A few weeks ago I went to Room Eighteen at Berjaya Times Square for a food review. I was in fact, already quite a  fan of this relatively new franchise from Tai Thong group ever since the branch at Tropicana City Malls opened. However, this was the first time I visited the BTS outlet.

I brought along Terence, Jaclyn, Eric, Kerol, and Cheesie for the session. I love food reviews where I can bring friends along, it always make the occasion a lot more fun.

room eighteen cantonese cuisine
room eighteen at BTS, eric, jaclyn, cheesie, kerol, terence, KY

Coincidentally, the senior manager of the chain hailed from the same high school as me in Penang, my junior in fact. Since he is also from the same island that is known as sort of a food capital of Malaysia, I placed a higher trust on his taste and let the guy handled food selection for the evening.

And just like how the pork gang’s dinner always go, we over ordered.

dimsum and xiao long bao at room eighteen
siu mai, papaya cream puff, herbal xiao long bao, tofu skin with pork

We were first served with some dimsum as appetizer. The siu mai (steamed pork dumpling) and tofu skin with pork were really tasty, as good as some of the best dimsum I’ve had. The papaya cream puff too was quite good, albiet a little different from what you’d expect from dimsum.

We were served two different types of xiao long bao. I felt that the normal version was just rather average, and favors the herbal version (photo above) a bit more. However, it wouldn’t be something I’ll necessary order again, they weren’t really on par with those I had from Dragon-i.

roast duck, roast pork, vegetable at room eighteen
roast duc, char siu, and roast pork, fried venisen with you char kwai, vegetable

The roast duck and char siu were really done very well, I particularly love them with their really fragrant chili oil. The roast pork though, didn’t particularly capture my attention, but perhaps I’ve been spoiled by the excellent roast pork at wong meng kei at pudu, literally just a stone’s throw away from BTS.

The fried venisen with you char kwai was quite an interesting combination. The meat was tender and juicy, with the contrasting texture of the you char kwai it was rather good. We ordered a plate of Hong Kong choi sum as the vegetable dish to counter all those meaty dishes. Always have your vegetable!

wantan soup, fish ball noodle
wanton soup, fragrant chili oil, fish ball noodle soup

The wanton soup was one of my favorites at Room Eighteen. Instead of prawn or pork, the wanton filling was half pork and half prawn, that really gave it the best of both worlds in terms of taste. Quite excellent!

The fish ball noodle soup was quite good too. The fish ball quite firm and tasty, together with the noodle and soup it can make a pretty simple meal when you feel like giving the taste buds a bit of a rest.

lotus leave rice, steamed rice with chicken, porridge
lotus leave rice, steamed chicken rice, two types of porridge

Lotus leaf rice and the steamed chicken rice with mushroom were two more dishes that I really liked. The chicken was really smooth and delicious I wish I can have some right now, writing this at the wee hours. Ah well…

And as if we were not already overly fed by then, our host insisted that we should try out their porridge. Both the two different porridge we tried were really good, but at this point I seriously couldn’t really take more than a spoon full.

black sesame soup, drinks, shaved ice, at room eighteen
black sesame soup, drinks, blueberry shaved ice

We capped the evening with some desserts to share (seriously couldn’t finish one by myself anymore). The sesame soup was decent, and the mango sago wasn’t bad either. My favorite of the bunch though, was the blueberry shaved ice, really “kao” and really sour with just the right amount of sweetness. That freshened me up pretty good, I liked it.

Prices at Room Eighteen are comparable to Canton-i and Dragon-i, a typical meal would fetch about RM 15-30 per person, but of course what we had here would have been more than that if we split 6 ways.

Address:
Room Eighteen
Berjaya Times Square
LG 50 & LG 18C
Lower Ground Floor
No 1, Jalan Imbi
55100 KL

GPS: 3.142444,101.710621
Tel: 03-2148 8688

Room Eighteen 拾八风味- Cantonese Food
Tagged on:                                     

38 thoughts on “Room Eighteen 拾八风味- Cantonese Food

  • December 19, 2009 at 3:39 am
    Permalink

    went to the outlet in midvalley. . . .so so only. Maybe like u said, we r spoilt w excellent food. Gotta live up to the nick,eh?

    Reply
  • December 19, 2009 at 4:52 am
    Permalink

    Looks fairly bland, probably like Dragon-I ok la but not particularly satisfying.

    Reply
  • December 19, 2009 at 4:53 am
    Permalink

    foodcrazee,
    hahah you’re just spoilt 😛

    ShaolinTiger,
    well when you kena the chili oil it is anything but blant. 😀

    Reply
  • December 19, 2009 at 8:27 am
    Permalink

    ooo..tis is new franchise of tai thong d….sure nice d taste

    Reply
  • December 19, 2009 at 10:52 am
    Permalink

    few weeks back my friend & her bunch of collegues had lunch at Room18 Mvalley. all got horrible food poisoning!

    Reply
  • December 19, 2009 at 10:59 am
    Permalink

    Still remember they were the 1st to include suckling pig with noodles, at reasonable price.
    And I believe they do have set lunches at about a fraction of the price, on weekdays.

    Reply
  • December 19, 2009 at 11:21 am
    Permalink

    Wah, dimsum all day long? Should be not bad right?

    Reply
  • December 19, 2009 at 12:32 pm
    Permalink

    I love the porridge!

    Reply
  • December 20, 2009 at 1:15 pm
    Permalink

    cheesie is like staring into the blueberry ice shavings like as if you were snatching away her precious dessert!

    Reply
  • December 20, 2009 at 5:46 pm
    Permalink

    nikel,
    yess not bad at all.

    hungrybunny,
    Ooo so unfortunate, I never had food poisoning problems there tho

    J2Kfm,
    Yaa I had their suckling pig rice before, very nice. You’re right about the lunch menu too. 😀

    JD,
    Hahah yah

    ciki,
    make it happen.

    jaclyn,
    Yess 😀

    Huai Bin,
    Yahh, tastes good too

    eiling,
    Hahahah she hunger!

    Reply
  • December 21, 2009 at 12:22 am
    Permalink

    cheesie’s face at the blueberry shaved ice is damn angry. wahh~

    Reply
  • December 21, 2009 at 3:15 am
    Permalink

    Nice blog. got to know recently from a friend. err, no offence, but just wanna correct something. Its venison instead of venisen. =)

    Reply
  • December 21, 2009 at 9:04 am
    Permalink

    food might be nice but the last time i went, service sux big time… 🙁

    Reply
  • December 21, 2009 at 9:35 am
    Permalink

    SamZz,
    Ohhh thank you. My spelling memang rosak :S

    ps,
    Ah, sorry to hear that, I guess they treated us better. :/

    Reply
  • December 21, 2009 at 4:06 pm
    Permalink

    i find their porridge watery and not smooth/slightly sticky

    Reply
  • December 22, 2009 at 1:52 pm
    Permalink

    Vivien,
    oOo really? Was nice when we had it. 😀

    Reply
  • December 24, 2009 at 6:16 pm
    Permalink

    The overall food, I would only rate it at 2 stars.

    Reply
  • December 27, 2009 at 1:17 pm
    Permalink

    OngTY,
    I think u’re either very harsh, or just ordered the wrong dishes. 🙂

    Reply
  • December 31, 2009 at 1:25 pm
    Permalink

    The Room18 in Tropicana City Mall is a let down. I was just passing by and noticed this outlet bears the same concept as Canton-i and d inviting tarts and paus on d display tray and decided to try their so-called “Tian Sia Di Yee Pau” (World’s #1 Bun) and it’s a joke!! A total let down. Don’t want to immediately strike the place off my list, I came back for dinner and I don’t think I want to go back again if given the choice.
    I wonder if they provide special treatment bcos u r an invited guest as well as a ‘celeb blogger’?

    Reply
  • January 1, 2010 at 6:03 pm
    Permalink

    NELL,
    Ahh, our treatment was definitely better due to the invitation, but when I went to TCM prior to this the service and food was not bad at all though. Consistency is something many restaurants in this country don’t have, I guess.

    Reply
  • January 14, 2010 at 12:44 am
    Permalink

    man…. really sorry to say but i do support OngTY, the food and service is extremely lousy…
    The wan tan mee just taste like soy suace with noodle… and the service… OMFG! they gave us this ‘you owe me money’ face and ask us… what u wan?
    so having so many of NEGATIVE REVIEW… you don’t probably think this is a consistency problem or all of us went on the wrong day at the same time right?

    Reply
  • January 14, 2010 at 1:34 am
    Permalink

    Noto,
    Perhaps really a consistency problem, you’re probably right. Thanks for the feedback.

    Reply
  • January 23, 2010 at 11:54 pm
    Permalink

    OMG KY!! You’re so lucky you had good service. God~~ I just went to the Times Square outlet today and my god, they have 1 of the WORST SERVICE I’ve ever encountered. I couldn’t even get my order taken. Nobody bothered and the look on their face, you feel like their mom or dad just passed away. I was hoping to end my great day with a nice dinner but clearly Room Eighteen was a disappointment. Definitely very upset is there any way I can get my discontent through? They clearly need to buckle up. They’re not some cheap hawker food stall and even that I get better service.

    Reply
  • January 25, 2010 at 12:53 pm
    Permalink

    angeldust,
    looks like they really need to buckle up!

    Reply
  • March 18, 2010 at 5:09 pm
    Permalink

    希望大同的高層看完之后可以有所表示!自從開了拾八風味,廚房內部的問題似乎并未有所改善且有每況愈下的趨勢!在我們所見到的,知道的存在問題到目前為止都還未曾有一套據有效的,管理層出面解決我們基層每日所需面對的問題!雖然拾八風味的分店開始愈開愈多。Tropicana city mall,midvalley和times square,但是大同的高層有否覺得每間分店的生意額正有著下跌的趨勢。不如先說下TCM廚房內部的問題吧,我個人覺得廚房部門的廚師長根本就是沒有實權處理其它部門的問題,每當兩個不同的部門之間存有不容忽視的問題時,然而理應出面調挺的廚師長卻沒有厘行他的職責,只是每次都用同一句話帶過問題而不了了之,實在是讓人好生氣憤。點心部的問題是有一個討人厭的assistant除工作態度很有問題外,時常不把上司教導過的東西記在腦中而經常出錯。白白的把東西都給浪費掉。時常12:30才上班,煲涼水的時又故意煲多點水,多浪費點瓦斯,然后把煲多出來的涼水收在冰櫥里留待日后慢慢飲用。順便值得一提的是,很多時候他們拿了很大的器皿盛裝清水然后開了大大的火等水滾,不久就丟下這煲水不管也不知他們到哪兒去閑逛,聊天。水滾到良久都未見有人來下煲涼水的材料。真是不負責任。這樣子的工作態度在新年期間竟然可以獲得公司加薪RM200.會否離譜了點?開冰箱弄跌其它部門的東西(3次)都沒向有關部門主管道歉。真的以為部門主管的眼瞎了,還是根本不把他們放在眼里。或是仗著有個疼惜自己的老大就可以目中無人,橫行霸道嗎?

    Reply
  • April 13, 2010 at 10:04 am
    Permalink

    skywalker,
    that’s very tragic!

    Reply
  • June 17, 2010 at 4:23 pm
    Permalink

    worst ever service at Room eighteen times square…waiter there all not training well..
    yesterday…went to Room 18 Restaurant @ Berjaya
    Times Square, the worst ever service there. We have order food and
    waited bout 1 hour and the ppl just come dine eat already finish their
    food we still havent get our food. Then i went to ask supervisor there to ask where is our food and he
    said..they 4got place the order WTF!!!!! Bloody Hell @ss Hole Waiter
    there…No say Sorry also by staff thee…

    Reply
  • June 24, 2010 at 10:41 am
    Permalink

    Jason,
    wah more and more bad reviews, hopefully they can pick up the slack soon!

    Reply
  • July 22, 2010 at 10:59 pm
    Permalink

    The set meal attracted us, so we went in. BIG MISTAKE!! The small words said “until 6pm”, we continued to order food. All I got in my steamed food was tiny slice of meat on top of gigantic amount of white rice. What was in the menu photo was totally different from real.

    When I got asked for bill for the un-satisfying meal, we were charged RM1 each person for wet tissue & little snack RM3, which they brought to our table making us assumed it was free. WRONG! Food was horrible. We felt completed tricked and will definitely not recommending to anyone.

    Reply
    • July 23, 2010 at 9:43 am
      Permalink

      i think the wet tissue/snack charges are common to most chinese restaurants of similar settings though. but the tiny meat with too much white rice would be unacceptable.

      Reply
  • July 28, 2011 at 6:43 am
    Permalink

    Misleading dish photo:- signature pumpkin fried rice
    ~ appetising dish accompanied by different vegetables & meat on menu; however serving plate turned up rather bland and just felt being misled.

    Worst off with terrible service by the waiting staff!!

    Reply
    • July 29, 2011 at 12:06 am
      Permalink

      Being let down: looks like they have to pull their socks up and do some quality control work

      Reply
  • October 4, 2011 at 2:13 pm
    Permalink

    Hi kyspeaks,
    Kindly be informed that this post has been reprinted on JoinMe.com.my, thanks. ^^
    P/S: We have put your name and link credit back to this article.

    Reply
  • October 29, 2012 at 3:12 pm
    Permalink

    Hi, can we apply for Room Eighteen restuarant franchise?

    Reply
    • October 30, 2012 at 7:46 am
      Permalink

      kevin: that you have to ask taithong

      Reply

Leave a Reply to Huai Bin Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *