It's Chinese New Year again and it also means feasting time! For some, the feasting starts 15 days before Chinese New Year and continues till Chap Goh Mei, the 15th day Chinese New Year which is also the last day of the celebration.
This year, we decided to have our annual school friends CNY dinner get together at this place, Restoran Xfrens, Kemuning Utama. When I was searching for the location in Waze only did I realize that they also have branches in Subang Jaya and Puchong Jaya (I'll share the addresses at the end of this post).
I arrived at 7pm and the place was already packed. Thank God my friend was wise enough to call and made reservations for 2 tables the day before, otherwise, we would have been one of those standing around waiting for tables to be available. So, if you're planning to come on a weekend with a big group, it is advisable to make reservations prior to your visit.
At first we thought of ordering a CNY set that starts from RM688, but because the ala carte dishes on their menu seems more interesting, we decided to each choose a dish from their ala carte menu instead.
Since it was CNY, Yee Sang was definitely a must, so we ordered the Yee Sang with octopus.
The Yee Sang was very tasty. There was a good balance between the sweet and the sour. Since there was a lot of unfavourable noise about salmon, the octopus was a rather good replacement.
Let's start with the vegetable dishes first.
This is the Stir Fried Potato Leaf with belacan. It is not very spicy and not too overwhelmed with the taste of belacan.
This is the Stir Fried Lotus Root with Waterchesnut. The combination of vegetables in this dish was quite tasty. The thing I appreciated most was they actually removed the "string" from the snow peas which many restaurants failed to do.
This is one of my favourite dish in the beancurd category, Beancurd with Pumpkin Gravy. I like the way they prepared this dish because it has that creamy buttery taste with a hint of spiciness from the bird's eye chili (cili padi) and fragrant smell from the curry leaves.
Now let's proceed with the meat dishes...
This is the Claypot Kampung Chicken with Chinese Wine. Maybe because of a bad first experience, I usually try avoiding this dish... even if it was cooked by my mom. I didn't want to be picky about food in front of my friends, so I decided to give it a go. To my own surprise, it was good!
This is the Pork with Salted Fish in Claypot. It is also nice because the meat is not too fat and on overall, it's not too salty.
We also ordered another pork dish called the Pork Ribs in 3 Flavours. It is savoury, sweet, spicy and a fragrant taste of curry all at the same time.
And the last dish is my all time favourite, Salted Egg Mantis Prawns. It is crispy and well covered with salted egg. Yummy!
I highly recommend this place if you're looking for a decent place for a Chinese style dinner with your family or friends. Also, it won't burn a big hole in your pocket at the end of the meal.
OUR RATING
Ambience : 3.5/5
Service : 3.5/5
Food Quality : 4/5
Price Range : $$
Status : Non-Halal
Other information:
Shah Alam Branch :
Address : No.10 & 12 Jalan Kemuning Prima E33/E Kemuning Utama, 40400 Shah Alam
Contact No. : 03-5131 9279
Business Hours : 11am - 3pm / 5.30pm - 10.30pm (Closed on Wednesdays)
Transaction : Credit cash & Cash
Subang Jaya Branch :
Address : No 51, Jalan SS 18/1B, SS 18, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor
Contact No. : 03-5611 0488
Business Hours : 10.30am - 3pm / 5.30pm - 10.30pm (Only 10.30am - 3pm on Wednesdays)
Transaction : Credit cash & Cash
Puchong Branch :
Address : No 7 & 9, Jalan Kenari 18B, Bandar Puchong Jaya, 47100 Puchong, Selangor
Contact No. : 03-8080 7800
Business Hours : 11am - 3pm / 6pm - 10pm (Daily)
Transaction : Credit cash & Cash