Moon Folk Sauna Steamboat, Sri Petaling

Sri Petaling is really crowded with restaurants, cafe, ice cream parlors and with many kinds of different cuisines in here. They are all squeezing in one location. It is a food paradise for us but for them, it is like a war zone. I was invited to dine in this newly opened restaurant by my friend's boyfriend with his 3 other partners who are experts in food & beverage industry. The restaurant name is known as Moon Folk Sauna Steamboat. This restaurant has just replaced Tai Lei Loi Kei Macau Pork Burger which I already stated in my post that they will not able to sustain in the long run.
To be honest, when I saw my friend, Sharon posted this restaurant in her Facebook, I really thought it is just another common steamboat. I have no idea actually steamboat has evolved into something more than just steamboat that I used to know. Maybe because I am not an enthusiast steamboat fan. How different they have evolved to? What if I am saying a steamboat without any soup in it? Something for you to ponder for a while.
Unlike any other common steamboat restaurants, they have aquariums filled with fresh seafood in it. At first, I thought I am in some Chinese fine dining restaurant or a seafood restaurant. Actually, they are serving fresh seafood as your steamboat ingredients and they are getting all these seafood daily supply from Perak. 
All their prawns are really big and their crabs are at a good size to be placed inside the pot. With these aquarium displays, you should be rest assured that the seafood served here are not those frozen seafood.
While waiting for the pot to be ready, we are served with this amazing home cook dish. It looks and taste like the Chinese sweet and sour pork but it is not. It is 100% vegetarian and it is made of oyster mushroom. It is really delicious and appetizing.
Their fried bean curd is so-so because I would be expecting it to be filled with some interesting fillings in it but somehow it is just a common fried bean curd that we used to know.
However just ignore the fried bean curd because the most important part is this boat filled with fresh seafood. You just cannot wait to eat them right away. Just a quick brief about their menu. It is quite simple. You get to choose the seafood package for either 2 pax or 4 pax as you can see in the picture. They are currently still running on opening promotion which is for 2 pax is RM119 and for 4 pax is RM199. You can choose or add extra dishes from their menu at separate charges.
We started off with chicken instead of the delicious seafood. Eh, wait a minute! Where is the soup? As I said earlier, this is a steamboat restaurant which does not use soup. They are calling it Sauna Steamboat where all the ingredients are steamed as if they are in a sauna. Underneath the pot is the raw rice which will absorb all the fragrance from the steam and become a delicious porridge by the time you finished all your seafood. This new steamboat concept was gotten from Guangzhou, China. It is already introduced in Malaysia for quite some time already. If you are like me who just knew about it, that means we are really not a real steamboat fan.
There are staffs will help you to put the ingredients in the pot and set the specific time for specific ingredient. For example, they set 5 minutes for chicken and 3 minutes for all other seafood. While waiting for seems like forever "5 minutes", it is a good time to get their homemade sauces. There are 6 kinds of sauces but unfortunately there are no label on the sauces. I believe after this post, they will have them.
Now the chicken is ready. The chicken is really lip-smacking delicious. The chicken is well marinated with Chinese herbs and the fragrance of the herbs are released in your mouth when the moment you start chewing it. Not to forget to mention is the chicken meat texture is so soft and tender. It is absolutely a good quality chicken.
Next is the main highlight of the day. What you will be expecting from their seafood package is prawn, crab, clams, squid, abalone, scallop and Barramundi or known as Asian Seabass. 
Once again, I have to highlight it again which is this restaurant's seafood supply is delivered in daily basis. So all the seafood here are so fresh as if we are dining right beside a sea. The one and only way to cook a fresh seafood is to steam them. This is to bring out the natural sweetness and juiciness in it. I just can't stop licking my finger as well!
The third round is the clams, to know if they are fresh is easy. They must be all shut close. Any shellfish is opened before you cook them means it is already dead and it is not fresh.
Once steamed for a scheduled 3 minutes, every clams are opening up gracefully as if they are welcoming you to pick them up into your mouth.  The clams meat are in good average size unlike some restaurants serving clams which is so tiny and you do not even feel anything while eating them.
The last round is the crab. I love eating crab but I can't really get all the meat out cleanly. Usually I wasted them.
Worry no more because they do provide these magical tools to eat the crab cleaner than you ever did. I never spent so much time on a crab after using these tools. They are very thoughtful to have this tool which is very useful.
This is an additional Kam Heong Lala which is really good. The curry powder is so fragrant which I enjoyed them so much. The lala meat is big, juicy and fresh too. I just can't get enough of them.
Last but not least, do not forget there is still porridge waiting for you. The porridge is meant to mix with these mushrooms and bean curd. As for the taste, you can expect the seafood freshness has roamed into the porridge. It was really a good experience to enjoy a new way of eating a steamboat. The number 1 key survival for this restaurant is to remain the same quality at any cause. Any downgrading will jeopardize the whole business.  
There are a few challenges with the restaurant currently are flies. Flies are really annoying and they just don't go away. They need to think of a way to get rid of it. The other challenge is their lunch menu. They do have a lunch menu to serve the working crowds. However, the working crowds have only less than an hour and I do not think they have the time to wait for the food to be ready. Steamboat is about relax, chit chat and eat. It beats the purpose if you rushed it. 
Therefore, their main crowds are got to be during the dinner time and the traffic at Sri Petaling at that hour is a horror. No one is going to get down from the car and hunting for a restaurant one by one. Usually, we stuck ourselves in the traffic and look around for a restaurant. To choose a restaurant while in a car, we usually check on the crowd in the restaurant. We do not want a little crowd which is a sign of bad quality or too crowded which is the sign of you need to queue for a table. So a reasonable number of crowds will get us to list it down in our watchlist. Lastly, we check on the signage to know what cuisine they are serving. As for this restaurant, what is shining brightly is the Chinese word "满福楼". Basically, you can't see other words on the signage like you can see in my first photo. So from the word itself, it is hardly able to know what is this restaurant serving. So I would say this restaurant will be having the hard time getting random patrons. The only thing they can do is through the powerful social media. A perfect example is The Owls Cafe which is located at the second floor. No one will able to know how good they are but once you have visited the cafe you will be surprised that you have to queue for it. It is all the work of the social media. So at this moment this restaurant just need to keep up their current good work and definitely there will be people talking about them. It may be slow but at least it is progressing. 
As for the pricing, I got to know from one of the owner that after the opening promotion ends, the price will be increased. For example for a 4 pax seafood package will be increased from RM199 to RM249.50 which means each person will spend more than RM50 per meal. The price is quite competitive but if they able to keep maintain the freshest ingredients. Spenders will realized that it is absolutely worth it. At the same time, they need to run some discount for example checking in their Facebook or posting a photo in their Instagram to get a 10% discount. It is not a lot but when they are already dining here, they might as well doing it. So that's how it goes viral in social media.

Their service still has room to improve. A staff should be assigned specifically based on the table number since this sauna steamboat requires the staff to do the cooking.This is to offer a more attentive service to the designated tables.

Last but not least, they need to have more food variety to keep the customers returning for more. Since their signage is already in Chinese word, they should just serve pork. I do not think a Muslim patron will walk in a Chinese signage restaurant even you have a Halal certification on it.

Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the food here. I have nothing to criticize on the food because all of them are amazing. You should make a visit here to experience their amazing service and food too!

Ambiance: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Food Serving Speed: Fast
Taste: 5/5
Price: 3/5
Will I Revisit?: Yes

Moon Folk Sauna Steamboat
77, Jalan Radin Bagus 6,
Sri Petaling 57000
KL
Tel: 03-90547711
Business Hours: 11.00am - 10.30pm (daily)

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