The Oriental Group of Restaurants' culinary dynasty has branched out to The Gardens Mall, where The Han Room was born last week, several kilometers away from its sister outlet, The Ming Room at Bangsar Shopping Center.
Business was brisk on The Han Room's first Friday night, even though its entrance inside the mall was still sealed shut and customers had to exit the building to enter the restaurant.
We over-ordered slightly, since there were too many temptations on the menu. Our favorite was the fluffy scrambled eggs with white truffle oil, milk & fish maw, served with lettuce wrappings.
"Thousand-layer" bean curd. Skilfully sliced into a delicate work of art. Seemed like a shame to poke our forks into this, but it tasted top-notch _ soft and smooth.
The stewed duck wings proved finger-lickin' good. Addictively savory.
Braised egg noodles with "soon hock" fish. Irreproachable; the noodles supplied a light, springy bite and subtle eggy flavor that went so well with the fresh, firm fish.
Lobster steak in Chardonnay sauce. A tender chunk of crustacean flesh in creamy, aromatic gravy. Delicious, but kinda overshadowed by the other dishes here.
Spanish-style pork roll. Juicy meat, deboned for easy devouring.
Shatin chicken stuffed with Chinese sausages. A sweet, succulent alternative to all the other nondescript chicken recipes elsewhere.
Crab claw steamed in Chinese wine. No peeling of shells required, hurray!
Yin Yang soup (half spinach, half corn). Thick, fragrant and piping-hot.
The charcoal-braised pork rib had a lovely, smoky flavor, but was rather bony.
Abalone in whole lotus roots with broccoli. A belly-busting portion that we could barely finish. Lotus root lovers will nevertheless be in seventh heaven.
Lap mei fan, with sausages, waxed duck & veggies served separately from the rice.
Mix it all up and everything still combines flawlessly. We loved the liver sausages, which boasted an intense honey-like flavor and melt-in-the-mouth moistness.
A small selection of wine is available, but only by the bottle.
The Han Room,
The Gardens, Mid Valley City.
