Stadium Negara Restaurant @ Jalan Yap Kwan Seng

Stadium Negara Restaurant @ Jalan Yap Kwan Seng is a Chinese restaurant that specialises in steamboat but also offers a typical Chinese meal of dishes eaten with rice (very much similar to a dai chow kind of place), only difference is that the dishes here are pork-free + you can find more premium dishes (also at more premium prices lah) than those offered in a dai chow eatery.

If you're wondering why the restaurant is named Restoran Stadium Negara, that's because they used to operate near Stadium Negara before moving here (hence the name) and they were very well-known for their old-school steamboat (using charcoal) at that time.  I've never been to the original one but I've been here before...usually on the invite of my sister-in-law as it's one of their family's frequented restaurants.  Because it's pork-free, you do see Malay clientele here and gwai lo (it's quite popular with expatriates and foreign tourists due to its proximity to KLCC).

So, the place was a venue for a family dinner one evening.  Please excuse the "not so stellar" photos as it was a round table seating without a turntable (or lazy susan), so some of the photos had to be zoomed in from afar + I wasn't planning to write about it initially (hence there weren't any photos of the place) but decided to since the food turned out pretty good, pricey but good. ^_~

Now this first dish of Sweet & Sour Crab Meat Sauce @ RM45 (for M, RM60 for L & RM35 for S) is rather unique in the sense I've not seen it offered elsewhere.  It's actually the sweet and sour sauce for the crabs but you can have it without the crabs (especially when crabs cost RM175 per kg when I had a quick glance at the menu...ouch)!! O_o

Never mind lah, this one poor man's dish....lol (above is an archive photo from 5 years ago)!  The first time I had this here (my sis-in-law ordered it and I didn't see the menu, so I didn't know the price), I thought they were crabs that have their meat extracted and cooked in the sauce (how nice, I thought, for lazy people who don't like to go through the mess of picking through the shells).  I took the photo then coz I was fascinated by the fact that a restaurant would offer just the sweet sour sauce without the crabs.

And no, there's no crab meat in it (not that I can taste...perhaps if there were, probably only a little), it's just egg bits cooked in a sweet-sour sauce.  You have to watch out for the bits of cili api (bird's eye chillies) in the sauce which gives it more oomph!

And just like any sweet sour crab dish, you must get a side order of fluffy, soft, crisp on the outside Fried Mantou @ RM16 (10 pcs) for which these deep-fried buns are known for...and that is to dunk them into the sauce to absorb all those lovely flavours (you can have it with steamed mantou too).  It's just like eating sweet sour crabs....minus the crabs!

This next dish of BBQ Chicken Wings @ RM48 (for 10 wings) is a must-have (it's super popular) as it's really, really good.  I've eaten my fair share of delicious BBQ chicken wings and this one ranks right up there with some of them.

Grilled the traditional way over charcoal, it comes with that sought-after smoky taste while the meat remains tender and succulent.  If everything is better with bacon, I'll have to add everything is better cooked over charcoal.  The well charred chicken was very tasty with its skin lightly sticky from the honey in the marinade.  I have just two words for it (or is that three)....finger-licking good! ^o^

My sis-in-law did most of the ordering but this Sizzling/Hot Plate Beef @ RM90 (I'm assuming this was L) was my pick.  The beef slices were cooked with onions, green bell peppers and carrot and served on a hot plate. Both my husband and brother-in-law thought it was "ngan" (chewy) but it was acceptably tender to me seeing that they were sliced thinly.  I would describe it as not "wat" (smooth) enough (thereby making it feel chewy) as it didn't look like the beef was velveted (more chef-y term) or tossed in a cornflour slurry (more layman term) to yield a more tender texture.

I was given the receipt at the end of the meal (the bill was shared among 3 families) since I would need it for my blogpost.  If I had been more aware of the price, I would have refrained from ordering it. >.<  Although the taste was still enjoyable (for me), I thought it was way too pricey for the small portion given.  Jing Hoe Mei's version for a fraction of the price (RM25 to be exact!) instantly came to mind as a comparison.

The Fried La La with Chillies @ RM60 (for L, RM45 for M & RM25 for S) had fresh, plump lala cooked with lots of garlic and bird's eye chillies.

I loved the heat the fiery chillies brought to the dish.  Overall, the dish was well flavoured and very tasty from loads of garlic.  It was one of my favourite dishes here. ^.^

Next was this dish of Tow Foo (so indicated in the receipt which I aptly renamed Homemade Bean Curd with Vegetables) @ RM35 (for L, RM30 for M & RM20 for S) coz that's what it looked like to me.  You see, I don't have the proper names of the dishes...and can only assume the names since I can't find any latest menu online (as this is such an old/long established restaurant that's no longer a hype...lol).

A homey, comforting dish of fried, soft, silky tofu (housemade, of course) cooked simply with prawns, mushrooms, broccoli and carrots that was executed well but, again, portion is on the small side.  If that is a L-sized portion, I shudder to think what small would look like.

Our vegetable dish of Stir-Fried Kangkung with Belacan @ RM35 (for L, RM25 for M & RM16 for S) looked as if it needed more belacan and chillies but, surprisingly, the flavour was alright.

We ordered (Yong Chow) Fried Rice @ RM39 (this is a 3 pax portion) for our rice component since most of us weren't having white rice with this meal.  This is a highly popular order here judging by its many orders (we know how foreigners love our Chinese fried rice, don't we?).

Fried with the simplest of ingredients of just small prawns, egg and spring onions, the skill of the chef in frying this is at the forefront.  I actually like my fried rice cooked with only a few ingredients for the taste of the rice to shine...and shine it did! ;)  The texture of the nicely separated grains of rice was just right...with a bit of that sought-after wok hei detected.

Our final dish was an order of Fried Meehoon @ RM45 (this is 3 pax portion).  Not sure what this noodle is called but it's meehoon fried in black sauce with small prawns, minced meat (chicken), mushrooms, onions, sugar snap peas, beansprouts, red chillies and egg.

Another dish that looked simple but the flavours turned out better than expected.  It was the texture of the nicely separated strands of meehoon (not lumpy, soft or mushy) and those crunchy, fat beansprouts that won me over.

The 2 Honey Lemon @ RM9.50 each, 2 Fresh Coconut @ RM8.50 each, a Jug of Watermelon @ RM45 and 2 Plain Rice (RM5) the nine of us had made up the balance of the bill which came to a total of about RM550. Pricey or not?  At a glance, RM60 per head actually sounds reasonable...but looking at the type of dishes we had, the price might not seem that value for money (note that there's no fish or prawn dish).  Steamboat (RM35 per head) is still offered here but it's now done over a gas burner instead of the old-school method of using charcoal (this one is fast becoming a past relic).

My Personal Opinion

All in all, the food tastes pretty good but prices are rather steep (further compounded by the small servings) for us locals especially if you order seafood items...apparently not so for foreign visitors (of course not-lah with their favourable exchange rate!) who come for the crabs, so do be prepared or forewarned.  Prices and portions are the main two grouses in the reviews I see for this place...and I can see why. >_<

I thought the fried la la, fried rice and especially the BBQ chicken wings stood out in terms of flavour and were my favourites.  So, was the food good enough to warrant a revisit?  Sure, if I get an invite for a family dinner gathering (or even if we split the bill) coz food always taste better with more people.  Would I come here with my family on our own though?  Probably not (I can get a better bang for my buck with RM180...lol)!  But, hey, if you're ok with the prices, don't let me stop you from trying out the place. ^_~

Restoran Stadium Negara

Jalan Yap Kwan Seng

50450 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2161 8557

Nasi Lemak Tanglin @ Jalan Tun Perak

When I was reminded by phonghongbakes that a Nasi Lemak Tanglin (original recipe since 1948) opened up near her, I was reminded of just how much I've missed eating their impressive nasi lemak.  So, I was elated when I found them on ShopeeFood recently (and I was not out of distance for them to reach me...yay!).

The branch I first ate at was at their original outlet in Jalan Cenderasari.....and this outlet is well known to be perpetually crowded all the time (I witnessed that myself when I was there).  So, not wanting to be in an overly crowded place (in these post-pandemic times) and having to queue but still with a desire to eat it, delivery is the next best option.  I tekan tekan (press) my phone to order from the Jalan Cenderasari branch and noted that delivery was RM8 (haiya, I still have to pay RM3 after offsetting a RM5 delivery discount).  I'm quite kedekut (stingy) when it comes to paying for delivery coz I'd always add that charge to my food (in my head) and find that it becomes no longer worth it especially if you order for one person only! >.<

Just as I was about to confirm my order, I decided to click on the restaurant's info button and found that they have a third branch (the second one is in Bukit Damansara as informed by my blogger friend) in the city centre at Jalan Tun Perak (and, guess what, the delivery fee is cheaper at only RM6).  Nasib baik I belum tekan (luckily I've not confirmed) my order yet...hehe!

So, I quickly changed and confirmed my order with Nasi Lemak Tanglin @ Jalan Tun Perak and got myself the Nasi Lemak + Daging @ RM13.50.  This, incidentally, was what we wanted to try when we visited the Jalan Cenderasari outlet the first time but it ran out when we got there late morning.

Their daging is actually beef rendang lah....and they gave two good-sized chunks of it (if you're not a big-eater, one chunk is more than enough for breakfast, so you might want to share your other chunk). ^_~  When I had to ply it apart with my fork and spoon, I thought...oh oh....it must be tough.  Surprisingly it wasn't.  It was still fairly tender but not to the extent of fall apart tender as some would prefer.  The rendang flavours however were spot on. ^.^

As for the sambal, it was difficult to ascertain the flavour on its own as it was mixed in with all the rendang sauce already.  All I know is that it didn't feel spicy at all (and based on my previous review, the sambal was lightly sweet but more savoury).  The rice tasted even more delicious with all the sambal and rendang sauce all mixed together (eat it like nasi kandar style...lol).  Though it was just a tad salty for me (should be fine for others), I still enjoyed it overall.

If you're someone who always feels that some nasi lemak vendors are too stingy with ikan bilis (fried anchovies) and nuts, you certainly won't have cause for complaint here.  They were so abundant, it was too much for me.  They were big ones, not necessarily good quality though (coz I can see the strip than runs through the ikan bilis is black, not white) but at least they were crunchy and not hard.

In order to be eligible for the RM5 off discount voucher for the delivery fee (that I bought), my total order had to be at least RM15, so I went with a second pack of Nasi Lemak + Telur Bali @ RM7.90 (might as well satisfy myself cukup-cukup, eh?).  With that, I also got a RM4 discount off the food.

What is this telur Bali you might ask?  Well, I was wondering the same thing myself too....egg from Bali? Kekeke!  Anyway, it looked like a crumbed (and fried) hard-boiled egg cooked in sambal...but tasted no different from any sambal-cooked hard-boiled egg (except this one had a slightly firmer bite)...just the name sounding a bit more intriguing, that's all.

This packet of nasi lemak however tasted a lot more spicier than the earlier one with beef rendang.  Not sure if it's because they gave a lot more sambal for this (than the one with rendang) or the spiciness was from the sambal in the telur Bali.  Definitely preferred the one with beef rendang.

One thing that caught me by surprise was just how hefty the portions were although I did manage to finish my packet for breakfast, I'd rather have a smaller breakfast portion at a lower price.  I remember the serving portions to be really small when I dined in at their outlet (and even commented in my earlier review) that one might need two plates to be fully satisfied.  Then again, the dine-in prices (then) were also a lot cheaper than the delivery prices (now).  So, be warned that the big portion sizes are more suitable for lunch rather than breakfast.

After such a heavy breakfast, I could barely finish my second packet for lunch.  When a nasi lemak comes served on a banana leaf, I keep my portion for later along with the banana leaf.  There's no throwing away a banana leaf for the aroma it lends to the food (perceived or otherwise...haha) + food always seem less oily when it rests on a banana leaf (like banana leaf rice), don't you think? ;D

My Personal Opinion

Tanglin's nasi lemak is still one of my favourites although I don't eat it often enough because of the location but now that it's on ShopeeFood, that could be a different story.

Although overall the food is a tad salty for me, I'm sure others would be ok with its more robust flavours.  My favourite is still the sotong (squid) but the daging is good too especially the rendang flavours.  An add-on telur Bali could offer something different from the standard hard-boiled egg.

Other nasi lemak choices include ayam Bali, ayam gulai, ayam goreng (fried chicken), kerang (cockles), paru (cow lungs) and limpa (cow spleen) if you prefer these options.  They also offer some noodle dishes, lauk and Nasi Padang (for lunch on weekdays).

This is certainly worthy to be in my saved list on ShopeeFood for nasi lemak (along with Mak Su Corner) even if the flavours are a bit robust but since it's good, I'll see past that.....but I think I'll need to order this for lunch and not breakfast! ^o^

Nasi Lemak Tanglin

10 Jalan Tun Perak

City Centre

50050 Kuala Lumpur

Bucked Out Seafood Buffet @ Gobo Chit-Chat, Traders Hotel

I've heard great things about the Bucked Out Seafood Buffet (Festive Edition) @ Gobo Chit-Chat, Traders Hotel from the many bloggers' reviews I've read and had always wanted to try.  So, here I was with some friends in December.  I didn't plan to write a review of the buffet experience I had here but felt compelled to do so after my experience as I found out something I just had to share (hopefully it might be of some knowledge/benefit to some of my readers).

This bucked out seafood buffet I think started sometime in mid-2018 and I even read that people would start to line up at the entrance to get in even before the buffet is due to open.  I mentioned that to my friends though I wasn't convinced myself that there would be such a scenario seeing that the buffet has been around for quite some time now.  Nevertheless, we got there about 10 minutes after 6.30 pm (the official starting time)...and guess what?  There was indeed a queue...still! O_o  And yours truly was naive enough to walk right up to the counter and asked if we could go in first since we made reservations...and was politely told that everyone that's currently in queue had made prior reservations too...oops! >_<

By the time we finally got in (luckily the queue moved pretty quickly, so it was just about a 10-minute wait), I could see people making a beeline for the live mud crabs and attacking the seafood like there's no tomorrow (albeit in an orderly, not chaotic, fashion).  The mud crabs (being the most popular) disappeared really fast and they had to be replenished by the time we got to them! :O

So I grabbed two quickly and put them into a bucket....hence the name bucked out seafood.  You just grab whatever raw seafood you like and put it into a bucket together with your order number (that you'll find waiting for you at your table) and hand it over to be cooked (there's an assigned staff to handle the orders). You don't have to choose the sauce as the crabs are cooked in one way only.

Then we went on to fill another bucket with the rest of the seafood available and choose the sauce we want. You can have your pick of salted egg sauce, tom yum sauce, Sichuan chilli sauce, curry cheese sauce and Thai coriander lime garlic sauce (the choices for the day are found at the order counter, most of which happens to be spicy in nature)! :(  Besides mud crabs, the variety of seafood available includes:

Flower Crabs & Bamboo Clams

Slipper Lobsters, Freshwater Prawns & Tiger Prawns

Scallops, Black & Green Mussels

Yabbies

Clams

Also available was the seafood on ice for your immediate enjoyment while waiting for your seafood to be cooked and delivered to your table. 

Freshly Shucked Oysters

Steamed Baby Lobsters

Lightly steamed Flower Crabs & Prawns

Alaskan King Crab Legs (of course nothing like the size of the Alaskan king crabs you see in the series, Deadliest Catch...kekeke!).

I ended up enjoying the ready-to-eat seafood on ice the most (read on to find out why).  The oysters, prawns and king crab legs were fresh but not the baby lobsters as the meat turned out very mushy (I left that uneaten).  I liked the king crab legs enough to have a second helping.

Finally, our cooked-to-order live mud crabs arrived...and it's done only one way...as Chilli Crabs!  Although we took two crabs, I think we got back only one (!) as we found only two claws.  Even the "spaceship" (aka the top shell) of the crab was missing.  Not sure if it was deliberate (to give us less than what we ordered) or the orders got mixed up. >.<

The chilli crabs, served with fried mantou buns, were fresh (they're live crabs after all) and the sauce rather spicy...too spicy (if you ask me) until I can't really taste the crab.  The sauce felt a little thick and gooey as if the crabs had been coated in flour (and fried) giving the sauce its thick consistency.  You'll be given a pair of plastic gloves but no other tools to help with the messy eating of the crabs.  There's no crab mallet to hammer away at the claws, no seafood cracker to crack the shells nor seafood pick to scoop out the meat. You just have to pick apart the already cracked shells with your gloved hands...and, by the way, the low-quality plastic gloves are so thin, they crumple and puncture easily rendering them practically useless.  It's good for a one-time use only (maybe it won't even last one course of eating), so don't hope you can put them on again.  You'd be better off just using your hands. :>(  We ended up having only one plate of crabs (no seconds) coz 1) it was messy to eat and the gloves didn't help, 2) it was time consuming since we didn't have the proper utensils and 3) it didn't taste all that impressive anyway.

For our next bucket of all other seafood, we chose to have them cooked in Thai Coriander Lime Garlic Sauce which turned out to be my favourite of the three sauces we tried.  This sauce hits you with its fresh, tangy and slightly garlicky taste which went well with seafood but it also came with spicy (but tolerable) undertones.

As for the rest of the seafood, the prawns (both the freshwater and tiger prawns) were the freshest of the lot and the bamboo clams were nice.  The yabbies (meat was slightly mushy) and clams weren't all that fresh (almost all the clam meat were detached from their shells after cooking which is an indication of just how not fresh they were) but the scallops were the worst.

I went back to the seafood counters to collect another bucket of shellfish to be cooked another way.  And that was how I came to find out what I found out.

Well, the story goes like this....after I collected another round of seafood I had to wait for the assigned staff to take down my order number and choice of sauce (I was second in line).  But, lo and behold, he left the counter to take cooked seafood to waiting diners coz they were understaffed.  Actually, the queue wasn't very long, there were just four of us but he went away for so long (attending to customers, I'm assuming) that we were made to stand there for more than 10 minutes...for something that should have taken only a minute or two (the fourth person in queue left when he could wait no more).   So, while I was standing around waiting with nothing to do (while kinda fuming inside), my eyes were drawn to some cooking action behind the seafood counters.  It was then that I saw staff throwing buckets of seafood into pots of boiling water.  The blanched seafood is then fished out from the water and what seemed like the staff scooping sauce into the bucket which contains the parboiled seafood.  I think that was what I saw (I'm 100% sure I saw the seafood being boiled though I can't say I'm 100% sure it was the sauce that got ladled into the buckets).  By then, my turn came up and I left hurriedly to get back to my friends.  I didn't see how or where the chilli crabs were cooked though.

What really got me was the 'cooked to order' concept here which I clearly misunderstood.  Their 'cooked to order' simply meant seafood being blanched in hot water before tossing in sauce (and not cooked in a wok proper at a live cooking station).  No wonder the seafood tasted bland coz how much flavour can you infuse into them through blanching without tossing in sauce! >.<  I wish the reviews had been more specific on how the seafood was cooked.

Anyway, this was our second platter of Mixed Shellfish that contained mostly prawns (both freshwater and tiger prawns) and razor clams for obvious reasons.  We decided to leave out the scallops, yabbies and slipper lobsters and omitted the mussels too since most of us aren't fans of mussels.

We went with Salted Egg Sauce for this cook.  I could smell the salted egg when the platter arrived at the table, so that was a good sign.  The salted egg sauce tasted alright but I feel there was just not enough of it to coat the shellfish thoroughly and lusciously.  They didn't even trim the feelers which looked rather unsightly.

Now you know why I said (earlier) that I enjoyed the cold shellfish the most especially the king crab legs, prawns and oyster.  But before you overdose on seafood, there's also Roast Turkey which is a must-have in the tradition of Christmas...and there were three awaiting diners to sink their teeth in.

Don't like roast turkey?  How about Roast Beef then?  Two big slabs of roast beef sitting on a bed of roasted vegetables of asparagus, carrots and zucchini.

The roast beef was served with a delectable mushroom sauce and it turned out to be the other food item (besides the seafood on ice) that I had seconds as it was really tender and delicious.

Of course, like any buffet, there's a spread of other hot food available too (spanning Chinese, Malay and western cooking styles) for which I had no time for (coz devouring shellfish took a lot of time!) and few photos of.  I can't even remember what were there but I did see sushi, sashimi, tempura, grilled salmon head, salads, antipasto, noodle stations, pasta, steamed and baked whole fish, cheese board...and a lot more I didn't pay attention to (nor took photos of).

Some of the cakes, pastries and desserts on display...they were plentiful which my friends did attack....not me though, I didn't have nor want any.

Any more grouses?  Yeah, sure...I have a couple more.  The table-of-four we got (behind some glass partition), the seats were against the wall/partition so getting in and out was cumbersome (the one sitting on the outside needs to vacate her seat when the one on the inside needs to get out...haiz).  The table space was also too narrow and with the large metal tray (meant for the seafood) occupying most of the table space, there was hardly any space left to put a proper plate.  No plates were provided to hold the shells either (not that the table space had room for more plates), so we used the plates from the buffet but their smallish size couldn't contain the massive amount of shells.  In the end, we dumped them in the huge metal tray that the cooked seafood was poured onto.  Service was also slow in clearing plates as they were clearly understaffed to handle the massive crowd (you even have to squeeze pass tables on the way to the washroom).  The seafood counters smelled fishy mid-way through the buffet when I walked past which clearly indicated that not all the shellfish were fresh.  And when we left, we were shocked by the flat-rate parking of RM17 (don't park at Traders Hotel!).

After dinner, my friends wanted to adjourn somewhere for drinks, so we took the lift all the way to the 33rd floor of Traders Hotel's...but no, we didn't linger as I found the place too noisy for my liking + all the good seats were already taken.  If you've gotten one of the cabanas with full height windows, this would have been the stunning view that awaits you from their Rooftop Skybar (where this shot was taken).

We then walked all the way to KLCC to look for another place to drink and chat....and took some photos along the way.  P/S: This was the tree that was in my earlier trivia...hehe! ^_~

We realised most of the F&B outlets in KLCC were already closed by 11-ish or, if not, were on the verge of closing.  We did find one still open, Delirium, but were told that they'll be closing soon too...in half an hour, so we left as it made no sense to spend money to only sit for just half an hour.

All the night time photos you see here were taken by my friend....with her phone camera, of course...which was obviously much more canggih than mine! ;D

My Personal Opinion

If you're someone who can eat a crazy shitload of seafood and won't be overly critical of the taste or if the seafood isn't utterly fresh, then the price of RM159 for all-you-can-eat will certainly appeal to you.

But, if you're like me who eats a gentle amount and values flavour and freshness above all else, then this might not quite fit the bill.  Ultimately, the seafood tasted bland coz most of the flavour was probably lost in the poaching liquid.

In the end, the seafood buffet was underwhelming for me in many aspects but most of all for the lack of taste in the seafood itself.  I prefer to eat seafood that's really fresh, properly cooked (and flash-fried in a hot wok) together with its sauce to infuse flavour into the seafood and one that comes with the proper utensils for getting at them...and that means preferably from restaurants who are seafood specialists of some sort.

Well, we met....and we ate...but we did more chit-chatting at Gobo Chit-Chat Meet & Eat (what an appropriate name!) than eating...which is a good thing (I think!) as the promise of super fresh and tasty seafood from reviews didn't materialise.  Sometimes I wonder if the food we eat is of the same standard as those provided to food bloggers at invited reviews just to entice us.  In retrospect, I wish the reviews (that I relied upon) had been more forthcoming too with a better description of the cook-to-order concept.  It wasn't quite what I expected.  So, once was quite enough for me, thank you! >_<

Gobo Chit-Chat on Level 5
Traders Hotel Kuala Lumpur
Persiaran KLCC
Kuala Lumpur City Centre
50088 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2332 9888