Brunei Restaurant Review: Phongmun Restaurant

It’s amazing that Phongmun Restaurant is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary this year. I remember vivid memories of having dim sum here with my family as a little kid as I used to live in Kampung Ayer.

Besides dim sum during the weekends, I’ve also attended countless wedding celebrations here. Notice that this place is pretty child friendly as they got quite a number of baby chairs in this picture.

I would say Phongmun is a family restaurant, catering to weekends for the common tradition of a Chinese family having dim sum together and having quality family time together.

I guess because a lot of us grew up coming to this restaurant, we did not stop to appreciate some of the carvings and décor in the restaurant, which otherwise – we would marvel in awe if we were in a new restaurant or in another country. Have you ever stop to marvel at these dragon sculptures?

They also have a VIP room and these other traditional Chinese structures. Perhaps the younger generation need to drag themselves out of bed to have early Dim Sum, they didn’t really appreciate the ambience.

My camera doesn’t do justice for this beautiful sculpture in their VIP room. It’s quite a majestic sight!

Now Phongmum restaurant is not just about the Dim Sum ~ they do offer plenty of options when it comes to Chinese food. For starters, they have  Lunch Specials for every Tuesday: Chicken Rice and every Thursday: Suckling Pig w/ rice. While they also serve Charsiew/ Roasted Pork/ Roasted Duck/ Roasted Chicken from Monday till Friday. They are pretty popular during lunch, as there’s quite a big working population around Bandar Town area.

One thing you might not know is that they serve pretty good Chinese Fine Dining at Phongmun restaurant, or some might call these – Kung Fu Cuisine! For this post, I will highlight and show you some of their delicious, time consuming dishes that require real Kung Fu/Cooking Techniques. They usually require you to make advance orders for these dishes – usually one or two days in advance! Check out this huge Lobster Salad!

If it’s a special occasion where you want to celebrate – or a big client you want to impress – you won’t go wrong with this exquisite lobster salad. Confirm very ‘got face’. Beautifully decorated and bound to catch anyone’s attention.

Lobster meat ~~ oooh yes please!

This is the Double Boiled Chicken Ginseng soup – using carefully selected Kampung Chicken cooked with Chinese herbs and Ginseng. A very hearty soup with tons of health benefits!

Double Flavour Chicken or Bai Hua Xuang Wei Chi is a combination of two dishes: Buttermilk chicken cubes & Fish Paste topped with Crispy Chicken Skin.

The chicken skin is carefully taken out and turned into this crispy top for the fish paste. Yum! The headchef really showcases the technique of Chinese cooking in this dish that looked so simple.

Phongmun Signature Beancurd – The Phongmum’s version of home made seafood beancurd served in a thick gravy – unlike typical ones which is usually served with mayonnaise.

Braised Abalone, Winter Mushroom & Sea Cucumber served in Phongmun Signature sauce. This can be served on individual plates equally divided for your guests. Look at that delicious abalone! I bet you would love to take a picture with that now and instagram it!

#abalone #huatah #likealousai #finedining #foodadventures

Mei Ting and Poh Chuan enjoying their posh Chinese fine dining experience ~~

One of my favourite Chinese dishes - Braised Pork Knuckle with handmade Mantou – *slurps*

One simply does not say no to these gelatinous fatty pork – after longs hours of braising to absorb the flavours of the sauce and softened to a jelly like texture! Hubba hubba!

They are even better – served with your choice of steamed or deep fried mantous (all homemade by the dimsum chefs of Phongmun restaurant)

That awesome moment when you use the fried mantou to *kiap* (sandwich) the pork fatty part with meaty part with the oozing gravy ~~~~~~ OMG! HOW CAN YOU RESIST THIS! NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM!!! ATTACK!!!

Another Kung Fu dish for the night is this Steamed Chinese Pomfret, Qiling-style, with crispy fried fish bones.

The bones had been removed – fish sliced and arranged perfectly with ham, carrots and mushroom and served with sauce.

A beautiful dish that requires a lot of knife skills and preparation. Another great dish to impress your guests or to treat your loved ones.

The crispy deep fried fish bones are deep fried till cracker like texture and dipped with sauce for a good crunchy snack to accompany the fish – I have to admit I really enjoyed this dish. A dish that can put a smile on your face.

I’ve heard good things about their Yangzhou Fried Rice and I’m not disappointed. It’s pretty good and served as a good accompaniment tonight to the fine dishes we have.

We end our fine dining experience at Phongmun with a delicacy you often see in Chinese Wedding banquets – Sesame balls with lotus paste. I know a lot of friends who really loved these! ~~ bon appetit!

Phongmun restaurant does have other common Chinese dishes in their menu if you wish – but that’s for another blog post. This post mostly highlights the availability of Chinese Fine Dining dishes suitable for special occasions and weddings – or just a foodie culinary journey.

Good news:

Phongmun 30th Anniversary Promotion (1- 31 Mar)

15% discount off total bill for orders above BND$100 if you dine in during dinner time from 7pm – 10pm daily during the 1st till 31st of March!

Phongmum Restaurant

Opening hours: 7am to 10pm daily

Address: 2nd Floor, Teck Guan Plaza, Jln Sultan

Tel: (673) 2229591/ 2229562

Brunei Restaurant Review: I-Lotus

To me, it's a great place to have a nice family gathering. You get to enjoy the great food and relaxing ambiance at affordable prices. You can choose to sit inside the restaurant or outside, with a garden like patio which is mist cooled. You can also come here for lunch and order typical Chinese food such as char kway teow or fried rice. They have pretty good Yang Chow Fried Rice and Cantonese Deep Fried Noodles here. But tonight, I'm here to celebrate my sister's birthday and it's going to be a family dinner. Let's step into the restaurant shall we?

I walked into the restaurant and was politely greeted by one of their staff who brought me to my table. I like the design of the restaurant, it gives you the impression that a lot of work was done for every table and the interior design is elegant. I especially liked the colour of their napkins and the flower blend well with the restaurant. It's the feeling you should get when you walk into a restaurant to enjoy fine dining.



Our first dish to come was the hot and cold dish. I did not manage to take the full plate but just took my share of golden parcel; wontons wrapped with chives and a slice of their crispy chicken, which I quite enjoy. The wonton was alright.



Next was the claypot seafood, consisting of sea cucumbers and abalone.



Followed by the sizzling sensation of hot plate Japanese tofu which is served with minced chicken and mushroom sauce. I think the saltiness is enhanced with the addition of diced salted fish.



Stir fried mixed veggies



Chicken cooked two style in one plate. On the left are sliced chicken breasts with a sweet and spicy sauce and crispy chicken on the right. I especially like the sweet tangy flavour with a spicy kick on the sliced chicken breasts.



Steamed fish with herb and soy sauce. The fish tasted fresh and it was cooked just right. Texture was good and the soy sauce complements the fish very well.



We ended with their Cantonese Style Seafood Crispy noodles. Their sliced fish that was served with the noodles were very tasty and the best part's the crispiness of the noodles. Yum!

Overall, the experience was pleasant and the staff was prompt with their service. They were also very friendly and know their menu quite well when we were doing our ordering. The price's very reasonable for the experience and I will most certainly come here again next time for lunch or a gathering with friends.

KL TRIP: The Hong Kong Restaurant

Me and Suyi at GreenBox@SungaiWang.

This is the Hong Kong Restaurant at Pudu Plaza Food Court


The main dishes are typical chinese dishes but you can actually special order chinese specialties like shark's fin soup, abalone, buddha jumping over the wall. Suyi ordered the crab meat and shark fin's soup from her dad in advance.

Would you look at that! What a lovely sight. Shark fin's soup with fresh crabmeat. Look at the amount of crabmeat in there - no frozen or canned bullshit crabmeat my dear - they taste really good in this soup.

We also got to try the other specialities of the restaurant.

Juicy and tender stewed claypot beef brisket

Stir fried fish with ginger and green onion. The fish slices are cooked at just the right texture. It's smooth and tastes really fresh, flavoured by the fragrance of ginger and green onions with chinese sauces. A nice light yet satisfying dish.

Stir fried BabyKailan cooked to a nice crunchy texture! Yum.

Kam Heong Chicken Cubes. This is simply a flavour explosion. The dried chilies and cashews go so well with the chicken. Spicy and full of flavour. I really love this dish. I can't wait to come here again and try other special dishes.