Friday Oct 24, 2025
Friday Oct 24, 2025
Friday, 24 October 2025 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
There’s something quietly poetic about dining above a city. From the 23rd floor of Cinnamon Life’s City of Dreams, Sapphire Dragon watches Colombo unfold beneath a haze of tropical sunlight, its glass walls framing a skyline that seems to hum in rhythm with the kitchen’s own gentle choreography. Here, Cantonese cuisine has found not just a home, but a stage.
Steered by Chef Maxwell Deng, a native of Zhanjiang—the beating heart of Cantonese tradition, the restaurant tells its story through balance. Every dish, every plated gesture, seems to weigh the nostalgia of old Guangzhou with the sleek precision of modern fine dining.
The meal begins with a whisper rather than a shout. Marinated Cherry Tomatoes with Plum and Wine Jelly arrive glistening like small jewels, their sweetness sharp yet melodic, a duet of ripeness and restraint. The Chilled Okra with Wasabi, Thai Chilli, and Black Vinegar follows, crisp and defiant, its spice cutting through with an almost electric clarity. And then, calm again: Sweetcorn Soup with Crab, Scallops, and Egg – golden, velvety, and deeply comforting, the kind of dish that makes conversation pause for a quiet sigh.
The mains arrive with the assuredness of a restaurant confident in its craft. The Crispy Roasted Chicken is a study in texture. The skin was fragile; it crackled like paper, giving way to meat that held the faint perfume of five-spice and smoke. Each bite felt both nostalgic and new. Vegetarians, often afterthoughts in many luxury kitchens, are given a place of honour here. The Braised Mapo Doufu with Bamboo Fungus, White Mushrooms, and Shiitake unfolds in layers of flavour. The silken tofu floating in an umami-laden sauce wraps you in warmth rather than heat.
The seafood offerings of Sapphire Dragon’s ambitions truly gleam. The Wok-Fried Prawns with Celery and White Shimeji Mushrooms dance between delicacy and dynamism. The prawns are tender, brimming with complex, smoky and charred flavour and aroma which is essential in Cantonese stir-fried dishes. Then there’s the Crab Meat Fried Rice with Egg White and Scallop, deceptively simple, yet masterfully balanced. The rice grains separate and airy, the sweetness of crab lingering like a final note in a long symphony.
Around you, the space hums in understated luxury. The décor avoids the opulence of chandeliers and gold; instead, it leans into serenity, with dark woods, clean lines and the quiet confidence of refinement. Service, meanwhile, is seamless, calm, precise, never hovering, somehow always there when needed.
Dessert is a soft exhale. Mango Cream with Sago, Passion fruit and Snow Gum. A composition of silk and citrus, tropical and ethereal. It lands gently, like the closing paragraph of a story well told.
At Sapphire Dragon, lunch isn’t a pause in the day; it’s a moment suspended where time slows and flavour takes over the senses. In a city rediscovering its appetite for luxury, this restaurant doesn’t just serve Cantonese cuisine; it celebrates it.
Sapphire Dragon is open daily for lunch from 12 noon to 3 p.m. and dinner from 6:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. with private dining rooms to host family and corporate gatherings. Reservations are essential after all, the city’s newest gem shines brightest above the clouds.
