Fong Lye at the Gardens

There are a few places at the Gardens that are never without a queue come meal times, and I noticed that Fong Lye is one of them but there's something about the efficiency in which they deal with the queue that reminds me very much of Din Tai Fung - and I suspect that that's the reason why the queue doesn't intimidate customers.


Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant
Lot T208
3rd Floor
The Gardens
Mid Valley City
Kuala Lumpur
Tel No: 03- 2282 8699

Fong Lye runs on a simple, hearty concept - set meals with a few options for sides. One can get a little spoilt for choice, and I remember hmming and hawwing for quite sometime over my options on my first visit to the restaurant. Sets generally feature a main dish accompanied by rice (or noodles, in same cases), soup, and a small selection of appetisers.

 
This time though, it was a simple - dad wanted soup so we thought that the steamboat set would be perfect. I'm not entirely if the set is meant for one but enough food came for two, so no complaints there. The set came with a nice little mix of ingredients - thin slices of pork, golden mushrooms, fish derivatives and my personal favourite, slices of pumpkin (I'd never thought I'd see pumpkin as part of a steamboat set before).

 
Clear, mild soup - no overseasoning here. 

 
Some fried mushrooms on the side - coated with batter that tasted not unlike a deep fried Chinese doughnut (from the addition of Chinese five spices to the batter, perhaps).

 
A special soy sauce mix (we detected some white radish, among other things) that was a lovely complement to everything. 

While it probably doesn't serve up the best of the best, Fong Lye is a good place if you're on the lookout for a complete meal (fish and egg in tomato gravy, anyone?) and with good, quick service as well as a pleasant ambiance, the queue really doesn't come as a surprise.