Monday, August 20, 2012

Tai Thong (Royal China Ipoh) Dim Sum

Dim Sum for breakfast? Then you will have quite a number of selection. Its not surprising at all since Dim Sum is "accepted" to be a breakfast selection. For lunch, most of the dim sum outlets remained open from breakfast period. For dinner, one can go to Yoke Fook Moon only, which I boycotted recently due to frequent price hike, unreasonable tax charges, expensive cover charges for tea and bad gesture towards customers shown by the owner's fat son.

And for today's post, its a Dim Sum lunch at Tai Thong/ Royal China Restaurant at Coliseum Square. This was a birthday treat for dad. First item to be introduced is the Superior Har Gow (Prawn Dumplings) (RM7.80 per basket). It comes in 4 pieces... Plump and bouncy, the prawns are fresh. We can't help but to order another serving. =)

Sesame Balls is also fondly known as Ji Ma Joe ir priced at RM6 per serving. Would've been real good if it was fried on the spot. It somehow arrived a bit cold.

Thought of ordering something more filling to the stomach. The Baked BBQ Pork Bun (RM7) is a pure letdown. Not only its not hot, I find the pastry to be a bit under-baked, resulting in a chewy dough like texture of the crust, with obvious "flour" smell. Good baked ones like I had in Qi Yuan in Greentown should give a crumbly and fragrant buttery aroma. This is a failure, avoid this at all cost!

Stir Fried Radish Cake (RM7.80) is averagely good. It could do with a bit more seasoning/salt.  The cubes of radish cake were not hot enough. Perhaps the stir frying was done in the quickest means possible as the bean sprouts were still juicy... Not bad though, good alternative to the conventional slabs of plain radish cake.

The Superior Siew Mai (RM7.80) comes in 4 pieces, just like the Har Gow. With the right amount of minced pork meat and fat proportion, this made its mark.

The Steamed Fish Ball (RM7) came in 3 pieces, but are quite small as well compared to the gloriously plump prawn dumplings. No fishy smell, bouncy... we had a second serving of this too.

We skipped the Har Guen and Prawn Salad Roll from the fried stuffs and opted for the Deep Fried Glutinous Rice Dumpling (Ham Shui Gok). For RM6, you get 3 pieces of chewy fried glutinous dough encompassing a "char siew bao"-like filling. The dough was a bit too thick, other than that, passable.

Steamed Glutinous Rice (RM7) which is averagely good. Nothing spectacular. But after reviewing all the dishes we had, its time to unveil something really spectacular. Take note of all the prices mentioned... Divide it by 2. Yeshhhh... Every dim sum item is at 50% discount for a short promotional period. This means, for RM3.90 (after discount, before tax) you get 4 plump prawn dumplings compared to the likes of established names like Foh San and Yoke Fook Moon who arrogantly priced theirs at range of RM5.50-RM6 per serving of 3 pieces of Har Gow and RM4.80 for the Lor Mai Kai. This was once reason why the place was quite packed on a Saturday afternoon. I repeat: 50% discount on dim sum items on weekdays (Mon-Sat, 11:30am to 2:30pm) and 20% on Sundays and Public Holidays (9am onwards till 2:30pm). Yes, they are not opened for breakfast on weekdays, be warned.

Despite the 50% discount, there was a reason the total bill came to hit the RM100 mark. I ordered a individual serving of Braised Abalone (10 Head) with Sea Cucumber for dad. We didn't expect a 10-Head abalone to be that small ("Heads" is a grading for abalone. a 10 Head grade means there are 10 pieces of abalones that makes up a kati/600g. In other words, the smaller the "head number", the bigger the abalone size, the higher the grade and more expensive it is) But from this photo, it doesn't look like 60g too , being 10 Head grade. Hmm... for RM38.80, nothing much to complain le. Next time when I earn more money, I will bring my parents to try the real stuff in Ah Yat Abalone Restaurant in KL!

No birthday cake for dad, so bought 2 pieces of mooncake for him, or rather for the family. RM14 for a lotus paste and RM16 for the mixed nutes with chicken ham. Tai Thong is giving 10% discount at the moment, if you choose not to have the gift box, you will be offered an additional 10% discount. So that's all for this post, make sure you give Royal China a call to confirm whether the half priced dim sum is still taking effect. If yes, enjoy your Har Gow frenzy =)

2 comments:

wolfdash said...

Would Ming Court be a better place for dim sum?

sEnGz said...

Yes, personally I liked Ming Court. Yoke Fook Moon also not bad. But never ever go to Foh San. its just "branding". The service is very poor as those aunty pushing trolley is very rude. By the way, there is a new dim sum outlet called Hong Xing opposite Giant, Bercham.