Dim Sum @ Tim Ho Wan Malaysia 添好運, The Boulevard, Midvalley, KL

Tim Ho Wan 添好運, Hong Kong's most famous Michelin-star dim sum restaurant has finally arrived on Malaysian shores, and will opening its doors to the public tomorrow (28th November) at 11am. Their first outlet is located at The Boulevard, MidValley (right opposite the water fountain in front of The Gardens Mall). I was delighted to be invited to experience Tim Ho Wan's dim sum in Malaysia at their pre-launch lunch event today.

 

Tim Ho Wan's 添好運 name means "add good luck" in Cantonese and its first hole-in-the-wall outlet in Mongkok, founded and run by Chef Mak Kwai Pui (麥桂培) earned a Michelin-star in its first year of operation. In their overseas outlets, people would queue up for hours just to get a taste of the delicious dim sum. Seating at the Malaysian outlet is also on a first-come-first-serve basis.

The menu at Tim Ho Wan Malaysia features their signature items, the "Big 4 Heavenly Kings", vermicelli rolls, steamed items, deep fried items, rice, congee, vegetable and desserts. Despite the restaurant being full with invited guests, service was polite and efficient.

Not to be missed is the famed Baked Bun with BBQ Pork 酥皮焗叉烧包 (RM10.80). I have drooled over these whenever my friends have posted them on Instagram/Facebook and am glad that I have finally gotten the chance to taste them. The baked bun has a crisp yet fluffy exterior and slightly sweet tasting with a savoury, meaty filling. Really good, I have to say!

Crisp, fluffy, sweet and salty.. all in one!

Beautiful crisp golden exterior... ;)

Their other signature items include the pan fried carrot cake 萝卜糕(RM9.80), steamed egg cake a.k.a Malay cake (RM7.80) and vermicelli roll with pig's liver (RM10.80). We super love the steamed egg cake 马来糕, which apparently takes 3 days of preparation for it to become soft and fluffy. Indeed we love the soft texture with a nice caramel flavour. Baby D, who is on his first food review with mummy today had almost the whole one to himself. A must-try!

The vermicelli roll with pig's liver was a bit too gamey for my liking, I'd stick to the regular ones with BBQ pork or shrimp next time.

All mine :D

We also enjoyed the Braised Chicken Feet with Abalone Sauce (RM9.80) - the chicken feet here have a more bouncy texture and is wonderful paired with the sauce. Comes in 4 generous pieces.

This was my mum's favorite, steamed spinach dumpling with shrimp (RM7.80) with smooth, translucent skin. Tim Ho Wan prides itself in using only fresh and quality ingredients, and their dim sum is made to order to retain dim sum's flavour and texture.

Love the spinach and shrimp filling!

Another must-order for us when eating dim sum, siew mai aka pork dumpling with shrimp (RM10.80). Simple but well executed.

Pork rib with black bean sauce (RM8.80)

 The wasabi salad prawn dumpling (RM10.80) - crisp and juicy, topped with ebikko and wasabi mayo sauce for a spicy kick.

The next 3 items I did not try, took the photos from our neighbour's table ;)

Prawn dumpling (RM11.80)

Vermicelli roll with BBQ pork (RM12.80)

Beef ball with beancurd skin (RM7.80)

There are 2 desserts to choose from, the mango sago pomelo (RM8.80) and tonic medlar & osmanthus cake 杞子桂花糕 (RM6.80). The mango sago pomelo was really good and refreshing, and not too sweet either. At first we ordered one bowl to share, but it was so yummy, we had to order another ;)

Jelly on a plate, wibble wobble... ;)

Tim Ho Wan's Malaysia menu

My Top 5 Must-try items from Tim Ho Wan are: baked bun with BBQ pork, steamed egg cake, steamed spinach dumpling with shrimp, wasabi salad prawn dumpling and braised chicken feet with abalone sauce.




Opening times: 11am to 10pm (last orders 9.30pm).


Serves Pork.

Price: Prices start from RM7.80 for dim sum items.

Location: Tim Ho Wan, 27-G, Ground Floor, The Boulevard, Midvalley Megamall, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (opposite the water fountain in front of The Gardens Mall)

Website: https://www.facebook.com/TimHoWanMalaysia?fref=ts



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Qing Zhen Chinese Restaurant @ Novotel Kuala Lumpur City Centre

Qing Zhen is the Chinese restaurant in Novotel Kuala Lumpur City Centre. During our staycation here recently, we had the pleasure of dining in this contemporary Chinese restaurant. The restaurant serves a mix of Chinese Muslim dishes as well as Szechuan cuisine.

We were warmly greeted by their restaurant manager, Andy, who kindly recommended some of their signature dishes for us to try. To start, he ordered some siew mai (steamed crabmeat and prawn dumplings) for the kids (RM9) and they really enjoyed it.

Siew Mai

The highlight of our meal was this Szechuan speciality "Mutton Chops in Szechuan Style" (RM62). According to Andy, every customer that dines here will order this without fail. The New Zealand mutton is first marinated, then braised and fianlyl pan fried with dried chilli, Szechuan pepper, black bean flakes and spices. After we took our first bite, we could understand why people would specially come here to eat this dish - it was tender and bursting with flavour. It is quite spicy but without being numbing to the palate.We polished this off and was left hankering for more. BIG thumbs up for this dish. :)

The steamed cod in superior soy sauce (RM80) was not only kids-friendly, but also very delicious. Simple, unpretentious and it allows the freshness and natural sweetness of the cod to shine through. Our kids loved this!

Another superb dish that we had was this wok-fried wantan noodles (RM30), also known as "sang meen" which happens to be one of my favorite Chinese noodle dishes. And boy, they do a fantastic version here. The noodles are fried with lots of beansprouts and giant juicy prawns (at least 6-7 of them)..... we all agreed this was delicious.

Some greens to complete our meal, stir fried lotus root with celery and sweet beans (RM24). Nice crunchy vegetables.

Kids were delighted that Qing Zhen served their favorite steamed salted egg custard buns... with flowing custard of course. Baby D licked his plate clean (we have proof of this on Instagram :P)

Verdict: A very enjoyable meal at Qing Zhen, outstanding service. 


Pork-free.

Opening hours: Mondays to Saturdays - Lunch: 12.00pm – 2.30 pm; Dinner: 6.30pm – 10.00pm. Closed on Sunday.

Location: Qing Zhen Chinese Restaurant, Novotel Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 2 Jalan Kia Peng, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-2147 0888

GPS Coordinates: 3.151861, 101.719673

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Dim Sum @ Restoran Jin Xuan Hong Kong, Kuchai Lama, KL

We love going for dim sum on weekends. One day we tried Jin Xuan in Kuchai Lama, after some friends recommended it to us. Although the outlet here is pretty big, it can get very busy especially during peak hours, so you will find yourself having to queue for a table.

Scallop shrimp dumpling (RM4.50)

Clean and air-conditioned restaurant

Lots and lots of dim sum choices here

You tick off what you want on the order chit and they will bring the food to your table. Some of the waiting staff will also walk around with some of the deep fried items for you to choose from. Service is pretty quick. There are a variety of steamed dim sum, pau, steamed rice rolls, congee, pan fried/deep fried items and desserts. We found most of the dim sum items to be pretty good and reasonably priced.

Deep fried savoury pastry - ham sui kok (RM4)

Fried beancurd roll (RM4.50) with prawn filling

BBQ Pork bun (RM3.60 for 2)

Siu mai (RM4.50)

Steamed fish balls (RM4)

Steamed spare ribs (RM4.50)

Shrimp rice roll (RM4.80) served with a spicy shrimp paste

Golden egg tart (RM3.60 for 2)

Baked custard bun (RM4), not the flowing lava type

Deep fried sesame balls (RM4)

Golden Bun (RM3.60)- the flowing lava type, love this!

They also have outlets in Damansara Jaya, Damansara Utama, Puchong Jaya, Dataran Sunway, and PJ Oldtown.

Opening times: 7am to 11.30pm.

Price: As stated above, though prices may have increased since our visit.

Location: Restoran Jin Xuan Hong Kong (Kuchai Lama) Sdn. Bhd, A32, 34, 36, Jalan 1/116B, Kuchai Enterpreneurs’ Park, 58200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03- 7982 6812

GPS Coordinates: 3.090286, 101.689556



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CNY 2014 @ Tai Zi Heen, Prince Hotel KL

Just before Chinese New Year, we entered a CNY contest organised by Prince Hotel KL and won a complimentary large yee sang at Tai Zi Heen. Thanks to my handsome boy for smiling so nicely for the camera :) We decided to redeem our prize on Day 3 of CNY and invited my parents to join us for the yee sang as well as some dim sum for lunch. 

First yee sang with the family.. yay!

Baby D was beaming with happiness when the yee sang arrived and we all thanked him for the "treat". His reply was "mummy, next time I want to win more prizes for everyone!". LOL! The yee sang served to us was topped with salmon slices. We enjoyed tossing the yee sang, our first together as a family. The kids were happily shouting out phrases with "good meanings", so here's to a great Year of the Horse ;)

Omaigawd... the yee sang is so big, are u sure we can finish it?

Nice and refreshing

We also ordered some dim sum from their a la carte menu. Although the restaurant was operating at maximum capacity that afternoon, we were happy with the quality of the dim sum although service was a little slow. First to arrive was the crispy yam puff with minced chicken (RM8), which I ordered specially for my mum. I very rarely eat yam puffs but I make an exception for the ones at TZH as they're really crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I also ordered the rice rolls (cheong fun) with shrimp and yellow chives (RM10) for her, and Baby C also enjoyed this very much - slippery smooth!

Crispy yam puff with minced chicken

Rice rolls filled with shrimp and yellow chives 

For the kids, must-orders during our dim sum sessions are siew mai and char siew pau. Albeit both being pork-free, the kids enjoyed them very much.We also had the chicken dumplings with spring onion and cilantro (RM10), which turned out to be bouncy chicken balls.  My favorites was the purple spinach dumpling topped with Mexican clams (RM13) as well as the pan fried crispy pancake with prawns and chives (RM12).  I also enjoyed the crispy crab meat and prawn wontons served with sweet and sour sauce (RM10).

Crispy crab meat and prawn wontons served with sweet and sour sauce

Chicken, shrimp dumplings with mushrooms (RM10)

Chicken dumplings with spring onion and cilantro

Steamed fluffy barbecued chicken buns (RM8)

Purple spinach dumplings topped with Mexican clams

Pan fried crispy pancake with prawns and chives

To end our meal on a sweet note, we had 2 orders of oven-baked fragrant mini custard egg tarts (RM8) as well as the delectable mango pudding served with passionfruit sauce (RM12).

My beautiful family wishes you "Gong Xi Fa Cai" once again!

Pork-free.

Opening times: Lunch; 12.00 pm - 2.30pm, Dinner; 6.30pm-10.30pm.

Price: RM155 for dim sum and tea for 6 pax, yee sang is complimentary.

Location: Tai Zi Heen, Level 2, Prince Hotel & Residence Kuala Lumpur, 4 Jalan Conlay, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-2170 8888

Website: http://www.princehotelkl.com

GPS Coordinates: 3.150179, 101.714516



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