Lai Po Heen, Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur Review

Wifey and I decided to spent a weekend at Mandarin Oriental. After we checked out at noon on Sunday, we decided to have our lunch at Lai Po Heen Restaurant as I suddenly had cravings for some good Tim Sum. Once you enter the restaurant, you will notice the open kitchen concept where you can basically see the entire kitchen through a glass partition.

Wifey and I were seated near the window where you will have a nice view of KLCC park and overlooking the sight of the city centre.  

The first dish we had was the sea cucumber congee. Honestly, I never thought that sea cucumber goes well as porridge and was sceptical at first. It turns out to be pretty good with a nice flavour and I especially liked the "chewy" sea cucumber cubes in the porridge.   

For tim sum, we ordered lobster flower roll, prawn tim sum and bean curd roll all tasted good and fresh. 

We also ordered a plate of steam rice roll but we happily munched it down and was too late to realize that we have yet to take a picture of it. To finish it off, I ordered durian crepes and mango sago ice cream for dessert.

The durian crepes is the restaurant specialty. It was good with real durian meat inside but honestly I have tasted better ones at other places.

This meal for two was about RM200 including tax and service charge. It is a bit pricy but well compensated with the excellent customer service, nice view and food quality. The fact that this restaurant was full on a Sunday afternoon (with people queuing outside) means many concurs with my opinion :).

A day with Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur

After weeks of hard work at office decided to have a weekend off in Mandarin Oriental. I checked into the hotel sometime around 2.30pm and headed straight to Lounge In The Park for the afternoon tea session.

I ordered the tea set which comes with assortment of sandwiches, scones, durian mochi, cakes and pudding, I liked the scones the best which goes very well with the various types of jam provided.

After tea, we checked into the Twin Towers View room facing the Petronas Twin Tower. It was a comfy and spacious room that comes with the basic necessities normally found in a 5 stars hotel but I especially liked the working table which allow me to do some computing work comfortably.

Check out the view from our room. Wow....

I also found this complimentary drink on the table. It was a apple and vanilla flavoured soda. Not bad... I give this hotel extra points for this.

In the evening, we headed to Mandarin Grill for dinner. It is a fine dining restaurant. Wifey and I ordered half dozen oysters and and a bowl of clam chowder as starters. They also served a complimentary plate of cheese with two types of dip sauce.

What else can I say? The oysters were really fresh and the clam chowder was delicious and goes very well with the complimentary bread. The cheese was not too much of our liking.

For the mains, we ordered a plate of lobster and sirloin steak each to share. The service staff was helpful enough to arrange it to be separated on individual plates. In fact they also did it with the clam chowder which was great so that Wifey and I were able to enjoy our dinner comfortably :).

Right after we asked for the bill, we were given a box of chocolate that went quite well with the white wine that we ordered.  Overall, I find the food quality to be quite good but I think the customer service is the one that they really excel in. The staff were friendly and do try to strike conversations with us at times. On the downside, the restaurant menu was quite limited and I would prefer a wider selection of choices.

Concluding this blog entry with the picture of Petronas Twin Tower at night which was taken right outside from my room. :)

High Tea at Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur - Lounge On The Park

July 2015

Last weekend decided to watch Jurassic World with Wifey at KLCC. Since we had some time to kill, we decided to have high tea at Mandarin Oriental Hotel which is just nearby. The dining place is actually called Lounge In The Park. I guess it's much more a cosier place as compared to the cafes in KLCC or Avenue K. Furthermore, the pianist playing to some relaxing tunes makes this place a much classier one as well.

The table has been properly set up for the high tea. I decided to take the set for one person only and share it with Wifey after I realised that the table was pretty small and may be difficult to fit two tea sets. It turned to be a good idea as I am able to try out other items in the menu as well. As in the menu below, the high tea is available 2.30pm to 6 pm. During dinner time, the lounge area will be combined with Mosaic Restaurant for the buffet. I will suggest to place reservation earlier to avoid disappointment or to get a bigger table or a table with a better view. The price is Rm91 and inclusive of service tax and GST. 

The Hi Tea was pretty satisfactory although not considered extraordinary. I think it tasted better than the one served in YTL's Camerons Highland Resort (CHR) where I had my last high tea. One criteria that is most important is the freshness of the bread or pastry served. Otherwise it would have tasted hard or dry. One thing for sure Mandarin Oriental is definitely more generous when it comes the types of spreads for the scones. In fact, they provided portions for two person although we ordered the set for one person only. Thumbs up for the quality service which exceeded my expectations. Once we are done with the high tea set, we decided to order a pizza to fill our tummy since we will be skipping dinner to watch the movie. We ordered the Salmon Pizza (circa Rm60) which was fantastic. The base was soft and crispy  and the smoked salmon and mayo topping brings out a wonderful flavour. Great!! 

The overall ambiance of the lounge area is quite good as well. There is a resident pianist playing and the lighting used adds up to the relaxing feel.

Ratings

Pricing a bit on the high side but if you are looking for a classy and decent place for high tea, this is a good option available.