Buffet Dinner @ Restoran Seri Melayu, Jalan Conlay

Last November, on Thanksgiving Week just before the Thanksgiving weekend, our American principal dropped by to say hello to us. Along with that, we would usually introduce to him our clients and end users, hoping that he would go back and write a good report about our operations.

It also means we will bring in around KL to savor our local culinary delights. When he asked to eat local food, he really meant local. Day one - we went for Restoran Leong Ya Indah for chinese food, yong tao foo and Paper Wrapped Chicken. So that was for lunch, and for dinner we took him to Satay Kajang Hj Samuri @ Kajang. Although we understand that he wanted to go to Nirvana Maju (his favourite restaurant), we explained to him that the standard has gone down these days. Day Two, I ended up in Sg Wang with him souvenir hunting for his Thanksgiving party, when he returns home. Dinner was at Seri Melayu, and it was to be my first visit there. I have not attended cultural shows in Malaysia before in my life, although I have fallen asleep in many other cultural shows, in other countries..wakakakaka... my own country's show wa tak pernah pigi oh... kekekeke


Anyway, I didn't know what to expect, from this restaurant. When I heard that Seri Melayu has the same owner as Seri Angkasa ( KL Tower) I was beginning to get worried, bad reputation ma, expensive and lousy food all. So when we walked in, we were greeted with a buffet spread meant for kings. Picture gallery here. Round 1, I had from left to right, roast lamb with mint sauce, chinese styled ginger chicken in dark soya sauce, seafood curry (mamak style I think), fish curry, and briyani.

These samples really got my hopes up, all the ingredients were fresh, and the recipes were authentic and everything was well cooked.

Round 2 (L-R), beef rendang, Nasi Kerabu (with rice), Chicken Curry and Chinese Styled Prawn in Hoi sin Sauce and leek. Everything turned out quite good, except for my Nasi Kerabu. I put too much budu, and it became too salty for me. The prawns were fresh, and surprisingly delicious.


For the third round, I got myself a bowl of Laksa Johor. Its fun to go for this type of buffets, because , you can learn to make those laksas yourself. Its a DIY type stall, where you cook the noodles in hot soup. and pour in the laksa gravy onto your noodles. Also at the side are all the extra condiments meant for a laksa bowl.

Their satay was nice, definitely made from tip top ingredients. The peanut sauce was a little bit on the sweet side, but I must say, thats how a satay sauce should taste like.

I helped myself to a big bowl of ulam and salads, before I settled with Keledek Kukus with pengat sauce. Pengat is normally done by Baba's and Nyonya on special occasions. It is reduced coconut milk, with gula melaka and durian paste. I took two pieces of keledek for myself and a full plate of keledek and pengat for my American friend. He just loves durians.

Come to about 8.30pm the cultural show starts with the liveband providing diners with some traditional music.

After that they have various dances, which I saw for the first time.

This so called Chinese Fan Dance performed by Malay girls. Tell you the truth, I saw this fan dance in Korea too. So I am not sure if that was Korean or chinese.

Then you have Classical Indian dance.


And more hip swaying by some chicks.

The quality of the cultural performance, reminded me why I never attend these shows. Tourists might just go home and forget about it, but as a local, I can only ponder if these people can be good dancers and be more authentic. Later I found out, my American friend has already been to Saloma four times previously, and experienced the same type of cultural dances 4 times before. Luckily we took him somewhere else. Different place but same food and dance.

He never complains about food, so his only answer was, "...it was really good, I enjoyed it !" I thought the food was good, the spread was enormous, it had really authentic Malay Kampung food(minus the house flies when we eat at stalls), authentic chinese, and authentic Indian food. They always have a roast lamb or two at their western corner, plus, for dessert, you can always go for fresh fruits (local), stuff like Leng Chi Kang, Ice Kacang, and the usual disappointing Wall's Ice Cream.

Restoran Seri Melayu
1 Jalan Conlay
03 2145 1833
Wikimapia

January 2008 - Buffet Lunch 35++, Dinner 70++
But I am sure we paid a little bit more, in Nov last year.

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