My 4th CNY Yee Sang dinner for the year of Rabbit happened at Toh Yuen Chinese restaurant at PJ Hilton Hotel, this time thanks to the invitation from the good people at Create Studio. Yes, I thank my lucky star on privileges like these. 😀

Toh Yuen Chinese restaurant at PJ Hilton Hotel
Toh Yuen Chinese restaurant at PJ Hilton Hotel, Chef Lee

Toh Yuen is headed by Chef Lee, whose philosophy in cooking is plenty simple – traditional style with good (if not the best) ingredients, and without any addictives such as MSG. Tasty but healthy food is the emphasis around here.

To welcome the year or Rabbit, Toh Yuen is offerring 3 special set menus – Happiness (RM 888++), Fortune (RM 1188++), and Longevity (RM 1388++) for 10 pax. On this review, we sampled the Longevity menu.

another yee sang ritual, this time with abalone
another yee sang ritual, this time with abalone

As usual, yee sang was our the very first dish, and on the get go, it was already unmistakably luxurious – we had the “Fatt Choy” abalone yee sang (also sold seperately for RM 180/260/300).

Some might say this is a bit of a waste so far as the method of serving abalone goes, I must confess that it actually was rather good. Abalone surely beats Alaskan salmon in my book.

braised shark's fin soup with crab meat & roe
braised shark’s fin soup with crab meat & roe

Next on the set menu was the sharks fin soup. I’ve already made my stance and say no to sharks fin soup, so I gave it a pass. Unfortunately, I was the only one on the table to do so. Looks like more work needs to be done for the awareness in this front.

You can substitute the sharks fin soup with double boiled chicken soup, according to Chef Lee. Alternatively, the Happiness & Fortune set menu does not come with sharks fin soup either.

deep fried chicken with two tastes, stir fried sea king prawns with pineapple sauce
deep fried chicken with two tastes,
stir fried sea king prawns with pineapple sauce

So I really got started on the deep fried chicken with two tastes. A dish that is only as fancy as the name suggest, which isn’t much at all. There’s the roast chicken ala chicken rice style, and kung pao chicken in the middle. For the lack of fanciness, however, the chicken turns out to be very good where it matters – taste.  The meat was smooth, juicy, with the sauce done just right too.

We then had stir fried sea king prawns with pineapple sauce. The chef explained that this type of prawn, with its softer shell, is best eaten whole (perhaps except the head) instead of peeling the skin off. This way it allows different texture of meat and shell to be enjoyed with the pineapple sauce, pretty old way of having prawns, quite unique.

steamed pomphret with superior soya sauce
steamed pomphret with superior soya sauce

My favorite of the night has got to be the steamed pomphret with superior soya sauce. I’m positive that even my mom (who helps sell fish at wet market and usually leave the best pomphret for themselves) would approve of this beautiful specimen. Something like this can easily cost over RM 100 at wet market, especially during pre-CNY period.

Chef Lee explained that they source the fish locally instead of getting them from Thailand, which would be cheaper but of lesser quality. A lengthy lecture of the subtle differences in meat/shape/taste of pomphret from various parts of Malaysia and other places is given while we were busy enjoying this brilliant fish. It was so good, smooth, fatty, and absolutely tasty.

stewed sea cucumber & mushroom with broccoli, seafood fried rice with XO sauce
stewed sea cucumber & mushroom with broccoli, seafood fried rice with XO sauce

The stewed sea cucumber & mushroom with broccoli is another dish found in many Chinese New Year set menu. Over here at Toh Yuen the dish is prepared as good as anywhere else, and the sea cucumber was very good.

However, I would personally leave out the carrot slices as I don’t think I was the only one that sees that as a semi-failed attempt in giving the otherwise awesome dish some color (does not affect the taste).

The seafood fried rice with XO sauce is served with plenty of prawns, green onions, carrots, eggs, chicken, and other ingredients that were all somehow agreed to each other brilliantly. One of the better fried rice I had, the underlying taste of XO sauce really adds to the overall flavor too.

Michelle Ong, chilled honeydew with hasma, KY
Michelle Ong, chilled honeydew with hasma, KY

We concluded the  night with a classic Chinese dessert – chilled honeydew with hasma. For the uninformed, it’s just a wikipedia article away for you to find out that hasma is actually fallopian tubes of frogs. Nice isn’t it? I still eat them, they tastes good. *slurps*.

The set dinner (other than the fins) turns out to be pretty good, now does it worth the RM 1388++ for 10 pax price tag? The ingredients certainly suggests so, but I think a large part of it has to do with the sharks fin, something I try to get people not to consume. Draw your own conclusion.

map to Petaling Jaya Hilton Hotel

Address:
Toh Yuen Chinese Restaurant
Hilton Petaling Jaya
No 2 Jalan Barat
46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

GPS: 3.10235, 101.64087
Tel: 03-7955 9122

KY eats – PJ Hilton Toh Yuen CNY menu
Tagged on:                     

20 thoughts on “KY eats – PJ Hilton Toh Yuen CNY menu

  • January 26, 2011 at 12:09 pm
    Permalink

    oo hello i was suppose to go to this dinner! aww. looks like i missed out big time! 😀 looks delish yam yam yam!

    Reply
    • January 26, 2011 at 1:18 pm
      Permalink

      Augustdiners: yes you missed out! 😛 haven’t seen you for a long time already tooo

      Reply
  • January 26, 2011 at 1:29 pm
    Permalink

    Nice dishes. The dessert looks really yummy. Thanks to your review! We had a good dinner at Elegant Inn?

    Reply
    • January 26, 2011 at 2:20 pm
      Permalink

      JD: oh of course we did 😀

      Reply
  • January 26, 2011 at 2:02 pm
    Permalink

    of all the dishes… the one that really caught my attention is the fried rice with XO sauce.. I wonder why?? LOL

    Reply
    • January 26, 2011 at 2:20 pm
      Permalink

      Leo: cos u’ve been living the life worthy of an emperor already? 😛

      Reply
    • January 26, 2011 at 8:39 pm
      Permalink

      Tey Cindy,
      yah very yums 😀

      Reply
  • January 26, 2011 at 8:26 pm
    Permalink

    Wah sangat mewah!!!

    Reply
    • January 26, 2011 at 8:41 pm
      Permalink

      Michelle: lucky aje 😀

      Reply
  • January 27, 2011 at 1:29 am
    Permalink

    hey…why is Huai Bin being sued for his opinion on just the FOOD???

    Reply
    • January 27, 2011 at 7:38 am
      Permalink

      tony: yeah apparently so, google as 2nd defendant too

      Reply
  • January 27, 2011 at 5:53 am
    Permalink

    Nice dinner! I have not had abalone for a long time. They farm raise them in California. They take about 5 years to be harvested. I miss CNY dinners.

    Reply
    • January 27, 2011 at 7:39 am
      Permalink

      Meng: ahh, farm raise is good, we need them in the wild too. 😉

      Reply
  • January 28, 2011 at 11:02 am
    Permalink

    😉 Support you and say NO to shark fin!!!!!!!!!~~~~~

    Reply
  • February 1, 2011 at 12:20 am
    Permalink

    this might sound damn kesian 😥

    but where can u find yee sang for 2 ppl?

    Reply
    • February 3, 2011 at 11:47 am
      Permalink

      panrac: try sakae sushi

      Reply
  • February 14, 2011 at 1:48 pm
    Permalink

    Oops. Sorry for the late!

    Thanks heaps. Glad that you enjoy the fish and the rest of the dishes!

    Hope to you see you again!

    Cheers,
    ZestPJ Team

    Reply
    • February 15, 2011 at 1:56 pm
      Permalink

      ZestPJ: yaa was good! See you guys again 😉

      Reply

Leave a Reply to KY Cancel reply

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