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Mike has always been my ideal buffet buddy because we get along very well and eat just as much. Since we were both not working one Friday, we decided to ‘eat like no tomorrow’ at Zuan Yuan, One World Hotel. They were having a dim sum buffet promotion for RM48++, which I thought was pretty good value for money. This visit was just before CNY this year, so you will have to check with Zuan Yuan if the offer is still available. Chinese tea was not provided in the buffet, so that’s a separate order. For RM48++, we got to choose between the Emperor Set or the Empress Set. The former came with one order of steamed seafood dumpling with superior stock and shark’s fin and for the latter, the braised shark’s fin soup with crab roe. Mike and I ordered a different set each, so we got to try both the soups. The set also came with one order of water prawn noodles.

Frankly, the char siew chee cheong fun was not worth ordering. The rice sheets were cold and paste-y, a far cry from the silky smooth versions I’ve had elsewhere. I also didn’t like the char siew, which was dry, stringy and bland. The scallop chee cheong fun tasted better, but it was still no where near decent.

The squid ball was weirdly addictive — it had a firm and bouncy texture, but Mike didn’t care much for this. The Teo Chew siew mai was quite good, despite the filling being minced chicken and prawns. We ordered 3 baskets of this.

The dim sum were generally decent, but the steamed scallop dumpling was overcooked — the skin was mushy and sticky. We talked to the head waiter about it and he took it back into the kitchen. 5 minutes later, he came out and told us ‘it was how the dumpling was supposed to taste’.

We didn’t like the deep fried prawn dumpling — the skin was too thick and the prawns were rather small in size. The bean curd roll on the other hand, was moreish and warranted another order.

Between the two, I like the steamed seafood dumpling better. The shark’s fin soup was rather ordinary, and the crab roe didn’t add much flavour and texture to the soup. The dumpling on the other hand had more bite and the broth was more flavourful from the dried scallops.