Ruyi & Lyn at Bangsar Shopping Centre: Review

Opening this month at BSC, Ruyi & Lyn is a rather unique & relatively bold restaurant, serving contemporary East Asian concoctions in a cavernous space hidden at the back of the mall’s fourth floor, seemingly accessible by only one escalator.

Expect warm smiles to welcome you as you arrive; if you’re dining in, you’ll be ushered past a well-appointed lounge & into a main hall that’s striking for its crimson catwalk, which leads up to Beyonce performing on mute on a larger-than-life backdrop.

Pickled appetisers (not complimentary, so refuse them if you’re not into sour fare) set the stage for a selection noteworthy for Asian tapas – we like the cones overflowing with a savoury-succulent potpourri of smoked duck morsels, sweet corn, pine nuts & edamame (RM33). You’ll also find temptations like crab meat & shiitake mushrooms rolled in bamboo leaves (RM43), whitebait with green mango & yuzu sauce (RM43) & almond-coated fried chicken with prawn paste & plum chilli sauce (RM58).

But here’s the dish that’ll be Ruyi & Lyn’s primary claim to fame, the platter that’ll pop up on social media for months to come: A sushi compilation of nasi lemak, Hainanese chicken rice & sticky mango rice. Fun stuff – the rice is prepared like the real thing, so you get the full fragrance & flavour infused in each distinctive recipe – coconut milk nuances in the petite nasi lemak sushi, for example, crowned with anchovies, peanuts, sambal & tiny slices of egg. The Hainanese chicken rice sushi also does justice to the traditional favourite, topped with juicy steamed chicken & chilli sauce. RM43 for a serving of six assorted pieces.

Cocktails are available, though the liquids might not be as memorable as the solids here. Main courses reflect Ruyi & Lyn’s links to The Oriental Group of Chinese restaurants, but the prices for the most alluring indulgences proved too steep for our budget – sablefish deep-fried with Moet champagne sauce costs RM148, while Wagyu beef & foie gras wok-fried with bell peppers is RM218 (though to be sure, there are plenty of prawn, scallop & rice mains that rest comfortably south of RM100).