable for what you get – cooking that's confident and well-executed in a comforting and reliable way. Crispy deep-fried silver fish. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT For starters, we pick crispy fried silver fish (S$18) from the regular menu, and get a basket of deep-fried battered baby fish with a crunch that should humiliate a few tempura chefs. A little spice gives it a bit of kick. Artfully presented Peking duck for S$9.90 PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT The Peking duck comes next, and it's the best S$9.90 we've ever spent. Crisp duck skin, already sliced with some thin pieces of meat for contrast, is artfully presented on a ceramic platter encased in a wooden tray, with compartments for dipping sauce and condiments. Instead of flour pancakes, we get thin crepes to roll everything in. It's not stellar, but still enjoyable, especially when it's S$42 for half a duck on the regular menu. Char siew and salted egg-crusted abalone. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT The abalone set starts proper with two cubes of sticky-sweet, meaty char siew and a whole, smallish abalone crusted with a salted-egg coating. The abalone is tender and you cut through it with little effort. The salted egg isn't necessary, but adds some depth. While Roberta Flack kills us softly and painfully over the sound system, we focus on a thick fish broth packed with slices of grass carp that have been prepared in a way that gives them an almost crispy, cartilage-like texture. Unusual, but good. Golden crispy prawn ball is a reinterpreted cereal prawn. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT Cereal prawns are reinterpreted as large, bouncy specimens coated in a thick and sticky sauce with cornflakes only for decoration. It's a bit of an overkill, but the prawns are nice and juicy. There's also a decent-sized slab of foie gras, pan-fried till crisp around the edges and paired with a meaty dried mushroom in a brown sauce. Pan-fried foie gras with mushroom. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT You end off with truffle fried rice – fragrant with wok hei and studded with baby abalone, oily but well-fried with individual grains retaining their bite. And for a sweet finish, it's classic mango puree, with bits of pomelo and sago for a refreshing taste of nostalgia. Black truffle fried rice with abalone. PHOTO: JAIME EE, BT Don't miss the Teochew yam paste (S$9), but order it early because it takes 30 minutes to prepare. The smooth cream has the distinctive aroma of lard, and it's surrounded by a sweet, creamy pistachio sauce which doesn't detract, but we prefer it without. Yes, we're won over by the set-menu pricing, and we're not sure if we would be as enamoured if we were paying full price. But with seasoned chefs in the kitchen and Alex's hospitality, we're betting that we will. Rating: 7 WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN 10: The ultimate dining experience 9-9.5: Sublime 8-8.5: Excellent 7-7.5: Good to very good 6-6.5: Promising 5-5.5: Average Our review policy: The Business Times pays for all meals at restaurants reviewed on this page. Unless specified, the writer does not accept hosted meals prior to the review's publication.