All-You-Can-Eat Dim Sum at Golden Sands Resort Lobby Lounge

*** Updates as at 26 October 2011: The Garden Cafe has since stopped offering the All-You-Can-Eat dim sum promotion ***

Fancy a Yum Cha session in a tropical garden setting by the beach? Then head on to Golden Sands Resort in Batu Ferringhi Penang for the All-You-Can-Eat dim sum fare at its Garden Cafe or Lobby Lounge. You can choose to savour the mouth watering dim sum for either brunch, lunch or tea because the session runs from 12 Noon to 4 pm daily.

It was really nice of Golden Sands to invite us to try out their All-You-Can-Eat Dim Sum which has just been introduced since July this year. The setting of the dim sum fare at the Lobby Lounge or Garden Cafe is ideal for a relaxed afternoon tea session, the Oriental way.

You may choose from a list of up to 30 choices of steamed and deep fried dim sum. You will find Dim Sum favourites such as delicious steamed prawn dumplings, Shanghai chicken buns, parsley shark's fin dumplings, deep-fried diced BBQ chicken with yam, baked BBQ chicken puffs, seafood rolls with scallop, deep-fried Golden Pear dumplings and more on the menu.

Porridge



Watermelon Seed Ball (chicken and prawn paste, diced carrot, water chestnut, watermelon seed, rolled into balls and deep fried), Golden Pear Dumpling (curry vegetable, stuffed in glutinuos flour dough, crumbed and deep fried)

To save space, a variety of dim sum is served on one plate. To ensure that everyone gets to taste the dim sum, e.g. four pieces of the same dim sum will be served for a company of four pax. The dim sum is only prepared when ordered.

Seaweed Siew Mai
Minced chicken, prawn, mushroomand seaweed wrapped with glutinous rice wrapper, served steamed



Parsley Sharks Fin Dumpling
Marinated chicken, prawn, mushroom and parsley, wrapped with wantan skin, served steamed



Prawn Dumpling
Prawn meat wrapped with crystal glutinous rice fluor wrapper, served steamed

Hong Kong Style Lotus Leaf Rice
An ultimate steamed rice in lotus leaf with chicken, mushroom, dried prawn and egg

Parsley dumpling (minced chicken, prawn, parsley and mushroom, wrapped with spinach wantan, served steamed), Spinach roll with chicken toast (chicken toast with minced chicken, prawn, wrapped with spinach wantan skin, served steamed)

Siew Mai (steamed wantan skin wrapped with minced chicken, prawn and mushroom), Chicken crown dumpling (chicken and prawn meat, wrapped with crystal glutinuos rice fluor wrapper, served steamed)

Jade roll (combination of minced chicken, prawn, crab stick, mushroom and Chinese parsley, wrapped with spinach wantan skin, served steamed), Phoenix roll with black pepper (marinated chicken, prawn, carrot and black pepper, wrapped with chef crepe skin, served steamed)

BBQ Chicken Bun
Steamed white bun stuffed with BBQ chicken

Baked BBQ chicken puff
Baked char siew chicken meat, stuffed in puff pastry and baked in oven

Prawn toast with watermelon seeds
White bread topped with prawn paste, watermelon seeds and deep fried

Seafood roll with scallop
Scallop, fish paste and vegetable rolled in Vietnamese spring roll skin and deep fried 

 

Deep-fried 'Woo Kok'
Diced BBQ chicken, coated with yam paste and deep fried

Golden sugarcane prawn
Prawn and fish paste coated on sugar cane stick, crumbed and deep fried



Almond flake shrimp toast
Deep fried white bread coated with shrimp and squid paste, carrot and almond flake

The price is RM35.90++ per adult and RM18.00++  per child for all the sumptuous dim sum that you can eat. For reservations, please call (60 4) 886 1911.

 
The Golden Sands Resort by Shangri-La recently completed a RM50 Million redevelopment programme. The resort is a tropical paradise with a water sports centre, three tennis courts, a Par 3 Executive Golf Course, two swimming pools and Adventure Zone, a Family Entertainment Centre.

Here are some of their most recent awards:
"Asia's Top Ten Family-Friendly Resorts", Holidays with Kids (Australia's leading family travel website and magazine) "Top Ten Awards", 2010
"Best Family Holiday / Resort Excellence Award", Expatriate Lifestyle "The Best of Malaysia Awards", 2009



Chin's Stylish Chinese Cuisine

Grand entrance

We found Chin’s Stylish Chinese Cuisine from My Food My Love’s post. I immediately called to make a booking for the two of us to celebrate the birthday of yours truly. :)

Before we went, we had one reservation about the place and that is the parking issue. Our fear was confirmed when we were asked by a “jaga kereta” or parking attendant to pay RM5 for parking at an MPPP lot by the road side opposite QE2 (at close to 9pm). We had to fork out the sum requested for fear that he will induce harm on our car, or worse still, on us. :(

They have a few set menus to choose from ranging from RM88++ per pax to RM218++ per pax. Sam Chin (the restaurant owner Dave Chin's son) was patient with us and actually recommended the set for us (RM88++ per pax) and explained each and every dish on the set menu.

Chic and stylish decor

The décor is chic and stylish just as the restaurant name suggests. I absolutely loved the large framed paintings hung on the ceiling and ambient lighting from the grand chandeliers. The view from the restaurant is great and we actually caught a glimpse of the Superstar Pisces (which recently made Penang its home port) as it was leaving the pier for the open sea for its 2D / 1N cruise.

Excellent view from our table

Dave and Sam Chin with famous TVB actor Ron Ng

Waiting area after the grand entrance

Cabinet displaying beautiful hand painted plates

Chin's menu

Love at First Sight tea

Bar

Beautiful chandelier and great ambiance

Hot Appetizers

Heavenly Blessed Joysticks

Sesame Prawns on Toast

Smoked Chicken

Cold Appetizers

Garlic Cucumber

Crystal Bean Noodles (Approximately 1cm wide transparent noodles made of mung beans. The texture was springy and chewy and excellent when served cold)

Delicate Tree Fungus

Century Eggs in Grilled Red Pepper

Cold Appetizers

Specialty – Chin’s Aromatic Crispy Duck.

The aromatic duck (not to be mistaken with Peking Duck) is deep fried and shredded into small strips at the diners’ table. It is served with pancake, cucumber, spring onions and sweet sauce. According to Wikipedia, the crispy aromatic duck was created by the Chinese community in the UK in the latter half of the 20th century and is served by most Chinese restaurants as a signature dish on the menu, thus explains why it is Chin’s specialty.

Beautiful hand painted plate

Main Course

Steamed Frog Leg in Bamboo Tube Pepper

Sauteed Hot & Sour Chinese Cabbage

5-Colour Unpolished Organic Fried Rice

Cumin Mutton Skewers

Spicy Hot Poached Fish (Shui Zhu Yu)

Beef Tenderloin in Hot Stone Oil

Beef tenderloin cooked in hot oil at the table

Dessert

Jasmine Jelly / Sea Coconut / White Fungus

Even though the restaurant was running on full capacity that night, the service was most of the time prompt with just some slight hiccups which was quite excusable. Sam Chin was all apologetic about it so kudos to him for making his customers feel special. :)

Above and over all else, I will definitely recommend this place for a one-of-a-kind Chinese / Cantonese / Szechuan / Fusion dining experience in Penang. I had the opportunity to talk to the man behind this unique establishment, Mr Dave Chin himself and was told that he has tried searching for a restaurant with this concept in some countries in Asia e.g. Singapore but has yet to find one.

The only thing to be prepared for is, just like most Szechuan / Hunan cooking, some of the dishes could be a tad oily for some to palate.

Chin’s is actually not officially open yet and I think is currently only available via advance booking only so please call to book to avoid disappointment.

Check out Helen Ong's post on Chin's here.

Chin’s Stylish Chinese Cuisine
Tanjong City Marina

Church St Pier (Next to QE II)8A Pengkalan Weld

Georgetown, Penang
Tel: 04-2612611 / 012-4716128