HOTELS aside, Chinese restaurants serving pork-free dim sum and other dishes are few and far between in Kuala Lumpur. Maju Palace, whose food I liked, has since closed, but now there is the new Yu by Ruyi restaurant at The Gardens, Mid Valley which serves pork-free Chinese cuisine. 

Yu is in the Oriental Group of restaurants (as was Maju Palace), and it offers an impressive menu of fine pork-free dim sum and some scrumptious main dishes. Recently we savoured dim sum from a two-tier tray and two baskets of steamed dim sum that are in the daily high-tea from 2pm to 4pm, at just RM98 for two diners.

The Wagyu beef puff stood out with its little black horns, light, crispy pastry and a deeply flavoured beef filling. I loved the deep-fried Playboy lava carrot which is like a ham sui kok, its casing made of glutinous rice flour, with a flowy peanut lava  filling. I liked also the foie gras puff, crispy swan, Portuguese egg tart, Katafi mango roll and crispy beancurd prawn roll. 

On this tray too were thousand layer cake, BBQ chicken buns, a cute hedgehog bun with white lotus salted egg, charcoal custard flowy bun, gula Melaka honeycomb cake and bird’s nest lemongrass infusion with basil seeds and mixed fruit.

In the steamed dim sum basket were goldfish dumpling, abalone siu mai, steamed pumpkin dumpling, truffle seafood dumpling and unagi dumpling.  The unagi dumpling was delicious; the pumpkin dumpling with its smooth mochi skin and custard filling was excellent. All the dim sum here are on the a la carte menu too at lunch time.

As for the main dishes, I enjoyed the Imperial lobak or pan-fried radish cake with crispy conpoy which stood out with its creamy texture, aroma of duck egg that was fried with it, and crispy threads of sweet dried scallops.

The crackling Wagyu beef hor fun with crispy noodles was the best beef hor fun I’ve had in a long time. The four pieces of hot fried hor fun were supposed to sizzle when the sauce was poured over them, but while that didn’t happen for us, the noodles were superb, soaked in the flavourful sauce. 

You would luxuriate in the taste of The Prince & The Pauper, which has pan-seared foie gras on a slice of caramelised watermelon. The richness of foie gras was balanced by the sweet, juicy watermelon.

Steamin’ Crabilicious tempted us with a whole steamed crab with roe, salted fish and chicken paste on glutinous rice. This was so good!  The glutinous rice was drenched in the yummy eggy crab roe sauce. If you can only have one main dish, this would be it.

Chick-u-tei is chicken herbal soup with abalone, crispy mushroom  and petite jasmine rice. It’s finer soup for this pork-free version of bak kut teh, but it still has all the herbal nuances of it, with the natural sweetness of chicken flavouring it.  It all comes together on a long plate, with small mounds of chicken rice topped with mushroom, rings of crispy cruellers (yau char kway) and deep-fried mushroom.

The Empress Tien Qi poached with fresh fish maw and barley was a splendid vegetable dish. I liked the slimy leaves of this nutritious vegetable which is believed to be good for the blood, sitting in a superior stock and topped with barley, strips of fish maw and wolfberries. 

Yu by Ruyi’s dishes are the creations of corporate executive chef James Ho who heads Ruyi in Bangsar Shopping Centre.

On the a la carte menu, dim sum like the goldfish dumplings are RM15 in a basket of three, unagi dumpling RM18 (two pieces), pumpkin dumpling RM9 (three pieces), abalone siu mai and foie gras puff RM18 (two pieces). Imperial lobak is RM28, Steamin’ Crabilicious RM108, crackling Wagyu beef hor fun RM68, andcChick-u-tei RM38 per pax.

Yu by Ruyi is at G-243 Riverview Entrance, The Gardens Mall, Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur. It is open daily, 11am to 4pm, 5.30pm to 10pm. Call 03-2202 2602. – April 26, 2019.
 

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.