Oriental's The Ming Room Restaurant@Bangsar Shopping Complex

Demona: Dogma and I had very, very fond memories of this place. Hot steam from freshly cooked dim sum, savouring finger licking, yummy-licious char siew paos, sipping hot chinese tea while reading the Sunday news on a relaxing, chilly evening. Gleaming,shy smiles when we caught each other exchanging glances. There was something about this place, which left us feeling, happy and energized after our meals. Maybe it was the scrumptious food, maybe it was the furniture, or the daylight that shined in and brightened up the whole place, or the fusion of all of it.

We have not gotten a chance to revisit this place together since then.

I met my aunts here for a dim sum meal one day. Knowing that it was The Ming Room, I made a quick pit stop back home just to get hold of Dogma's old, vintage, faithful camera.



Demona: This was the prawn rolls, wrapped with foo chuk skin. There was nothing ravish about this dish besides the fairly large, juicy, succulent prawns. The foo chuk skin was softened, giving me the impression that these were pre-made instead of made upon order. RM 6.00.



Demona: This was the mango prawn rolls, wrapped with a sesame seeds coated dough. Yet again, only the prawns gave the kick to this dish. The mango slices used were overly ripe, thus they were too soft and had a funky sweet taste, which failed to blend in with the taste of the prawns. RM 6.00.



Demona: The Siew Mais were gigantic! Each bite was a delicate feel. The meat was beautifully blended giving it a smooth touch at the end. RM 7.00.



Demona: The fried coarsely chopped carrot cake. RM 7.00. Another juicy thumbs up for Ming Room. The carrot cake was spicylicious! Fitted me well. Each chopped piece was nicely fried, with burnt edges, releasing a wok hei feel to it. The carrot cake was not too oily, which helped made this dish much more enjoyable to eat.



Demona: The Loh Mai Kai. My brother went on and on about the greatness of the LMK throughout our journey home. " Jin Jia Jin Jia Ho Chiak Lor!" (very, very yummy!). The LMK had a slice of abalone cooked along with the pork meat too. RM 7.00.



Demona: Awh. My all time favourite.. and also my No. 1 choice here in Ming Room. The, juicy, sweet sauce mixed with sesame seeds and chopped parsley, coating chunky pieces of char siew, wrapped in a soft, fluffy white dough and steamed into.... CHAR SIEW PAO! I always felt that this place had the best CSP I've ever eaten, and the title still stays everytime I eat them. I may be bias as I am on my weak knees, when it comes to CSP, but this is a definite must try, readers out there! RM 6.00.



Demona: The Har Kaus were brilliant too. The prawns here were definitely quantity and quality based prawns. BIG and YUMMY. The colourless glutinous skin was very thin, but enough to wrap the prawns nicely without breaking. I reckoned this requires great skills from dim sum chefs to perfect this dish. RM 7.00.



Demona: This was pretty interesting. Yam cake chunky slices immersed in a sweet and spicy sauce, sprinkled with delicately chopped spring onions. Another dish which reflects the great skills of the dim sum chefs here. The yam cake was extremely smooth and flavourful, yet maintaining the taste and smell of the yam itself. The spicy sauce added a fiery kick to the yam cake, which... was like swallowing a mini time bomb, the first taste was yam, and when it moved down your throat.. KA BOOM! Spicy finish!



Demona: This was the meat rolls wrapped with foo chuk skin, in a sticky sweet sauce. This was, well pretty average. I much preferred the ones which are cooked with the sweet and sour reddish sauce. Well, one thing is for sure, the size of the meat rolls were pretty big, for RM 5.00.



Demona: My aunt ordered a plate of fried noodles as well, which cost RM 28.00. This dish came last, and we were filled to the tip of our tummies by now. It would have been a better call if we skipped this order, with some other lighter dimsums eg: egg tarts. The noodles, were pretty alright. Light, salty and not oily. However, for the price tag of RM 28.00.. Dogmama and Demonamama could come up with a much better fried noodles than this.

Verdict: The total bill came up to RM 130.40, including the ++ taxes. I thought it was pretty decent, considering that we had 13 baskets of quality dim sum and a big plate of noodles. Tea for 6 cost RM 9.00. ( RM 1.20+ for few tiny, winy cups of tea ? GOSH.)

Anyway, call me cheapo, but if you were to come here on a personal basis rather than official, I would advise you to skip the steamed groundnuts which the waiters offered as appetizers as a small bowl cost RM 3.00. Even when you had declined, do check your bill at the end as they sometimes still charged you for it. You can point it out to the waitress if it happens, and they will deduct it politely without questioning.

These are the hidden costs that many restaurants charge the customers, which if official business, I would pay, but for personal meals, I rather not. Dogma and I had this debate before, and he believes we should give the restaurants some extra money to earn for a good meal with good service. But for certain places which charge you RM 1.50 / towel, or RM 3 to RM 5 for a small bowl of peanuts or pickles, I would rather use the money on a decent dish instead.