New Set Menu @ Celestial Court, Imperial Hotel KL

Recently, my friends and I found ourselves back at the opulent Celestial Court again to sample their newly introduced set menu, thanks to the invitation from FoodStreet. Named Ying, Yang and Jing respectively, each of the set menu came with a carefully selected set of 8 to 9 dishes. Pricing per pax starts from RM98++(Ying), RM128++(Yang) and RM158++(Jing) with a minimum of 6 pax. As there were only 4 of us that night, we were served with a selection of 5 dishes from all 3 of the set menus.


Braised Shredded Abalone with Dried Scallop and Roasted Duck Meat
Starting with Braised Shredded Abalone with Dried Scallop and Roasted Duck Meat (from the Ying menu), the thick soup was tasty albeit a tad salty for our liking with a somewhat strong medicinal aroma (although not in a bad way), probably from the chinese herbs used in creating this tummy-warming soup.


Roasted Baby Duckling
Next to arrive was the Roasted Baby Duckling (from the Ying menu). To be honest, as far as I could remember, that was my first time having baby duckling although to me, I would have said that it's roasted pigeon if I didn't know better.

Anyhow, the roasted duckling was exactly how it should be; glossy thin skin fried till delicately crispy, with juicy sweet flesh within. The melting tenderness of the fatty parts would surely be a delight to those who knew how to enjoy it.


Stir-fried Prawn Roasted Minced Garlic
Easily the most popular dish of the night was the Stir-fried Prawn Roasted Minced Garlic (from the Jing menu). Big fat de-shelled prawns tumbled with lots of fragrant roasted minced garlic. The jumbo-sized prawns were sweet and bouncy yet firm to bite, indicating the freshness of the seafood. A definite hit for us!


Braised Vermicelli with Seafood
The Braised Vermicelli with Seafood (from the Yang menu) was a delicious jumble of seafood tossed amongst noodles and leafy vegetables. This noodle dish was generous with the fresh assorted seafood, if just a tad salty.


Double Boiled Snow Fungus with Sea Coconut and Lotus Seed
The Double Boiled Snow Fungus with Sea Coconut and Lotus Seed (from the Jing menu) provided a sweet ending to our meal. Although served warm, the nutritious sweet soup was cooling and refreshing although we would have liked it more if it was a little bit less sweet.

It was a delight to see that the restaurant currently offers a 50% discount for senior citizens as I am pretty sure my parents would have enjoyed the menu under the luxurious ambience of Celestial Court. In addition, diners who ordered the set menu will also receive complimentary parking.

Celestial Court
Hotel Imperial Kuala Lumpur
Jalan Sultan Ismail
Phone 60 3 2717 9900

Lunching at Al-Nafourah, Le Méridien KL

One more Starwood Privileges coupon to go before it expires, this one is for set lunch (for 2) at Al-Nafourah, an enchanting Middle Eastern restaurant in Le Méridien Kuala Lumpur.

I strongly agree with the description on its interior (excerpts from the official website):
"A contemporary oasis with private silken dinner tents, Moorish arches, ornate paintings, and richly woven carpets lend an enchanting ambience scented with spices...."
Take a look at the pictures above and tell me if you do not think so too.


The set lunch is pretty much "fixed" as in you do not get to have any choices at all (except for coffee or tea at the end of the meal). Some warm flat bread and olives were served at the beginning of the meal along side a petite complimentary glass of fresh orange juice. The cold appetizer followed soon after. The appetizer of that day was some eggplant and bell pepper timbale.


The main dish was served next. The chef's choice was grilled chicken with assorted grilled vegetables. To be frank, I couldn't remember much details of this dish but I do think it was just ok.


Dessert was "dessert of the day". In this case, it was Cherry Clafoutis, a typical French country dessert. Cakey yet pudding-like, it may looked plain and simple but was in fact, pretty good! As mentioned earlier, coffee or tea was served together with the dessert. I remember the coffee as being good and strong.

So there you have it, if you happened to have a Starwood Privileges coupon for set lunch at Al-Nafourah, you can more or less know what to expect. Basically, you would just have to eat what the chef had selected for the menu at time of dining. I am sorry I could not be more specific on the descriptions but this lunch was a month or two ago. Since it wasn't remotely remarkable, I have kind of forgotten most details. Anyways, the above is only applicable to those redeeming the Starwood coupon only. I understand that their usual set lunches are available daily but with a different menu from the above.

Al-Nafourah
Level 8, Le Méridien Kuala Lumpur,
2 Jalan Stesen Sentral, Kuala Lumpur.
Phone: (60)(3) 2263 7888

Dim Sum @ Celestial Court, Hotel Imperial Kuala Lumpur

Aargghhh.....
My Starwood membership was expiring and I still had a handful of vouchers to go. It was quite funny how I rushed to utilize most of the "complimentary" vouchers during the last month of my membership. Anyhow, one of it was the "Eat-All-You-Can" Dim Sum at Celestial Court, Hotel Imperial Kuala Lumpur (previously known as Sheraton Imperial Hotel).


Celestial Court
It was rather difficult getting a booking as this special deal was only available during weekends. Could it be there were also tons of other members who were in the "same situation" as me? (I.e., Utilizing all the vouchers at the very last minute before they expire). That was why I was rather surprised to see that the restaurant was rather empty when I went there. I knew that this special promo has been discontinued and not available to the general public but due to the Starwood vouchers given last year for their members, the restaurant had to honor them. Hence only Starwood members who hold such vouchers are entitled to the free-flow dim sum. Perhaps the restaurant pre-allocated the maximum number of reservations/tables for those utilizing this voucher. But seriously, since it was rather difficult making reservation and the fact that they actually called a couple of times to re-confirm the reservation, I was expecting at least a semi-crowded restaurant. Hmmppff.....

Back to the food. A special menu was given for this "Eat-All-You-Can" promo. Selections although not vast, were sufficient. Here are some of it.

Starting with the "steamed" varieties:


Shrimp Dumpling (Har Gow)
The Har Gow was good. Big, fresh, juicy prawns in thin translucent crystal skin.


Another type of dumpling with Konnyaku noodles in Spicy Chili Sauce


HK-Style Chee Cheong Fun with Shrimps served with Pea Sprouts
Nice and smooth cheong fun. Again, shrimps were fresh. But the measly pea sprouts looked rather pathetic and out of place on the dish.


And now the "fried" varieties:


Pan-fried radish cake
This was just average.


Deep-fried Yam Pastry with Minced Meat Stuffing (Wu Kok)
Didn't really enjoy this although wu kok is one of my favourite dim sum. Just lacking of something which I couldn't exactly pin-point. Or maybe it wasn't served warm enough.


Sesame Spring Roll with Shredded Roast Duck
Sounded promising but was rather forgettable.


Honey Stuffed Cruellers (Yau Char Kwai)
Too "dough-y".


Pan-fried Dumplings Beijing-style
Totally forgot what was inside.

From the "roast" section:


Crispy Skin Roast Duck
This was the "star" of the entire meal. Thin crispy skin and tender flesh. Absolutely no gamey taste to it. Perfect with the accompanying dipping sauce. So good that we had 2 of this.

Sweet Endings:


Chilled Sai Mai Lo
Needed something cold and chilling to help elevate the feeling of being "stuffed to the brims with meat". Not a very good sai mai lo. Too diluted, perhaps.


Chilled Almond Jelly with Longans
I usually detest almond puddings, broth and jellies hence I was somewhat surprised that I liked this a lot. The pudding was so smooth and silky with just a very slight scent of almond (which was what usually put me off). Nice!

Celestial Court
Hotel Imperial Kuala Lumpur
Jalan Sultan Ismail
Phone 60 3 2717 9900

Dinner @ Sassorosso Italian Restaurant, KL

I have to be honest here. I first discovered this restaurant when I was looking for another restaurant, took a wrong turn and ended up along the street where Sassorosso was located. I was impressed with its charming facade from the outside and made a note to return for a visit. Unfortunately, I soon forgot about it until a friend suggested to dine at this place recently.


Clockwise from Top-Left: Sassorosso - interior, Sassorosso - exterior, bottle of Fiano di Avellino (white, Italy) which was pretty enjoyable, Complimentary Bread Basket.

From the outside, the restaurant looksto be very classy and elegant. The interior, although tastefully-decorated gave a rather warm and less formal ambience. Once seated, it wasn't long before we were served with the complimentary bread basket (which would have tasted even better if served a tad warmer).

We started with Beef Carpaccio with mustard sauce, wild rocket salad, tomatoes confit and parmesan flakes. Paper thin slices of quality raw beef, it was a classically good starter to our evening meal.

Clockwise from Top-Left: Starter-Beef Carpaccio with mustard sauce, wild rocket salad, tomatoes confit and parmesan flakes; Siciliana Pizza, Grilled Whole Sea Bass, Squid Ink Pasta with Fresh Scallops and Broccoli.

We opted to share three main courses. The first to arrive was the Siciliana Pizza. A combination of mozarella cheese, ricotta cheese and parmesan with fresh basil and eggplant with a tomato sauce base on a wonderful thin-crust pizza, the pizza was just excellent! I would even add in to my list of favourite pizzas. On the other hand, the Squid Ink Pasta with Fresh Scallops and Broccoli was less remarkable although pleasant. We were getting stuffed by then but wait, the highlight had yet to come. And when it did, we were "wow-ed" by the serving size of the dish. Grilled Whole Sea Bass with Mixed Vegetables, it was meant for 2 persons but it was definitely more than adequate for the four of us. Granted, we were already feeling half-full by then. To be frank, I didn't like the first few mouthfuls. I thought the grilled fish had a strong "fishy" taste to it (actually, not surprisingly given the absence of local spices that most of us prefer in our local version of "ikan bakar"). However, as my palate slowly grew accustomed to its simplicity, the grilled fish turned out to be tastier than my first impression of it.


Desserts: (Clockwise from Top-right) Good strong cup of coffee, Tiramisu and Panna Cotta.

Finishing off with a couple of desserts, their Panna Cotta and Tiramisu managed to satiate our sweet tooth but I doubt they would linger in our thoughts after the dinner was over.

Sassorosso
9 Lorong Yap Kwan Seng, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603 21 666 428 Fax: 603 21 666 429

Jean Georges

Much has been said and written about Jean George Vongerichten. His name is globally known as a purveyor of fine food. His flagship restaurant in NYC, Jean-Georges Restaurant earned him a 3-star rating by the Michelin Guide.


Moodily lit dining room (aka dark) reeks of colonial elegance. The windows oversee the HuangPu river and the skyscrapers across in Pudong.

Simple table arrangement.

Jean Georges, Shanghai is his only namesake restaurant outside of NYC. This was actually my 2nd time there, and this time it was for lunch. They were running a lunch time promotion where they serve a bento box lunch, featuring four small (miniscule was more like it) dishes. One can choose his/her choice of 4 dishes (ranging from appetizers, salads, main to desserts) from a list of selection from a special menu.

I fell in love with their bread basket, or to be more specific, their fruit and nuts bread.

Smear it lightly with butter, it was hard to stop munching on it before I became full. On 2nd thought, one can hardly get full with the tiny servings of the bento box, so my advise is to have your fill of the complimentary bread basket by all means.

Here is my selection of 4 dishes.

"Bento Box" style lunch
To be frank, I could no longer remember the exact detailed descriptions of each selection. Basically, (from bottom left, anti-clockwise):- Caramelized Foie Gras, Slow-baked Salmon (done medium rare), Beef Tenderloin (done medium rare) and for dessert, some kind of Chocolate and Coffee Granita (I know, I can't possibly be anymore vague with the descriptions than this...).


All I remember is that the Foie Gras was expectedly sublime. Rich, velvety and wonderfully creamy, I could not do anything but just sighed in contendment.


It took me a while to finally decide in ordering the salmon dish. Usually, I only like my salmon done sashimi-style. But I recalled that I was intrigued by the accompanying condiments and sauces (of which I had promptly forgotten by now), that I went ahead and ordered it. I should have listened to my instincts. Not to say that the dish was flawed, but it just rather 'boring' and easily 'forgettable'.


I have to show you the other 'fish' option that was available on the menu. The steamed sea bass which my lunch companion ordered. In my opinion, it was certainly much more remarkable than the salmon.


My 3rd selection fared much better. The beef tenderloin was simply outstanding. I asked for medium-rare, and it came just that. I am no big fan of steaks, but this was close enough to convert me into one.


Oh, and it came with a side of mashed potatoes too.


Last but not least, was the dessert. The Chocolate Coffee Granita thingy. I love chocolates. I love coffee. I love desserts. Need I say more? (FYI, I highly recommend their dessert platter, especially the Chocolate-themed one if you have the opportunity to dine at Jean Georges).

This is another dessert option. Some 'Poached Pear with Ice-cream" type dessert. Since serving was so miniscule (by my standards), I didn't manage to steal a bite from my friend. (Darn it!)


Luckily, my sweet-tooth was pacified by the petit fours served at the end of the meal; a selection of lip-smacking truffles. I couldn't be happier...

Jean Georges
4th Floor, Three on the Bund
17 Guangdong Rd (junction of the Bund or East Zhongshan No.1 Rd)Shanghai
Tel: +86 (0)21 6321 7733

Dim Sum @ Emperor, Sheraton Subang

The Emperor is a traditionally themed halal Cantonese restaurant, located in Sheraton Subang and one of my preferred restaurants to have halal dim sum.


The dim sum pre-requisite, har gow (prawn dumpling) with scallops. I think it is called "tai zi gow"?
The dumpling was good. Fresh, big and juicy seafood. Plus points for the not to thick nor thin crytal dumpling skin.


Seaweed Roll

Here's how it looked inside...


Some Crab-stick Roll (this was pretty average for I am not a fan of imitation crab meat)


This is more like it, the real thing. Crab Claw dumpling.


One of my usual favourite dim sum dish, the "wu kok" (deep fried yam dumpling).
Again, the wu kok here was just pretty average for me.


Mango Prawn Roll
Mmm..., rather nice as I recall.


Dessert: Lemongrass Jelly with Chocolate Chip Peppermint Ice-cream
Utterly disappointed with this. Very plain indeed! Jelly tasted rather bland and the ice-cream tasted like it was one of those common commercial brands readily available in supermarkets.

The Emperor,
Sheraton Subang
Jalan SS12/1 · Subang Jaya,
03-5031 6060

Lunching at Jarrods, Damansara Heights

Since we are on the topic of executive set lunches, let me post another set lunch review that I had recently at Jarrods in Damansara Heights. I was there for a light lunch with a friend and then I saw a placard at the doors displaying the executive set lunch menu at their in-door restaurant. At only RM25++ for a 2-course lunch inclusive of either tea or coffee, I thought it was quite a steal.


Starting with soup of the day which by now I have completely forgotten what it was. Could be somekind of seafood bisque or chowder. Anyhow, I remember enjoying the soup. (Sorry people for not being more descriptive).

The choice of mains on that day was between a pan-fried barramundi or grilled pork loins. I chose the barramundi but swapped the sides of roasted potatoes for the mashed pumpkin which I love.

The barramundi was served with a side of a tangy and sweetish sauce in a shot glass, of what looked like some kind of marmalade relish or sauce. The fish itself was quite "fishy" in taste (my friend had to ask for some lemon) but if taken together with the sauce, it was quite alright. I like the mashed pumpkin a lot though.


And with a perfect cuppa freshly brewed coffee to finish off, you won't hear me complaining at all.

Jarrods
Jalan Dungun, Damansara Heights