Exclusive Chinese Omakase Fine Dining at Oriental Group of Restaurants

Once again, the Oriental Group of Restaurants is hosting the much anticipated Annual Celebrity Chefs Signature Feast, this time, prepared by the award-winning culinary master, Chef Frankie Woo in collaboration Oriental Group’s Senior Executive Chef Wong Chin Leong along with the support of his team. The gourmet feast features seven exclusive dinners across The Oriental Group of Restaurants from Aug 22 – 30.

This year’s highlight is Omakase Fine Dining inspired by Japanese cuisine whereby chef Frankie will be working hand-in-hand with chef Chin Leong and team, curating an eight-course menu using only the freshest ingredients.

For this unique collaboration of traditional Chinese cuisine with an Omakase approach, Frankie has prepared unique dishes, including Spanish baby lamb legs imported into Malaysia for the first time, whole 3-head abalone, fresh salmon, giant fresh water prawns, and ocean Garoupa, for a truly unforgettable feast.

Malaysia-born chef Frankie has over 45 years of culinary experience as head chef at numerous 5-star hotels and top-rated restaurants in Malaysia and Singapore. In 2004, he was invited by the James Beard Foundation to be one of Asia’s guest chefs to showcase his culinary skills to chefs around the world. Since its inception, the Foundation had presented the James Beard Award annually, which ranks as the United States’ most reputable award for the culinary industry, also often regarded as the Oscars of the culinary industry. In addition, he also won a gold medal at the Salon Culinaire ’94 competition in Singapore, amongst many other international awards.

Chef Chin Leong have over 30-years of experience in the culinary industry and has created numerous signature dishes for the Group.

Appetiser: Forget Korean fried chicken, garlic chicken wings never tasted this good before; succulent, full of flavour that pops in the mouth, paired together with a unique gimbap coated with crispy seaweed outside and otak-otak in the centre.

Starter: Fresh salmon tartare and roe, easily surpassed all versions of cerviche or tartare in memory, sitting in a simple juice of choy sum (Chinese flowering cabbage), lime and pineapple. Bits of choi po (preserved vegetable) speckled the fish, adding a touch of crunch and slight saltiness for layered flavours.

First main: luxurious whole abalone, while not an unusual dish, came with luscious gravy enriched with abalone stock and seafoody heartiness, good to be slurped down to the very last drop. Not all dumplings are equal as this was obviously far superior, stuffed with the perfect concoction of minced meat, prawns and other secret ingredients to make one heck of a dumpling.

Second main: tender roasted Spanish baby lamb leg paired with salsa and Indian poppadom for added texture and spice. I would have preferred this slightly undercooked for a juicier finish but Frankie opted for a medium well-doneness to cater to diners unaccustomed to Western-style undercooked meat. Excellent marination with ginger, lemongrass, shallot, garlic, mustard but I’ll bet chef Frankie had some other secret herbs up his sleeve. How else would you account for the amazing depth of flavour and umami contained within each bite?

Third Main: Fresh water prawn lighten coated with breadcrumb in special sauce that was milk and sweet spicy chilli sauce. An interesting interpretation, though wasn’t bowled over by the creamy sauce. That’s just my individual preference as other diners loved it.

Final Main: back to traditional steamed fish – a hybrid of garoupa and giant garoupa that revealed sweet flesh light and flaky, accompanied by beautifully balanced bean paste sauce with distinct flavour notes of sweet, spicy, salty in harmony. This would have gone swell with a bowl of fluffy white rice, not that I had any room left in my tummy!

Encore dish: as always, rice to end a perfectly well-executed splendid meal, going beyond the ordinary with wild truffle rice and iberico ribs. Compared to earlier creations, this seemed almost bland, but only because chef chose to highlight the subtle earthiness of the truffle with the sweetness of the braised meat in the rice cooked in superior stock soup.

Dessert: a fitting end of coconut and ice cream, spin-off the mango puddings from dimsum shops, the springy jelly at the bottom plus the rich mango cream and young coconut flesh was quite different from usual offerings. Rich, creamy and fulfilling … this is when we roll out of the restaurant with stuffed silly bellies and happy contented smiles.

A rare opportunity indeed for a refined Chinese Omakase culinary journey, the special seven nights only eight-course menu is priced at RM300++ per person, with a minimum party of four while a 10-person table is RM2888++.

For reservation, call:

RUYI (Pork Free) – Aug 22 (03-2083 0288)

Oriental Treasures – Aug 23 (03-2242 2382)                                 

Oriental Pavilion – Aug 24 (03-7956 9288)

The Han Room – Aug 25 (03-2284 8833)
Noble Mansion – Aug 26 (03-7932 3288)

Oriental Star – Aug 29 (03-9134 8488)

Noble House – Aug 30 (03-2145 8822)