If you are looking for a place to host your auspicious reunion dinner with your family or simply a celebrating lunch with your colleagues, this restaurant surely will not let you down. Conveniently located right beside the Tanjong Pagar MRT station, this three-month old live seafood restaurant serves contemporary Cantonese cuisine by award-winning Chef Pang Seng Hai with 22 years of cooking experience. Upholding a philosophy in harmonizing textures and flavours using the freshest ingredients shows in his dishes, I was really looking forward to try his innovative creations that is curated with seafood elements for his Lunar New Year menus.

Demonstrating the contemporary Cantonese cuisine in conjunction with a modern Chinese decorated interior.With two private partitioned areas, the 120-seat restaurant offers guests exclusivity for special functions.

Spotted lots of live clams, geoducks, alaska king crabs and boston lobsters swimming around in the temperature-controlled tanks that are specifically for them!

Cove99 Premium Treasure Pot Pencai | Small S$199++ | Large S$388++

Pencai (Poon Choi in Cantonese), a traditional dish originating from Hong Kong village '香港围村', a dish that I almost have every CNY when I was in Hong Kong. The proper way to consume it is to eat layer by layer from top, usually dried and rare ingredients are placed on the upper part, for appearance purpose as well as while other ingredients at the bottom of the basin can absorb the sauce well.

This splendour of sumptuous goodness comprises 11 ingredients including abalone, sea cucumber, scallop, prawn, dried oyster, pork trotter, giant mushroom '花菇', black moss (fat choy in Cantonese which sound similar to '发财' meaning struck in rich) and homemade dace fishball, braised in a collagen-rich superior golden broth. I couldn't say no to this salivating dish with most of the ingredients soaking up the savoury, fragrant sauce which was a healthier twist from the oyster sauce that is normally used. Imparting pleasure in every bite, what I loved most were the well-marinated homemade dace fishball, crunchy giant mushroom and the full of flavour bean curd that was hidden underneath, however the only drawback was that the abalone was slightly overcooked which made it hard to chew.

Premium Treasure Pot Pencai is available for takeaway together with this brocade thermal carrier.

Cove 99 also offers three CNY set menus including Prosperity Set Menu [Seven course menu for 6 persons] starting from S$399++, visit their website for more details.

And here are some of the highlights on their CNY menus!

Yusheng with Geoduck, Salmon Sashimi, Baby Abalone, Truffle and Gold Flakes | S$199.90++

The yusheng above is the largest they can offer to accommodate 10 persons, other options with smaller portions include Small Yusheng with Salmon Sashimi for S$39.90++ and Large for S$69.90++, as well as Yusheng with Geoduck and Salmon Sashimi for S$109.90++. Luxurious ingredients and colourful thinly sliced vegetables were artistically plated, splendid enough to wow everyone at the table. The yusheng embodied a good balance of sweet flavours and crunchy texture, I liked that crunchy geoduck sashimi and fragrant bitter black truffle were contained to differentiate itself from the normal yusheng. While the price is on the higher end, it was certainly value for money given the quality and quantity of the exorbitant ingredients used! 

Scallop and Dried Oyster Golden Bag

Broccoli was centred and surrounded by 10 golden tofu skin bags stuffed with dried oyster, topped with diced scallops and black moss. The exquisite handwork of these little bags should be well appreciated, bite it with just a mouthful, the rich flavour obtained from the gravy would burst with happiness.

Braised Boston Lobster with Truffle

Deliberately assembled and plated as a whole lobster, the succulent flesh was braised with truffle. While fragrant, I was expecting a stronger punch of truffle flavour. The fresh lobster was however cooked to perfection which carried a natural sweetness and a subtle crunch. To accommodate the business lunch crowd, peeling service is available so you keep your hands (and clothes) clean!

There was another dish that was worth a shout-out - Wok Tossed Golden Seafood Fried Rice! While this sounds like an easy dish, the technique of frying a good fried rice with enough wok hei is never an easy task to conquer. This plate of fried rice immediately won my stomach over with its fragrance, crispy texture and bountiful ingredients with each mouthful!

Double Boiled Hashima with Red Dates

An innocent looking dessert but one which would make you fall in love upon the first sip. A candle was placed below to keep the dessert warm but the gratifying factor lies in the dessert not being overly sweet with its coconut milk base. I would however prefer more hashima '雪蛤' in it and there were no red dates in my bowl of sweet soup.

Yuzu Soda

It's best to use this refreshing drink to rinse off the heavy after-taste resulted from the flavourful dishes.

Many would fall in love with this restaurant as it provides business-friendly features such as wall sockets for diner’s plug-in needs, free wifi and a smartphone charging station. Family-friendly features such as sturdy high-chairs, diaper changing table and wheelchair accessible restroom are also available. With its exceptional customer service, it certainly won't be my last time visiting this welcoming restaurant, perhaps to try the other signature dishes next!

Note: Orders and reservations for the CNY feasting are available from now till 5 March 2015.

Currently, they have promotions with OCBC credit cards:

1. CNY Set Menu

2. Yusheng

3. Pencai

72 Peck Seah St

Tanjong Pagar

Singapore

+65 6224 0991

http://www.cove99.com/

P.S. Photos were taken with D750, with thanks to Nikon Singapore!

P.P.S. Special thanks to Evelyn for the invite and Cove99 for having us!