Toms Diner

I can punctuate, I truly can! It’s just that the places I eat at have better things to worry about than grammar (or sometimes, food hygiene, but I’ll get to that later). 

A visit to Erin’s Nana and Pops saw us being bundled into the Avanza and driven to Taman Desa to a dim sum place my cousin brought my folks to. It was evidently good enough for dad to chance bringing us there. 

We got there about 11.15am on a Saturday, so there were still a few parking spaces to be had. The eating shop (I cannot and refuse to call these places ‘restaurants’ because truly, they are not! And I am not being uppity – just using words in the right context) was busy but not till overflowing, and we were attended to quickly by a really nice young man. 

Never mind the punctuation, the food is good! 

While Toms Dim Sum specializes in what food writers call Asian Tapas, they also have a goodly selection of one-dish items, all of which looked pretty good. However, since dim sum was the specialty, I did my best to stick to the dim sum part of the menu. 

A relatively clean eating shop. Bar a hair in the food.

I made sure to order the standards, so as to properly judge competence. Of course I also went for the interesting sounding stuff too, just for the balance. 

Fried yam dumpling.

The prawn dumpling (RM4.70) was pretty good, with a thin enough, translucent enough skin. The shrimp in them were pretty decent sized too. The fried yam dumpling (woo kok) was surprisingly the best I have ever had. Usually I avoid this item of dim sum like the plague because they tend to be oil-logged and heavy. Toms’ version was very lightly battered and fluffy, with a moist centre which was very rare. I think it was also because the pork filling was sweeter than most places would make it that made it so palatable to me. However, I did find a hair in one of the pieces, which put me off the dish, even though the server got the helping replaced. 

Mixed meat and century egg porridge.

The mixed meat and egg porridge had good flavour, but I found the porridge too fine for me. I like grainier congee, and the century diced in small pieces, unlike the large wedge in this offering. Still, Erin enjoyed the crunchy pastry flakes which topped the RM7.50 bowl, and I found it very balanced in taste. The lotus seed was a nice touch too. 

I liked the touch of steamed veg on the chee chong fun.

Kit loves Hong Kong chee chong fun and so I ordered two helping of the RM4.70 rice rolls. The sauce was really good – light and tasty (even Erin asked for more), and the rolls were passably smooth, though not silky. However, there were only about three prawns in each dish, folded in the centre. They were large ones though, so I think I can live with that. 

The steamed rice needed more flavour.

The steamed glutinous rice with chicken (loh mai kai) was not too oily, with the grains of glutinous rice steamed to a soft bite. However, the saucing was a bit too mild, and made it insipid. A pity really since the RM4.50 dish was so right in texture. The same can be said for the RM3.80 steamed lotus rice, which came in a little lotus-leaf wrapped parcel. 

Fluffy fried bread.

The fried vegetable buns were pretty good – fluffy, without too much oil absorbed. The yeasty dough made for good smells, but the vegetable filling was a little under-flavoured and did not do justice to the dough. 

Chinese pancake.

The hometown pancake (RM4.70) was a savoury Asian griddle cake. Not so much okonomiyaki, but more like a hot cake with dried shrimp and scallions. 

The cute little yam piggies.

The cute factor was the steamed yam buns. They came in the shape of little orange pigs, with black sesame seed eyes and little hand-shaped snouts and ears. Not only whimsical, they were really well done, with the bread dough being light and fluffy, and the yam filling being smooth and of just the right sweetness. At RM4.50, they were the most visually pleasing item.

Belimbing seafood.

The one non-dim sum dish I ordered was seafood belimbing. Belimbing is that local fruit which grows in clusters on the trunk of the short trees. The little green fruit are very sour and cannot be eaten raw, but are great in a variety of (mostly) Malay sambals. At RM12 I highly recommend this Toms dish. The belimbing was pureed with chillis to make sambal in which four angled beans, petai, fish fillet, squid and prawns were stir-fried in. The balance of flavours was perfect, with it being spicy enough to be more-ish, but not so chilli hot that it became uncomfortable to eat. 

Oriental thirst quencher.

The adults had chrysanthemum tea with ice (RM3 for a pot and RM1 for the ice), while Erin shared the refreshing chestnut and sugar cane drink (RM3) with me. 

Our bill for four adults and one negligible toddler was RM75.39, with a 5% service tax. With the prompt, solicitous service we got, I think the service crew deserved 10%. 

Toms is a place I would go again. It seems that largely the length and breadth of the menu is well-made. I’m planning to try the noodles and desserts the next time we go.

Toms Dim Sum

11 Plaza Danau 2

Jalan 5/109F, Off Old Klang Road

Taman Danau Desa 58100 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03 7983 1686

Hours: Mon-Sat 8.30am-12am; Sun 8.30am-4.30pm