Celestial Court, Imperial

Considering the world is on the brink of famine, and food shortage, its rather ironic that I and fellow food blogger Lyrical Lemongrass were "complaining" (for want of a better word) about how we are under pressure to use up our Starwood Vouchers that expire 30 April. So, in the last week, I've had to drag myself to Villa Danielli, redeem my free dinner for two, free cake, AND, on on Sunday, to Celestial Court to use up my ALL YOU CAN EAT dim sum voucher for two.

Anyway, thankfully RumputLimau told me to book early, as in one month ago, as Celestial Court is fully book... and at the rate people are dying prematurely, it seems like this Celestial Court is not the only one that's fully booked.

As we were coming after church, and had to go on to meet another friend in Pavilion after lunch, I had no choice but to bring the brood of kids. I had no idea how the mechanism was gonna work, afterall, the voucher was for two, all you can eat, and it would be unfair to expect them to let the children eat free.

But I needn't have worried, they have it all worked out. I get a call from Imperial on Friday.
Hotel Imperial (HI) : Hallo, Mr FBB ah, you got reservation for Sunday at Celeschia Cor hor?
Me: Yes, I'm confirmed coming
HI: You got use voucher ah?
Me: Yes, can right?
HI: Can can, allyew ken it right? But ah, your table for 5 people hor, so the extra tree peepa ah, have to oller at least tree lishes from alakat
Me: Huh?
HI: Yala, so tree peepa, times tree is nine dishes from alakat maynoo la ha
Me: Ok ok....(it was a saturday afternoon and I was groggy)

Anyway, when I came to my senses, I called the hotel again to clarify, and to notify them that the 3 extra people were actually chewdren, aged 9, 7, and 5. So they agreed to let me order for two extra people only.

We got there in good time, as church service was shorter than usual. (this was ironic coz the preacher man was saying how kids these days dont go to coffee shops....mine do, every week, except this week).

Shortly after we arrived, another familiar couple, also rushing to meet the deadline for their voucher, plonked themselves not far from us.

So common sense dictated that the 6 ala carte dishes I ordered should not be the ones that are in the all you can eat menu. Oooh, tough choice, as most dim sum dishes are replicated in ala carte and AYCE.

I'm always a bit skeptical when it comes to halal dim sum (with all due respect to Muslim friends), so I was pleasantly surprised by this roast duck, which was juicy and succulent, and sufficiently fatty. This is from the AYCE menu. Theoretically, I could order more. But of course, greed in the Catholic church is one of the 7 deadly sins, as is gluttony.

Can't for my life remember what dumplings these were, but they were good. In fact, I'll say it now, all the stuff was good. I think this one had prawns and scallops, but can't remember if it was from ala carte.

This one is nice, its yar char kueh, chinese crullers, with some squid paste on top.

Their egg tarts are nice too, surprisingly NOT on the AYCE menu, but ala carte. Fluffy pastry, with a gloriously rich egg filling. Meanwhile, the kids were terrorising that nice couple in the first picture.

These are cod fish sticks, with some other paste. Also from ala carte. The kids loved it, while I quite liked the green dipping sauce. Something different.

The cheong fun was generously filled with prawns. Again, a pleasant surprise from the AYCE menu.

Again, I can't remember what these dumplings were. All I remember is the kid eating the wrapper, leaving us adults to deal with the filling. Mainly scallops, roe and prawn. Very nice.

The siu long baos were decent as well. Very juicy and the meat very flavourful, presumably chicken.

We did order other stuff too that I forgot to photograph. The yam puffs were VERY good, the Yong Chow fried rice was laden with prawns and chicken char siu, too much liu not enough rice, but tasty. The siu mai's were normal, although there was some crab meat topping. Actually, it's a very worthwhile voucher to utilise. Because of their ruling, our bill, for 5, came up to about RM39, which is fair. It would cost us usually RM 30 to eat at coffee shops anyway, after church.


The supposedly newly renovated Imperial Hotel.



Entrance to the Celestial Court