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Porridge based steamboat has become all the craze recently. I liked Farmland Steamboat in Pudu. Since then, I’ve heard of various other places offering something similar. There’s the one in Kelana Jaya recommended by one of the readers which we have yet to try. And then of course, there’s the porridge steamboat in Seri Petaling. I’ve heard about it so often, about how it’s better than Farmland and all that. When the opportunity arrived on a wet rainy evening, WL and I took the check the area out. The problem was, we neither knew the restaurant’s location was nor its name. Strange that inspite of all the hype, no one has ever mentioned the name to us.

A few phone calls later, we were there. As it turns out, there wasn’t exactly in the main area of Sri Petaling, or at least the Sri Petaling that I know. Instead, it is a little off the beaten path. There is a trunk road between Happy Garden and Sri Petaling. Off that trunk are several rows of shophouses and a housing area. That’s where you want to be. If you’re coming from Happy Garden, it’s on your right, and vice versa. When we arrived in the general vicinity, we realised that there were TWO competing steamboat outlets that offered the porridge base. Since no one could give us a definitive answer on which was better, we decided to try one first and pay the second one a visit at a later date. The coin flip went to Eastern Delight.

From the outside, the place looks like a classy joint, glass double doors, air conditioned, dark wood furnishing, claypots, lots of busy staff walking around, and a buzzing lively atmosphere contributed by the throng of customers. It looked rather promising, that is until we sat down and took a look at the menu. The place is more expensive than Farmland Porridge Steamboat! About 20% more. For a short moment, we contemplated hopping over to the other restaurant. I suppose curiousity got the better of us and we stuck around and placed our orders.

They had sets meals for 2 persons, and the staff that waited on us kept pushing us to take one. While we told him to give us a minute to think it over, he seemed reluctant to do so and kept pushing us, as though trying to force us into making the order. IMHO, that was very unprofessional conduct. As a customer, I should have the leisure to pick and choose what I want. While it is their prerogative whether or not to accept our business, the moment they do, the customer is in charge.

After mulling over the lengthy and over complicated menu, we finally decided to forego the sets and call for plates of individual ingredients which included a plate of luncheon meat (RM6.00), golden mushrooms (RM6.00), spinach (RM6.00), yau cha guai (RM1.60), and fish noodles (RM5.00), to go with the porridge (RM1.60 per person) steamboat. The porridge base was served in a large claypot, which looked very apetising. Unfortunately, the plain white congee was very thin, and a tad too salty for my taste. The ingredients didn’t arrive at the same time. Instead they served it to us in batches, which sort of ruined the whole eating experience. In fact, we had to pester the staff thrice before they finally served us our order of luncheon meat 15 minutes later. To make matters worse, the portions were measly when considering the price tag.

The meal set me back RM32.34 inclusive of 5% government tax and 5% service charge. On the bright side, I was full and the restaurant decor and environment was good. On the downside, the service sucked (and they still had the nerve to levy a 5% tax for it), the portions were small, the staff was rude, the prices were inflated, and the porridge base was under par. In comparison with the other joints that offer the same thing, I would say that this one’s pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Not recommended and never again.

Eastern Delight
Main Branch:
No 26, Jalan 149L, Seri Petaling,
57000 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: +603-9059 3545 / +6016-998 2668

Damansara Branch:
39-1 & 41-6, Ground Floor, Jalan PJU 5/9,
Dataran Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya.
Tel: +6012-339 3368