Spring in the City at Tai Zi Heen 太子軒, Pullman KLCC

Celebrate Spring in the City this Chinese New Year to welcome the year of the Fire Monkey! Did you know that Tai Zi Heen 太子軒, the posh Chinese Restaurant in Pullman KLCC not only serves glorious Dim Sum but also a special Chinese New Year set menu as well as ala carte available from 18 Jan – 22 Feb? I was blessed to be able to taste some of Chef Michael Wong’s special creations, and one of the dish was not just pleasing to the tastebuds but explosive visually too.

Decorations in Pullman KLCC is going for all red and traditional, setting the mood and atmosphere for a spectacular Chinese New Year.

The restaurant is located on the 1st floor after taking these winding steps like a princess, while being serenaded by a Saxophonist in the lobby. The escalator is available too for those who may not want the challenge of taking the steps.

The interior is really spacious and matched the exterior with classy drapes and table setting design. There are various arrangements for small and large groups available.

A private room is available for booking that allows up to two tables that seats 8-10.

There were three different CNY sets available and all come with our choice of Yee Sang. Tai Zi Heen has made it uncomplicated with Yee Sang that comes in regular, medium and large and with various condiments and add ons. We can choose from Vegetarian Snow Spear yee sang starting from only RM34 to Four Seasons Prosperity Yee Sang with butterfish, salmon, tuna and jelly fish at RM125 for a large one, or even the more exquisite Abalone Yee Sang at RM350 large. For our review, we went with the Crispy Whitebait Yee Sang (RM125). This is a great choice as the whitebait is so crispy and went well the the plum sauce and olive oil was used so this made the yee sang extra healthy.

Supplemental Add ons available are such as abalone, salmon, hamachi, butterfish, canadian surf clam, tuna, shell fish, snow pear, crackers and crispy whitebait. The yee sang is a traditional dish served during CNY reunion dinners which has a lot of meaningful connotations attached to it which I appreciate but most of all, it is really fun to lou sang together with friends and family! We would toss the vegetables high as ever while shouting blessings and wishes for the year to each other.

Next we had the Double-boiled Chicken and vegetable soup with fish maw and sun-dried scallops. I love this soup as it was really refreshing and light, there’s a tinge of herbal taste to it, overall it is just a very healthy soup, really warm to the body too.

The soup is individually served with sun-dried scallop still whole and tasting good.

Our third dish was the Braised Sea cucumberes with morels mushroom, sun-dried oysters and baby pak choy. Siew Pak Choy is actually like my favourite vegetables of all time, even more than broccoli so I was seriously delighted with the choice of vegetable in the dish.

Also, it was my first time seeing morels mushroom used. This mushroom is really distinctive in its appearance, with a honeycomb like texture, it tasted amazing combined together with the oyster and black mushrooms, and the sauce in the dish is not overly salty, just nice. Plus, sea cucumber is another of my  favourite food that reminds me of special celebrations like CNY as that is the time we always eat this at home.

We were then served the Roasted five spices chicken sprinkled with crispy garlic and spring onions. The chicken looked delightfully crispy on the skin, shiny even.

Taste wise, it did not fail at all. The meat inside was still soft and juicy, while the skin was indeed crunchy with every bite. For the first time, our chicken dish was nearly eaten up on our table of all girls and just one guy.

The next dish being the Crispy Prawns coated with lemon dressing, tropical fruit salsa and tobiko caviar was the explosive dish I quoted earlier, which shook us off our seats. The chef started added dry ice into the tea which let out a smoke so beautiful to behold, for a moment it nearly skipped my mind that the main dish was the prawns. Nevertheless, it was a really unique idea that would leave diners mesmerised for a long time to come.

The prawn dish itself was really fresh, and being deshelled, it just made it easy to enjoy without using our hands. I love fried prawns done this way with the use of fruits, reminding me of prawn salad that my mum used to make. I don’t think we left a single prawn behind after savouring this dish.

This was another really interesting dish, Steamed dragon-tiger grouper 龙虎班 with mushrooms in soy sauce, spring onions and fresh coriander. Why was it so interesting? The fish is a rare cross breed between the Giant Grouper (龙趸) Fish and the Tiger Grouper Fish.

This method of cross-breeding is usually done for festive dishes. What a delight it was to be able to taste it, indeed, this fish is known not only for its high nutritional value, but also for the sweetness of the taste. I think even if it was just steamed, it would turn out sweet and fragrant. This was a lightly steamed dish with mushrooms which paired well together. As a fish lover, I can’t find much fault with this dish at all.

The meal was coming to a beautiful end with the Stir-fried glutinous rice with Chinese-style preserved duck. Usually by this time, I would be too full to really enjoy the rice dish but I must add that this dish is worth to be tried.

I was pleasantly surprised that it actually tasted really good. Looking from the outside, it looked a little salty with the sauce lathered all over, but the inside still had some rice that was not totally covered in the sauce and maybe tasting a little like Lor Mai Kai cross between dumpling, and there were some different meat used besides the preserved duck as well as mushrooms. I did finish my bowl of rice for the first time.

Finally, we had some very interesting dessert, cute I would say. This was the deep-fried sesame balls with salted egg yolk custard and sweet potato shaped into carrots. Super cute, maybe banana would be more fitting for the Monkey year? The sweet potato really tasted like red tortoise cake or more well known as ang ku kuih.

What deserved a worthy mention was the sesame balls. Who doesn’t jump at the mention of salted egg yolk? The skin of this sesame ball was fried to perfection and really crispy, and inside it was the very popular custard which I just love, I only wish that there was more piping hot flowing custard when I bite into it.

What a enjoyable dinner it was here at Pullman KLCC with Sidney and the girls all dressed to the nines. Photo by Sidney Kan.

Masterchef Michael Wong was the one that created all the beautiful dishes with much joy and passion I am sure.

Tai Zi Heen will be open during Chinese New Year’s Eve and throughout the 15 days of the festival, with the festive sets available till Feb 22. For reservations, call 03-2170 8888 extension 8200 or email restaurants@pullman-klcc.com. Pork-free.

Opening times: Mon- Fri 12.00pm – 2.30pm, Sat- Sun 11.30am – 2.30pm; Mon-Sun 6.30pm-10.30pm.
Location: Tai Zi Heen, Level 2, Pullman Kuala Lumpur City Centre Hotel & Residences, 4 Jalan Conlay, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: 03-2170 8888 ext 8200
Website: http://www.pullmanhotels.com/A0C5 or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PullmanKualaLumpurCityCentre/