CNY 2018: Lai Ching Yuen, Grand Millennium KL

Usher in the Year of the Dog at Lai Ching Yuen, the regal Chinese restaurant in Grand Millennium, Kuala Lumpur.

The restaurant will be offering four festive set menus as well as a yee sang menu and a Lunar New Year special menu, available from 22 January until 4 March 2018 for dinner only. The set menus are priced at RM1,988 nett, RM2,888 nett, RM3,888 nett and RM5,888 nett per table of 10 persons. Please scroll to the bottom for the full menus.

Toss to prosperity, longevity, good health and wealth with a range of yee sangs available, with toppings such as soft shell crab, abalone, smoked duck, jelly fish and more, served with a tangy plum sauce dressing. We had the Yee Sang with fried whitebait; the crispy whitebait added a really nice texture to the traditional yee sang.

Double-boiled shark's fin soup with crabmeat and assorted seafood

Prawns are a must-have during Chinese New Year as its homonym "ha" symbolises happiness and laughter. We enjoyed the Wok fried prawns with spicy sauce, served with fried mantous (buns). I was reminded of chilli crabs when I tasted the sauce.. wish there were more crisp mantous to soak up the delicious sauce.

Fish, especially when served whole, is a symbol of abundance. The live cat fish was steamed with soy sauce and topped with copious amount of freshly chopped ginger and scallions. Lovely and meaty!

Steamed live cat fish with minced ginger

The Roasted 'pi pa' crispy chicken with prawn crackers - moist, with a delicious crispy skin.

Stir fried Hong Kong kailan with enoki mushroom. The enoki strands have been coated in a light batter and deep fried, adding a lovely golden appearance to the dish.

Fried rice with assorted Chinese waxed meat, wrapped in lotus leaf

For dessert, the Double boiled white fungus with longan and sea coconut is served in an elegant glass with Chinese New Year cake (nian gao), two ways - pan fried with egg and deep fried with yam.

Restaurant ambiance

CNY 2018 Menu at Lai Ching Yuen

For reservations or enquiries, please call 03-2117 4180 or email lcy@millenniumhotels.com.


Serves pork/ Non-halal.

Opening times: Lunch; Monday to Friday 12.00pm - 2.30pm, Sat & Sun 11.00am - 2.30pm. Dinner; 6.30pm - 10.30pm daily.

Location: Lai Ching Yuen, Grand Millennium Hotel, 160 Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Parking RM8 first hour, RM2 subsequent hour.)

Tel: 03-2117 4180

GPS Coordinates: 3.147694, 101.712338



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CNY 2018: Five Sen5es, The Westin Kuala Lumpur

Welcome the Year of the Dog with a sumptuous feast at Five Sen5es, The Westin Kuala Lumpur’s authentic Chinese restaurant.

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, revolves around five blessings, namely Longevity, Riches, Peace, Wisdom and Virtue. In respect of these blessings, award-winning Chinese Chef de Cuisine Tan Tzaan Liing and his team have whipped up celebratory dishes for this auspicious event.

From 1 February to 2 March 2018, Five Sen5es presents three exquisite set menus, a selection of fresh Yee Sang and an enhanced festive à la carte menu, offering a mix of traditional and modern signature creations. The Happiness set menu is priced at RM1,888 nett, Blessings at RM1,988 nett and Abundance at RM2,288 nett per table of 10 persons. Please scroll down for the full menus.

A Chinese New Year dinner will not be complete without the tossing of Yee Sang. Yee Sang is symbolic of good luck, prosperity, health and all things auspicious. At Five Sen5es, the Yee Sang varieties include Norwegian fresh salmon, Crystal pear and mango, Taiwanese top shell abalone and Sliced two head abalone Yee Sang. With Chef Tan’s special plum sauce, gather your family and friends and start tossing all the way to abundance of joy and happiness! The Yee Sang can also be taken away for celebrations in the comfort of your homes with loved ones. Prices start from RM68 nett per standard serving.

The Norwegian fresh salmon yee sang was served in an impressively large red plate, which Chef Tan has specially purchased for the occasion - this is to ensure that "all the fortune" are kept inside the plate during the toss. What a brilliant idea!

It was a blessing to have the Double boiled dried scallop and morel with baby cabbage soup on the cold, rainy evening. Warm and nourishing.

The Braised duck with red yeast rice and peanut was one of our favorite dishes of the evening. Duck is eaten during the festive period as it symbolises fertility. The duck has first been blanched and then braised for several hours until tender and all flavours have been absorbed, for a deliciously flavoursome dish.

I'm always happy to see cod on the menu and the baked black cod fish here at Five Sen5es was impressive, both in size and taste. A whole cod fillet is glazed in honey and soy, and baked til perfection, and served with sugar snap peas and hon shimeji mushrooms.

Honey glazed baked black cod fish

Chef Tan gets creative, presenting us with this Pan fried scallop stuffed with minced chicken and citron salsa. An incision is made in the centre of the plump scallops and minced chicken is stuffed inside, and pan fried. The scallops are then topped with a citron salsa, which includes orange marmalade, pomelo and pomegranates.

Prawns are a must-have during Chinese New Year meals as it symbolises laughter and happiness. Laugh your way into the Year of the Dog with this Deep fried prawns with hawthorn sauce and osmanthus. The prawns have been peeled and then deep fried in a light batter, so they're easy to eat.

The Stewed white baby cabbage with dried scallop and slivered garlic was not only delicious and comforting, it is mighty auspicious too, as Chinese cabbage symbolises "100 types of prosperity". The white cabbage was braised until tender and was delicious with the silky, rich, umami-laden sauce.

Served piping hot in a large steamer basket, the fried rice was topped with diced chicken cooked with sesame oil and chopped young ginger.

One of the best CNY desserts we've eaten this year was the Sweetened chilled pumpkin cream with black glutinous rice and ice cream. Rich, creamy and sinful - tastes fantastic! We also had the Chinese New Year cake (nian gao), steamed and served with grated coconut.

CNY 2018 Set Menus at Five Sen5es

For more information or festive reservations, please contact Westin Dining at 03-2773 8338 or visit www.westindining.com.my. Please refer to this LINK for the full menus as well as the discount and privileges available.



Pork-free.

Location: Five Sen5es, Level 1, The Westin Kuala Lumpur, 199 Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-2773 8338

GPS Coordinates: 3.14779, 101.714569

Website: http://www.thewestinkualalumpur.com/chinesenewyear2018


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YG Republique, TREC KL - For a Premium Korean BBQ Experience

The Korean Wave is still going strong in Malaysia, thanks to Malaysian's love for K-dramas to K-pop music and Korean cuisine.

YG Republique is an eat-out concept restaurant operated and owned by YG Entertainment, which combines Samgeori Butcher’s 삼거리 푸주간 (a BBQ grill restaurant) and K-Pub (bar snacks and a wide variety of beer). Be transported to downtown Seoul, and dine in the hippest and coolest Korean entertainment restaurant with great food, drinks and music by YG artists, all under one roof.

As a huge fan of Korean BBQ, I have to say this was one of the best Korean BBQ experiences I've had, all thanks to the premium pork and beef served, which elevates this dining concept to a whole new level.

Samgeori Butcher's serve only the finest Iberico pork cuts. Here, they offer only four types of cuts, served in 150g portions - belly (RM55), neck (RM55), jaw (RM65) and abanico (RM60), which are cured in cypress pine to improve flavour and texture. Special sauces are developed to accentuate the pork flavours. They also have Wagyu beef as well as LA rib, which are also triple-aged for optimum flavour.

We had the Butcher's sampler A (RM170 for 420g), which comes with 150g Iberico belly, 150g Iberico neck and 120g Iberico jaw as well as one soup (diners can choose from kimchi jigae, soybean paste soup or hot pepper soup) and two side salads (leek salad with egg yolk and mix Korean-style salad). This sampler set can comfortably feed 2 pax, and is a great way of sampling the meat on offer. I like how the meat is presented, wrapped in food-grade newspaper-like paper and tied with a elastic band, just like how you would get it from your butcher.

Here, you can sit back and enjoy the variety of ban chan (side dishes) while the staff do the cooking for you. The marbling on the meat looked amazing and I couldn't wait to dig in.

Our server did a fantastic job cooking the meat, with the fats well-caramalised and the meats were juicy and had a great flavour to them. Everything was  delicious, though my favorites have to be the belly and jaw as I like more fatty cuts when it comes to BBQ. You can eat it dipped in the garlic mustard or gochujang sauce, or it's good simply on its own. Best of all, no BBQ odour on your clothes once you're finished with your meal! :)

Other than Korean BBQ, YG Republique also offers Korean stews, bulgogi, noodles and rice dishes on their a la carte menu. We had the Butcher's pork fried rice (RM25 for 1 pax) and the portion was very generous and could easily feed 2-3 persons, especially if you are ordering Korean BBQ too. This fried rice comes with pork, aged kimchi and chipotle sauce, topped with a fried egg.

You can also find this on the Lunch Menu for RM15, which is available Mondays to Fridays from 12pm-2.30pm. Furthermore, you can enjoy free parking at TREC between 12-2pm.

A la Carte Menu

From the K-Pub menu, we tried the K-fried chicken (RM25 for medium). Juicy, crispy boneless chicken thigh and wing in a lovely, crisp batter - what's not to love? Plus the fact that it's boneless makes eating absolutely effortless. Highly recommended!

 K-Pub Menu

YG artists "wall of fame"

Click here to read about the YG Republique Genting outlet.


Opening times: 3Geori Butcher: 12pm-3pm (Lunch) /6pm-2am (Dinner); ​K Pub: 6pm - 3am.

Location: YG Republique Malaysia, ​HG-01 & HG-02 Hive, TREC, 438, Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Free parking at TREC 12-2pm and from 5pm-10pm)

​Tel: 03-2110 4104

Website: http://www.ygrepublique.com.my/

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