Here’s where the story ends…

It had its humble beginning in the 70’s as The Blue Splendour Restaurant occupying two shoplots on the first floor in the block of shops directly opposite the Sarawak House/Premier Hotel. Many would agree that the food served there was among the best in town, if not THE best. I held my wedding reception there and later, my late parents celebrated their Golden Jubilee there as well.

When the Wisma Sanyan, Sarawak’s tallest building at the time, was completed, it moved there. taking up most of the 5th Floor. Yes, it became really big and was the venue of many grand dinners. I checked my archive and I only have this post on my ex-colleague’s son’s wedding banquet held there and this one where I was invited to my friends’ mum’s 80th birthday bash. The business flourished; any opportunity we had to host a dinner, we would have it there until one day, for some personal reasons, best kept private, the owner decided to call it a day and closed down the place.

I think it was in 2010 when this place was open…

…and much to our delight, the chief chef from the Blue Splendour Restaurant was the one behind it, along with his wife, the very friendly Captain of the waiting staff in the old place and of course, we were delighted that the food served at this new place…

…was just as nice, perhaps even nicer than the old place so just as in the old place, whatever reason I had to host a dinner…

…I would not hesitate to make a reservation…

…there.

One of the main attractions here was this irresistible dong po pork belly (东坡肉)…

…served with mantao (steamed dumplings)…

I would definitely order it everytime I had the opportunity, definitely something not to be missed. There are other places serving stewed pork belly with mantao…

…like this too but no, none of them came anywhere near theirs.

I loved this fish dish…

…so much but it was too big to order that everytime we dined there. Of course. whenever we had a dinner for 10, I would not miss this dish, that was for sure!

Their creamy butter prawns…

…were really good too. My girl loved it so much so it was on our must-order list everytime we dropped by.

I think it was in 2016 when they moved to a new place, their own building…

…a stone’s throw away from their former location. Probably it was too big for them to handle but when we went there, twice, we felt that generally, the quality of the food had dropped and the prices were more expensive than before so we stopped going.

It was only in 2019 when my friend told me that I could go there again as the quality of the food was as good as before and the prices were more affordable too that I went back again and yes, it was great – just like before. Why, when my cousin came home from Sydney, Australia that year around Christmas, I took him for lunch there and he loved it!

Unfortunately, our happiness was short-lived because the other day, they announced on social media that they would open till the 30th of June only. That is indeed absolutely tragic!!!

I guess with the pandemic going on and on like it is never going to end, there is really no point in carrying on. Unlike many other people, they would not have to pay rental for the use of their premises since they own the place but for a restaurant this big, they would have a whole lot of cooks and waiting staff working for them. Since dining in is not allowed for so long already, it is really not feasible to keep the place running and paying all their salaries/wages for nothing.

I guess this is where the story ends and to the people at The Blue Splendour and later, the Ming Mei Shi Restaurant, thank you for the years of great food and wonderful memories!

名美食大酒家 Ming Mei Shi Restaurant (2.293896, 111.836528) is located at 25,27,29, Lorong Chew Siik Hiong 1A in the Fortune Commercial Centre, the area of shops behind the Rejang Medical Centre, right beside the Doraemon Supermarket there.