A trip to the dim sum shop never fails to bring back fond memories of my childhood. My late grandpa is a huge dim sum fan, and I used to tag along whenever he visits his favourite shop in my hometown, Taiping. There he will meet his breakfast kakis and they would chat over hot brewed Chinese tea and dim sum till their wives hurried them home. Not forgetting there is also the weekly treat of siew yoke (roast pork) sessions which we all shared.

Recently, I discovered Hong Kee Tim Sum Restaurant, a newly opened shop in Damansara Jaya. I jumped on the opportunity to revive my dim sum memories and decided to check it out when my cousin suggested brunch. The shop is located next to Atria, the same row with RHB Bank, facing the housing area.

When we arrived, we were greeted by friendly workers. And considering that dim sum is normally popular in the mornings, the shop was pretty packed when we reached about noon. The shop takes up two shop lots, and bears a bright and clean atmosphere with the usual-looking plastic tables and chairs. At this point, I missed the shabby mosaic-tiled shop in Taiping with their marble tabletops and wooden chairs.

Before long, my thoughts were interrupted by enthusiastic workers with trays of dim sum. My cousin and I were taken aback at the sight of the first tray. RAW looking dim sum! Noticing our horrified looks, they quickly assured us that they are going to steam the dim sum after we take our pick. Our guess is that they want to preserve the freshness unlike some shops which steam the dim sum beforehand and risk having a lot of leftovers.

Anyhow, our doubts vanished as we were presented our selections. All of them look good. We had the traditional siew mai with huge fish roe on top. It tasted pretty plain to us. These days, dim sum shops improvised their siew mai with varied coloured skin, and even add-on ingredients like water chestnut, crabsticks, crabmeat, Japanese seaweed and many more. We also had our share of har kau. I was suitably impressed with the big and fresh prawns in it. The skin is also just nice, soft with a bit of crunch.

While I savour the prawns, my cousin pounced on her much-loved chicken feet. Unfortunately, this did not go well. She cringed and said she has tasted much better chicken feet in other shops. The taste was somewhat blend. When asked for comments, we immediately told the owner and he apologised. He said it was probably not fresh, and actually wanted to give us another plate on the house, but we declined.

We also sampled the loh mai kai. This came with chunks of pork, chicken, Chinese sausages and mushroom. The meat was tender and deliciously blends with the texture of the glutinous rice. Two thumbs-up for this dish. Next, we tried the char siew pau. It was good, consisting very lean meat filling which was good to erase the guilt of taking more than one serving.

By the time we finished all these, we were pretty stuffed. Then, we caught a sight of the egg tarts. We unanimously decided to order it and were not disappointed. The egg tarts were really tasty. The soft filling and flaky crust melts in the mouth at the first bite. Definitely a must-have in the shop.

Before we exited, the owner dropped by and chit-chatted with us. According to him, this shop is the third branch and they have other branches in Kuchai Lama and Puchong. He told us that the Damansara Jaya shop attracts afternoon crowd compared to the other two. He was really friendly and we noticed he already has a few loyal customers judging from the way they acknowledged him. Not bad for a shop which operated for less than a month.

We rate this shop 5/10 for ambience, 7/10 for food and 8/10 for service.