Chinese Food Festival at Dynasty, Avari Towers

Wok Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Cantonese Char Siu Sauce Chinese Food Festival at Dynasty, Avari Towers

Chinese new year starts this Saturday and in its celebration Dynasty, which is a Chinese restaurant at Avari Towers, is holding a food festival. So today, I along with a few other fellow bloggers was invited for another menu tasting. I like how these food festivals are developing my taste buds for a variety of flavours that I would not have dared to try otherwise being a picky eater.

Chinese cuisine does involve a lot of seafood and numerous meat options but this time there still is not anything unusual like the snail I had at French Food Festival. For some reason, most of us had it in our minds that authentic Chinese food is mostly raw, however, that was not the case today. In fact, we were told that meat, in particular, is preferred to be beyond done and I guess that’s what most of us here do too in order to kill the bacteria (and protein too). So most of the dishes had fully cooked meat and some of the seafood options were steamed or boiled.

Scallop Wonton in Superior Broth Soup

 

Crab Meat and Fresh Green Asparagus Soup

Dynasty is offering two A la carte options and you can avail either of them for 3888 PKR or both for 6888 PKR (exclusive of tax) per head. We were served both the menus for tasting and I enjoyed a laid back lunch with everyone rather than rushing around for food and photos as we do in buffets. The first menu is called Shanghai and the other is called Grand Master Yu. Both the menus have different soups and main courses but the starters are pretty similar.

The Shanghai has Scallop Wonton in Superior Broth Soup while the Grand Master Yu has Crab Meat and Fresh Green Asparagus Soup. Now both the soups were yummy and filling but I just found the wonton one to be tastier for my liking and it was lighter too as the crab soup had a creamy texture and was loaded with cheese on top. Both the soups are served with crispy prawn crackers that I already love.

Shanghai Menu Left (Top to Bottom): Steamed White Fish Sio Mai topped with Fish Roe, Combination Cold Platter with Chicken, Beef, Prawns, and Vegetable, Golden Crispy Chicken Breast with Sweet Honey Sauce Dip, Steamed Fish Fillet with XO Sauce Right: Braised Garden Greens

As starters both the menu serve a Combination Cold Platter with Chicken, Beef, Prawns, and Vegetable. Everybody’s favourite were the prawns doused in some delicious sauce. I recall that the Wasabi prawns served at Noodle House have a similarly palatable taste and hence this was my favourite thing on the entire menu too. Other than the platter, starters also have Steamed White Fish Sio Mai topped with Fish Roe and Steamed Crab Meat Sio Mai topped with Fish Roe on Shanghai and Grand Master Yu menus respectively. Sio Mai is a variant of dumplings and both the dishes looked identical. Therefore, in order for us to be able to differentiate the two, the ones with crab meat were not topped with the fish roe. Fish roe is basically a soft mass of orange crystal like tiny fish eggs which look pretty but I could not bring myself to eat them so I only stuck with the crab Sio Mai.

For the main course, both the menus offer a good variety having four dishes and Steamed Jasmine Rice. Shanghai has Golden Crispy Chicken Breast with Sweet Honey Sauce Dip, Steamed Fish Fillet with XO Sauce, Wok Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Cantonese Char Siu Sauce, which was on the chewy side, and Braised Garden Greens, which was a mixture of vegetables cooked in a sauce. I really enjoyed pretty much all the dishes on this menu and hence it was my favourite.

Grand Master Yu Menu Right (Top to Bottom): Crispy Fried Duck Breast with Sweet and Sour Plum Sauce, Steamed Crab Meat Sio Mai, Braised Fresh Asparagus with Button Mushrooms, Wok Fried Tiger Prawns with XO Sauce Left: Steamed Silver Cod Fish with HU NAN Chili Sauce

However, if you prefer a little more variety then Grand Master Yu could be the one for you. That menu contains Steamed Silver Cod Fish with HU NAN Chili Sauce, Wok Fried Tiger Prawns with XO Sauce, Crispy Fried Duck Breast with Sweet and Sour Plum Sauce, I found this to be a bit too try and I am not much of a fan of duck meat either, and Braised Fresh Asparagus with Button Mushrooms.

As for dessert, there isn’t anything Chinese on the menu and the usual buffet dessert option at Avari is being offered. For drinks, we were served a tropical fruit punch which is also usually served at Avari but other than that we had Chinese tea which was basically just green tea.

Buffet Dessert

If you are willing to try authentic Chinese cuisine, which by the way is amazing, then I think this is a good offer for having so many different dishes. I really wish there was some Chinese dessert available on the menu too though as then it would have been perfect. Nonetheless, it was another good experience of fine dining at Avari for me. Let me know what caught your eye and what you would love to try!