Dim Sum at Zing, Grand Millenium hotel

The day after my SS2 quest for food, my parents, brothers and grandparents all came down to KL for the long weekend for holidays. They were staying with my aunt and uncle who were already retired and enjoying life to its fullest! :) Anyway, I met up with them in the morning to have breakfast together. Since a large number of people is involved, considerable waiting time is not a question. *LOL* While waiting for everyone to be ready, I took my time to snap pictures around my aunt's house, which was recently renovated. Just look at this pretty angel water feature that greeted us right after the entrance! I was very intrigued with it because the crystal ball changed colours continuously. It is apparently good for fengshui of the house.

Pretty water feature

I also loved how regal this area looked, with a pair of vintage chairs and the grand floor to ceiling windows as the backdrop. Made me feel like a queen whenever I sat on it. :)

Nice floor-to-ceiling windows

Of course, not forgetting to camwhore a little bit while waiting. *LOL* The floor! Don't you just love the floor? It looks like granite but it's actually imported marble from some European country.

Camwhoring at aunt's place

I tried to take a picture of Saucer and my brothers. This is what happens when you take pictures of guys when they are engrossed with computer games. Their eyes would be fixated to the screen while still attempting to pose with a smile. *LOL* This picture is just hilarious!

Taking pics of brothers and Saucer

The garden was also well-maintained with pretty cropped grass and flowers. Took picture of this garden table and chairs, which I assumed to be rarely used. Not in the Malaysian hot weather.

Garden tables and chairs

And look at this darling man-made waterfall at the backyard! It has real carps in the pool beneath, I just forgot to capture them. You could actually see this waterfall while dining in the kitchen. How splendid. It gives you a sense of calm ambience away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Mini fountain

After about an hour of waiting and stomach growling, we're finally ready to get our arses up and headed to the Grand Millenium Hotel in KL. It was a very grand hotel with a grand lobby, just located next to the Pavillion KL shopping mall. In the midst of the grandeur, there's a Chinese restaurant that serves traditional pork-free Cantonese cuisine by award-winning Master Chef Hew Choong Mun and team, called Zing.

Meticulous table setting

The environment of the restaurant was very impressive, with perfect table settings and extremely high-back chairs. The first dish ordered was the 'wantan noodles' in soup. The noodles came with a generous portion of shrimp dumplings or wantan, with very delicious soup. I absolutely have to give 2 thumbs-up for this dish, because of the al dante (can I use al dante for Chinese noodles? :P) noodles, and the amazingly fresh and succulent shrimps in the dumplings! It may not look huge in the picture, but there were at least 3 fresh shrimps inside EACH dumpling! Heavenly to the bite! This is a definite must-try if you ever dine in Zing. My aunt loved the soup so much that she actually asked them to refill the soup!

Wantan noodles - Must try!

Next up is the porridge with chicken shreds and century eggs. The texture was smooth and creamy, with the exact amount of flavour. You know how some porridge render you feeling thirsty afterwards because of the MSG used? Well this was definitely not one of them!

Porridge

You haven't tried dim sum until you ate 'har kau' or shrimp dumplings. We tried two varieties of this, namely Sichuan style and the old school style. I prefer the original one better, maybe because the sight of oil in the Sichuan style dish turned me off. Anyway, both had equal amount of succulent fresh prawns. I swear, my cholesterol level must have increased a notch just during breakfast itself.

Sichuan shrimp dumplings & Classic shrimp dumplings

Then there's the fried shrimp rolls (shrimp again!) which did not disappoint. Although I must warn you, this dish was addictive! Since it was served piping hot, the skin was very crispy without being hard. It just crumbled with your gentle bite. Needless to say, fresh shrimps again. The next dish was the vegetarian dumpling. From the look of it, the skin was amazingly thin and there were plenty of vegetable variants within. Well, I did not really like this dumpling, not because I dislike vegetables, but the skin was a bit too soft. It gave me the feeling of eating those half-cooked starch (like glue). Haha... Fret not! That's just my humble opinion. Saucer found it not too bad though.

Fried shrimp rolls & Vegetarian dumplings

The following dish was Zing's signature dish, according to my aunt. It's called 'char siew sou' in Cantonese, which is pastry with marinated BBQ chicken filling. This delicacy is usually made from pork, but since this restaurant serves pork-free food, everything pork was substituted by chicken instead. Trust me, you wouldn't even know the difference! The pastry was a delight to eat! It's not too thick and since it came right out of the oven, it was still fragrant and crispy. As for the filling, I'd think they could be more generous with it, because that's what makes a 'char siew sou' delicious!

Signature 'char siew sou' - Pastry with BBQ chicken fillings

Up next was the traditional fish balls, except that these were made from a special type of fish and they were shaped to be larger than most of the normal fish balls. There were also fried 'sui kow' or dumplings. To me, these two were nothing to shout about.

Fish ball & Fried dumplings

The glutinous rice wrapped with leaves is also a traditional dim sum dish that most would not miss. I, however, did not have a preference for this because it didn't look interesting and the taste was nothing special too. I don't think I would order this if given a choice.

Glutinous rice wrapped with leaves

Finally, another must-have in the dim sum world is the 'char siew pau', or BBQ meat dumplings! As usual, the conventional pork meat was replaced with chicken in this restaurant. Look at how fluffy the dumplings were! Soft and smooth, and best of all, it didn't stick to your palate or the gaps between your teeth. I have tried dumplings from other restaurants before and it was definitely a pain when the dumpling skin/bread kept sticking to all the hard-to-reach places in my mouth! Do give these a try! :)

Char siew pau

Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur

160 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

T: +60 3 2117 4888
F: +60 3 2142 1441

Operating Hours
12:00 to 22:00