The Vibe

A bird’s eye view of HarbourFront and Sentosa sounds fantastic but to enjoy such a panoramic view all 360 degrees without shifting an inch on your own is amazing. The only unforgiving factor lies with the out-of-fashion interior décor and withering exterior of the Prima Tower itself. If you are willing to forgo such petty issues, Prima Tower will allow you an unobstructed view of the coastline from any table.

The Food

Chef Chan’s expertise is honed through the decades to receive much affirmation from the Singapore Tourism Board. A visit to Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant must be accompanied by his 2 signature dishes – Shredded Scallops with Fish & Egg White ($25 – Small / $38 – Medium / $50 – Large) and the Authentic Barbequed Peking Duck ($55). The former dish comes with a generous serving of scallop, albeit shredded, and achieves an ideal consistency that does not overwhelm. Add a dash of pepper and vinegar to taste and you have an unusually tasty alternative from the usual Chinese shark’s fin. Be careful not to get carried away with this dish because it is rather starchy and fills you up fast.

The Peking duck is bound to impress with its gloriously oily sheen and tender meat. The fat ducks at Prima Tower are flown in from America and skinned, sliced and wrapped into individual parcels upon presentation. You can choose to have your parcels wrapped in a rice-flour skin or a yellow egg skin. The yellow egg skin is slightly sweet and much softer than the white rice-flour one, which offers a chewy texture highly contrasted against the crispy duck skin, crunchy cucumber stalks and tender meat. The faint aroma of rice-flour blends in very well with their slightly sweet Peking duck sauce, making it irresistible.

The Crispy Garoupa with Salt & Pepper ($55) is aptly named, promising a lovely combination of crispy skin and soft, flaky flesh. Heavily seasoned with salt and pepper, the garoupa is a tantalizing flavour of garlic that enhances the freshness of the fish. Diners may choose to have their fish done ‘half-half’, meaning their whole fish is prepared in 2 ways – half steamed and half deep fried – to cater for people who want the best of both worlds.

The Pan-fried Fresh Scallops with Seasonal Vegetables ($40 – Small / $60 – Medium / $80 – Large) was a disappointment compared to its earlier comrades. Fresh whole scallops, wrapped in a layer of minced chicken meat and pan-fried, result in pretty ingots of gold. Although the dish looks tempting, the ingots are drenched in a sauce, making them soggy and less palatable than it appears to be. The minced chicken is too salty, especially against the muted sweetness of scallop, which makes the dish pale in comparison with the first scallop-and-egg-white delicacy.

Prima Tower revived the situation with a sticky finale of Toffee Banana ($18 – Small / $27 – Medium / $36 – Large), which sounds uncharacteristically out of place in a Chinese restaurant like Prima Tower. Despite the enigmatic name, Toffee Banana is actually an authentic dessert that hails from Beijing. Chunks of warm, mushy banana are coated in a hot sticky caramel that is reminiscent of Chinese malt candy and soaked in ice water briefly. The rapid cooling of sticky caramel results in an extremely crunchy exterior with the banana still warm and mushy within. Customers may also choose to skip the ice water stage and enjoy the stickiness of toffee on their teeth, although Chef Chan advises against anything too sticky for people with dentures.

The Service

Service is typical of Chinese restaurants, although they ought to be commended for keeping plates and bowls absolutely spotless. Waiting time is relative to your orders and the dining crowd since Chef Chan and his kitchen are known to take great pride in serving fresh, piping hot dishes.

The SD Food Advisor’s Take on Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant

The restaurant’s survival throughout the decades is good enough a testament towards its tasty food, despite the unappealing appearance of Prima Tower itself. Some may enjoy the novelty of dining and revolving simultaneously but others may find the experience a giddy one. My advice: if in doubt, be seated facing the interior instead of the windows so that you are less likely to detect the gradual rotation. Personally, it is a shame to miss trying the Peking duck just because you are susceptible to motion sickness or is averse to old buildings – good food, after all, comes at some form of price.

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Try to vary the meat and vegetables in a dish, so that there is an interesting variety of flavors, textures, and colors. Prepare everything before you start cooking: meat, vegetables, and sauces.

Wash green, leafy vegetables ahead of time. This gives them more time to drain so they will not be too wet when you stir-fry.

While it’s nice to own one, you don’t need a cleaver to cook Chinese food.

Place all the cut vegetables on a tray or cooking sheet. That way, you won’t forget anything. Just be careful not to mix them up, as cooking times will vary among vegetables.

Drain tofu before using, as this allows it to absorb the other flavors in the dish.

Marinate fresh meat.

Always cut beef across the grain.

Cut the meat into uniform pieces so that it will cook more evenly. If you’re not using a recipe, a general rule is to cut everything into bite-sized pieces.

When adding oil for stir-frying, drizzle the oil down the sides of the wok.

When deep-frying, to tell if the oil is hot enough, simply stick a chopstick in the wok. When the oil sizzles all around it, you can begin adding the food.

Don’t use dark soy sauce unless the recipe specifically calls for it. When a recipe simply says to add soy or soya sauce, use light soy sauce or one of the Japanese brands such as Kikkoman.

If preparing stir-fried meat and vegetables, stir-fry the meat first and set it aside. Usually you will return it to the wok with a sauce during the final stages of cooking.

When stir-frying vegetables, cook the toughest and thickest vegetables for a longer period than the softer, leafy vegetables. Vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, and cabbage need to be cooked longer than bok choy, which in turn is cooked longer than snow peas or bean sprouts.

If you are uncertain in what order to cook vegetables, simply stir-fry them separately. Never overcook.

Once you’ve gained a bit of experience and can “guestimate” amounts such as one teaspoon or two tablespoons, try storing sauces in plastic containers similar to the syrup dispensers used in restaurants. This cuts down on the amount of washing up after each meal. Just be sure to label each of the containers!

Always use fresh ginger, not powdered.

If desired, use sugar as a substitute for MSG (Monosodium Glutamate).

The formula for mixing cornstarch and water is 1 to 2: for example, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water

Taste the dish and adjust the seasonings as desired.

And finally, in the immortal words of one of my favorite cooking teachers: “the two most important things about Chinese cooking are a hot stove and a sharp knife.

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