Tang Room@The Starling : The Case of the Miniature Chicken

It was Saturday evening on the 8th day of Chinese New Year. My partner and I wanted to have a nice dinner and we decided to visit Tang Room at The Starling.

Prior to this, I remarked to my partner that Tang Room looks like a posh restaurant and might be out of our league. Anyway, we walked in that Saturday evening when the place was in full swing.

At first we were ushered to the outside seating since most tables inside were set for big groups. Somehow a table was soon available and we were able to sit inside.

As usual, I was tasked with the ordering. Since it was our first time there, I was rather unsure of what to get. I settled for 4 dishes - a fried spring chicken, salt and pepper crispy oink trotters, dragon vegetable and spinach tofu.

We waited quite a bit as the restaurant was busy. And then I almost fell out of my chair when the spring chicken was served.

Even the server had the giggles when my partner and I burst out laughing. Why?

Because.................

I have had spring chicken before but it was not that small. This one must be a seriously underaged chicken by the looks of it. So tiny. I can eat 4 of those. Tsk!

The server offered to cut the chicken for us but no, I insisted on doing it myself.

I still can't get over this itsy bitsy spring chicken. I am forever haunted.

Then the oinks arrived. The server did ask me how many portions I wanted. I thought one would suffice, especially at those prices.

Well, it was a small one for you and a small one for me. 

I complained to my partner that at the prices we were paying, we are getting so little (especially that microscopic chicken). This was what my partner had to say.

"This is fine dining. Small portions. I think fine dining is not ngam for you. You are more the chap fan type". Muahahahaha!!!

After a while, our dragon vegetable arrived. Much to my relief, the portion was generous.

It was very garlicky with lots of wok hei which I love. Service was slow though. The servers took so long to serve the rice and my partner had to call for attention.

Two servers could not understand what is "rice" until another one (a Bangladeshi) came along and asked "Nasi?" Yup. Nasi.

The last dish. Nice big portion of spinach tofu. This filled us up very nicely. 

While eating, I flipped through the Chinese New Year set menu (which I overlooked when ordering earlier) and noted that the sets were quite attractive (in terms of variety). The sets range from RM78++ per person (minimum two persons) to upwards of RM2,000++ per table of 10.

Honestly, it would be a long time before we come back again.