With the Year of the Horse looming close, restaurants and hotels have already prepared their prosperity dishes for the celebration. If you haven’t decided where to go for your reunion dinner, and want to treat your family to a decadent feast, you might want to consider Celestial Court at Sheraton Imperial KL, Chef Vincent Loo of Celestial Court, Sheraton Imperial KL along with his talented team created a special ala carte menu for the auspicious occasion.

Having tried their delightful dim-sum spread, I had high expectations for Celestial Court’s Chinese New Year menu. Sure enough, I was impressed from the beginning with one of the prettiest Yee Sang in town. It’s a colourful platter featuring Norwegian Salmon and Japanese Maguro (Tuna) with various vegetables and pickles.

Look, it even has the Chinese character “Horse” printed on top! Consisting of mostly fresh vegetables, this is refreshing with plenty of fun textures. The plum sauce has enough piquancy, balanced by sweetness though not overly so. Toss the salad as high as possible shouting out auspicious phrases and good wishes is a fun way to start the dinner.

If you love prawns, you absolutely must order this dish. Massive prawn with tender, sweet flesh blessed with crunchy shells. Be sure to snatch a prawn head for all the luscious prawn roe. The crunchy bits of ginger and garlic lend extra aroma to the prawns.

The Scallop Yam Puff is pretty good too, with just-cooked scallop, briny Ikura (Salmon Roe) and crispy puff contrasting with creamy yam.

I’m always glad to see restaurants opting out shark fin. This comforting soup is tasty enough with crab, dried scallops and bits of sea cucumber. Perfect with a touch of black vinegar.

Celestial Court is quite well-known for their Cod Fish dish and this is quite a healthy take with light broth, enoki mushrooms and antioxidant-rich wolf berries. I loved the creamy soft fish though I had to add a little soy sauce to the gravy. Nevertheless this is still my favourite dish for the night.

An auspicious dish with premium seafood is often one of the most popular dish during CNY. Here, the Aburaage tofu pockets are stuffed with diced abalone, scallop, mushroom and carrots, signifying a full money bag.

And here comes the abalone and CNY must have: Sea Moss (Fatt Choi). A dish full of collagen from the sea cucumber and fish maw, this is not only auspicious, but good for our skin too.

My favourite item from here would be the fish maw and sea moss. Delicious.

When this plate of rice reached the table, the aroma of benito flakes was the first to hit our noses. It is slightly pungent and almost a little off-putting, but this turned out to be super addictive! The rice has a great depth of flavour as it is braised with roast duck and dried scallop in abalone sauce. I had to finish my portion to savour every bit of it. Yum.

If you prefer Chef Vincent to do the ordering for you, indulge in the Wealth set menu, priced at RM2,188 nett or the Fortune set menu, priced at RM2,388++ or the Happiness set menu, priced at RM2,588++. Each 9-course menu is quoted for a table of 10 persons and inclusive of a complimentary bottle of wine.

The Chinese New Year ala carte and set menus are available from 6th January to 14th February 2014. The a la carte dishes are priced from RM38++ onwards each. What’s more, each SPG member can enjoy 20% discount off total food bill for Chinese New Year promotions. For reservations, call 03-2717 9900, or visit www.sheratonimperialkualalumpur.com to find out more.

Celestial Court,
Level 3, Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur,
Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2717 9900 ext 6988
or email: restaurants.imperial@sheraton.com
Business hours: Lunch, Mon to Sat, noon to 2.30pm;
Sun and public holidays, 10.00am to 2.30pm.
Dinner, daily, 6.30pm to 10.30pm.
Pork-free.