There aren’t that many pork-free non-hotel restaurants around town that serve good decent Dim Sum. Maju Palace Restaurant is one of those rare gems that can whip up a great dim sum feast and that’s exactly what a group of foodie friends and I discovered recently.
A member of the Oriental Group of Restaurants, Maju Palace has just passed its 10th year anniversary. Located in Maju Junction Mall, parking is ample and the restaurant is spacious, with capacity to hold 5 private dining rooms which are perfect for any corporate or private celebratory event.
Chicken Pies
To ensure freshness and piping hot just-off-the stove/oven dishes for its customers, the dim sum items are only cooked based on order. So if you think you can just lift off any dimsum from push carts at any time, well, that’s just not practised here. As Executive Chef Justin Hor (whose presence we were lucky enough to enjoy during this dim sum feast), puts it “Every dish is freshly prepared once our customer placed an order. You can be sure there is no re-heated dim sum served!”
Fried Radish Cake
The menu is truly extensive, ranging from the steamed, baked, deep fried and boiled items. From the baked section, we love the crumbly flaky pastry of the chicken pies and egg tarts. The minced chicken filling in the pie was very tasty and the egg custard was smooth, rich and slips through our tongue and throat effortlessly.
Deep-fried Codfish Rolls
Fat stubby beansprouts dotted the plate of Fried Radishcake and I knew we were on to a good thing. The cubes of radishcake were wobbly in the centre yet the sides maintained a nice crusty layer, thanks to the searing skills of the chef. Chopped garlic, chillies and pickled vegetables (“choy poh”) added flavours to the dish. We also tried the pan-fried whole-piece radish cake, just to savour the radish cake on its own without all the other added embellishment – it was superb.
Our dining companions went gaga over the fried items and we had a whole string of them which included the divine Deep-fried Prawn Rolls with Mayonnaise, Crispy Brinjals with Chicken Floss, Deep-fried Fishcake, Golden Crispy Shimeiju Mushrooms, Deep-fried Shredded Duck & Chives with Beancurd Skin, Deep-fried Vegetarian Rolls and various types of fried dumplings. The deep-fried shredded duck is a nice touch and the chives in it gave it added aroma. The all-time favourite prawn rolls were a hit and gone in a matter of less than a minute.
Deep-fried Vegetarian Rolls
Fried Whitebait with Salt & Pepper
Fried Prawn Rolls with Mayonnaise
Try the Steamed Rice Rolls with Crispy Prawns … it’s chee cheong fun with a twist. The prawns were encased in a layer of crunchy beancurd skin before being rolled in between a layer of rice roll.
Pan-fried Radish Cake
Rice Rolls with Crispy Prawns
We sampled a few items from the Steamed section: the must-have Imperial Har Kow, Yunan-style Siew Mai, Chives Dumpling with XO Sauce, Dried Scallops and Spinach Dumplings and their Cha Siew Pau. All were executed impeccably. You must try the Big Pau here as very few restaurants offer this old-world favourite. The Big Pau here reminds me very much of the staple Big Paus I used to enjoy in some of Ipoh’s authentic traditional dim sum joints during my childhood days. I can hardly find Big Paus nowadays… I totally can relate to Executive Chef Justin’s reminiscing that the Big Pau is such a 1970’s dim sum icon.
The Big Pau!
One unique item I found here is the Poached River Carp Medallion. It’s a piece of round rolled-up river carp fillet, poached in a delightful light tasty broth, flavoured by ginger strips and spring onions.
Poached River Carp Medallions
At one corner of the restaurant there’s a live cooking station where one can pick and choose an array of special dishes for the day. Dishes are changed weekly. Just tell the chef there what you’d like and those dishes will be cooked there & then and brought to your table.
We ordered 2 types of porridge from there: the Red Crab Porridge and the Shredded Chicken & Snow Creek Vegetables Porridge. The bowls of porridge were great soul soothers and stomach warming; the clean clear umami flavours of the crab and fish had infused into the rice broth rendering it a sweetness that’s totally natural and refreshing.. Ahhh…such comfort food. If you like such comfort food, try also the Double Boiled Superior Soup with Beef and Enoki Mushrooms served in a Japanese paper wok – it’s addictive.
Double Boiled Superior Soup with Beef and Enoki Mushrooms
The Oriental Group restaurants dish up great tasting noodles and my all-time favourite is their Braised Egg Noodles Village Style. It’s a plate of very simple egg noodles yet the execution and taste are far superior than any luxe complicated version. Alternatively, their Fresh Water Prawns Noodles are just decadent – the thick briny prawny soup is simply to die-for.
Braised Noodles Village-style
Freshwater Prawns Noodles
Desserts are aplenty. Those of you who know me will know that I can never resist Lemongrass Jelly (which is so light and refreshing) and Maju Palace serves a very decent version.
Aloe Vera Tarts
The Lui Sar Pau – steamed custard buns has the hot golden lava-like salted egg custard oozing out sinfully the moment you bite into them. Not to be missed also is the Steamed Egg with Bird’s Nest – so pretty and full of goodness! There are also the usual glutinuous balls, longan herbal thong-sui and other usual sweet Chinese snacks to choose from.
Salted Egg Custard Buns
Baked Egg Tarts
Prices of the dim sum dishes are really reasonable, starting from RM6 and above and the selection is quite mind-boggling.
Lemongrass Jelly
If you like what you see here and would like to go dine at Maju Palace, I have some dining vouchers to give away. The first 5 readers to email me will each get RM100 worth of vouchers to dine at Maju Palace. I guess this applies to only local readers, unless you don’t mind making a long trip to the restaurant for the treat!
So … hurry, drop me a line at [email protected] now! There’s no contest, no slogan writing etc… I just would love to hear from you 🙂
Maju Palace Restaurant (*PORK-FREE)
Level 5 Maju Junction Mall
1001 Jalan Sultan Ismail
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Tel : 03- 2691 8822
Fax : 03- 2691 3822
GPS: 3.159686,101.696346
The Oriental Group’s website
Those food looks so appetizing! I hope I could try some~ >,,<
The food choices are extensive and delicious! Go try soon!
Wow…such a big happy spread!
Happy happy indeed! :-))
Thank you for the lovely invite. Definitely the best dim sum galore I’ve ever been! OMG the food.. yummyyyy.. 😀
You are welcome… too much food that day..OMG! But oh so good!
the dim sum looks beautifully crafted. i brought my family for a birthday dinner here once, but i still haven’t tried the dim sum yet. will do so someday, since it’s only a 5-min drive from my office 😀
Ya, Sean… it’s just a stonethrow away from your workplace – go lah! 😉
Love to visit this place when I’m back in town – Jul 2013 🙂
I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!
I should visit with my sis HG cos she’ll love this sort of places for dim sum…..all the pic looks very yummy !! Any chance of winning the MYR 100. I’m number 5 !
Looking forward to hearing from u
Hey Hong Looi, you have to email me to see if you are within the 1st 5…my blogpost says to “email me”, hehe!