Visited Empire for the first time to try the dim sum, which came highly recommended. Did not disappoint.
Dim Sum was good value for money - good quality and reasonably priced for a Chinese restaurant located in central Orchard Road.
Staff were friendly and attentive. Regrettably, we were informed that the restaurant will shut on 11 Aug 2025. Do support them and try their dim sum before then!
Karen Lim
5
First time trying the food here ...the service staffs were attentive to changing plates for us during our dinner. The food was great with standard serve portion, serve while is hot as we requested. The steam fish is a star , very fresh and delicious. Well recommended. Definitely will return for their dim sum soon.
Timothy Lim
5
Visited a few times previously for dim sum but first time for a champagne wine dinner during CNY.
Overall, ambience in the private room was intimate with sufficient space to mingle around. Service by Jacky and his team were great and our water cups were never empty.
Food wise, I think it's a notch above others in terms of taste and there more more hits with the dishes than misses. I'd still prefer visiting for their dim sum lunch but I wouldn't mind going back for dinner too.
Julius Tan
3
Above average food, with fairly bad service. We arrived that day at 1pm or so and the quite a bunch of the dishes came to our table at the same time, there wasn’t even enough space to accommodate the dishes and the wait staff wouldn’t even take the initiative to change the dirty plates for clean ones. The whole meal felt very rushed and the food isn’t all that good. Located in Ngee Ann City, Takashimaya, this isn’t the first time I had patronised this restaurant. Prices are reasonable and from my last visit with pictures shown, quality hasn’t improved at all. Roasted chicken was rather tasteless but at least it came crispy. Steamed grouper slices weren’t fresh enough and the salt and pepper prawns were the worst, devoid of any taste of garlic, salt or pepper. Most of the dim sum tasted average or above average. Best of the dishes were the scallop dumpling and the three mushrooms stir fried with shrimp roe and were delicious. Oh and walnut cream came burnt and the har gow(shrimp dumpling) was over steamed resulting in the dumpling skin being easily broken.
C Crumbs
5
This is probably our third visit over the span of a year and a half. The concept of the restaurant changed a couple times but the food quality is always surprisingly good and service is attentive. Not sure why more people don’t come here instead of East Ocean because this has leapt over them in bounds over the past few years.
The sweet and sour pork in particular is to die for. Just perfect!
Elizabeth Cheong
5
Was craving dim sum and chanced upon this place with the most amazing xo fried carrot cake (it was so good the picture was taken after eating half). There are actual radish pieces in the carrot cake instead of tasting like a flour cake, well worth the $12 price tag. They also have a lunchtime promo where select dim sum e.g. the truffle siew mai and the Kurobuta pork cheong fun all go at $3.30 per bamboo basket. Definitely check out this hidden gem if you need your cravings fixed💎 Loved the cushioned seats and lovely tableware too. Staff were also very attentive even though we went quite close to their teatime break and kept refilling our tea. Will be back!
Vincent Ang
2
Some of the $3.30 dim sum are acceptable … the shark bone fish maw for $38 is to avoid … no value at all … the soup is fishy n seems like corn starch is added to thicken the texture ….
I’m not sure if I’ll come back again …
Clar K
1
Arrived the restaurant at 7.35 pm on a Saturday evening, after bringing us to the table, no one took the initiative to ask if we need a drink while waiting for the rest of our company and left us sitting for the next 30 mins. And when we tried to order our food at 8 pm, the Pekin duck was already sold out. Fine, since it’s promotional item, so we decided on a roast chicken but it was also sold out. We wanted crabs but they did not have crabs that day. When we ask for recommendations the waitress can’t come out with anything, and the only dish she recommended was the romaine lettuce that looks like leftovers and was given like 2 chunks of the branch. Look at the pics, doesn’t it look like some overcooked leftovers just thrown into the pot. Highlighted to the waitress but no response.
The waiting time of the dishes were also long too, given that the restaurant is not full, their service is so lacking.
Not recommended for anyone to come. Why have a whole list of food items in the menu when they don’t have most of it. This is the most ridiculous dining experience I have in a supposedly fine dining restaurant. Felt so bad that we chose this restaurant for a friend’s birthday celebration.
matt matt
5
First time tried Empire Restaurant for dim sim lunch today (09/12/2024) . Overall the dim sum tastes was not bad. Staffs are friendly and Service was very good. Btw now the dim sum have selected promotion for $3.30 each. Overall experience was good. Great to try the food in this restaurant
亦泓
2
I came on two seperate occasions but photos listed was only for the non hot pot occasion.
First occasion service was ok, meets the minimum standards. Dishes were out relatively fast, they were not overly heavy taste but not fantastic either. Siewmai was hardly any flavorful, dull. They run a 3.30 sgd dimsum per item on selected items like ribs, siewmai, carrotcake, cheongfun, etc but only the ribs were passable.
Then came the 2nd visit. Horrendous !!
Deep in an enclosed big mall high up above level , there was actually mosquitoes!! But they were kind enough to accomodate let us change seats but next came the problems
Lots of missing items ordered did not turn up or key in order, when probed the staff was not even apologetic and was nonchalant about it. Mind you there were 3 items for hotpot keyed in and didnt turn up yet they dont even bother to check and we were almost done eating !! They also didnt told us condiments take yourself at which corner until i was 2/3 done with dining.
Avoid ordering that truffle meepok too, just walk 20m down below and eat at East Ocean. Vast difference. Theirs was bland, and full of alkaline taste. If not for their promo and extensive menu variety, no chance i would have gone a 2nd time !