Quality time…

Monday was a public holiday here – much to our delight, our new Prime Minister declared it as a day off after his swearing-in that day. I was thinking that this would be a good time to go for a nice dim sum/yam cha breakfast and spend some quality time together and yes, we do have very good dim sum at a restaurant here, as good or even better than the ones that I have had here, there and everywhere…even in KL and in countries abroad.

That was why when my girl got up that morning, we were on our way and boy, when we got to the restaurant, we were so surprised to see so many cars all around the massive building. We were lucky that there was one leaving so we quickly grabbed the parking space. I did have a glance into the restaurant as we drove past the entrance and it was overflowing with people, like somebody was hosting a wedding banquet or something and the place was packed!

My missus went to ask and yes, the dim sum breakfast was on as usual – the crowd was probably due to the unexpected public holiday. Normally, there would just be a few tables, not that many people and all the workers, the waiters and waitresses, would stand in a line by the side like they were in a beauty pageant or something and watch you eat. LOL!!!

We asked for the siew mai (meat dumplings)…

…and yes, they are still having that three-in-a-storey thing. They call the basket lau or storey in Chinese – I guess if you stack them all up, they will look like storeys in a tall cylindrical building.

The siew mai were all very good but I can’t say that I like the idea of putting three together like that. I don’t know if that is a sales gimmick or what because anyone who wants to enjoy all three flavours would have to order three storeys at least so there will be enough to go round.

On the other hand, the har kao (prawn dumplings)…

…were quite disastrous. The skin was thick and dry and badly torn! Thankfully, it was not chewy or rubbery and on the whole, the dumplings tasted great.

They only have this version of the lo mai kai…

…the glutinous rice with a bit of meat, wrapped in a lotus leaf…

Personally, I prefer those dark-coloured ones in a bowl with some chicken or pork and bits of shitake mushroom but since they do not have those, these will have to do.

We had another surprise when the Chinese fried carrot/radish cake…

…was served. It was white too – normally, it would be dark in colour owing to the dark soy sauce used in the cooking but this was all right too. It tasted fine and went really well with the lovely sambal chili dip that they gave us to enjoy everything with.

The chee cheong fan…

…did not look thin and translucent but thankfully, we did not think there was any problem with the texture and taste. The char siew inside could not be seen from the outside and I did have a glimpse at the bits of meat – it was dark, not red but it did taste like char siew all right. My girl actually liked it more than the ones we get at another place in town, the so-called Ipoh chee cheong fun.

My missus wanted the Foochow fried noodles so we included that in our order but although it looked really good and I did see so many other tables ordering that as well, it did not taste like the real thing. We thought what we had was quite disappointing so if you’re looking for some really nice, really authentic Foochow fried noodles, it would be best to go elsewhere, not here. I did take a photograph of it but somehow, I seemed to have lost it and what I have here is a snapshot taken on one of our earlier visits…

Yes, it was really good, so good that we would order it everytime we stopped by here for dim sum.

Service was excellent, very fast and very prompt and very efficient. You can ask for anything and you will get it instantly. Unfortunately, there was a problem when it came to paying for everything. I think there is just one cashier, one cash register and I saw a VERY long queue in front of the counter. A very nice waitress, an Iban lady, offered to help me with it so she went and joined the queue. After what seemed like an eternity, she came back with the bill, over RM67.00 altogether – I gave her the money and left immediately. I did not want to wait for the receipt as that would take a very long time as well, I’m sure.

On the whole, I was glad that we managed to spend some quality time together and we quite enjoyed the dim sum breakfast that morning but I somehow felt that what we had was not as nice as before. People were talking about the chef from Shanghai working here and that was why the food at this restaurant in general and the dim sum in particular was so very good but that was before the pandemic – I don’t know if he had gone home since. Everything wasn’t too bad, that much I would say…but no, I don’t think I would bring relatives and friends from near or far here for this.

旺喜楼 GOOD HAPPINESS RESTAURANT (2.307262, 111.849011)…

…is located at the corner along Lorong Pahlawan 7A4 at its junction with Jalan Sena, opposite SMK Deshon.