Swa Gardens

Attended ieatishootipost's makan session at Swa Gardens. Due to me getting the wrong address (somehow I read 540 as 400 in the sms - I have no idea why - no wonder why I'm so poor at math) we arrived just in time to catch the Cold Crab. I attacked the crab too quickly, and forgot to take a picture before getting my hands dirty :/Braised Goose- Taste wise, it was good but I foud this a bit too dry for my liking. I'm half Teochew (from my paternal side but I can't speak anything besides 'boh hor jiak') and goose is one of the few teochew dishes that everyone in my family likes, so I eat this rather often.
Mayonnaise Prawn - very lemony and oily. The prawns were fresh and the combination of prawn and mayo can never go wrong.
Oyster Omelette - which was my fave dish of the night. The oysters were embedded inside a golden yellow omelette, and there were many many oysters.
Packed with delicious fresh globules of oyster - it's probably the freshest oysters (other than the raw kind) that I've eaten. Not a single piece of the many oysters that I ate tasted grainy. I hate having the gritty feel of sand when I eat shellfish.
Steamed Promfet - fresh, steamed just right and with tasty gravy.

Fried Sweet Potato Leaves - this is one of my fave vegetables because of the texture. Ngoh Hiang - this is probably the fattest ngo hiang I've eaten.
Stir Fried Crayfish - I didn't quite like this dish cos the sauce just masked the taste of everything. One reason why I don't like Chinese food is because they have so much sauce that I can't taste the real flavour of the main ingredient.
Chye Poh Kway Teow - It's supposed to be a teochew dish (though (I've never had it before but then again I haven't tired alot of teochew food). It was an interesting dish, and I'd have eaten more if not for the long wait in between dishes. I didn't like the burnt crispy surface noodles, but other than that, I found the dish quite good (since I like kway teow).
People say this is the best Ohr Nee in Singapore. I'm not a great Ohr Nee fan, because it's so oily and filling. There's lots of pumpkin (my fave part of the dish) and ginko nuts too. The Ohr Nee is very smooth, not too gooey or thick. I was younger, my dad (who hates pumpkin) always ordered Ohr Nee without pumpkin and I never knew Ohr Nee came with pumpkin till very much later.

Its really taxing on the kitchen to feed ~80 hungry people and there were looong pauses in between dishes, which made everyone feel full. I felt that my $32 was well spent. Plus, I got to meet Singapore's most famous blogger and his makan friends.

To the person who got 8 of his friends to come down for the makan session, but couldn't because of a dish washing mishap, hope you get well soon! I'm sure your friends gave you a detailed account of dinner - they took photos of every single dish for you!

Overall, I'll give the restaurant 3 Michellelim stars:

But for the planning, logistics and other people who helped organise this,

Swa Gardens 汕园潮洲酒楼

540 MacPherson Road

Tel: 6744 5009