Li Yen @ Ritz Carlton

A Chinese meal is usually a communal affair. What better way to celebrate Chinese New Year than to share a meal with your loved ones at Ritz Carlton's award winning signature restaurant - Li Yen. 

The restaurant was lavishly decorated with sparking lights and traditional Chinese furniture. The ambiance was rather cozy and inviting despite the grandeur decor. 

Prosperity Vegetarian Yee Sang (RM88) - This Chinese style raw salad largely consists of shredded vegetables, peanuts, pomelo, crackers, plum sauce, pepper, sesame seeds and lime juice. The tradition of tossing and mixing the ingredients has always been an intimate family affair. 

Peking duck is one of my favorite Chinese dishes. Unfortunately, eating Peking duck can be considered a ruthless act, since the poor duck is force fed during the last three weeks of its life and are not allowed to move, to produce thin skin and tender meat. But how could anyone resists this delicacy? Being a five star hotel, the Peking Duck was wrapped by the wait staff before serving. It can be quite disastrous when they overdosed on the amount of sweet sauce. 

Scallop stuffed with fish paste topped with crab meat sauce (RM88). This dish was surprisingly very bland despite the vivid color. Apart from the fresh scallops, there was nothing mind blowing about this dish.

Braised Dried Oyster with Sea Moss (RM100) - Sea Moss a.k.a "Fat Choy" had extremely soft and fine texture. While, the dried oysters were firm and meaty with a hint of earthiness. 

Li Yen Signature bean curd with Honshimeji mushrooms and spinach. (RM40). Tofu on its own can be rather bland in taste, but this is precisely its strength since different combination of ingredients and condiments will yield different taste every time. The amalgam of tofu, mushrooms and spinach was very well presented and sung beautifully with some rice. 

Fried Rice with Duck Meat -  The fried rice had sufficient "wok hei" and it was my favorite dish for that night.

Deep Fried New Year Cake. The final product was crackly and flaky with hot sticky new year cake bursting out. 

Verdict: SOMEWHAT SMITTEN