Anyone who has eaten at Maxim's Group restaurants knows that outside of Japanese, they basically do 2 types of Asian cuisine only - pan-Chinese and quasi-SE Asian. Their more varied branding, as we know, doesn't matter. The former group - never mind if they claim to do Shanghaiese, Peking or Hunan cooking - all dish up similar tasting stuff while the latter, including Thai and Vietamese, proffer ersatz tropical fare that's rather facelessly neither here nor there.
Hence, Rice Paper's "Vietnamese" could very well pass off as "Thai" at Thai Basil, its sister joint under the same group, and vice versa. But execution-wise, the latter's kitchen at Pacific Place appears to do a better job than this one at Habour City. The food we had on this visit, for example, was at best just so-so, bordering on poor at times. The pomelo salad and the mango and scallop rice paper rolls were bland. The salad was meagre in size and the scallops in the rice paper rolls, though sizeable, were tasteless. This could have been helped had fish sauce been served with the latter, which is how such rolls are normally eaten anyway. But instead, we got only an unseasoned mango puree dip which combined with the mango in the rolls, the only ingredient that had any taste, to make every mouthful overwhelmingly mango and just that - with or without dip! Amazing!
The seafood curry was, predictably, overly sweet and bland. The portion was frugal and the seafood, synthetically tasteless. As if to make up for that, the garlic toasts we got for the curry came so soaked in butter they were almost dripping the fat as we picked them up! The grilled veggie was another greasy presentation with precious pieces of bell peppers, zuchhini, eggplant and okra wich were unseasned and, hence, bland. The whole batch was obviously grilled (though fried was more like it!) together, so that the okra fingers, which should have been given less time on fire because of their lower water content, turned out dry and stringy. And forgive my ignorance if I'm wrong, but I'd only eaten okra in sauce-based dishes or stir-fried, in different Indian and SE Asian styles, but never grilled the way they did here. To me, the texture of okra is simply not right for grilling. We also orderd deep fried chicken wings and cuttlefish and a fried rice with duck, but I had so lost interest and hope I passed these up.
The dessert menu, which this restaurant is said to be famous for, has only one item to suggest it has anything to do with Indocine. Otherwise, it features a smattering of western style cakes, puddings, ice-creams etc. We had a sample of four - some chocolate pudding, butterscotch cake or pudding and ice-cream. Didn't try them all so memory's a bit hazy. Think I tried two, which had nothing worth mentioning. The coffee offered the only saving grace - it was thankfully hot and quite aromatic.
This place has the rare asset of a patio overlooking the harbour. Alfresco dining when the weather's right should be nice but the kitchen badly needs a shake-up. Service was good; the young staff there were attentive without being intrusive. But Maxim's should know that that alone is not enough!
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