Simply Dim Sum @ Five Sen5es, The Westin Kuala Lumpur

As mentioned in my earlier post on Five Sen5es, that trendy Cantonese restaurant in The Westin Kuala Lumpur, I checked out their dim sum over a long leisurely lunch not too long ago.

Five Sen5es looks quite different in the day time.  While it looked classy and romantic due to the soft lightings at night, it looks bright, sleek and cheerful during the day, thanks to the bright sunshine streaming in through their vast glass panels on one side of the walls.  You also get to watch KL goes by through the glass!  Bamboo baskets are stacked up on steamers along one side as you enter the restaurant and through the steam you can see the service crew bustling around.  There is another open kitchen further in – over here you see chefs in action with their woks and pans.

I was distracted from all that action by slabs of mouth-watering siew yuk (roast pork) and char siew (barbequed pork) hanging in a glass display at the open kitchen.  Unable to resist that enticing display, I promptly ordered a plate of char siew and siew yuk as our starters.  That was one of the best roast meats we’ve had in a while, simply because they were freshly roasted and biting into those crunchy cracklings of the siew yook was quite the highlight of that meal.

We started off our Dim Sum feast by trying some of the restaurant’s signature dishes that depict the five human senses in their concepts via cooking and presentation styles.

Scallop Har Kow, Siu Mai with Foie Gras and Szechuan Dumpling made their appearances.

Nothing can go wrong with sweet fresh scallops and the Har Kow made a quick disappearance, I assure you.  As for the siu mai, I wished there had been a bit more foie gras on it as I could barely taste that!  The Szechuan dumpling was plump with its filling of shrimps, pork and vegetables but what elevated it was the dash of Sichuan chilli oil dressing – it certainly perked up the dumpling!

The trio of Scallop Taro Puff, King Crab Dumpling and Prawns with Cheese Beancurd Roll were impressive.  If you ask me, I think these 3 personified the senses of Sight, Sound, Scent and Taste perfectly!

The Pan-seared Home-made Turnip Cake topped with Pork Floss and Lo Mai Kai were delightful to look at.  I particularly like the turnip cake as the chef has got the texture just right, neither too firm nor too mushy.  The seared sides were crispy and when I bit into it, there were bits of dried shrimps embedded inside – a perfect blend of flavours with the turnip.  I’d be happy to eat that sans pork floss but I guess the addition of that just enhanced it visually.  I found the Lo Mai Kai a tad heavy on the salt, possibly because they overlooked the fact that the Chinese sausage in it was also salted.

I had a taste of their Secret Oven-baked Crispy Hongkong Bun during their special event earlier on and because it was so good, we had to order this again.  LL and JL thoroughly enjoyed the freshly baked buns oozing with creamy avocado filling.

Being die-hard fans of salted eggyolks, we simply could not resist their Classic Oven-baked Salted Eggyolk Puff.  Cute warm balls of flaky puffs encasing lotus paste and salted eggyolks in the centre – they were scrumptious.

We also tried their Steamed Spare Ribs with Salted Black Beans, Citrus Zest Beef Balls with Watercress, Hongkong Honey Char Siew Pau and Chicken Feet with Black Beans.  The beef balls were on the bland side and I would have preferred a little less dough for the char siew pau – that’s because I love my char siew more than flour, hah!

For the sweet stuff, we tried their Chilled Sweetened Fresh Mango Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream, Portuguese Egg Tart and Hand-rolled Durian Ice Cream Pancake.  My favourites were the Portuguese Egg Tart and Durian Ice Cream Pancake!  We would have gone for more sweets if we were not that stuffed!

I think Five Sen5es’ Simply Dim Sum Lunch (All You Can Eat) priced at RM48++ per person on weekdays and their Simply Dim Sum Brunch at RM68++ per person on weekends are a steal!  There are 52 items on the menu for you to choose from and we have tried just a handful of those.  There are so many more items that we want to try (yes, next visit soon!).

We didn’t have a chance to check out their Chee Cheong Fun – they have varieties like Crystal River Fresh Fish Chee Cheong Fun and Crystal Braised “Lo Han” Vegetables Chee Cheong Fun… intriguing items like Black Moss, Water Chestnut & Octopus in Katafi Pastry, Double-steamed Kwai Fei Bamboo Beancurd Skin Rolls or perhaps the Baked Walnut Wild Chicken Puff? For carbs lovers, there are also rice and noodles dishes on the menu … Duo Fish Fragrant Fried Rice, HK-style Dry Fry Caramelised Soy Noodles are just some interesting options.

Starwood Privilege Members get a 20% discount and this makes it even more of a steal :-))  The prices indicated includes free-flow of Chinese tea as well.

It’s time to go and have some Sensory Indulgences at Five Sen5es soon.

Five Sen5es
The Westin Kuala Lumpur
199 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2731-8333
Fax: 03-2731-8000