Lai Po Heen, Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur Chinese New Year Longevity Dim Sum Set Lunch Review

Hi guys, today I'll be sharing all about my team's Chinese New Year lunch at Mandarin Oriental + Lai Po Heen's Chinese New Year Longevity Dim Sum Set Lunch!

I can't believe it's already been a year since our last CNY lunch! My team from work and I enjoyed Lai Po Heen's Longevity Dim Sum set so much last year that Tammy (aka our boss) decided to bring us all again this year to celebrate this auspicious new year.

Located inside Mandarin Oriental KL,  Lai Po Heen specializes in Cantonese delicacies & dim sum specialities. Inspired by the great ancestral homes of 19th Century Chinese tycoons, the décor consists of with high ceilings, ornate chandeliers and beautiful parquet flooring.

LUNCH

12 – 2:30PM (MON - FRI)

10:30AM – 2:30PM (SAT & SUN)

DINNER

7 – 10:30PM

PHONE

+60 (3) 2179 8885

Our group consisted of 10 people, and we managed to get a private room! I think the private room is great because you get to chat & bond with everybody without disturbing the other guests (plus, you can be as loud as you can, which was perfect for us hahaha)

Of course, no Chinese New Year meal in Malaysia would be complete without Yee Sang! It's a tradition here in Malaysia to lou hei/toss over a generous serving of Yee Sang while calling out auspicious phrases while you toss. I actually had a few people on Instastory reply and ask why we were wasting food and tossing food around haha.

Yee Sang with assorted vegetables & shredded fruits (RM198). The Yee Sang was "assembled" in front of us (with our server explaining what each ingredient meant) & we tossed it while wishing for holidays, salary increments and bonuses hahaha.

Next, here's the main star: the dim sum set!

The Chinese New Year Longevity Dim Sum Set is available only during lunch time and costs RM188 per person. Your group needs to have a minimum of 4 people to be able to avail this set! 

Compared to last year's menu, the differences I found were that:

1. This year is more expensive by RM20

2. You still get the same number of dishes but the items on the menu are slightly different

Course 1: Dim Sum

Steamed bean curd skin rolls filled with minced prawns and chicken in sweet and sour sauce 糖 醋 鮮 竹 卷

Steamed fluffy buns filled with barbecue chicken 蜜 汁 叉 燒 包

Steamed baby abalone and chicken Siew Mai 鮑 魚 蒸 燒 賣 皇

Pan fried bean curd rolls filled with shrimps 香 煎 腐 皮 卷

Deep fried yam dumplings filled with chicken, prawn and sun-dried scallop 瑤 柱 雞 蝦 荔 芋 角

The sweet & sour minced prawns & chicken were tangy and juicy + the steamed buns were fulfilling & bbq-y. I don't have any special recollections about the siew mai, but I do remember thinking that the pan-fried bean curd rolls + the deep fried yam dumplings were amazing & worked well paired with the mayonnaise. There's really nothing bad I can say about the dimsum! By the way, everyone had one piece each.

Course 2: Soup

Double-boiled abalone soup with premium bamboo fungus 野 生 竹 笙 燉 鮑 魚 湯

I really enjoyed this soup. The mushrooms were nice & chewy, the abalone tasted good + the soup didn't taste herbal-ly/medicine-like as I had expected. It was a perfect blend of ingredients that reminded me of home.

Course 3 & 4: Fish

Stir-fried fish fillet with Szechuan spicy sauce served in clay pot 川 式 香 辣 斑 块 煲

Braised fish maw with wild mushrooms, sea moss and garden greens 發 財 花 膠 野 菌 扒 时 蔬

We actually didn't get to take the dishes for ourselves because the dishes weren't actually put in our Lazy Susan. Our server helped us divide the dishes into plates/bowls so everybody got an equal serving. I personally don't mind this, I think it was faster and more efficient.

The Szechuan Spicy sauce was suuuuuper spicy like omg, I started sweating immediately haha. It was still nice, but I think someone with little or no tolerance for spice would not like it. I ate it together with the sauce, veggies & the fish from the braised fish maw, and I found that the spice was dimmed down + I enjoyed it a lot more than I had by itself. The fish maw itself was very...chewy. I don't think the maw was my cup of tea since I gave up after eating one haha.

Course 5: Rice

Wok-fried fragrant rice cake with seafood in X.O sauce 京 蔥 酱 皇 海 鲜 炒 年 糕

This one is very similar to char kuey teow, but less char/fried taste (if you know what I mean). Its not as burnt a char kuey teow and it was a nice and savoury dish. One comment I have is that I wish they added more rice cakes lol. I'm a rice cake lover and the rice cakes were good, but I needed more haha.

Course 6 & 7: Dessert & Tea

Double-boiled Osmanthus tea with five treasures 桂 花 五 宝 茶

Shui Xian tea 水仙茶

We ended our meal with these two, and I found the combo to be quite soothing. They also helped me to digest everything I had. Tbh while I was eating I was thinking "were the portions this small last year?". I took a look back at my camera gallery and saw that they were actually almost identical lol. Also, because of how the dishes were spaced + there were gaps in between where we waited for the next dish, we actually ended up being really full at the end of the meal.

Overall I really enjoyed my team's CNY lunch, and I would recommend Lai Po Heen's dim sum set to you guys as well. If your family is looking for somewhere to have lunch at this month, why not drop by Mandarin Oriental?

Huge shoutout to the Lai Po Heen staff for being so hospitable + to Mamashan Tammy for spoiling us and bringing us ours for lunch! 💕

Being our extra selves, my team decided to take this opportunity to dress up for the occasion. Category is: Chinese gangster but make it formal!

I really like how we all looked + matched Lai Po Heen's decor ^^

Aaaaand that's it for this post! Hope you found this post interesting and helpful. Thanks for dropping by my blog!

See you in my next post! 💕