Mini Tanker, Damansara Kim

Mini Tanker in Damansara Kim

[Non-halal] There’s a new tanker in town, and it’s a mini one. Mini Tanker in Damansara Kim replaces what used to be Extra Super Tanker (EST) in the area.

This new kid on the block is spruced up with a more contemporary design while offering delectable dim sum and Chinese dishes.

Mini Tanker in Damansara Kim

Mini Tanker is the youngest and most fashionable sibling of the Extra Super Tanker group of restaurants.

This new restaurant recently opened over the weekend and replaces the old EST branch in Damansara Kim.

We really liked the contemporary flavours of the new Mini Tanker’s interior design, and promptly brought our mum here for dim sum brunch on the first operating weekend.

Thankfully, we were able to get a table at 11:30 am without reservation – but the place was soon filled by noon.

Mini Tanker, major flavours

Mini Tanker offers dim sum, roast meat, and Chinese banquet dishes.

Those who grew up in PJ are quite familiar with EST – as it is quite a popular spot for Chinese-style family meals, especially for Chinese New Year and wedding reception. Besides Mini Tanker, EST also operates branches at Glo Damansara and Tropicana Gardens Mall.

Led by executive chef Chin (aka Ah Wah Gor), EST is known for its Cantonese-style dishes with a twist of Hakka flavours.

While it’s been a while since we visited EST, we believe this is the first time that the group is offering dim sum on its menu.

Checking out the dim sum menu

As it was just the three of us – our goal was simple. Let’s just focus on the dim sum menu for our maiden visit.

Like most dim sum joints, Mini Tanker offers an order sheet to place orders for the dim sum menu.

The litmus test for any dim sum joints is the main offering of siew mai, har gao and fish balls.

Siew Mai and Har Gao

We thought the Siew Mai (RM9.90 for four) was decent. While it was sweet and juicy, there was nothing particularly outstanding about the morsels as well.

Mini Tanker does offer two types of har gao (prawn dumplings) – the standard Prawn Dumplings (RM10.80 for three) and the MT Premium Prawn Dumplings (RM18.80 for three).

We decided to just try the latter since there are limited servings of this daily. We enjoyed this quite a bit.

We’re not sure what sets this apart from the normal har gao – but the prawns were indeed very fresh, juicy and succulent. We suspect that they use a higher quality prawn for this dish – as the prawns had a salt-water quality vs. farmed freshwater prawns.

The skin was also smooth and thin. It was a bit pricey but it was a har gao job well done!

Stir-Fry Radish Cake with Beansprouts

Stir-Fry Radish Cake with Beansprouts (RM10.90) is one of our favourite orders at dim sum joints and the one here was delicious.

The dish has wok hei aplenty and we liked that it has enough chilli spice for a real spicy treat.

We also found the Char Siew Chee Cheong Fun (RM8.80) to be decent. The rolls are adequately steamed and we liked the generous amount of char siew bits, with a more sweeter taste profile. The soy sauce mix was also fragrant.

Double Egg Yolk & Meat Congee

Our mum’s favourite dishes here were the Double Egg Yolk & Meat Congee (RM8.80) and the Signature Egg Tarts (RM9.90 for three).

The portion for the former was really good for the price. The congee has the right creamy viscosity, and there were plenty of century egg and salted egg bits to flavour the dish.

The egg tarts here are no match for the ones at Foo Hing (but the comparison is unfair tbh as Foo Hing specialises in Portuguese egg tarts) and Oriental Kopi, but we enjoyed Mini Tanker’s more traditional offering as the custard was really soft, and the pastry was adequately flaky.