Dragon-i Restaurant @ 1 Utama Shopping Centre

There has been a slew of new restaurants which recently opened this month at 1 Utama Shopping Centre and one of the new additions is a branch of the Dragon-i Restaurant located at Cititel Hotel, Midvalley. Since it's opening, it's been making waves with the Shanghainese food it offers and I have heard quite a bit about it.



Nope, I did not go to Xian to see the terracota soldiers like Jess did but this is one of the statues that line the entrance to the restaurant. Impressive walkway with the statues on your left and a wall with chinese characters before you reach the service counter to get your table. The restaurant is done up in shades of red and black, soft lightings and a glassed up kitchen so you can see the chefs in action. There is even a window in front of the restaurant so people can peek in when they walk through the mall. (More on that later on)



I had a pretty simple dinner since I was flying solo that night and ordered two must haves in Shanghainese restaurants, the lai mian and the xiao long bao. A plain one was ordered since I was planning to eat it with my dumplings. Since I have eaten at Crystal Jade before, I did a bit of comparison between both of them and based on my opinion, the lai mian is a bit lacking here. The lai mian here is a bit thicker than Crystal Jade and the broth was also a bit tasteless.



Their saving grace was the xiao long bao, little steamed meat dumplings with soup. They were very nice and the meat filling melted in my mouth. They have a slightly different way of making it though, you can't suck through the hole for the soup unlike the Crystal Jade ones so I had to nibble a bit at the bottom to drink the soup.



On the way out, I got reprimanded by one of the waitresses as she told me firmly - no picture taking in the restaurant. Luckily I had all my pictures so I was unruffled with her chasing me away. Then I spied the little window (sorry about the reflections) on the side as two chefs prepared the night's xiao long bao. One chef was rolling out the dumpling skin. Good xiao long bao must have skin which is transculent and fine.



This chef was making the folds for the xiao long bao. It seems there an exact number of folds that you must make for the dumplings. Some swear that it is a total of 18 folds but each restaurant have their different methods.



After the folds are made, he puts in the pre-made filling which mainly consists of meat, stock, soya sauce, sesame oil, spring onions and ginger that is blended. Each restaurant will have their special recipe and portions while some may even add extra ingredients to make it tastier. I couldn't take pictures of him closing the dumpling as his hands were moving too fast. Once done, they will place the dumplings in the bamboo steamer, ready to be steamed when someone places their order.

Side note: More restaurants seem to be opening on the New Wing's concourse area - delicious is moving downstairs to a bigger space and Bakerzin is also due to open next month.

Dragon-i Restaurant
Lot S313A, New Wing

1 Utama Shopping Centre

Tel No: 03 - 7725 8822

(It is located next to Sri Melaka restaurant, almost to the end where MPH book shop is at the new wing)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.