HoMinSan 好面善 @ Mid Valley — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

One of the best panfried sheng jian baos I've ever had in KL. Well seasoned and filled with juice with a nice crispy bottom. Their lu rou fan too is noteworthy, with a rich porky taste and nice chunks of pork in a peppery spiced gravy.

Having said that, these two dishes are probably the only thing worth writing about. None of their other dishes, be it rice or noodle are particularly impressive. I've tried their fried fish noodles in salted vegetables broth (bland, and the fried fish pieces were so hard and chewy even after soaking in the soup), beef noodles (watery and also bland), lemongrass pork chop rice (again, gravy was so tasteless and the pork chop was dry and hard).

I think besides the first two dishes I praised, the rest seem to be lacking in seasoning to me.

I think what makes it difficult for me to return is the price. Each dish is nearly RM20 but the portion is tiny. I don't have the biggest of appetites but I would have to order 2 of each dish to fill remotely satisfied.

Another thing is the manager, who is understandably strict with his workers, but can sometimes be offputting when he visibly and audibly tells them off in front of customers. His brusque attitude can sometimes carry over to the customers, especially when it's mealtimes and it's very busy.

Like I said, I haven't been back here in a while for the reasons I mentioned. I probably won't be back for now, as I've discovered other places within Mid Valley which serve better tasting food at much more...

Food first (where all the stars were given) It was acceptable, the pork was average, not too dry, reasonably well fried. Curry sauce was satisfactory, pretty standard. All seem to go fairly well together, not bad for a place that mainly sell noodles. Portion is definitely on the small side.

So why did i ordered a curry rice from a noodle restaurant? Here's the thing..... a lot food on the menu was NOT AVAILABLE, their signature bowlNA, chicken wing instead of pork thenNA, just a simple dumplings with noodlesNA, ok..ok..ok...process frozen food like meatballs...surely the freezer have plenty of room for those right?NA, vermicelli instead..nope~NA....... if i were on my own then I'd be glitching out the matrix by not leaving, but i was with relatives. I know we were late for lunch period but how can so many items run out at 3pm?! Did they host a buffet lunch by accident?

Correct me if im wrong, but arent chain restaurants suppose to get their supples distributed from a central hub of some sort? Why are there so many things not available at 3pm? If that's the case then how come the one in pavilion never have this problem? It might sound sarcastic but it would literally be easier for them to tell us what's available instead of trial and error.

For those who want to try HoMinSan, just go to the one in pavilion, other wise better have a few alternative choices in the bag...

I know this is the only restaurant selling pan-fried dumplings (生煎包) in Malaysia. However this is def not the reason to come back regularly, as the food doesn’t really serves as good as it used to be, but the price is too much expensive than what it deserves.

We ordered 2 sets of 4pcs pan-fried dumplings for 4 person. Portion is as usual, however the taste is so much worse now. The dumplings are too oily inside out. 😨

When we asked for the chilli for fried dumplings, the waitress looked very unhappy and just told us they already stopped serving it for a long time, but with not so pleasant tone. (We’re not god but as customer we pay for 6% service charge right? Do we deserve service like this?)

I ordered noodle with pork intestine and fried fish beancurd in Mala soup. This is nice as usual, especially the soup. However the ingredients gets less but price goes up. I remember it was RM 16.8 but now RM 22.8 🥶

All in all I might not be so keen to come back as the whole experience is quite...