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Mitzo Restaurant & Bar is a new modern Cantonese restaurant in Orchard Park Hotel that aims to serve up your favourites with a twist. Traditional Cantonese recipes are updated for the modern palate, with creative and inventive presentation and flavours redefining the typical Chinese dining experience.
It’s not just about the food. Mitzo’s in-house bar serves up bespoke cocktails, traditional mixes and Asian-infused drinks to complement your meal. The modern concept is echoed by its decor, a mix of plush lounge chairs and pop-art style partitions.
We had the pleasure of sampling Mitzo’s Signature Set Meal and other star dishes. Here’s what we we thought:
Right from the start, you know that Mitzo’s food will bring you on a gastronomic adventure. The dim sum is traditionally Cantonese in essence, but they’ve run away with the concept to bring you something unexpected.
The thousand layer radish puff and crispy glutinous pumpkin in custard were plated beautifully, but biting into them revealed a surprise within. I particularly enjoyed the crispy glutinous pumpkin. The combination of sticky sweet pumpkin and the crispy fried exterior is really a treat for your taste buds.
The bread coated shrimp and foie gras was lacklustre in comparison. Although they were generous with the foie gras, the dish lacked a distinct flavour. Instead, it felt starchy due to the thick bread coat.
If I could recommend just one dish in Mitzo, it has to be the barbecued pork. It’s the epitome of Mitzo’s ethos of reinventing well-loved Cantonese dishes – sinfully succulent pork glazed with a layer of caramelised sugar, creating a dish that entices and intoxicates with its explosion of flavour.
Top left: lobster bisque, top right: winter melon and roast duck soup, centre: fish maw soup
Lobster bisque and Cantonese cuisine are worlds away from each other, but Mitzo’s Cantonese take on lobster bisque left us pleasantly surprised. The seafood flavour is subtle, but the soup had an unexpected tangy spiciness that kept us interested. Traditionalists would enjoy their savoury fish maw soup or the slightly unusual combination of roast duck and winter melon soup.
The tomatoes that garnish this dish deserve an entry of their own. According to the chef, the process has something to do with frying and soaking the tomatoes in sour plum sauce, but according to me, it just tastes very special. The fish is well-cooked and smooth, but the tomatoes are the stars of this dish.
Part of me was wishing that this the lemon sauce was salted egg yolk sauce instead! The lemon sauce was zesty, but not unique enough to leave an impression, especially when compared to the other tastier dishes.
The common consensus was that the mushrooms were delicious! The fusion of East and West was inventive, but the combination of Xinjiang-style sauce and lamb was jarring. I couldn’t help thinking that the dish would have been better if beef was used instead of lamb, as the lamb chop was dry and didn’t go well with the sauce.
The vermicelli was the ugly duckling among the beautiful swans – after a veritable parade of visually and gastronomically exciting dishes, the vermicelli failed to impress. I liked it for its homeliness – the warm, savoury broth is comforting in its own quiet way.
The avocado milkshake confused me. There was nothing Cantonese about it and it felt as if Mitzo were trying to pander to fads rather than serving up timeless food.
Unlike its instantly forgettable partner, the fried sesame dumpling was more in line with what we came to expect of Mitzo. The innocuous exterior hides a chocolatey, alcohol-infused centre. It was almost like drinking a shot inside a traditional dumpling. Quirky and unconventional, yet delightful!
My colleague pronounced this the best roast duck he had eaten in a while, and it is indeed deserving of that title. The skin crackles to the touch and the duck is rich with flavour. It’s so good on its own that I wondered why they paired it with the black truffle sauce. Mitzo’s attempt to reinvent a dish fell flat this time, but separately, the sauce and the duck are fantastic!
We dined at Mitzo for lunch, but that didn’t stop us from having some cocktails to go with our meal. Mitzo serves up Asian-influenced cocktails and we were treated to several of their own creations.
Pictured here, the Mitzo Tea Rhapsody is Pu’er tea with an alcoholic twist. I’m far from a cocktail connoisseur, but it’s refreshing and cleanses the palate after a heavy meal.
Mitzo also shakes up bespoke cocktails according to your preferences. Marco, the bartender, was inspired by my colleague to create this unnamed cocktail, which my colleague absolutely loved. If you want a fruity concoction to get you tipsy in the middle of the day, just ask for the “pink one on fire”!
Mitzo engineers all elements for an immersive, alternative dining experience, but the frills are distracting at best. I have not the taste of a patron used to fine dining, but I prefer my food to be the centrepiece of my dining experience. The decor and music feel superfluous – there’s too much going on that it overwhelms the senses.
Mitzo’s strength lies in its food – the sheer ingenuity of some of the dishes will keep me coming back, if only to rediscover what makes the dish so special. They promise to change your perception of Chinese food and have done just that. The food feels experimental, yet retains the taste of tradition that we love. If you’re looking for upgraded, leveled-up Chinese food, Mitzo’s the place for you.
Rating: 8/10
Address: Level 4, Grand Park Orchard, 270 Orchard Road, Singapore 238857
Telephone: 6603 8855
Operating Hours:
This post was brought to you by Mitzo Restaurant & Bar.
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