Grand Imperial Restaurant – BSC

The Grand Imperial, had perhaps, hoped to be a strong contender for The Grand ‘ole Dame of Chinese cuisine, The Ming Room in the vicinity of Bangsar.

A quick Internet google did not yield much results except for the dim sum review by Joe & another by STL of happy Happy.
Since we wanted to go ala carte, it still left us pretty much undecided on either The Ming Room or Grand Imperial.

So 30mins before the agreed meeting time, I stood in front of Grand Imperial Restaurant, flicking through their menu and then repeated the same procedure for The Ming Room.

Finally I decided on Grand Imperial, for just based on the menu alone, seems to offer a wider selection of preparation for each category of seafood, meat & so forth. Anyhow, it’s good to check out a new place, I reasoned to myself.

Even at 645pm, the place was fast filling up with patrons, mostly families and even businessmen, all talking loudly & enjoying their drinks.

interior

While having wines and champagne with Chinese cuisine was almost unheard of back in my younger years (it was then beers/shandy, tea or sarsi/orange cordial), it seems that every restaurant worth their salt now are going all out with the wine pairing trend.
And it is no exception here at the Grand Imperial, which I must say, offers quite grand of a selection of alcohol.

liquor

A non alcoholic person, I settled for some good old Chinese dessert instead, and the words “Avocado” jumped out at me from the menu.

Sadly, my Chilled Avocado Cream with Sago, RM7, was sickeningly saccharine- sweet, with nary of the luxurious creaminess expected of avocados. And this was supposedly their signature dessert.
My companion didn’t have much luck with his Chilled Lemongrass Jelly w Sea Coconut, Rm6 either. See below. Doesn’t it look outright pathetic?

dessert

Since our fourth guest is late, and happens to be a Malay, I quickly fired orders for a plate of siew yuk.

siew yuk

The crackly top hats and alternating layers of tender pork & fat restored some of the good vibes around the table. Maybe desserts isn’t their forte, we thought.

Anyhow, we added an order of BBQ Sliced Pork it with Honey Sauce RM16 just to be sure.

charsiew

It was satisfying enough for my companions but not for me. My favourite is still the one from Paramount Garden. (Which reminds me, I really got to try the FSF)

Rainy nights and stressful days got us hankering for stewed, double boiled, body nourishing soups hence we ordered 2.
Both were recommended orders of the Restaurant Supervisor & was a complete joke.

Double Boiled Seafood Soup, RM22 & Mushroom Soup, RM14.

soup

When we couldn’t spy any seafood nor mushrooms in both bowls, we called her over to confirm if it was the right order.

She proceed to dig the spoon into both bowls and shoveled up some of the contents. After repeating that for several times, (while we watched her digging away at our soups) she merely said “Oh, the chicken one is the seafood soup, and the pork one is the mushroom”.

My boss then tactfully reminded me that this is a business meeting & I should try not to create a scene. Hurmph.

Steamed Flower Crab with Egg White and Chinese Wine, at RM7/100g.
This cost us RM42.00.
It was just another crap, uh…I meant craB dish.

crab

A fan of fried rice, this was my unspoken choice for our carbs that night.
Fisherman Fried Rice with Salted Egg Yolk. RM16.

friedrice

A decent version but SO SALTY, all 4 of us didn’t finish our portions. So it wasn’t just me.
The culprit?
SALTED FISH. Which ingenious chef fries rice with salted fish AND salted eggs?!!
Beef Fillet with Spring Onions. I have absolutely no idea why this cost us RM46.00.
I think it was written somewhere in the menu as Australian beef. That’s probably why.
Texture and taste-wise? It could have been Malaysian cows for all we know.

So that sums up my experience with Grand Imperial. To be fair, we probably had 0.5% of what they have to offer (judging from the extensive menu) & you know what they say about food & taste being a very subjective thing.

So I do look forward to any good reviews anyone may have to share! ;p

bill

Grand Imperial Restaurant,
Lot T5,3rd Flr,BSC East Wing.
No.285,Jalan Maarof,
Bukit Bandaraya,
Bangsar,59000, KL.
03-22831118





This Post Has 24 Comments

  1. J

    So the BBQ sliced pork with Honey Sauce is just high class char siew, right? Haha..

    Well, pity about the taste… I like how they presented the crabs though. 🙂

  2. Sean

    i've been meaning to check this place out for ages, but keep getting sidetracked elsewhere. hmmm, i hope that wide selection of booze means that they serve wine by the glass too! 😀
    and hey, they charge gov't tax here? wow, that means they must earn at least rm3 million per year or something like that, huh…

  3. boo_licious

    We ate here once, thinking we shld chk it out. Greatest mistake of our lives, crazy dinner service, food kept coming out in intervals of 1/2 hour, ruining my appetite.

  4. vialentino

    i am back from krabi…thanks for ur support and visit to my site.

    i hope someone will have their wedding at this restaurant and then can go and taste their food.

    dunno bout me, i dun really fond on flower crab ler…just dun like the meat…but i love other crabs…

  5. Bangsar-bAbE

    Hehehe…my boss does that to me too when we go for business lunches. He told me to "keep my opinions to myself". T_____T

    When you go FSF, don't forget to call me ya! >P

  6. Josh Lim

    On second thought, maybe we should just have let the the staff have it and told them exactly what we thought. Muahaha!

    High points (with some 'buts')
    – I liked the chicken soup, and the avocado soup. I wonder if I tried the seafood soup. I'm still not sure if what I had was seafood soup.
    – The two pork dishes were done right, especially the siew yuk.
    – The lemongrass jelly thing was okay, but I was expecting a drink, not something in a bowl.
    – It would have been worth it if not for the beef and the crab, which were priced way higher than the rest of the menu.

    Low points:
    – Crab and beef way too expensive.
    – Fried rice was too salty. Trying to give us kidney failure?
    – Service is stupid. Try to take away my bowl 5 times. I'm not done with it yet la wei…

  7. UnkaLeong

    Should have stayed with Ming Room instead huh 😉

  8. Selba

    Sounds quite a disappointment… but without trying, we'd never knew 😉

  9. Duckie

    wow the name sounds grand … but looks like the food is not.

  10. J2Kfm

    kinda sad huh? FSF? or 747? the latter's on my list of to try.
    pathetic restaurant eh? and extra salty fried rice. hehe …. very INgenious.

  11. "Joe" who is constantly craving

    the siew yuk was good la..tat i admit..the dishes though, havent tried, n looks like never will..

    abt tat aussie beef, nowadays got aussie breed but grown in malaysia..hehe..

  12. burpandslurp

    Carbs…that fried rice is screaming at me, "come, come, come my dear!" I think you and I would automatically zoom for the same dish! 😉

  13. thenomadGourmand

    J: yup 😉 high class prices too!

    sean: Well..its got 3 restaurants in KL so i guess overall revenue of all its restaurant is counted?
    Wine by glass? O h dear I didnt chk cos none of us drink!

    boo: LOL! Yup, service was terrible.

    vialentino: Cool! Sunburnt or not? 😉
    We didnt want to order flower crabs but it was the only crabs avail that nite!!

    b-babe: Sure sure! FSF soon!!

    josh: Ha. Quite an experience hor tht nite!

    unkaLeong: Well..i wasnt that impressed w the Ming Room the other time. But nx time we go, we try the dim sum & ala carte ok?
    since a lot of ppl recommended that.

    selba: yup, also cos I didnt think they will do so badly since they got 3 restaurants all together in KL

    duckie: LOL. U can say that again!

    J2kfm: I didnt think 747 was anything to shout abt. I havent tried FSF yet tho.
    Yup, quite bad. The chef should be shot. Hhehe

  14. worldwindows

    Old school Grand re-inventing wine pairing! I like these types of resto but they may be biting too much. Still I like these Chinese foods.

  15. agentcikay

    hmm.. cannot share yet.. have not eaten there:P

  16. taufulou

    woah~ today eh review that i read all the food beh ki ha..

  17. FoOd PaRaDiSe

    foods look awesome. Kinda hungry after reading your blog. lol

  18. thule a.k.a leo

    it seems that you don't really fancy this restaurant at all! next time just hop over to ming room ok?

  19. gourmand extraordinaire

    Hmmm… not too bad on the food presentation though. have you moved in to your new place already?

  20. thenomadGourmand

    joe: Aussie cows here in Msia?? Urghh..i feel cheated!!! ;p

    burpandslurp: i knw babe. We got soooooooo much in common ;p

    ww: I luvvv chinese. but sometimes its best to stick to the ole school dishes instead of fusion this and that

    agentcikay: Oh, DON'T. ;p

    taufulou: Exactly. Hehe..

    Food paradise: 😉
    I feel hungry aft readin yrs too!

    leo: Yups, nx time i'm there i will stick to the ming room!

    GE: Moving end of this mth dear! But nowadays alws in PJ anyways cos my office in PJ!
    Wanna, wanna go makan??

  21. vialentino

    kena sunburn lah…cheek damn kao pain ler…when wash my face

    nvm ler…as long they cook it nice to eat then is ok

  22. gill gill

    What is FSF?
    eh, the siew yuk looks so perfectly done, like a white marble.
    What a sad experience, luckily is not from your pocket! haha

  23. Kipu Nerek

    I think this is a great post. One thing that I find the most helpful is number five. Sometimes when I write, I just let the flow of the words and information come out so much that I loose the purpose. It’s only after editing when I realize what I’ve done. There’s defiantly a lot of great tips here I’m going to try to be more aware of.

  24. julegaver

    Sweet, lastly a post that fulfills my research. So many individuals get this matter wrong. You’re a great thinker.

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