Ms. Jazz Reviews: Xiao Fei Yang @ Damansara Utama

One thing i really miss having in KL is Szechuan hotpot. Surprisingly, Melbourne carries some very decent ones that can rival with the ones in CHINA/ Hongkong.
I remember back were the days as a student, those AUD18.90 eat-all-you-can hotpot was all we could yearn for. Me and Crazieapple can stick our butt in the hotpot shop for endless time (more than 3 hours i think) especially during winters while we happily order plates after plates of slice beef, slice lambs and many other offerings. We would starve ourselves crazy during lunch just so that our tummy will have an expandable space for more food during dinner. Needless to say, the waiters werent particularly happy to see us as we were always the last to leave.

So how does Xiao Fei Yang flairs in comparison to those in Melbourne?

Not very well, i'm afraid. And here i swear there's no biasness whatsoever in the judgement.

It also doesn't help that dishes was pretty pricy. Try RM18 for a plate of slice beef and RM6-8 for a plate of balls (i.e. fish/ beef/ cuttlefish etc) Between two of us, we spent RM180+ i mean.. where's our fine dine cutleries!?

Hmm.. right.....

Sterilized dining sets, anyone?

However, credits given to their herbal soup base which has rich herbal flavours and addictive to drink.
My main intention of the visit however was for the spicy szechuan soup base, which unfortunately lacks the spicy kick despite a thick layer of chilli oil and many floating pieces of dried chilli in the soup. We've even requested for extra spicy (+RM2) which fails to satisfy my terrible spicy tastebuds. Still it was still decent for hotpot lover like me, if only if its tad bit more spicy =)

The yuen yang (2-combination) soup base should cost RM22 if my memory serves me correctly. The stock is refillable.

A selection of sauces includes sesame, garlic with soya sauce is provided (refillable too)

We started off with Garlic Pork 蒜泥白肉 [suan ni bai rou], a popular cold dish in szechuan province.  A common practice is to use belly pork with a balance mix of lean and fatty meat with their basic marination of chilli sesame oil, chopped garlic, and spring onion. I reminisce the ones i had in Shanghai, Xiao Jiang Nan, which has the right level of spiciness and flavour. The ones served in Xiao Fei Yang is not to my liking. With garlic chopped too rough and splattered on top of the belly slices, I was glad there was no further appointment that night as i wouldnt want to be talking to anyone if you get what i mean.

The marination was weak as they heaped the sesame oil onto the meat like an after thought, making the pork slices taste somewhat blant with strong garlic odor. POOF

Looking around our surrounding tables, the most common orders are beef and lamb slices. We've had both which was decent and also chose the deer meat slices, which probably was a mistake as the meat turns out quite tough.
Our recommendation for you to order "yu bao dan" fishball with roe fillings. It's absolutely divine!

However, It was a mistake to order too many balls. Although we do like them very much (no pun intended) ordering plates of beef, cuttlefish, prawn, and fishballs can be too overwhelming even to us.

We were so stuffed at the end of the day that we couldnt consume their desserts but ohhhh.. how tempting they look!

I'll definitely be back when my szechuan hotpot craving hits, unless i find a better alternative, any suggestions?

Ratings:

Food: 6/10

Ambience: 5/10

Presentation of food: 6/10

Service: 5.5/10

Overall: 5.5/10

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Xiao Fei Yang

40G &42G, Jalan SS21/62,

Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya,

Tel: 03-7728-7633.

(also check out their pudu outlet)