Tao Chinese Cuisine is InterContinental Hotel KL‘s signature restaurant and it has a reputation of serving some of the best pork-free dim sum in town.
What better way to try them out than indulging in their all you can eat dim sum promotion? Priced at RM78 nett per person, the buffet is only available in the weekends and public holidays.
It’s ala carte style so you will be ordering off the dim sum menu which includes selection of various steamed and deep fried dim sum, congee, rice noodle and snacks. In total, there are 49 items to choose from. With that said, I feel the overall quality of the dim sum here is just alright.
Lets start with the better ones first. Steamed Crystal Prawn Dumpling (Har Gao) was probably the best dim sum we had that day at Tao. It was also the only item we bothered to ask for seconds.
Steamed Rice Noodle Roll with Prawns – the prawns were big and succulent but the soy sauce was a tad bland. Fortunately, the dried shrimp chili paste made up for it.
Deep Fried Seafood Dumplings – nicely executed so complaints.
Mini Egg Tarts – warm and oven fresh with a nice buttery fragrance. My only gripe was that the custard filling could be a bit sweeter.
Baked BBQ Chicken Puff Pastry – the crust was rightfully crumbly and melts in your mouth. The BBQ chicken filling was forgettable though.
Crispy Salmon Skin with Salted Egg Yolk – this was delicious and worth trying.
Deep fried Baby Octopus with Spice Salt – flavor was spot on but the octopus lacked the crunch to make it great.
And now for the lacklustre stuff. Steamed Chicken Siew Mai with Mushroom – underseasoned and the texture doesn’t taste like siew mai’s at all. Some may say ‘oh because it’s not prepared with pork’ but I know that some pork free dim sum could still be good.
Steamed Chicken ‘Xiao Long Bao’ – bland to the point of almost being tasteless.
Steamed Boneless Chicken Wings in Black Bean Sauce – it had a foul chicken smell, I took a bite and sent it back.
Steamed Diced Chicken with Mushroom – the chili oil tasted odd with a sourish flavor, maybe they were a bit heavy handed with the vinegar.
Steamed Custard Bun – the custard filling solidified and was not runny as expected, which is a shame considering the custard tasted pretty good.
From what I could see, it seems that Tao has difficulties recreating the taste and texture of dim sum which are supposed to be made with pork. That could explain why the tastier things we had were seafood based.
So if you ask me if the buffet is worth going for, I’d say no. For dim sum buffet, Celestial Court of Sheraton Imperial is still my top recommendation. Thus far, it’s simply unbeatable both in terms of taste and value.
All You Can Eat Dim Sum @ Tao Chinese Cuisine
Valid on Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays
From 11:30 am to 2:30pm (till 31 July 2016)
RM78 nett per person, RM40 nett per child (6-10 years old)
InterContinental Hotel Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2782 6128
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