Pin Shan

Pin Shan has taken over Zhen Shan Mei's location at SohoKL, replacing Taiwanese fine-dining with creative Chinese contemporary cuisine.

Omega egg with black pepper foie gras sauce & lumpfish caviar. Can't go wrong with a luscious steamed egg that features a runny yolk and texturally diverse accompaniments; we'd have happily slurped up a dozen (or more!) of these.

Chicken liver & gizzard with pickled veggies. A treat for offal-lovers like us; the liver was soft but not slimy and flavorful without being foul.

Grilled squid with sea urchin sauce. Absolutely addictive; the coating tasted like a milder version of salted egg yolk sauce, adding a creamy savoriness to the nicely springy squid.

Deep-fried prawn & foie gras roll. Another hit; moist, succulent prawns, encased in crisp, thin bean curd skin that wasn't oily at all. The foie gras sauce was a wonderful touch that boosted this with a fresh layer of luxury.

Shanghai-style crispy eel & salted fish. A crunchy snack. Nothing more, nothing less.

Pan-fried crispy soft shell crab. Meaty chunks, perfectly battered in sinfully rich butter egg yolk paste. So much easier to eat than regular crabs (OK, OK, that's like comparing apples with oranges, but still...).

Village chicken with chef's sauce. Smooth and fairly flavorsome, but bony.

Pan-fried Matsuzaka pork shoulder with fresh "huai shan." The only undeniable flop; the pork was terrifically tender, but it was soaked in an overpoweringly salty BBQ-ish sauce that ruined each mouthful.

Chalk Hill Blue Semillion Chardonnay. Alas, wines don't come cheap here. No bottle is priced below 150 ringgit. Not sure what corkage charges are.

Pin Shan Private Collection Cuisine,

SohoKL, Solaris Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur.