Take a break from meat at KL's Dharma Realm Guan Yin Sagely Monastery Food Centre
KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — I happened to be at Suria KLCC the other day and feeling bored with its culinary offerings, I decided to walk out to the nearby temple for lunch.
It's a pleasant walk despite the hot sun and if you go early, the atmosphere is calm at the temple. You do spot an occasional tour bus though.
Just walk through the main entrance and keep left to walk behind to the food centre. There's also an entrance from the side, ideal for those working next to the temple.
You will find the spread of dishes for mixed rice on your right side. Expect about 30 plus dishes from 11am onwards. Food is replenished once it's finished.
A plate of rice with my choice of vegetables, mock 'goose' and 'tempe' cost around RM11.
The spread is a combination of vegetables; simple stir fried ones or cooked with minimal side items. There are also bean curd dishes including tempe, which they make on site.
I liked how fewer mock meat items are used, keeping it healthier. They do have one of my all-time favourites though which is roast "goose" made with deep fried bean curd sheets.
The food here is cooked with less oil and salt, making it healthier.
The mock 'goose' is made with deep fried bean curd sheets.
Generally, you will find the food is cooked with less oil and salt. Prices are also kept reasonable as my plate of rice with various dishes was RM11.
It definitely beats paying premium prices at the shopping mall plus I also get to exercise a bit during lunch time.
The food here is cooked by volunteers; you can spot them prepping vegetables to be cooked later.
If you love vegetables, you will be happy with the selection here (left). You won't find vegetables swimming in oil (right).
You will also see many diners bringing tiffin carriers to take home the dishes for others too.
If you prefer to have something other than mixed rice, they do daily specials. These are usually a variation of fried rice and noodles. They also have beetroot or seaweed fried rice.
All the vegetables are prepared and cooked in batches to keep it fresh.
Look for the counter at the side for 'lui cha' that is served on Fridays.
On Wednesday, they do tomato sauce noodles, which you don't usually find at other places and on Thursday, you can get curry noodles or celery soup noodles.
You also have soup where the flavours are rotated daily for three days. On Monday, it's black bean, Tuesday is bitter gourd and Wednesday is herbal.
The 'lui cha' offers various vegetables, black eyed beans and beancurd with rice, peanuts and sesame seeds.
Staples are seaweed rolls and tomyam mee hoon which is offered every day except Friday as you get lui cha. The lui cha here is a good one with a fragrant green tea broth. It's a little watered down but still flavourful.
The green tea broth that is served with 'lui cha' is fragrant but a little watered down.
The highlight here is the snacks like this delicious fried sesame ball.
What I really look forward to is their spread of snacks. Previously you see them preparing the snacks on the premises but with Covid-19, this has changed. Instead, the food is prepared off site and brought to the temple.
They're all packed already so it's very convenient. It's only the fried sesame ball or jin tui which you need to pick and place in a brown bag yourself.
You get a variety of different flavoured buns but I really enjoyed the unusual peanut buns.
Grab this delicious radish cake as it is very popular.
This is my favourite as you get a crispy exterior studded with sesame seeds and a red bean filling that is not overly sweet. They rotate the filling between red bean and lotus paste too. Each sesame ball is RM1.50
As these are super popular, grab them first before you have your lunch. I really enjoyed the pan fried radish cake (RM4.20 for two pieces). The texture may be a little dense but it's flavourful. It's the type you will greedily finish even though you're full from lunch!
Other popular snacks are the vegetarian 'siu pau' and curry puffs as the pastry is light and flaky.
The food is prepared and cooked by volunteers.
Other popular items include their vegetarian "siu pao" and curry puffs with a flaky pastry. I tried the peanut bun too as it's not often you find this type of filling. You get ground peanuts paired with a fluffy bun that was delicious.
After you finish your meal, just make sure you put your empty plates on the tables on the right side. You can separate the rubbish to be thrown in the bin, while the utensils are placed in a bucket. This helps them cut down the work to clear the tables.
Dining here is pleasant with the airy dining room.
The Chinese temple is just a few doors away from Suria KLCC.
For the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, expect a bigger crowd here as many people are vegetarian for those two days. On that special occasion, the menu is mixed rice, nasi lemak, Hainan rice, fried noodles, chee cheong fun, seaweed rolls and tomyam meehoon.
Dharma Realm Guan Yin Sagely Monastery Food Centre, Lorong Binjai (Off Jalan Ampang), Kuala Lumpur. Open: 11am to 2.30pm (Monday to Friday). For the first and fifteen day of the lunar month, it's open from 7.30am to 2.30pm.
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