Food Review ~ Jade Pot Restaurant

by BUTTERfly

My first food review. Its been delay for quite some time as I'm too busy indulging myself in God's greatest creation, FOOD! My belly has been victim to my addiction, but I think of it in a good way. A bear need a belly. Skinny bear aren't cute. Period.

Figure 1: The soup base. On the left is the Jade Pot Superior.

Of Steamboat and Dim Sums

I bought a Groupon deal for dim sum meal at Jade Pot last year. It was really good,  definitely a good deal. RM10 gets me 5 meals. I can't remember the exact meal, but it does consist of siew mai,  Hong Kong's style chee cheong fun, porridge, etc. Didn't take any picture the first time because once my eyes set upon the meals, let's just say the rest are history.

So when I chance upon Groupon offer again, I took the opportunity to buy more. This time, they offer cash voucher instead which excludes service charge. This means the service charge has to be paid separately. They also offer cash voucher for steamboat. Both at 50% off.

Excitedly, I make my way to Jade Pot the moment they open their business for the day on a Saturday to savor their dim sum again. Funnily enough, the restaurant opens at 11.30am. Maybe they cater to brunch dim sum meal instead of breakfast. However, the second time around, I crash and burn.

Figure 2: The combination platter consisting of two of each type.

The dim sum wasn't like the first time at all. The chee cheong fun wasn't translucent with the right amount of oil. It was thick and sticky. Then the porridge kind of diluted. Their fry wu kuok (not sure whether I spell it correctly) was bathing in oil when it's cool. I actually invited a friend along, so it was quite an embarrassment. I can only conclude that maybe due to the crowd and the fact that they just open business for the day, could be the factors that contributed to the poor quality. I will still recommend dim sum here, but only if the crowd is manageable and you are lucky on that day. The service is pretty poor this second time around too as they couldn't cope. So do expect waiting. 

Get Down to Business
This post is going to be about their steamboat instead. Honestly, I was a bit hesitant after the dim sum but since I bought the Groupon, not going to let it go to waste. So dragging pEANutbutter and flyingraKUN along, we head for a dimsum meal. I came out unscathed, and feel the food was above average although it wasn't excellent. Here is the breakdown of what we ordered:

Figure 3: Clam (lala)

1. The soup, an in-house specialty call Jade Pot Superior Soup was really good. It's sweet and rich. Upon further inspection (and with confirmation from the waiter), it's actually ABC soup, but a real good one.  The Tom Yam soup wasn't bad either. And the best thing of all, it's refillable, free-of-charge. Highly recommended. There is 3 types of soup in total which you can choose from. (Rating:5/5)

2. For the Combination Platter, one can choose 6-, 8- or 10- combination. You can also order all this individually, but I opt to have the 6-combination as I wanted to try a little bit of each. There are a total of 11 types of balls and dumplings to choose from. For Combination Platter, they will give you 2 of each balls and dumplings that you choose. What I ordered in the 6-combinations are denoted in Figure 1. I think it's made by the in-house chef, not something which you can buy from the processed food vendor. (Rating:5/5)

Figure 4: Enoki Mushroom and Pork slice

3. There is a few option for seafood such as clam (lala), fish, etc. I only order the clam as the fish is very pricey (Imagine eating fish in Tai Thong). However, the clam wasn't that good as there is a lot of sand and it wasn't fresh. (Rating:1/5)

4. There is also a few options for vegetables and mushroom which you will find in a typical steamboat restaurant. I ordered the Enoki Mushroom. Can't say much about the mushroom as I overcooked it. (Rating: Inconclusive)

5. We also order thinly sliced pork meat (it's like bacon). Just boil it few seconds as it was suppose to be eaten medium rare. (Rating 5/5)
 

Figure 5: Hong Kong noodle

 6. For me, a meal wouldn't be complete without some carbohydrate. Jade Pot offer a few typical options of noodles for steamboat, but a Hong Kong noodle caught my attention since I never heard of it. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't any special than a typical yee mee, except for lighter color. I also kind of feel the noodle has stale (or masuk angin, if you know what I mean) so when you cook it in the soup base, the texture wasn't solid. But it could also be the noodle's texture is meant to be that way. (Rating:2/5)

7. Since it's a steamboat meal, I ordered Chinese Tea (good for detoxification). It came in a funny but cute, kidney shaped teapot. Although the food is pricey, but the tea was reasonably priced. Hot water is refillable, free-of-charge. (Rating;5/5)
 

8. The service is good when there wasn't that many customer. But when it's pack, the waiter and waitress consciously ignore your call. Well, there are normal human beings, like you and me. I don't think they are paid well anyway. So, be a little patience. (Rating:3/5)

Figure 6: The kidney shape teapot

9. A few type of sauces. One particular sauce which look like thousand island sauce but it wasn't. It taste horrible and smell weird. Chilli flake was alright. As for the rest, we didn't try. (Rating: 2/5)

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Environment
It was quite a pricey steamboat as it's ala-carte, not the all-you-can-eat buffet style. However, the restaurant ambient is nice, it's quiet and they are quite attentive with their service (again, I emphasize, this depends on the volume of the crowd). The decor' of the restaurant is typical Chinese restaurant (ie: Tai Thong, Oversea, etc). They do have space for private dining. I would say it's an excellent place to have a quiet family dinner.

The Damage

	Breakdown							MYR
1.	Soup combination (can pick 2 types of soup):							15.00
	a)	Superior Jade Pot (House specialty)
	b)	Tom Yam
2.	6 combination platter (2 of each type)							16.80
	a)	Fish Balls
	b)	Meat Balls with Duck Egg Yolk
	c)	Siew Mai (Jade Pot specialty)
	d)	Meat Balls with Mushroom
	e)	Prawn Wantan
	f)	Dumpling (Har Kau)
3.	Thinly sliced pork							7.90
4.	Clam (lala) - small portion							6.00
5.	Enoki Mushroom - small portion							3.40
6.	Hong Kong noodle (lighter color yee mee)							5.50
7.	Chinese Tea (2 pax)							4.00
8.	Service Charge (10%)							5.86
							TOTAL	64.45

Figure 7: Variety of sauces

Figure 8: The weird thousand island sauce

Coordinate:
3.08634,101.673092