Yuan Seafood Restaurant (花苑海鲜饭店) @ Cheras Commercial Centre, Taman Cheras

It’s another Saturday and as usual, we are bound to go back to MIL’s for dinner. T&E wanted Japanese but sadly MIL is not a fan of raw food. The safest deal is to go for Chinese. We were told of this newly opened restaurant in Cheras  which were run by ex-chef’s from Overseas restaurant. This restaurant is rather new which started operations only in July 2010. So here we are at Yuan Seafood Restaurant, located just next to Hotel Caliber. Parking is free if you park at the hotel lots, otherwise a RM 3.00 parking charge is imposed, even after 6.00pm on a Saturday evening!

Simple yet elegant and comfy setup. Yuan occupies 2 shoplots and is also the restaurant for Hotel Caliber. Reservation is advised as this restaurant accommodates only up to less than 15 tables. Crowd could be aplenty, especially on weekends.

As we walked in, tanks of live seafood greeted us. They have live geoduck, mantis prawns, lobsters, grouper, mitten crabs, marbles goby and even the famous Empurau fish. Name it, they have it!

Yuan provides 2 nicely furnished private rooms that can accommodate up to 8 pax and 10 pax respectively. Please call for reservation.

Roasted peanut and Achar (spicy salad) comes free as appetizer to wet your lips while going through their vast selection of food from the menu. Roasted peanut was good. I must be hungry!! Growl!!

Bird’s eye chillies and Dried Shrimp chili paste. The shrimp chili paste was good. It wasgone even before our dishes arrived! They do sell it separately at RM 30.00 per can.

Stir Fried Seasonal Vegetable with Preserved Century Egg (炒皮蛋启兰) @ RM 12.00 (small) ~ Kai Lan stir fried with preserved century egg is a new combo to us. Good wok hei imparted in his dish but the serving is only good for 2 person. Recommended, but do order a medium serving (RM16.00) or a large serving (RM 20.00) if come with a bigger group. An 8/10!

Taiwanese Style Stir Fried Scrambled Eggs with Onions & Tomatoes (台灣式炒番茄雞蛋 @ RM 12.00 (small) ~ Again, we wanted to be “a bit” adventurous today by ordering something different instead of the normal dishes. To our delightful surprise, this dish turned out to be pretty good. The sweet and sour sauce is great with rice. E liked it but T displayed a discouraged look! It’s hard to please both my Yin & Yang when it comes to food!! I personally found it tasty! RM 16.00 for medium and RM 20.00 for large. An 8/10!

Steamed Bean curd with Salted Fish (自制蒸咸鱼肉碎豆腐) @ RM 13.00 (small) ~ Homemade bean curd coated with fair amount of minced meat and salted fish makes this serving a little different. The bean curd is smooth and blends well with the toppings plus special salted fish sauce. T liked it but E wasn’t keen on the taste of salted fish!! The adults enjoyed it!  An 8/10!

Teochew Style Crispy Marinated Duck (潮州式脆皮鸭) @ RM 22.00 (½ portion) ~ I wouldn’t have settled for this if I’m the one who’s deciding on the order. (I was busy taking photos)! Not that it’s bad but I just like to have my duck dry and not soaking in gravy. The skin was crispy but the meat is rather tough. Overcooked! I’ll give this a miss in my next visit. Whole bird costs RM 38.00. A 5/10!

Chinese Jasmine Tea (茉莉花茶) @ RM 6.00 (RM 1.50/pax) ~ A Chinese meal is never complete without a pot of hot Chinese tea. A burner to keep it warm is a very thoughtful idea and the charges is very reasonable. Kudos!

Overall, we were very satisfied and would recommend  this restaurant as the food is good, reasonably priced (RM 76.12 inclusive of 5% service charge) and very attentive service. Would definitely return to savour other dishes on the vast menu. Hopefully they’ll increase the portion on their rather small servings on my next visit!

• Yuan Seafood Restaurant (花苑海鲜饭店)
• Ground floor
• No. 54G-56G, Jalan 5/101C
• Off, Jalan Kaskas
• 5th Mile, Jalan Cheras
• 56100 Kuala Lumpur.
• Tel – 603-9130 6878/9130 3173
• Mobile – 016-375 6066 (Ann/Asst. Manager)
• Business Hours – 1100 – 2300 (daily)
• GPS Coordinates
• N03′ 06.034  E101′ 44.369
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