Tom Established since 1948, Sek Yuen Restaurant serves up traditional Cantonese cuisine and is a “go-to” venue for locals in Kuala Lumpur. This time, we found ourselves having the pleasure of trying out some signatures from this Bib Gourmand restaurant. As described by Bib Gourmand, Sek Yuen does deliver “good quality, good value cooking” and though there were a couple of misses, you won’t go wrong dining at Sek Yuen if you’re looking for consistently good Cantonese cuisine…
What We had at Sek Yuen Restaurant Kuala Lumpur
As we were out with the boys, we were thankful for GST who knew exactly what to order this evening. We tried out
1. Crispy Chicken Skin with Fish Paste aka “Flat Chicken” (杏花鸡)*
2. Stuffed Oyster and Prawn with Egg Yolk in Crispy Shell (合浦環珠)*
3. Sweet & Sour Fried Pork in Yam Basket
4. Cantonese-style Steam Cat Fish
5. Deep Fried Prawn Salad
6. Stir-fried Eggplant
*Requires pre-order 2 days prior to visit
The entire bill came up to 345RM (or $100SGD) which was rather affordable for the quality that we were about to enjoy…
The Crispy Chicken Skin with Fish Paste aka “Flat Chicken” (杏花鸡) is definitely a “must-order” at Sek Yuen. One really wonders how this dish is even created. You have to first remove the skin from the chicken then pound together a prawn/fish paste. Wrap the said paste with the chicken skin, deep fried and recreate the shape that makes it look like a flattened chicken. Just the description alone is already tiring, imagine the amount of actual work that is required to bring this dish into reality.
And yes, it tastes as good as it looks. The outer layer is crisp while the prawn/fish paste was seafood-sweet. Together, it is a Cantonese take on “surf and turf”, if you know what we mean 😉
The Stuffed Oyster and Prawn with Egg Yolk in Crispy Shell (合浦環珠) at Sek Yuen Restaurant is unlike anything that we’ve ever tried. There’s duck egg, preserved meat, dried oyster and a whole lot of textures and flavours, wrapped in a crispy out layer – made to resemble half a shell egg. Interesting to say the least. If you’re looking for a little more “adventurous” tastes at a Cantonese restaurant, this dish does check the boxes.
The Sweet & Sour Fried Pork in Yam Basket at Sek Yuen Restaurant is definitely one of our favourites this evening. The yam ring was superbly fried – lightly crisp yet dense in taste of the yam within. The sweet and sour pork had the traditional taste though we’d love the pieces to be slightly larger. A great dish.
Our least favourite dish for this evening was probably the Cantonese-style Steam Cat Fish at Sek Yuen. But we must first say that the Cantonese-style steam was very tasty just that the cat fish was a little “bland”. This was agreed by the brothers this evening. So probably an alternative choice of fish with the Cantonese-style steam would be perfect.
The Deep Fried Prawn Salad at Sek Yuen is a delicious appetiser. The prawns were fresh and succulent while the mayonnaise blend accompanied the salad well.
Lastly, the Stir-fried Eggplant is a perfect “rice-stealer”. Still wondering how the chef managed to make the eggplant so so tender.
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All in all, we can totally understand how Sek Yuen Restaurant received their Bib Gourmand. Great food at affordable prices. Plus there were a couple of dishes that we absolutely loved such as the “flat chicken” as well as the stir-fried eggplant. There are actually alot more dishes such as the 8-treasure braised whole duck as well as the paper-wrapped chicken that are signature dishes that require 2 days of order in advance. So if you’re heading over to Sek Yuen, be sure to place some orders in advance before your next visit!
