Our Thai friend Mon brought us to Chef Man Chinese Restaurant, one of her favourite places in Bangkok for yum cha (drink tea) and dim sum.
Chef Man was busy this Sunday morning. The contemporary Chinese restaurant is well appointed but casual. Familiar light Canto pop provided background music for banter and chatter around the room, typical of cha lao (casual tea houses). There are quieter private rooms available.
Four of us, we picked an assortment of dim sum and some a la carte dishes for our Sunday brunch. (As Chef Man is popular, a reservation is best especially on weekends.)
Crispy Shrimp Wrapped with Rice Roll or Zhaliong 炸兩.
The shrimps were fresh, crunchy, sweet. The fried dough (yau cha kwai) was thin and crisp. The sweetish rice roll was slightly thick but still nice. Dousing the dish with light soy, hoisin sauce blend added a gentle savoury flavour. All the elements came together nicely. I would order this again.
I love Chef Man's Fried Carrot Cake. In fact, I crave for it now.
Steamed cakes with chunks of fresh radish barely held together by rice flour seared to a browned crisp outside. It was a delicious blend of savoury caramelised soy sauce infused starch outside with melt in the mouth sweet juicy radish chunks inside. Bits of ham punctuate the savoury sweet cake with savoury highlights in each mouthful. This is a must order.
Shrimp Dumpling or Ha Kao is another must order at Chef Man. It's an excuse to eat succulent fresh shrimps which are simply wrapped in a rice purse and steamed to perfection. Sweet, crunchy, juicy shrimp (de-shelled) and tender chewy rice wrap.
Siew Mai or steamed pork dumpling held together with wanton skin.
Steamed pork ribs with fermented black bean paste.
Chef Man's Fried Yam Cake? (I didn't take down the actual name in the menu.)
It was fresh yam cut into short thin strips made into a cake with rice flour by steaming and then pan seared to a browned crisp outside. I can taste the savoury sweet yam with a bit of savoury seasoning. Personally, the texture was a bit dry and stiff, and flavour wise was slightly flat for my taste buds.
Yam balls filled with runny salted egg yolk custard and studded with croutons.
The taste of yam paste was prominent, the runny salted egg yolk custard was just mildly savoury sweet. The croutons provided a bit of crispy crunch. Very well executed so it was not greasy at all. Salted egg yolk anything hits the spot with many people but not really my cup of tea 😜
Baked Snow Bun with juicy BBQ Pork (char siew) which comes in a set of 3. Sweet bun on sweet char siew. The soft sweet bun had a nice subtle crisp on the golden brown outside.
I was thrilled when I saw this dish as I have never seen poached chicken served topped with ice before. It's traditional poached chicken served chilled with Chinese wine and blanketed with sauce in crushed ice.
They were quite liberal with the Chinese wine so it dominated the dish, drowning the tender juicy chicken's subtle natural sweetness.
Glass Chicken Feet (served chilled). It wasn't de-boned so it's not too elegant to eat but still ok for me lah. The crunch was nice but the taste was a little flat. Maybe not worth the trouble for ladies with nicely manicured nails.
Crunchy sweet cucumber in spicy ma la sauce.
Excellent fried rice with scallops and shrimps. The rice grains come loose and separated with each grain well greased and slightly caramelised. The grains were tenderly nutty to the bite with a few odd stiff bits here and there. Full of savoury sweet flavours and lingering "wok hei" caramelisation aroma that everyone around the table can smell. Must order.
I like Chef Man's egg tarts. The shell was crumbling crisp but the best thing was the egg custard. The egg custard was softer than bean curd and tasted eggy sweet (maybe a bit too sweet). It had a pronounced egginess which was the same as when my grandmother made sweet egg desserts when I was a child. I can't find such egginess anywhere in Singapore or Malaysia now.
Maybe too crumbly or my fat hand too clumsy?
Sesame paste filled rice dumpling (mochi) in spicy ginger and brown sugar soup.
Recommended for you 👍 Prices are around the level of average dim sum restaurants in Singapore but at this price point I have not seen this quality on our sunny island. I will be back to savour again those dim sum I like here (fried carrot cake, shrimp dumpling, zhaliong, egg tart, fried rice) and suss out more dishes that suit my taste buds. Chef Man's famous roast pork belly (siew yok), wagyu short ribs and Peking duck are on my target list. Service was the usual Thai standard i.e. friendly, attentive, responsive, accommodating and sincere.
Restaurant:Chef Man Chinese Restaurant 文苑
Address: Royal Place 2, Ratchadamri, Bangkok - เชฟแมน @ โรยัลเพลส 2 ถนนราชดำริ กรุงเทพฯ 6/1 Soi Mahatlek Luang 2 Ratchadamri Road Lumphini, Pathum Wan Bangkok 10330 Thailand
GPS: 13°44'24.1"N 100°32'29.1"E 🌐 13.740016, 100.541427
Nearest BTS: Ratchadamri (Silom line)
Tel: +66 (0) 2651 8611
Hours: 11:00am - 2:15pm (dim sum)
Non Halal
Date visited: 20 Oct 2019
Nice photos, especially the one at the end. yummy!
ReplyDelete