Fifty Tales, Bandar Sri Damansara

[July 2023 UPDATE: We visited Fifty Tales at its new location in Sea Park PJ. Check out the latest post here]

Fifty Tales Sea Park PJ

[Non-halal] We had one of the most enjoyable meals at Fifty Tales recently.

Located in Bandar Sri Damansara, Fifty Tales has been on our radar for a long time – but it was only recently that we checked out this modern Malaysian Chinese restaurant.

Fifty Tales is known for its fresh handmade noodles (made with only eggs and flour) and its Cincai dinner – featuring Chinese dishes reinterpreted for a modern palate.

Fifty Tales at Bandar Sri Damansara

We visited Fifty Tales on two separate occasions for lunch and dinner.

We really enjoyed both experiences. The dishes here are definitely one-of-a-kind, and we really had a good time conversing with the proprietors – specifically Bimmy and Jeremy.

They were exceptionally personable in ensuring we had a good dining experience, and they really took the time to explain all the dishes, and to ask for our feedback as well.

Cincai Dinner at Fifty Tales

We first visited Fifty Tales for dinner in January.

Fifty Tales is currently running the Cincai Dinner service from January to April.

Cincai Dinner is currently available every Friday to Sunday (5 pm – 9 pm) and features interesting dishes such as Pork and Century Egg Dumplings in Duck Kut Teh soup, Grilled Threadfin with Oyster Emulsion and Assorted Pickles, and 50T Roasted Chicken.

All of the dishes are meant to be shared ala dai chow, and are to be paired with Fifty Tales’ Handmade Egg Noodles and/or Pork Lard Rice.

Pork lard butter with nangka jam

For the Cincai Dinner, we were surprised with an amuse-bouche at the beginning, which is not common for a Chinese-style dinner (no, we do not count roasted peanuts as amuse-bouche).

The amuse-bouche was a pair of Mantou served with Pork Lard Butter and Nangka Jam.

This was quite enjoyable as it was interesting. The Chinese steamed buns had the perfect soft pillowy texture and were served warm. The pork lard butter has a nice chee yau char (crispy pork lard) fragrance but the nangka helped to temper down the porky taste.

Handmade noodles and Pork Lard Rice

Before with talk about the sharing dishes – we believe we should first highlight the Handmade Egg Noodles (RM7) and Pork Lard Rice (RM5).

After all, Fifty Tales made its mark with its handmade noodles dishes.

Made with only eggs and flour, the handmade noodles here are made to perfection. We loved that there is no kansui (alkaline water) taste at all, and the noodles had a really nice chewy and bouncy texture. It was also sufficiently seasoned with some pork lard oil as well.

Similarly, the steamed rice was also quite flavourful and “lardy” with hints of soy sauce savouriness to eat on its own.

Lovely grilled threadfin with oyster emulsion and pickles

But alas, the noodles and rice are not to be eaten on their own.

Among the three dishes we ordered – we enjoyed the Threadfin Fish (RM32) the most. First of all, the threadfin was perfectly grilled to yield sweet meat with a nice crispy skin for texture.

The fish is served with an oyster emulsion – which had a nice creamy consistency and a piquant oyster flavour hit.

However – the fun part of the dish is the three pickles on the side – honeydew, mango, and pomelo with lacto-fermented chillies.

The pickled honeydew has a tangy hit that reminded us of dried guava fruit, while the pickled mango has a prominent sour mango taste with pickled chillies.

Our favourite has to be the pomelo as it has a nice refreshing pop that goes well with the fish.

Grilled Kailan with 32-day aged duck ham

For vegetables, we opted for the Grilled Kailan, served with 32-day Aged Duck Ham and Kelulut Honey (RM24).

This was by no means an ordinary Chinese vegetable dish.

The kailan was nicely charred but the revelation was the duck ham providing a nice savoury hit (reminding us of a milder serrano ham), and the dark sweetness from the Kelulut honey.

Braised tofu & prawn

Our least favourite dish was the Braised Tofu & Prawn in White Pepper Stew (RM24).

This dish has a cleaner taste with some nice textures from potato croutons, spring onion, and carrot but we wished for a stronger white pepper taste.

Mochi with luo han guo and mango

We ended our meal with dessert – a pair of mochi filled with luo han guo (monk fruit) and mango.

These mochi are meant to be eaten whole – and we prefer the subtle sweetness of the luo han guo to the tangy hit of the mango.

Summary

Overall, we really enjoyed our dinner here. For the dinner menu, we recommend the threadfin and kailan, which go well with both rice and noodles.

We were also curious about the 50T Roasted Chicken which was sold out that evening. RECOMMENDED!

Lunch at Fifty Tales

We returned to Fifty Tales for lunch a few weeks later as we really wanted to sample their noodle dishes – which the restaurant is known for.

Interestingly, Fifty Tales was also running the Dim Sum breakfast menu by Chef Bimmy – available only on Fri-Sun from 8 am to 12 pm.

OG Noodles and 50 Tales Laksa

Here’s what we ate:

OG Style Noodles (RM21) – This is the signature dry noodles dish served at Fifty Tales. Max enjoyed this a lot. Noodles were al-dente and nicely tossed with lard and soy sauce for nice savoury punch.

The noodles were served with shoyu soft-boiled egg (creamy yolk!) and char siew. We liked the char siew as it was nicely caramelised with a good meat-to-fat ratio.

50 Tales Laksa (RM21) – The only soup dish on the menu, Fifty Tales’ handmade noodles are served in a fragrant Nyonya laksa broth thickened with coconut milk and spiced with lots of lemongrass, bunga kantan, and Gula Melaka.