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Purple Cane Tea Restaurant
Lot GL-02, Ground Floor, Shaw Parade
Changkat Thambi Dollah Off Jalan Pudu
55100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Ph +60 3 21453090.
http://www.purplecane.com.my
After relaxing for a couple of days in Langkawi, we returned to the hustle and bustle of Kuala Lumpur. We arrived in the early evening, but had arranged dinner on the way back with a couple of Louis’ friends, Nick and Kelvin.
They picked us up from the hotel about 9pm. We’d let them decide where to take us for dinner, and we soon arrived at a place called the Purple Cane Tea Restaurant.
Nick explained that every dish on the menu has somehow been prepared with tea as a prominent ingredient. It sounded quite an interesting concept.
With almost more lights than a lighting store, this is one place you couldn’t miss. We entered.
Such a cute decor!
The owner was a friendly lady, probably in her late 40’s. As we hadn’t booked, we waited in the foyer for a couple of minutes as she called a waitress to clear a recently vacated table for us. Then we were shown to the table.
Also with a semi-private dining area
As Nick and Kelvin had been here before, we let them do all the ordering. Unfortunately some of the signature & more popular dishes had run out, but they still managed to order a decent spread.
Here’s an excerpt from the Purple Cane website:
The value of tea goes beyond that of a beverage. Chefs have been inspired by tea to create dishes with a difference. Pairing tea with food, Purple Cane Tea Restaurant advocates a modern concept of light but flavourful dishes with less salt, oil, sugar and no artificial flavours. The dishes retain the original aroma of tea. This begins a trend of the delightful and healthy tea cuisine.
Over 50 appetising selections prepared with different types of tea including tea beverages, soups, vegetables, seafood, meat (pork free), noodles and rice as well.
First up, obviously, was a pot of tea. The waitress brings two teapots to your table, and only pours the water in at that point.
Evidently this is to keep the tea fresh, but it might be more for show(wo)manship - a short trip from the kitchen would hardly change the flavour. (Tea connoisseurs’ would probably beg to differ!)
As we were sipping our tea (after letting it cool for a bit), another teapot arrived. This was our entree - Ginseng Chicken Soup. We then drank the soup until the pot was emptied. Then we ate the pieces of chicken which were in the pot.
As we were finishing that, all our main courses arrived. I don’t know the proper names for them all, (I didn’t have the menu as I wasn’t ordering) but they all have tea in them by some means.
Steamed Tofu in Tea Sauce
Steamed Egg
Marinated Chicken Drumettes
Battered Shitake Mushrooms
White Fish coated in Oats
Being the dishwasher in this place would be a nightmare. Every dish we had was in a different shaped serving bowl. Round, Square, Oval, Tear-shaped. Not that I really care - the food in the bowls was pretty good.
The tea was very fresh, which makes sense considering Purple Cane started out as a tea-house before branching out with their restaurants. It was also a bottomless teapot (free refills).
The Ginseng Chicken Soup was had an interesting taste, but i’d probably only order that again if I was sick - which is evidently the normal time people have it.. asian mums’ cook it for their kids when they’re sick.
I wasn’t overly fond of the Steamed Tofu and the Steamed Egg, as they were a bit lacking in flavour - and texture. I’ve never really been a big fan of ‘mushy’ stuff. Luckily i’m not a vegetarian!
On the upside, when I got around to eating the Marinated Chicken Drumettes, they tasted great. I’m not sure how they got such petite bones to stick out of the meaty part, but it’s quite amusing. Petite chickens maybe? The marinade on them was really good. I think it was some kind of a honey glaze, mixed obviously with some kind of tea flavour, plus some other tastes I couldn’t figure out. All up though, very tasty - just a shame I had to share…
The Battered Shitake Mushrooms were really good too, and i’d almost rate them higher than the chicken drumettes - except they’re not meat. 
They were a bit chewy (nature of the beast) but the sauce was nice and sweet and you couldn’t stop eating them. Once they were all gone, the leftover sauce was even good just on rice.
The White Fish coated in Oats was another dish I was pleasantly surprised on, with me generally not being a fish eater. But the fish was white and had a mild flavour, rather than those ‘fishy fishes’ you can smell across the room. Covering the pieces in oats was also a unique touch, but it worked well. Just don’t try that with the All-Bran at home. 
Whilst I didn’t get individual pricing for everything, the average cost of dishes at Purple Cane i’d say are around RM$16 - $27 each. A little bit more expensive, but you’re paying for the atmosphere, freshness, and uniqueness. Which is certainly not a bad thing.
I’d go again, as long as i’m not craving Madam Kwan’s at the time.
