Dine-in Date: 6th May 2015

It had been months since the opening of first Malaysia Tim Ho Wan at The Gardens, and it has been such a long queue for a long time that it's almost impossible to queue up to eat there. Anyway, today me and my dear dear decided to try it out and there isn't any queue at all during dinner time. The queue was ridiculously long in the beginning but nowadays, you basically don't need to worry about the queue at all.

About Tim Ho Wan

"Tim Ho Wan" is a direct translation from Cantonese which literally means "Giving good luck". It's originally started as a small dim sum shop in Hong Kong and expand to oversea at year 2013. Obviously, Tim Ho Wan's specialty is dim sum, but they are famous for the pork bun and many more.

Tim Ho Wan is also the cheapest michelin star restaurant you afford to eat although it's more to dessert in Chinese style.

The Food

So here goes the menu:

There's no need to flip back, this is all the available list of food. As you can see, it's quite limited and nothing much to make us full. That's what we thought before we order (and we were so wrong).

You have to write down which food you want in an order list and give it to the waiter/waitress. And we realize there are few more food not listed in the menu above which is "hor fun" (some type of white noodle), egg tart, and another one that I don't really remember. But basically that's all they have.

So we proceed to order the few things we want to try and thinking to order again later if not feeling full.

First item to arrive at our table is their specialty pork bun which is very different like any pork bun out there. The outer skin is crispy but after you take a bite, you can taste the softness in the inner skin. And it has a great taste of butter on the skin. The pork meat is really fresh, juicy and tasty. The only thing is, the center of the bun consist about 80% nothingness.

Next thing to arrive is the egg tart, not listed in the menu but recommended by chef. The skin is very soft and nice to bite, and the egg filling is so nice. But I prefer it to be more sweet.

This beef ball is a bit tasteless, but the beef is really soft and juicy. The only thing I could taste as I bite on this is the green color veggie or leaf, but I'm not sure what is that.

I'm a big eater, so I still need some rice to call it a proper meal. This is one of the three meals that has rice, and it's quite special because I never had beef wrap with egg before. But when it was served, the egg is just on top of the beef, with about a cup of steam rice on the bottom. It's actually nothing really special, just steaming the rice, then adding the mince beef on top, follow by the egg.

The waiter add quite a lot of soy sauce on top of the egg, but it's not as salty as I thought because the egg and beef is actually tasteless. Despite adding lots of soy sauce, I don't really taste anything for the egg. I can taste the soy sauce in the beef, and the rest of the soy sauce is all in the rice.

When I'm half way finishing the rice, I can feel that I'm quite "jelak" or stuffy, not sure what's the word. And my dear dear taken two of the beef ball, one and half of the pork bun, and one egg tart, and she's actually really stuffy.... have a hard time finishing the rest of the food.

And lastly, this is one dessert that is quite nice in many places but quite hard to find (or I just not sure where to find). It's like jelly but has slightly harder texture. The name is "Tonic Medlar & Osmanthus", it's basically osmanthus with goji berry. Osmanthus is a famous flower in China and has good meaning behind it, you can read more about it here. The taste is a little sweet, with the fragrant of osmanthus flower and taste of goji berry. It's acutally quite good for the eyes.

In Summary....

In the end, my dear dear only had two beef ball, one and half pork bun, one egg tart, few spoon of the egg & beef rice, and one & half osmanthus dessert, and she felt really stuffy. Same goes to me as I finish the rice and the rest. Not to mention that we don't need to order additional food, it's actually just enough to make us feel stuffy, but not full.

In overall, I think the food are nice, but there are much more nicer one out there that doesn't cost this much.

Contact & Location

Monday to Friday: 11am - 9pm
Saturday to Sunday: 10am - 9pm

27-G, The Boulevard,
Mid Valley City,
59200 Kuala Lumpur

Tim Ho Wan's Website: Click Here
Tim Ho Wan's Main Facebook: Click Here
Tim Ho Wan's Malaysia Facebook: Click Here

Tim Ho Wan is located in the center of Mid Valley and The Gardens, right in front of The Gardens water fountain that located in front of The Gardens center entrance.

If you are going from inside of Mid Valley, go to the center court at ground floor and walk towards the entrance The Garden. Go straight, walk pass starbuck on your left, cross a small road and you will see the fountain and Tim Ho Wan on the left.

If you are going from inside of The Gardens, go to the center part at ground floor and walk towards Coffee Bean, the opposite of Hans Room, to get outside. Cross a small road and you will see the fountain in front of you and Tim Ho Wan on your right.

Rating

Quality:

Nice. In overall, despite Tim Ho Wan is a restaurant with Michelin Star, we think that the food is just fine, not the type that we would consider them to be too grand or luxury. The main thing is, we know that there are a lot of better options out there compare to this one around Kuchai Lama or Sri Sentosa. Furthermore, certain dishes is a little tasteless and not meeting expectation.

Portion:

Nice. Good for dessert time after some not-so full meal. But for the food to be so stuffy, you have to make sure you don't take it after a full meal.

Service:

Good. Food served without waiting too long, refilling Chinese tea is quick. In overall it's good service.

Cost:

Less-Worthy. Most of the dishes are quite expensive comparing despite their portion and taste. And if you compare with the same type of dishes out there (couldn't help comparing with other places, there are too many good options out there), Tim Ho Wan is that cost worthy.

Environment:

Good. Typical Chinese restaurant with better & comfortable environment.

Next Visit?

....Nope.