Review: Standard Chartered Bank's Extravagant 8 at Elegant Inn Restaurant

**Non-Halal**

As per our previous review, we got invited to another round of Standard Chartered Bank's Extravagant 8 menu. This time Elegant Inn Restaurant at Menara Hap Seng. This promotion has already started since yesterday and will continue till 17th February 2011.

To usher in the lunar new year, Standard Chartered Bank is collaborating with 8 top Chinese restaurants in town to offer Extravagant 8 menus priced at RM888++ for a table of 8 pax. Details of restaurants and menu plus terms and conditions can be found here.

We were welcomed by Jeannette Han, the owner of Elegant Inn. She's really the walking dictionary of Chinese ingredients and food! Apparently I was told that each meal with her around, we get to learn loads of information on the items that we're eating.

We started off our dinner with Bountiful Harvest Salmon Losang. The difference here is that all ingredients used are fresh and no pickled items are on the plate. The salmon slices, jellyfish and abalone slices are served separately on another plate. Well, there's a very good reason this was done this way as our waiter Ah Loong starts off by wishing us a prosperous year ahead. 

When he dishes in the salmon into the fresh vegetables plate, he said the fish ("yue") represents "nien nien yau yue" (every year is bountiful). Jellyfish is known as "hoi jit" in Cantonese, hence "Jit Jit Siong Sing" (raising higher with each steps) in our career, Malaysian economy, stock market etc. This was when Jeannette intercepted and said most importantly Elegant Inn will "Jit Jit Siong Sing". LOL. The abalone ("bao yue") represents "bao lor marn yau" and "ying yau chun yau" which essentially means one will get all his wishes come true as much as he wants, well about there lah my translation :p



The condiments and sauces do represent good wishes too! Oil represents "choy wurn guan guan loy" which means prosperity will come boiling hot. Plum sauce brings "dai kat dai lei" (good luck coming in a big way) and crushes peanuts represents "far hoi fu gwai" (prosperity abound when flower blooms) and "sang yee heng loong" (more businesses abound). 5 spice power represents "ng fook lam moon" (errr more prosperity) and even the crackers represent something which is "pien tei wong kum" (whole floor filled with gold).



If you're interested, you can watch Ah Loong in action here but he speaks a little soft though.

Woohooo such a meaningful dish eh??? All ready for tossing... and we tossed our way to a bountiful and healthy year ahead. I liked this yee sang as everything tasted so fresh. Like Capt'n Hook described this as a refreshing salad.



Did you know we don't need to serve shark fins to represent your wealth especially at wedding dinners? Seafood soup with top grade seafood would do more justice. Don't look down at this soup tureen as you can only see the chicken inside. This clear broth is double boiled in the tureen for 4 - 6 hours!



When the treasures from the tureen are unearth onto a plate, just look at the exquisite ingredients used! There are "kum wah for tui" (Chinese ham), kampung chicken, top shell from US, dried scallops from Japan, pork ribs and cordyceps flowers.



I loved this soup as I prefered "ching" soup with it's natural sweetness from all the ingredients used.



Next came everybody's favourite... Golden Fried Estuary Garoupa with Chinese Leeks. Well, Estuary Garoupa is also known as Giant Garoupa (the same as those we ate at Gu Yue Tien) or "lung dunn". Over here, the fish fillet is served deep fried on a bed of clear gravy that came with stir fried Chinese leeks, spring onions, celery and bits of "har korn" a type of dried tiger prawns that Jeannette personally brought back from Hong Kong. The fish is perfectly fried and the skin, omigosh is so crispy! Everything on this plate has been executed very well and the vegetables complimented the fish. I've asked the price of this dish ala carte and Jeannette told me it's around RM200, so I think it's better to get out your Standard Chartered Credit Card or find your way to get one to order this Extravagant 8 menu!



This Crystal Prawn - Signature Salted Egg Yolk Style dish is not available in the menu and only specially made for this Extravagant 8 menu. Prawns are replaced in their signature crab in salted egg yolk. Seems like they will only cook this when the restaurant is not overly busy as it requires the head chef to spend 20 minutes just to stir the yolk to the right consistency. The salted egg yolk here is subtle and each prawn is coated lightly with them without over cloying the freshness of the prawns.



We took a break here for a photo moment of Chef Wesley Ng (pssst he's so young horrr and so handsome!) with Tim (he's handsome too ya) presenting the Golden Boneless Stuffed Chicken with Chicken Tomato Salad.



Golden Boneless Stuffed Chicken with Chicken Tomato Salad is the other highlight of the menu. The chicken is deboned and stuffed with prawn paste. A side of the chicken slices salad on tomatoes made the dish very refreshing.



We must bring BoiBoi for this as I know he would really loved this boneless chicken. The skin is sooo crispy and I did not feel it being oily at all! Just look at the prawn paste underneath... not really a paste eh cos can still chunks of prawns there.



Braised Sea Cucumber with Dried Oyster, Fatt Choy & Mushroom is the must have prosperity dish for Chinese New Year. I'm not really a fan of sea cucumber and dried oyster but I did took a bite off Capt'n Hook's portion. The sea cucumber is really thick! Loved the texture too. Since sea cucumber is Capt'n Hook's favourite, he took second helpings. Did you see the size of the dried oyster???



Next up, the rice dish of the evening. We have a Braised Seafood Rice with Australian Scallops, Fresh Crabmeat & Abalone Sauce in Lotus Leaf. It's my first time savouring such a unique rice dish. The rice is already flavourful in the lotus leaf let alone the generous topping of the fresh scallops and crabmeats.



We ended the dinner with a Chilled Japanese Pumpkin Sago with Green Bean and Pan Fried Traditional Rice Cake & Hazelnut Cookies. We were told not to stir the dollop of green bean and eat it up in one mouthful to generate the mouth feel but then a bit too late cos I lifted the spoon for a picture and there goes the green beans. I can taste the natural sweetness of the pumpkin which is not too heavy to end a dinner.



The nian gao (traditional rice cake) is just plainly pan fried, not oily at all too. If you can read Chinese, perhaps the hazelnut cookies represented something prosperous too :p



Check out what my other dinner companions have to say about this menu:
PureGlutton
Eu Hooi Khaw
Marky
Jason

Thank you once again to Tim and Standard Chartered Bank for the lovely evening, plus of course to the Queen, Lyrical Lemongrass, conveying the invite to us.

Here's the full menu with Chinese as well:

旺福年之宴

PROSPEROUS YEAR MENU    

玉兔贺岁鱼生捞 七彩鱼生捞 （三文鱼&珍鲍片）

Bountiful Harvest Salmon LOSANG  

凤凰楼顶花仙子 虫草花响螺炖土鸡汤

D.Boiled Village Chicken Soup w Cordyceps Flowers & US Top Shell  

龙皇御用玉龙舟 黄金封煎大龙趸

Golden Fried Estuary Garoupa w Chinese Leeks  

喜见金蛋嘻哈笑 招牌咸蛋黄炒海明虾

Crystal Prawn - Signature Salted Egg Yolk Style    

金龙玉凤鸳鸯配 鸳鸯金衣龙袍鸡

Golden Boneless Stuffed Chicken w Chicken  Tomato Salad  

发财好事囊中物 海参扣蚝史发菜花菇

Braised Sea Cucumber w Dried  Oyster, Fatt Choy & Mushroom  

渔民欢裹丰收年 荷香鲍汁海中宝扣饭

Braised Seafood Rice w Aust Scallops, Fresh Crabmeat & Abalone Sauce in Lotus Leaf  

绿野仙踪黄金梦  绿沙日本金瓜露

Chilled Japanese Pumpkin Sago w Green Bean    

名利扬眉高高升 手工榛子酥饼拼香煎年糕

Pan Fried Traditional Rice Cake & Hazelnut Cookies

*** RM888++ for 8 persons (Exclusively for StanChart Card Members Only)

Terms & Conditions:

• Prior reservation required.
• Promotion is not valid on 2 February 2011.
• Applicable for dinner only.
• Package is for 8 diners only.
• For additional diners, this set is chargeable at RM111++ per diner for a maximum of 13 diners.
• Valid for in-house dining only.
• Elegant Inn reserves the rights to replace any item of the similar value.
• Each Cardholder is entitled to one table per day.

Elegant Inn Restaurant @ Menara Hap Seng
2.01 2nd Floor, Podium Floor
Menara Hap Seng
Jalan P Ramlee
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-2070-9399


Elegant Inn Restaurant @ Taman Connaught
16 Jalan Waras 1
Taman Connaught, Cheras
56000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-9130-2626
Please note this branch opens on Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays only
Operation hours: Fridays: 12:00pm - 2:30pm & 6:00pm - 10:30pm
Saturdays & Sundays: 10:30am - 2:30pm & 6:00pm - 10:30pm