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Prima Tower: The Worst Dining Experience Ever that Left Me Speechless

What you are going to read is a discouraging negative review of Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant | 百龄麦旋转酒楼 at Keppel Road some time ago. I had a degraded impression of the food and the service level ever since. It was the worst restaurant in Singapore for dining with a below-average food standard for such a high price that left me speechless.

If you are thinking of using Prima Tower for your wedding venue, it is better that you have a food tasting session like a regular walk-in customer instead of having the restaurant pre-arranged for you because they know you are going to be their potential customer, so the quality of food served might be higher.

In spite of a bad review, to be fair to Prima Tower Restaurant, the food quality will differ each time when there is a turnover of chefs. That goes for the managers and captains to take the initiative in providing excellent customer service. It happens to all food establishments.

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Be careful of getting your vehicle wheel-clamped at Prima Tower Parking before 6 pm

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By Car: Prima Tower Parking

A bad omen at the start of the dinner at Prima Tower: I parked my car at Prima Tower open space carpark after entering its gate at 4.30 pm. Then, I walked over to Vivo City to pass my time. When I went back to the carpark at 6 pm, my car was wheel-clamped! I approached the security guard. He told me that the guests could only park there after 6 pm.

The security officer would release the wheel clamps ONLY if I produced the Prima Restaurant’ receipt to prove that I was not lying about having dinner there. I complied and did what he said a few hours later. He released my wheel clamp after dinner at around 10.30 pm. From a customer’s point of view, having dinner knowing that your car was still being clamped already dampened the mood.

A word of advice: If you want to park at Prima Tower before 6 pm, inform the security guard beforehand. Tell him you will be dining at Prima Restaurant later to avoid the embarrassment of being wheel-clamped and shocked the hell out of everyone at Prima carpark. The feeling will always be very uncomfortable when you see your car being wheel-clamped.

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By MRT: Harbourfront Station

The nearest MRT station to reach Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant is HARBOURFRONT (NE1/cc29). The distance is 600m and 8 mins of walking. You can pass by Vivo City and then use the overhead bridge to cross over to Prima Tower. (Show Map)

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My two best friends had their birthdays in July. I treated them to dinner at Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant next to Vivo City. A few years ago, I went for a corporate dinner there. The food was excellent and unforgettable. Hence, I wanted to give my best friends a similar fantastic experience on their birthdays.

Not only that, one will get to see a panoramic view from the silo of the tower around the Vivo City and a glimpse of Sentosa, the sea and the PSA Harbour while the tower revolved slowly in 360°. Wasn’t the idea impressive and exciting to dine in the air, uniquely watching the breathtaking scenery in this manner?

Prima Revolving Tower Restaurant is a posh restaurant with a luxurious-looking dining hall. It is a top-notch restaurant for flaunting it to business associates, foreign guests or people significant in our lives to appreciate their presence. That was the perceived value of Prima Tower and one of the most classy restaurants around.

However, the extravagant price that one has to pay to dine in such a sophisticated restaurant with a panoramic view can be a turnoff, especially when the food is lousy. One can also get good food without bells and whistles. Nevertheless, since I have decided to pamper my friends with a memorable dinner, the price was the last thing to consider in my mind, at least for this time.

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The Captain or Manager of the restaurant was not happy when my boyfriend and I arrived at 6.10 pm. He told us coldly that the restaurant commenced its business at 6.30 pm and remarked that we could sit at our table to wait while they prepared their things. He also warned that there would be some noise during their preparation.

I replied that it was not a problem and all my friends would arrive at a later time too. There was not a smile or any sign to make us feel welcomed as customers in that short conversation. He gave a strong body language that we were disturbing their work by turning up early. His facial expression spelt it out clearly.

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We ordered a Special Set Menu 精美套餐5 @ S$288.00 for 6 pax even though there were only 5 of us. The price excluded 7% GST and 10% Service Charge.

①  Shredded Scallops with Fish and Egg White | 赛螃蟹

The first dish served was one of the menu highlights. There was nothing extraordinary to rave about this item as it only had eggs with no special sauce. It was bland like ‘home-cooked scrambled eggs’, but considered to be the more acceptable dish among the rest *gosh*. My friends didn’t have a high opinion of it either.

② Fish Maw & Seafood in Thick Soup | 鱼鳔海鲜羹

This soup was rated higher than the first dish. Almost all the food sucked big-time. Be warned again of the complaints that were shared below as they were not going to be positive. It would be the last time that I was going as a paid customer.

③ Authentic Barbecued Peking Duck | 烤北京填鸭

The Peking Duck was another signature dish that Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant boasted. It was over-rated. One could only taste the sweet sauce that was spread too much inside the wrap. I could not relate this signature dish to the traditional taste of Peking Duck as it was a complete failure in the preparation. Comparing the Peking Duck in Johor that I had eaten one week ago versus the Singapore one, our neighbour’s duck tasted so much better than the premium duck here.

④ Deep-Fried Soon Hock | 油浸顺壳

The Soon Hock was too old and had no sweetness of what a fresh fish would be. Furthermore, the sauce was also tasteless. A real disappointment, indeed! Usually, most Chinese restaurants serve fresh, high-quality fish, and that is the reason why we pay so much to eat fish in a restaurant.

⑤ Stewed Pork Ribs (Served With Buns) | 京烤骨皇 (代花卷)

The sauce of the Stewed Pork Ribs was thick and sticky. The pork was far from being delicious. It tasted utterly disgusting when it turned cold due to the starchy sauce which made swallowing of the pork seemed nauseating.

⑥ Chinese Spinach with Whole Garlic in Superior Broth | 上汤蒜子灼苋菜

The name of “Superior Broth” didn’t befit the dish at all. It did not taste like any distinctive broth, but more like the usual oyster sauce used to cook Chinese food. Moreover, the flavour was diluted. The vegetables were stale too. This dish was another additional failure to the list.

⑦ Yi-Mee | 伊面

We asked the remaining duck meat to fry with Yi-Mee, which was an additional order, not inclusive in the Special Set Menu. Needless to say more, after so many rounds of miserable food and criticisms among us, we did not expect the standard to be of any higher.

⑧ Toffee Banana | 拔丝香蕉

Our dessert was fried banana coated with malt. The dessert was failed proof because the bananas were already sweet. It was the best consolation here as agreed by all my friends harmoniously. Please note that the crust is hard due to the malt syrup coating which hardens it. Some people may not like that the sticky malt can stick around the teeth. For nice desserts, go to Hong Kong Sheng Kee Restaurant.

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Despite paying for a high price, the dishes served consecutively was like a high-speed train. It was similar to attending a local banquet Chinese wedding where the aim is to make you finish the food as quickly as possible, rather than let a customer take the time to savour the already not-so-nice food and to indulge in the chit-chatting session with friends.

We requested the waitress to slow down the serving of the dishes for a few times. She gave a helpless expression indicating that there was nothing she could do. The subsequent dishes served were still like lightning speed, urging us to finish them fast. One friend claimed that the goal was to finish serving all the food when the tower revolved one round. Not sure how true it was.

I had forgotten to take photographs of the rest of the dishes. As the waitresses served the food so fast, our focus was shifted to gobble up the food, make more space on the table for the next one to come while they cleared away the ‘finished’ plates. Most of the food had 50% leftover as none of us could finish the awful food despite trying hard to stuff it into our hungry stomach.

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When dining in a good quality Chinese restaurant that has outstanding customer service level, the staffs would usually change the dirty plates every few rounds, especially after the prawn or fish were served without the customers asking. I doubt the staffs had the time to do it as their priority was to serve food quickly.

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All the staffs left at 10.15 pm sharp on a Friday night. That was considered early for a typical Chinese restaurant to close at that time, taking into consideration that it was full-house on that night. The desire to knock off earlier explained why they served the dishes in a rush so we would finish them fast and they could also knock off early.

I empathised that they worked long hours in the F&B industry and would love to go back early. However, they should not compromise their food quality and service level at the expense of customers paying a much higher price than other restaurants.

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Nearly $90 per person for dinner and was a severely disappointing experience in Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant. I had a corporate dinner there in 2013. The delectable food and the grandiose interior was the reason why I brought my precious friends to have a grand birthday celebration.

The fundamental value of a restaurant is the quality of food. Consequently, people tend to associate expensive dishes as being of high quality. Criteria such as food freshness, excellent service level are all within the expectation of every dollar and cent of a paying customer.

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One of my friends had severe gastric pain during dinner. She had no medical history of it. Another friend had two diarrhoea that night after returning home. I was not blaming their sickness with the food that we ate as I had no proof. However, I was highly doubtful about the freshness of the food as we were complaining about it throughout the night and the way the cooks handled the food preparation. Two friends’ sicknesses were just testimony to the food freshness and hygiene level.

Corkage Charge

You have to pay $20 corkage charge for the alcohol if you bring your own.

Prima Tower Dim Sum

Several friends left feedbacks on my Facebook, reviewing that their Dim Sum was good. You decide whether to take the risk to pay for the possibility of rushed service or not-so-nice food, or to try another more reputable restaurant such as East Ocean Teochew Restaurant. I have been there before, and the dim sum is very delicious too!

Translucent Ladies’ Toilet Door

The Ladies’ toilet door located one floor below the restaurant was translucent. You could make out the silhouette and every movement of the person inside the toilet.

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Visit Prima Tower Restaurant only for enjoying the view of the magnificent skyline, or to impress someone. As for the food, keep your finger crossed. It was the most disappointing dining experience in a Singapore restaurant in my life that one should avoid. I also came across a friend’s FB post recently, ranting about the bad quality of the food. Therefore, I was not the only one who had a negative review of it. I would rather eat nice Indian food like Zaffron Kitchen.