Lai Po Heen, the elegant Chinese restaurant in Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur is one of the few restaurants in town that leads the pack in offering Chinese New Year promotional menus. Their auspicious scrumptious menus to celebrate the slithering-in of the Water Snake have been available as early as 3 January 2013 and will continue to delight their guests until 28 February 2013.
This time round Chef Ricky Thein and his team has whipped up 3 festive set menus: the Fortune Set, Prosperity Set and the Wealth Set, all priced from RM1,880++ per table of 10 persons, available for lunch and dinner.
Yee Sang with Sliced Abalone & Salmon
I must say Lai Po Heen is one of our favourite Chinese restaurants and an invitation to check out their Chinese New Year offerings was gladly accepted. The menu we tried that evening featured a combination of dishes from the various sets.
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
What is Chinese New Year without Yee Sang, right? So, we started the dinner by tossing Yee Sang with Sliced Abalone & Salmon. Chef Ricky blessed us with a plate of fried softshell crabs for good measure… so our Yee Sang was really super-luxurious. I love that red-black yin-yang plate, too… so ornately Chinese! Abalone, salmon, softshell crabs … a contrasting burst of flavours and textures, blending nicely with the shredded vegetables, fruits and nuts… I love my Yee Sang!
Lai Po Heen offers 5 types of Yee Sang which you can order a la carte, from RM88++ to RM138++ for half and full portions respectively. Besides abalone, salmon and softshell crabs, what sounds intriguing is their Yee Sang with Japanese-style Seafood in Wasabi Sauce.
Braised Sea Treasures Soup with American Ginseng and Chinese Cabbage was quite unlike the typical double-boiled soups concocted by Chef Ricky. This particular version featured a soup that’s thicker, lesser in quantity (what a shame!)… it’s like a shallow golden pond embracing the treasure on top in its buoyancy… a baby abalone, shitake mushroom, sea cucumber and fish maw – I devoured them all, taking my time to chew through and savour them.
Braised Sea Treasures Soup with American Ginseng and Chinese Cabbage
Next was Steamed Golden Pomfret with Spicy Brown Bean Sauce, which I found a tad on the salty side, likely due to the bean sauce. This would go very well with white rice though.
Steamed Golden Pomfret with Spicy Brown Bean Sauce
Simmered Fortune Duck with Mushrooms and Iceberg Lettuce in Yam Sauce was really good. Somehow, duck and yam make a compatible match and here the duck has been braised to just the right level of tenderness where the meat still retained a degree of bite, yet redolent with all the aromatic spices added in.
Simmered Fortune Duck with Mushrooms and Iceberg Lettuce in Yam Sauce
The next dish – Wok-fried Lobster with Sweet Basil and Spicy Lemongrass Sauce looked exciting on paper and in presentation but I felt the lobster had been a bit over-fried as the flesh was stuck stubbornly to the shell.
Wok-fried Lobster with Sweet Basil and Spicy Lemongrass Sauce
I love the presentation of the Braised Money Bag filled with Sea Treasures and Wok-fried Garden Greens. Served in a shiny high-gloss soup dish which reflects every ray of light beautifully, the Money Bag – a tofu puff filled with chopped seafood, was submerged delicately in a thick yellow broth made from blended pumpkin.
Braised Money Bag filled with Sea Treasures and Wok-fried Garden Greens
The Fried Glutinuous Rice with Fresh Mushroom & Chicken Floss was thoughtfully served in petite manageable portions. Well-executed, they needn’t have worried over whether their guests could finish the portion because the rice was delicious. Every round grain was well coated with the savouries, fluffy and sticky in a good way.
Fried Glutinuous Rice with Fresh Mushroom & Chicken Floss
Dessert was beautifully plated… a bowl of Double-boiled Snow Pear with Aloe Vera, Honey Date & Sun-dried Longan in Osmanthus Soup, paired with Deep-fried Glutinuous Rice Cakes (“nian gao”) with red sweet potato, yam and honey lemon. Just scrumptious.
The harmony of colours was fantastic, all in shades of autumn yet distinctively pretty for every item plated.
Like I mentioned earlier, a la carte dishes are available in their Chinese New Year Specialities menu, each priced from RM88++ onwards, available for lunch and dinner. Chinese New Year Dim Sum Specialities are also served, for lunch only, priced at RM11++ onwards.
For dining reservations, please contact 03-21798885 or email [email protected]
Lai Po Heen
Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur City Centre
Kuala Lumpur
love the soup.. wanted more of that golden pond of broth! Chef Ricky always makes a fabulous soup. I thought the duck was unique and delicious too. Huat Ah!! 😉
Yes I love his soups as always, and that duck was really good!
I wonder where is the honey lemon in the dessert? o.O
It’s in the accompanying sauce, hardly discernible 😉
ah just commented on yen’s blog that the duck and lobster looks so interesting! Yum yum! 😀
Oh yes, loved the duck!