Review: Oriental Feasty @ Armada Hotel

Halal: Yes
Promotion: Standard Charted and Citibank Credit Card Holders get a 10% Discount off total bill! (T & C apply)

We're less than a month away from the Chinese New Year! Hurray! During this special time of the year, families & friends will gather for a time of celebration to usher the new year together. Reunion lunches & dinners are pretty much a must for each family & food is more often than not the highlight of each reunion. Believe it or not, almost every dish served during this festive season will have its meaning, symbol or history! You'll find the appearance of fish (surplus), sea cucumber (happiness), lotus root (togetherness), black moss/"fatt choy" (wealth) & a whole chicken (completeness) all on ONE table to complete the feast.

CNY Cookies will also make its grand appearance!

Not to forget the well-known mandarin oranges - a prominent feature during CNY

Armada Hotel is ushering the Year of the Snake 2013 with an array of traditional dishes, carefully planned & prepared by their chefs to remind all diners on the prosperity & togetherness of this season. From 7th January till 25th February 2013, their buffet line will feature a wide variety of "good luck" dishes for the Chinese New Year reunion buffet dinner such as 8 Treasure Shark Fin Soup, Braised Sea Cucumber with Green Vegetable and Mushroom, Lotus Leaf Rice, Braised Duck with Black Mushroom, Steamed Seabass with Ginger Sauce, Herbal Roasted Duck, Chinese Baked Salted Chicken with Herbs, Braised Chestnut Duck, Wok Fried Lamb Steak with Honey Glaze, Sautéed Leek with Squid.

You'll also find some Western & Japanese dishes at the same buffet spread, plus ingredients for you to have your own yee sang, all for the price of RM70.00++ per person! You'll find a good selection of yee sang at Armada Hotel for your "lou hei" such as the Fruitti Veggie Yee Sang (vegetarian), Salmon Yee Sang, Butterfish Yee Sang, & even Japanese Yee Sang for those who would like to try out something different in their toss for prosperity!

Japanese-Style Yee Sang

Salmon/Butterfish + Idako (baby octopus), Hotate (scallops) and Kurage (jelly fish), with deep-fried Salmon Skin and crispy tempura instead of the usual crackers, dressed with a special Japanese dressing prepared by their chef.

Here's a sneak preview to the buffet spread:

Lotus Leaf Rice

Noodles with Chinese Herbs

Braised Seafood in Pumpkin

Special Fish Cake

Prawns

Meat rolls

Dessert: "Nian Gao" with Coconut Shavings

Assortment of sushi

Assortment of sashimi

Stuffed meat rolls

Steamed Sea Bass in Ginger Sauce

Highlights of the buffet spread

Busy preparing the table for the photographers...

Photographers in action...

The actual buffet spread!

One section of the buffet spread

Apart from the sumptuous dishes offered in the buffet spread, diners can also opt to celebrate their Chinese New Year Eve reunion dinner & all reunion dinners throughout Chinese New Year with 3 different types of Prosperity Set Menus (serves a table of 10 persons): Blissful Abundance (RM988.00++) Hallmark of Achievement (RM1088.00++) or Abundance of Jade (RM1188.00++).

I was blessed to be able to try out the "Abundance of Jade" set menu! *yum yum* 

Prosperity Yee Sang with Abalone & Salmon in Tangy Mango Sauce

This is very special! The tangy mango sauce blended very well with the "yee sang", giving it a fresh, fruity fragrance that brings the common "yee sang" to another level!

All ingredients ready to be tossed!

For good health, wealth, & prosperity!!

Japanese Yee Sang

We had the opportunity to also try this version of the "yee sang". It's very different from the one above as it's more savoury than sweet. Very alike the miso soup + tempura + sesame seed kinda taste...heehee...interesting!

2nd toss - more of everything good!

1st course: Braised 8 Treasure & Scallop Soup

It's alike the shark's fin soup, but it's not as thick/gooey. Among the many ingredients, you'll find shark's fin, crab meat, abalone, bamboo shoots, & Chinese black mushrooms. I personally found it slightly lacking in "umph" - perhaps it's the stock that wasn't fragrant enough...

2nd course: Double-Boiled Duck Cantonese Style

This is like a Christmas Stuffed Turkey ala Chinese ;) SO GOOD! It's braised to perfection - tender, juicy, & bursting in flavours!

3rd course: Steamed Pomfret in Abalone Sauce

The presentation was REALLY INTERESTING! The Armada PR team calls this the "flying fish". I call it the "flying fish that landed on a rock face first!" Hahahahaha...

The steamed fish was perfect! It wasn't under/over-cooked! LOVE. The dried shrimps, crabsticks, dried scallops, & shredded chicken that topped the steamed fish made the simple steamed fish dish a class above the rest.

4th course: Two Variety of Prawns

The salad prawns deserves a brownie point. The combination of fruits used to accompany the prawn i.e. strawberries, kiwi, & honeydew, was a brilliant idea! It's not the usual watermelon/apple/turnip kinda salad prawns. I am pleased! You can opt for a different style for the cooked prawns as well. We had the "lai yao"/"butter" style.

5th course: Stir-Fried Mussels with Taukan & Mushrooms in Yam Ring

That particular night's yam ring was slightly too salty for our liking. I think they over-added salt into the yam ring itself! Eek. But this dish is really a traditional dish filled with wholesome goodness. Which restaurant offers such an abundance of dried oysters/mussels in ONE dish?? It's crazeeeeee.....but yummmmy....

6th course: Steamed Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf

I'm surprised that the glutinous rice is so soft & fluffy - I've never really fancies glutinous rice, but this one is good. I only find it lacking in taste - like there's a lack of dried shrimps to give it the additional fragrance. I felt as such probably because the dishes before this were all very strong in flavours, smell, & texture, thus making this dish feel slightly weaker than its "competitors". Haha.

7th course: Traditional Sweet Longan Dessert

For the VERY first time in the history of my dining experiences, I actually finished my bowl of dessert!! *gasps* This is the only place where I find my dessert not overly sweet (to the dismay of many, I would reckon)! I don't really fancy sweet stuff, so if this is "just right" for me, it probably is slightly tasteless for others. Oops...

8th course: Admiral Fancy Duet

Hmm...I didn't really fancy this dessert. It's nothing very spectacular to me, but there's nothing much to complain about except that the skin of the "fish" was quite dry. I was expecting it to be similar to the "ping pei" mooncake skin's texture. Hmmm....

Executive Chef Chew & Chinese Kitchen's Chef Ang

Tempted to dig into the lovely food prepared by the Armada Hotel's chefs? If you've no plans for a reunion dinner at home on the eve of Chinese New Year, then don't miss out the opportunity to celebrate your Chinese New Year Eve at the Utara Coffee House 'cause the team will be featuring the famous "poon choy" just on that night at the buffet spread (for the same buffet price)!!

For reservation and enquiries, please contact:

Utara Coffee House

Hotel Armada Petaling Jaya

Lot 6, Lorong Utara C, Section 52

46200 Petaling Jaya

Selangor.

Tel: (+603) 7954 6888, ext 4557

FB: http://www.facebook.com/HotelArmadaPJ

URL: http://www.armada.com.my/

Looking forward to CNY2013,