Joystar Garden is managed by Faye’s sister and she’s been insisting that I head over to review the place on the blog. I found the perfect opportunity this month – I have just been transferred into a new division with a great boss. I didn’t enjoy working in the previous division for personal reasons and I’m now doing what I like doing so I booked a table for six (6) for a Chinese banquet to celebrate. 🙂
Joystar Garden is located on the second floor and is fully air-conditioned. The ground floor of Joystar Garden is a coffee shop under the same proprietor. There are private rooms and a stage for speeches and karaoke sessions in the restaurant. The service is attentive and the waitress to diner ratio is kept very high so you’ll be hard pressed to be unable to summon a waitress’s attention.
The obligatory peanuts were served while we waited for everyone to arrive. Peanuts deep fried with batter is a traditional snack to munch on before the actual food arrives in Chinese restaurant banquets.
I had a small bottle of Guinness Stout to celebrate my new transfer into the division. I figured it was kinda sponsored by Guinness anyway from the earnings off the Nuffnang Guinness 9 Ball Tournament ads. 😉
This is the first dish that came out – Chinese banquets usually start with a dish containing several different items. It’s called Four Seasons or Hot & Cold Platter in generic terms and it’s a starter dish that serves as an appetizer. Joystar Garden’s version has wrapped rice vermicelli, shrimp, crab sticks, lemon chicken, and slices of pork intestines.
The second dish of a traditional Chinese banquet is usually the soup. This is Shark’s Fin soup and true to Chinese etiquette, it’s divided up on a separate table before the individual soup bowls are served to the diners. The remainder of the soup is placed at the center of the table for refills.
I could only discern one piece of shark’s fin in the soup but for the price, I didn’t really expect for it to be loaded with the stuff. 😉
The next dish that came out is sweet and sour pork ribs in a ring of yam (taro). It’s served with prawn crackers on the side.
I thought this dish tasted pretty good, with the sweet and sour pork ribs combining well with the sweet yam and the texture of the crackers.
The next dish is Thai style fish pieces. The portions were HUGE and (more than) a little too much for six people. I started feeling full around this time…and so did everyone else.
Next came the deep fried mayonnaise chicken. This dish was barely touched coz we were all so full at this point. I was told later that you should deduct two (2) people from the amount of food to tell the chef preparing Chinese banquets coz the portions are usually meant for the amount of people plus two so that everyone would have enough to eat.
The last dish that came out was the mixed vegetable dish. I couldn’t eat anymore – I was absolutely STUFFED at this point.
There is also the obligatory fruits platter at the end of the Chinese banquet. Joystar Garden served oranges and watermelons for the dessert with toothpicks.
The Joystar Garden Chinese banquet set cost RM 128 for six people not inclusive of drinks. You can get different customized sets on request. It cost me RM 161.80 for everything and it’s a special price from Faye’s sister. Thanks!
Caution: Joystar Garden has a karaoke setup that is very loud and this makes it a very non-conducive environment for conversation. Potential diners should be warned that less than sober mature ladies belting out Chinese golden oldies might appear on stage. I’ll let the video above speak for itself.
