Like any artistic sculpture, great cuisine comes from the heart and is fueled by passion.
When well executed, it offers a feast for the senses that thrills and delights.
Tucked in the front corner of Bangsar shopping Center’s 3rd Floor (literally located diagonally opposite to Grand Imperial Restaurant on the same floor) the Ming Room was a definite treat! The space is wide and modern yet with a relaxed ambiance that was great for a quick dimsum lunch or a slower evening dinner.
I like this place from the word go. The Head waiter is tall and neatly dressed. He speaks both fluent English and Cantonese – a big plus because I cannot order in Chinese very well at all 😉 He immediately homes in on our table and says, “would you like some simple starters whilst you are waiting for your other dining companions?”
Oh yes, this is the kind of place where nothing is too much trouble, everyone is looked after at this restaurant, from business lunchers to solo diners and even big families of twelve.
Dimsum are a specialty at The Ming Room and come at a prices slightly above the average of other chinese restaurants in the vicinity of this shopping complex but granted, at a higher quality of ingredients. Larger dishes – such as steamed fish or scallops, roast duck, stir-fried meats and vegetables, deep fried soft shell crab & BBQ pork ribs are all superb too, but it seems that the Ming is particularly well famed for its meaty chinese dishes.
In Chinese restaurants such as these with an extensive menu, it is always wise to ask the head waiter “what is special today?” to get the freshest or most current ala-carte dishes out of the restaurant. Don’t waste time poking around the menu because it will only end up confusing you.
We decided to go with our Head waiter’s recommendation of Char Siew (BBQ Pork) and some vegetables as a starter, whilst waiting for our lunch companions to arrive, and as it turned out, a very wise choice. The char siew had a gorgeous caramelized outer shell and marbled body of fat to lean meat that was astronomically delicious!
We hardly missed our lunch companions to tell you the truth.
Finally our friends arrive and we are ready to start dining as a table of four.
First up the waiter suggested a lovely fusion favourite – the Foie Gras winter melon. The winter melon really soaked up the silky smooth, rich and buttery taste of the liver to perfection. I have yet to find a fusion Foie Gras dish I do not like actually.
Foie makes the world go round (not to mention the belly).
Ah.. Abalone soup.
I think the Chinese invented the art of soup drinking. Find something exquisite, difficult to obtain and of course high in cost, and add it to a pot of other nutritious herbs and boiling water, and simmer for ages – that’s what the Chinese are great at!
Abalone soup is considered a symbol of wealth and prestige, and is traditionally reserved for special occasions such as weddings and other celebrations. However, the availability of commercially farmed abalone has allowed more common consumption of this once rare delicacy. Abalone can be easily bought in cans but mind you it can cost USD30-50 per can. The one you see in the photo was pretty expensive as they were wild Australian Abalone.
I had a hard time not calling this a soup, because all I wanted to do was to drink up the delicious stock that the scallop was swimming in – it was THAT delicious! This dish was merely stock with a scallop thrown in and simmered on hot stone for a long period till the essence and sweetness of the scallop had totally permeated the soup . This was not only a creative dish but super delicious! I loved it.
Finally, the Spanish Pig. Oh, I don’t need to tell you that ribs are rather fatty and contain a significant amount of connective tissue and that’s what makes it so g**damn fantastically delicious. The ones serve at Ming Room are utterly sensational! A carnivore’s delight. There’s nothing more satisfying than working your way through a rack of pork ribs, gnawing at the tiniest morsel of meat.
These Spanish ribs combine all the great flavours of Chinese marination and high quality imported meat, creating something very sophisticated yet satisfying.. Maybe too sophisticated to pick up and ravage like a buzzard.. but there we were, eating it with our hands! One of my dining companions said THIS is the ONLY decent way to eat ribs. Indecently!
One of my dining companions said that, the only decent way to eat ribs, is indecently.
Desserts of bird’s nest and Black jelly (Gwai lin gao) were awesome to say the least. I will not bore you with the details on how birds nest is in fact a delicacy which is in fact, bird’s saliva (!) but will let you read it here for yourself.
Overall we would say, come to the Ming Room for some above-par contemporary Chinese cooking. We like this place because it has mastered the art of creating a harmonious palette of flavors without the typical fusion over-kill. The menu at The Ming reflects a thoughtful marriage of ingredients with the freshest of foods. If your pockets are deep and you have time to indulge, visit this place for some excellently crafted modern chinese cuisine.
Add: The Ming Room Restaurant 3rd Floor, Bangsar Shopping Centre, Jln Maarof, Bukit Bandaraya, 59100 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: +603 2284 8822 Google Maps
i like how these chinese restaurants are using non-traditional chinese ingredients like foie gras and black pig! enough with the wok-fried prawns and steamed garoupa already, rite! 😀
wow, that comment was FAST sean! i just posted it 😛
yea.. foie foie.. wherefore art thou my foie 😛 – so good .. so sinfully good..sigh sigh sigh ..
Ah… Ming Room! I have only been here for dim sum 🙂
how much the whole meal cost you?
oh too much! LOL
You are indeed the Queen (of lunch) – foie gras, abalone and bird’s nest.I only had donuts and instant coffee – sob sob
yar, you are one to talk brother B! given half the chance you would eat much more lavishly! who asked u to be so busy these days 😛 LOL
Everything looks so fantastically yummy… but I dare not ask how much it cost…
(Dah lah Ming room is more expensive than a lot of places… Eat Abalone there some more?? *jelez*)
Oh I want the char siew!
it’s a bit on the SWEET side though.. u need rice to go with it
wow! the char siew is calling out to me!!
I know it is!
LOL, me2 me2!
i’ve not heard of bird’s nest as a dessert. whoa! i have yet to find such a refined contemporary Chinese menu like this in Toronto. /i think we have only one such place here. Lai Wah Heen…
Great photos and descriptions, by the way!
aw, thanks for the compliment Jen! birds nest is expensive and suppose to make your skin glow.. haha (Do u see any difference in me? LOL) 😛
Ahh the Leisure Lunch Patrol’s at it again!! Did I mention that I need a career switch? So that I too can dine and travel on the job like some lucky girl I know!
faster.. quit.. ! i’ll hire u to lunch with me 😛
wah die..i hav promised to buy a meal here..
maybe not if they r going to lavish me with these kind of recommendations!
LOL, joe! you don’t need to order what they tell you laaaa 😛
That looks to be a splendid meaty meal! My relatives in Hawaii are permitted to free dive for abalone. Every year one of my uncle’s comes back with a delicious catch that we devour together. Awesome descriptions and pictures!
aww, thank u mark and thanks for dropping by! Wow, i am so jealous about the abalone and also the diving! Both my favourite pass times so I would really want to dive from them beauties, i tell ya!
Larvely pics! Gotta visit this place soon for those scrumptious looking ribs. I feel like being indecent too.
LOL .. just bring me with you.. we throw away the cutlery and eat with our bare hands.. ROARRRR!
Celebrated one of our wedding anniversaries here. About the best restaurant in KL.. excellant food.
hi mumzie! yea, the food is delicious .. but damn expensive!
We have yet to master the art of being invited here even 1X for the Emperor’s happy meal. Guess we must try much harder …
🙂
haha i also like ming room. definitely agree with you. it’s better than many of the chinese restaurants.
the food looks so delicious… YUMMY!!! and mann i love bird’s nest soup too even IF its made from spit!!! <333
i eat it like once every monthish and used to bought from website hongkong-bird-nest.50webs.com/index_e.htm sometimes, my mom went back to hong kong and bought a full suitcase of it cause its cheaper there XD
Can you give me the contact no., I would like to ask how to join membership to have some privilege or discounts there. tq.
Agree the restaurant is good and the food is good BUT the managers are NOT. They are cheats!! Want to share an unpleasant experience with others on the net. Hosted a dinner for some Singapore guests on 3 Dec 2011 and had a table of 10. Chose to order ala carte. Picked a seafood in pumpkin soup as had that before some time back. Price on the menu seemed reasonable at RM20/head. When the bill came, cost of soup was RM580 (RM58/head!. Chinese restaurants have this bad habit of pricing their stuff ending with “8”. Guess they are the ones who want to “fatt”. Why not use something ending with “4”??)
One of the managers a chap called Loh (does not deserve to be called Mr by me) who took my order said the soup we had contained “special” seafood so that’s why it’s RM58/head and NOT the RM20/head as in the menu!! What a lohlife and cheat!! Not wanting to make a scene in front of my guests, I paid up. This situation is so familiar when people are entertaining and the Chinese restaurants know this well and exploit it to their fullest economic advantage.
Anyway I hope this Lohlife knows what he’s getting for his RM380 (580 -200) worth of extra profit!! He will get more than his fair share of “pubilicity”.
Diners, BEWARE. Sorry I cannot scan the bill and post it to prove my case.