Canton Paradise 樂天小香港 at ARC — Restaurant in Singapore

It was a family dinner. HB dines here frequently with his customers and apparently the dishes suit their palates.

We ordered the Roasted Irish Duck, crispy fried prawns in salted egg yolk and the fried pork ribs as recommended by HB and a few other dishes as requested for by my kids, like Yang Zhou Fried rice, a claypot tofu (forgot the exact dish name) and crisp fried eggplant with pork floss (forgot to take pic of this dish).

The (Irish)duck was the common favorite, well roasted and because of the fats, the meat is more tender than the usual roast duck and skin is crispy too.

Next was the pork ribs, and as seen in the pic, they are indeed big meaty pieces, each well marinated and deep fried with a generous amount of garlic, firm to the bite yet not tough.

We enjoyed the crispy fried prawns in salted egg yolks too as the prawns were all large, fresh and succulent and this dish was done very well as the salted yolk 'sauce' (seasoning) didn't overwhelm the original sweetness of the prawns.

The tofu in the claypot, though fried, it is soft and not chewy and there were chunks of roasted pork belly with sliced mushrooms in it. I would say this is one of the better restaurant claypot tofu I have had in recent days.

Eggplant with pork floss taste more or less standard. Lastly, the only blemish I can find for this otherwise delightful meal is the Yang Zhou Fried rice. It is plain looking and tasted just like how it looked. Especially, after the first few dishes which came before it, our expectations were set high and when we saw the ordinary riced rice, for a mo, my kids thought my home cooked fried rice did look better lol . But mars my experience was I bit into a piece of eggshell in the rice and it should be fairly huge that it went krak krak krak in my mouth. Usually if the shell is small enough I would just bite a few times and quickly swallow it if I'm outside but this one is big enough that after spitting out that mouthful into a tissue, I still have got some stuck on my teeth, that kind of annoyed me a little. However, I accept that little imperfections like these do happen from time to time. Thus overall, 4*, because the rest of the food is good and service is generally...

Canton Paradise A mid-range option for Cantonese fare that delivers decent value for its price point. While not among the city’s most refined Canto spots, it offers a warm, accommodating service style and a menu with a few comforting standouts alongside some misses.

Takeaways: •Signature Wanton Noodle Soup is a comforting pick, especially on a rainy day—light but inviting broth, plump and flavorful wantons. However, the broth’s strong aftertaste may not suit those who prefer a cleaner flavor. •Charred BBQ Honey Roast Pork leaned more pan-fried than charred, with lean cuts that lacked the rich, fatty bite. Some pieces were also chewy, and the honey sauce skewed overly sweet. •Crispy BBQ Pork Buns were decent but not as crisp as billed; skewed more toward sweet than savory. •Pork Wantons in Chili Vinaigrette hit the mark—generous size, well-cooked dough, and a punchy umami-spicy sauce with just the right level of heat. •Vibe is warmer than your average Chinese eatery, though the space is still more functional than designed for aesthetics

The Damage (no drinks): S$...

Food was decent, but the ordering staff was shorthanded on weekends and was not attentive when taking our order. Imagine a senior staff came over to start taking order, and as we are about to speak, left to service a question from the adjacent table. Note that we weren't even taking more than 2 seconds to flip to the correct page in the menu. She did this a second time, serving another table, and when we finally asked her if she was ready to take our order, she turned the table on us and said she was waiting for us instead.

Even if we could overlook this, our food took forever to arrive. Between the first 三拼 and the second 咸蛋虾球, we waited for more than 20mins. And the next 2 dishes came almost another 30mins then another 15 mins later. We had to ask for our food twice. Even the 羹came at the very end, which shouldn't be the case.

Luckily most of the waiting staff was friendly enough and explained nicely to us, or else this would be a 1 star review, regardless of the taste...