Pine Valley Restaurant, Laguna National, Singapore

Pine Valley Restaurant is in the Laguna National Golf and Country Club, which itself is located very East (think of near the airport sort of East). Having had eaten at various country clubs in Singapore, I did not have very high expectations of this place.

We started with the Chinese New Year raw fish salad. Being not a big fan of sashimi, I preferred to select the portions with less raw fish and more crispy (cornflake?) bits instead. There were also some slices of raw mango in this which gave it a more naturally sweet flavor.

The sour and spicy soup here was quite good as well with generous bits of chicken and bamboo shoots in it. This place was slowly changing my opinion on country club dining.

The cold dish platter however, was very average. I don't mind if the jelly fish, chicken and sea slugs were cold but cold stuffed dough fritters in mayonnaise was quite a turn-off.

This dish was unexpectingly good. I always thought that it would be hard to find smoked duck in Singapore after Pin Hsiang at RELC went under but this was one of the best smoked ducks I've had. The skin was delicately thin and crisp and the flesh still juicy and succulent. It's fun how they converted some of the cuts into wraps like Peking duck.

The coffee pork ribs were only mediocre. The addition of coffee beans in these were a nice touch but it still tasted very much like just another sweet and sour dish with a bitter tinge.

Another Szechuan dish, the stir-fried long beans with minced pork was done quite well. Salty and greasy enough, there was also enough minced pork in this to complement the green stuff haha.

Fish slices with chives, I more familiar with prawns in this dish instead of fish but the fish tasted fresh, so it went down pretty well too.

It's not surprising if this beancurd dish looks familiar because it's almost an exact replica of the one I had at Li Bai. It tasted almost exactly the same as well.

The noodle dish at the end was decent. With a large scallop, slice of mushroom and vegetable stalk, it served its purpose of ending off the savories.

The lemon-grass jelly was highly recommended and whilst I found it rather unique, it's definitely not something I will crave. I'm more used to lemon-grass being used in savory dishes than desserts I guess.

The advocado cream would be what I call a dessert. Rich and thick advocado cream with a scoop of chocolate ice-cream. This reminded me of that drink I had in Jakarta and like it, it definitely hit the right spot.

All in all, this place had some hits and misses but if I do come back for anything, it'll definitely be that smoked duck and advocado cream.

D

p.s: May all of you have an excellent Lunar New Year. I'll be out of town for about a week, will be back with more stuff.