When I received the invite to Golden Phoenix’s Lunar New Year pop-up preview in EQ Kuala Lumpur, I was really excited. Golden Phoenix used to be our annual joint for our reunion meals, when it was still Hotel Equatorial then. Food which was consistent in quality, did not disappoint, along with attentive and warm service, made meals at Golden Phoenix always extremely satisfying.
According to Justin Lee, EQ’s General Manager, Golden Phoenix has been popping-up for 5 years running and it has now become a tradition at EQ (which is what Lunar New Year is all about). It takes an entire year for Executive Chinese Chef David Yee to come up with the dishes and the menu for the next Lunar New Year pop-up. With this fact in mind, I eagerly looked forward to digging in (although I must say, I wasn’t too worried judging from my past experiences with Golden Phoenix).
Golden Phoenix pop-up – let’s dig in
To start off our meal, we had the ‘ten-head abalone yee sang’. The abalone in the yee sang truly elevated this dish. The abalone was firm, briny, and bursting with umami. What a treat!
‘Double-boiled chicken soup with sea coconut and fish maw’ was up next and this soup scores 10 out of 10 in my books. The soup was savoury with a hint of sweetness from the chicken and goji berries, and the meat itself was extremely tender. It was definitely a winner as the teen was quiet the entire time until he finished his soup – and he doesn’t even like soup!
The ‘steamed tiger grouper with cordyceps flowers, black fungus and white fungus’ was fresh and the teen ate this up too. The ‘traditional stewed whole chicken in Chinese herbs and yu tiao’ was one of my absolute favourites from the menu as I hardly see this dish on Lunar New Year set menus. The meat was fall of the bone tender, and the gravy flavourful and herbally. The yu tiao on the other hand, I didn’t take to.
The ‘wok-fried tiger prawns with kam heong paste and cashew nuts’ was another winner with the teen. He went back for second (third and even fourth!) helpings. Prawns are a must for any Lunar New Year meal as it represents laughter and liveliness, as the Cantonese word for prawn is ‘har’. Judging by the number of prawns the teen consumed, he will be laughing his way through a good half of 2026, which is not bad way to kick off the year.
I simply loved the ‘steamed glutinous rice with dried oysters wrapped in lotus leaf’ as it was not only fragrant and soft, but these were individually wrapped. Now, that’s a first for me – and I’ve had lots of Lunar New Year meals. No arguing and debating about who needs to finish which dish off, who has not had their fill of their portion…… (trust me, this is a thing in Chinese families) as each portion has been allotted!
Dessert was made up of ‘Golden Phoenix rice cake’, ‘snow skin mandarin orange’ and ‘chilled peach with white fungus and red dates’. The snow skin mandarin orange reminded me of mochi, whilst the rice cake had a nice layer of crispiness to it. Both went amazingly well with the chilled peach. All three of the desserts were just sweet enough and this made a huge difference in terms of palatability and enjoyability. For there’s nothing worse than desserts that are sickly sweet and then having to chug water down to get rid of the sweetness.
Quality of food was again consistent, and along with the top-notch service, the preview truly took me back down memory lane, which is getting to be rarer as time goes by. I really give kudos to EQ for running these pop-ups which enable folks like me to take a trip back to earlier times, for who doesn’t like a sense of nostalgia? It can’t only be me!
Set menus are priced from RM178+ to RM698+ per person (minimum four persons), while Yee Sang ranges from RM138+ to RM688+ per portion depending on selection and size.
For Golden Phoenix 2026 menu, click here.
For Golden Phoenix dining reservations, please contact +60 3 2789 7839.
We were invited by EQ. As always, our opinions are honest and our own.
