Chef Tam Cantonese Cuisine in Jalan Ipoh comes highly recommended – apparently known for their Cantonese dishes that are prepared according to availability of ingredients and mood of the chef. Located in Eco Sky, you’ll need to call ahead to book a table because I was told they don’t entertain walk-ins in general.
Chef Tam Cantonese Cuisine
Service was difficult to get – almost absent despite calling ahead to book a table. Also, I feel their staff aren’t well trained and come off as rather impolite when we asked for assistance. When I booked a table, the person who answered the phone told me to “order when you arrive”.
But that meant my dinner party and I weren’t privy to some of the special dishes available as those required advance pre-order. That said, Chef Tam Cantonese Cuisine also offers a basic menu to order from so we picked our dishes from there.
Signature stuffed crab
Given the somewhat challenging booking and ordering process, one would expect the dishes to be good, or at least, above average. They were average at best, some even below par. We started with Chef Tam’s signature stuffed crab, which I feel was the best dish that night.
Steamed “shun fong”
The crab is fresh and the egg and crab meat filling is creamy, rich and sweet. A decadent and moreish start. Then the steamed “shun fong” arrived. Fish was properly steamed but I felt the soy sauce gravy was a tad underwhelming – lacking scallion oil aroma.
Seng kwa beancurd
Baked salted farm chicken
The seng kwa homemade beancurd was decent but nothing to shout about; I’ve had better ones elsewhere. I was pretty taken aback by the presentation of the baked salted farm chicken, which looked like the poultry was coarsely chopped and simply placed on a plate. Tastewise, it was alright. The chicken was firm and meaty, with a savoury sweet note from the caramelised onions and marinade.
Baked Iberico pork ribs
We were told the baked Iberico pork ribs is a signature at Chef Tam Cantonese Cuisine so our expectations were high. Sadly, it missed the mark. Quite far off, in fact. Granted the meat was juicy, the edges lacked char so the flavour of the rendered fat wasn’t there. It was also difficult to eat as the meat, although juicy, wasn’t tender enough to separate from the bone.
Sweet & sour pork
Nam yue chicken wings
Since the printed menu is limited, we opted for the sweet and sour pork as my friends refuse to order another chicken dish from this place. This was decent at best – I thought the pork slices were a tad overcooked so while crispy on the outside, the centre was dry. The nam yue chicken wings also suffered the same (overfried) fate.
Stir-fried kailan
Sang har mee
Their vegetable of the day is stir-fried kailan. Tastewise, it’s like any other regular stir-fried vegetable dish. Fortunately, Chef Tam’s sang har mee was a saving grace. The noodles are firm with a nice bite as they are Hong Kong style noodles. Sang har is fresh so the overall dish was flavour packed and sweet from the roe.
Almond cream
Avocado sago cream
The almond cream and avocado sago cream was ok – not overly sweet. I feel the former could be thicker while the latter contained too much sago. I can’t quite remember the itemisation of each dish, but the total bill based on my credit card slip was RM1400 for all the above.
Overall, a disappointing experience, both food and service point of view. Perhaps their pre-order dishes would be better but based on what we had, I won’t be rushing back.
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Ambiance: 6/10
Price: 5.5/10
Food: 5/10 (non-halal)
Verdict: Overrated in my opinion, but if you still want to try, order the stuffed crab and sang har noodles.
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Chef Tam Cantonese Cuisine
Lot 1-30,
1st Floor, Eco Sky
61/2 Jalan Ipoh,
68100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-6241 8938
Business hours: 12pm till 10pm
(closed Monday)
1 comment
That’s just sad.