ROOM EIGHTEEN,
Lot G-35, Ground Floor,
Tropicana City Mall,
Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7728 8128.
Business hours: Daily; 11.00am to 9.45pm
Other outlets are located at Berjaya Times Square, Mid Valley Megamall, Hartamas Shopping Centre, and Fahrenheit 88.
LOYAL customers of Room Eighteen have more reason to dine at its outlets this month.
From now until May 31, the restaurant is rewarding diners with free dishes under its recently-launched promotion themed “The Great 8 Giveaway.”
Wide spread: Chef Wo with an array of new dishes from ‘The Great 8 Giveaway’ promotion.The promotion features a set of eight coupons that are given to customers who spend RM35 and above on their first visit to any Room Eighteen outlet.
These coupons, in turn, offer weekly redemptions of eight free dishes where customers get to redeem two free dishes each week (amounting to the eight dishes over a total of four weeks).
Customers, however, will need to spend RM25 in a single receipt in order to redeem a coupon for one free dish (or RM50 for the two featured dishes) on a weekly basis.
These coupons are also only valid for dine-in meals.
During a media review recently, we got to sample not just the dishes that are featured in the coupons but also new dishes on the restaurant’s revamped menu.
One of the new items is the Zhen Jiang Spare Ribs, which uses what is said to be the most expensive and valuable part of the pig — the belly and ribs.
Room Eighteen group executive chef Wo Hoi Ming from Hong Kong said the dish has to be first deep-fried before it is braised for another two hours.
A special homemade sauce is drizzled over the meat, making the gravy perfect to be eaten with the accompaniment of fresh and hot mantou.
Next was the Seafood and Egg White Braised Rice in Stone Pot, where egg white is beaten with crab meat and garoupa fish fillets and presented in a fluffy-like texture on top of the rice.
A tiny topping of shrimp roe lends colour to the dish.
“With the stone pot, the food is kept hot till the last bite,” said Wo, 34.
Also served was the mouth-watering Szechuan Spicy Chicken, with its recipe originating from Szechuan, China.
Village chicken is used and one of its key ingredients is the numbing Szechuan peppercorn.
“In Szechuan, the weather is cold and wet, which is why people there take pepper to retain body heat.
“The chicken has to be marinated in a mix of spices until it is flavourful.
“Whatever excess water and oil from the marination has to be drained off afterwards,” said Wo, adding that the dish will come across as slightly numbing, sour and spicy.
Another new item is the deep-fried Center Wing with Cumin Seed. The cumin seed, said Wo, was used mainly in cooking in Xinjiang (China), India and even Mongolia for its BBQ lamb meats.
“Besides cumin seed, the wings have to be marinated in salt, sugar and garlic powder, then deep-fried and sprinkled with more cumin seed,” said Wo.
We also got to sample some other new introductions like Braised Pork Trotter Noodle and Crispy Prawn with Pumpkin Sauce where deshelled sea prawns are deep-fried with crispy batter before being coated with pumpkin sauce.
For The Great 8 Giveaway promotion, the first week from May 4 to 11 started with coupons for the Deep-Fried Squid & Crispy Rice with Salted Egg or Szechuan Spicy Chicken.
For the week of May 11 to 17, the giveaways are Taiwanese Saucy Chicken in Hot Stone Pot or Home Signature Mixed Vegetables.
Then, it is the Fresh Prawn Wantan Soup or deep-fried Centre Wing with Cumin Seed for the week of May 18 to 24. And for the final week of May (May 25 to 31), the giveaways are the Braised Beancurd with Spicy Minced Meat or BBQ Boneless Chicken with Black Pepper.
This is the writer’s personal observation and is not an endorsement by StarMetro.
