Rakuzen Japanese Restaurant, Oasis Square, Ara Damansara

Address:
R-03A, Oasis Square,
Oasis Ara Damansara,
2 Jalan PJU 1A/7A,
47301 Petaling Jaya

Opening Hours:
Daily 11.30am - 3.00pm & 6.00pm - 11.00pm 

Time Visited:
12:45pm.

Attire worn:
Business since I still need to work that day and I've decided against taking leave.

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Gindara Zen (ぎんだら膳) Grilled Silver Cod lunch Set with Hot Green Tea

I was taken by surprise as I sat down that the waiter immediately ask on what would I like to drink before I even get a chance to see what beverage they have to offer. I find that exceedingly odd for them to do so. It's like going to a mamak stall or hawker stall where most Malaysians already know by now what kind of drinks do they serve, the standard usual stuff and where they don't have a menu to show you. But Rakuzen is not your usual local restaurant. It's supposed to be a Japanese fine dining restaurant so I would expect them to give some time to browse through the menu before choosing a drink or at least give some time for the patron to think beforehand on what to order instead of a lightning quick question before I can even sit down. Hence you see my normalcy on ordering green tea to go with my lunch set.

Today was unusually crowded for the outlet. Waves and waves of people throng through the antique looking door unrelentlessly. In fact, there were Japanese people who visited the outlet as well. Mind you, the food at Rakuzen is not cheap and even with a lunch set, it amounts to double, triple or quadruple on what a normal salary man eats at the local Chinese hawker shops. I was pretty amazed the crowd it draws in that day and forgave the busy state the employees helter skelterly move around giving me a hard time flagging them down and getting their attention. Most of the customers that entered through the door were mostly ignored for a good couple of minutes before anyone attends to them to seat them. And by golly, it seems a lot of them had the patience and courtesy to actually wait to be seated while I and a varied few barged in like we own the place and sat ourselves down.

Since I was a lone diner, I chose the bar seats at the sushi bar area where those type of seatings usually bore me since all I can stare at were the chefs in front with their ingredients. The chopsticks were neatly placed in front of the vacant chairs already and where I chose, the menu were there as well. As they brought me my hot cup of green tea, they were accompanied by their customary hand wipe warm towel for you to sanitize your hands before consuming any food.

As I sip my tea, a sense of calmness came over me along with the great feeling of having a good cup of green tea. The taste were right enough for you to sense it instead of the many other establishments that came diluted and not as thick as this place's taste.

The silver cod fish came after a 20 minutes wait and from off the bat, it looked truly delicious. The silver cod glistening against the sunlight that manages to shine through and slivers of it, having different degrees of grilled intensity yet displays it as still a perfectly cooked piece of fish. As I grab hold of the first piece to consume, it exemplifies a well seasoned dish with the salty sauce below enhancing it's flavor. The skin is somewhat crisp but nonetheless, the tastiest part of all. The only thing wrong with it that I have a bone to pick, is literally the bones I had to pick out of it. Although few in numbers, it still annoys me on having the need to get it off myself. This is actually one of the reasons I don't like to eat fish. I'm lazy to pick bones off.

The set in addition to the highlight main, comes with a vegetable dish, sticky rice, miso soup, chawanmushi, a cold appetizer dish and some fruits for dessert.

The miso soup unusually contains some small mushrooms in it which is a nice touch to just the normal seaweed and tofu ones. In addition to that, the chawanmushi had also an ingredient in it which I rarely find in a commercial restaurants chawanmushi, ginkgo nuts. An unexpected but pleasant find in amidst the kamaboko (Japanese Fish Cake) and shiitake mushrooms. This certainly delights me. The rice were fine as well and sticks well where I'm able to handle it with my chopsticks easily.

All in all, a very satisfying meal in which I stayed on for longer periods in order to enjoy my sips of hot green tea.

Total Wallet Damage:
It says RM50 on the menu and RM50 it is, nett. The green tea is a given I guess.

Final Verdict:
7.5/10. Despite it's busy lunch crowd and the shorthanded circumstance on staffing due to a wide area coverage, I still wish the service would be better even from their busy period. But I did manage to experience their good service after the lunch crowd had left and left me to be pampered with scores of Green Tea refill without the need for me to ask.

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Robert's Char Kuey Teow, Restoran Say Huat, Section 17, Petaling Jaya (PJ)

Address:
1083 Jalan 17/27
Seksyen 17
Petaling Jaya
46400

Opening Hours:
Daily, 11am-10pm

Time Visited:
Around 7:30pm, Sunday Night

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Chinese Tea Ice and Char Kuey Teow (Big)

This restaurant is a hawker style restaurant and practices sharing table should there be no more empty tables left for you to sit on. So for a lone diner like me, that definitely is a bit of an advantage.

Section 17 is a very memorable place for me but it's slowly transforming and evolving into something I soon won't recognize. In fact, a lot of new addition has come up from Section 17 but one thing still comforts me about this place, it's a place where it has a close-knit community. Old folks thrive in this area and students galore since it's close to UM. It's generally made up of mostly Chinese and some Indians in the neighborhood while there's a few Malay folks in the mix but not much.

Despite me living in this neighborhood for a number of years, yet I've never tried Robert's Char Kuey Teow before in my life even though from hearsay, many people praise of how good it is. Hence, after all these years, he's still thriving and in business. I mainly avoided it because
1) I used to be a very big eater. 1 plate of Char Kuey Teow is not much to fill the stomach at all and with that kind of money, I'd rather spend on something that fills me up.
2) I rarely visit this restaurant for my meal. I remember always seeing it awfully crowded and full of people during dinnertime and the stuffiness indoors just puts me off from eating my meal there. So for dinner, it's usually the street outside where there's lots of stall setup for consumers.

After many years later, I now return to try out his handywork of frying noodles.

I was thrilled to know that when my drink arrived, the Chinese Tea Ice remains at 50 sen unlike a lot of other hooligan business charging 60 sen just for a Chinese Tea Ice just because of GST.

One thing about Robert's Char Kuey Teow, he's so well known, you'd have to wait a while before you get his food. And eventually, the plate of Char Kuey Teow ended up at my table thanks to his trustee Indonesian maid cum assistant as helper.

The food looks delicious and my mouth waters as I observe a little more on the ingredients. I noted that his lap cheong (Chinese Sausage) is unusually nicer than any others I've eaten. A little more sweeter on it's taste but thinner in slices. His shrimps tasted normal and the Char Kuey Teow itself were properly fried. A very tiny piece of eggshell found it's way to my mouth as I was finishing up the plate but it's so tiny, it's forgivable. I've had worse which entirely ruined my experience of a good meal. In the end, I can understand why people love his Char Kuey Teow. The lap cheong is none that I've tasted before but not much deviation from it's taste. Other than that, I would say, I've tasted better Char Kuey Teow before. In fact, the one I like the most is actually at SS2's Sun Hing Loong but I avoid the place as much as I can because the drinks are daylight robbery. However, Robert's big plate of Char Kuey Teow seems to be a little more than the one in SS2. I probably liked the one in SS2 more is because of it's spiciness. If you're asking the person that you like it spicy, he'll fry it with the chili and it just permeates from every strand of it's Char Kuey Teow which is what I like about it. That being said, in conclusion, Robert's Char Kuey Teow is quite good.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM6.50. RM6 for the plate of Char Kuey Teow (Big) and 50 sen for the Chinese Tea Ice. I'm so pleased with it. :D

Final Verdict:
6.5/10. Well, it is a hawker restaurant so I wouldn't say ambiance is all that good. LOL. But the pricing is cheap enough and the food is good. Like I said before, Section 17 is a haven for cheap and good food and this is another good example of it.

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Namoo Grey, IOI City Mall, Putrajaya

Address:
L1-72, First Floor, IOI City Mall, Lebuh IRC, IOI Resort City, Putrajaya, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily: 10am - 10pm

Time Visited:
Around 11:30am, Sunday

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Yuza Tea and Bibi Rice Burger

 Suffering from a very bad case of depression yesterday (which I averted it by forcing myself to be distracted by games), I wanted to go out today and savor some of my "Things to try" list.

I ended up at IOI City Mall after 2 tolls and 30 minutes of driving. For me, IOI is the iconic mall at Puchong but this is a completely different mall that's located at Putrajaya. Hence, the distance from my house is really very, very far!

So there I was for the first time being at the mall and it blew me away. I didn't expect it to be this big. It has a cinema, a skating rink and bowling alleys! It took me quite awhile before I manage to remember why I was there and located Namoo Grey. IOI City Mall to me has the architecture that's quite similar to Festival City Mall. Geez, all the names of the malls began to sound the same and it's starting to confuse me. I'm beginning to think I'm too old to live in this era.

Namoo Grey has a lot of natural light beaming in from the sides and it overpowers the incandescent lights that glimmers above. I initially saw a large crowd upstairs and was wondering what's up there that people are starting to line up for? Then I later realized that it was just the line from the cinema above.

Namoo Grey's concept is Korean cafe. I've heard of so many people starting this Korean cafe business but had yet to see what distinguishes them from a normal cafe? Namoo Grey did exactly that. Their menu are teeming with items that are of Korean dishes and some fusion ones as well. I initially was thinking of ordering a Carbonara Pasta but later decided against that since this is a rare occasion that I stumbled upon a cafe that's actually Korean in their dishes. And so I opted for the Bibi Rice Burger instead.

The Yuza Tea came not too long and my first sip immediately gives me a tangy feel to it. The Yuza tea is mostly concentrated on the Mandarin oranges taste hence giving out quite a powerful citrus taste. There's also some sweet taste in it but I'm not sure what it was. I didn't really realized it because the cup was quite big but when I drank till the end, I only got to know that they put in some citrus peel at the bottom of the cup. No wonder the taste was so strong.

The Bibi Rice Burger came at an acceptable amount of preparation time and the presentation was nice. It had a flag stabbed onto the rice burger stating "Happy Father's Day!" Though I'm no father, I find it amusing that they presented it that way to me. The Grilled Rice Bun looks like brown rice to me but it doesn't taste like it. It holds together really well unlike the Rice Burger that I tried from Sushi King that falls apart easily. I see that in their Grilled Rice Bun, there's seaweed in it and I believe some sauce to help it stick really well together. The taste was very Korean and I'm immediately reminded of why I never liked Korean food. It's hard to describe the taste that I didn't like. It's quite close to Chinese style but not quite, strong and forceful and full of that wet sour taste. I don't know how to really describe the taste but all I know is it's very apparent in Korean food especially their vegetable side dishes and Kimchi. they also served two sides with the burger and fries very much like Korean food. One is the Kimchi and the other is the Salad. The salad taste  is nothing like a western salad and taste very much like a Korean dish that belongs mixing with rice to eat. Initially, it was kind of hard for me to swallow the food but then I discovered that the Grilled Chicken was nice, tasted just like your normal grilled chicken and you can't go wrong with the fried egg. So eating them all together with the Grilled Rice Bun was not bad. Acceptable to my taste albeit slower in my pace of eating. LOL.

I finished off my slow meal and headed off to walk around the IOI City Mall. This is kind of a nice place to hang out. Pity it's so far away from my house.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM37. 6% GST included which was RM2.09. Tea was RM10 and the burger RM27.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Despite me not liking Korean food much, it is a nice place to chill. Great ambiance, hidden away from the public where not too many people pass by. I just wish their service to me was a little better. It's not very crowded hence a lone diner like me can easily get a place without much of a hassle.

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A-Lone Diner Movie Special: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Today is the Agung's birthday. Today is also my birthday. So that makes me the King! LOL :D How I wish it was like back in the old days where the King's birthday was 6th of June so that I'll get a holiday every birthday.

As usual, I would normally redeem my free movie from GSC during my birthday month and I normally go to 1U to do so since that's my most favorite mall. Been not redeeming for I think 2 years(?) due to the fact that my active blogging at my events blog has helped me to watch almost every single movie that came out hence there's none to redeem to watch or re-watch again. Besides, I seldom had the time to do so. But since late last year, I decided to end my movie watching since preview screenings and premiere screenings are usually late at night and I just don't have the energy to continue that late into the night and wake up the next morning for work the whole day.

Well, since I have not been watching movies for quite a long time and my retirement from my events blog has afforded me a lot of free time, I've decided to redeem a movie to watch. Coincidentally, I was so pleased that the Avengers were one of the movies that were in the free list. Since I have not seen that one yet, it's a no-brainer to pick that one.

Seeing that I'm lazy to go all the way to 1 Utama, I've decided to go to the nearest mall that has a GSC and that would be Paradigm Mall. Being up early, I was actually planning to plop myself back in bed and head to Paradigm Mall later but after being distracted so much by the Internet, before I know it, it was already 10am. So I decided to head straight to Paradigm Mall instead. Since I'm so near, I arrived very early and felt like one of the staff there with not many souls in sight. LOL. Not wanting to carry that piece of paper with me to breakfast, I hop into GSC to redeem it straight away. There were quite a number of people getting their tickets there and that's when I saw this one counter with the guy having no one there. So I approached it with hesitancy in mind due to the fact that I'm not really sure is the counter really open. Without looking at me, he asked can he help me in Malay. I then fumbled on my words as I handed to him the birthday voucher form. He then took the list and showed me what shows are available for me to choose and I instantly told him The Avengers. He keeps clicking around on the screen (not sure why he was doing that when he should stay put and just let me choose my seat). As I was about to choose my seat, he had a discontented look on his face and told me that I should have brought my girlfriend. I just laughed awkwardly. His colleague beside him then started to question him what's wrong and he told her that it was my birthday and that I'm spending it alone. Suddenly, the girl started to sing Happy Birthday to me and that got me blushing. She stopped midway since she didn't know my name. LOL. I then proceeded to choose my seat. For some reason, I'm not sure why the guy selected 2 seats, another one far back of the hall and on the left and printed both seats. Not sure whether he wanted to watch the movie himself or to give to someone else, but whoever it is, I hope that person is happy to be able to watch it with my voucher. :)
Then again, if it was the staff himself that wanted to watch, does he really need the ticket? Oh well.

So then I proceeded to go for breakfast at the Teh Tarik Place. I had a lot of time to kill till the movie at 1:10pm, so I was walking around aimlessly for quite some time until it was time to enter the hall.

When I went into the hall, I was surprised that there's already a lot of people there and that there were people beside me left and right as well. Usually, people would pick one seat away from the seat taken, but I guess it's because Avengers is so popular and I just had to pick the middle seat. XD

Watching the Avengers jogged my memory quite a bit on the Marvel Universe and initially I didn't recognize the 2 individuals that were working with Strucker but when they mentioned the name Pietro Maximoff and Wanda Maximoff, it did got me remembering them as Quiksilver and Scarlet Witch. I also recognized Vision when he came into being but had never really knew that one of the Infinity stones were on Vision's forehead. Overall, it was a pretty good movie. But somehow, I've been so disillusioned in life, I fail to see much difference between reality and the movies. Although you may never see mighty beings tussling each other in real life, yet you see tragedies happening sometimes even before your very eyes. I think I'm pretty close to losing my mind entirely and will become insane quite soon. Pretty soon, I will be unable to distinguish reality and fantasy and I hope I'll be able to end my life before that to save my pride rather than a man walking up and down the street talking to himself. LOL. Even worse, being admitted to a mental institution draining on my family's money resources. Yes, it's definitely better to end it before that time comes. :)

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Tom, Dick and Harry's, Oasis Square, Ara Damansara

Address:
Oasis Square
2 Jalan PJU 1A/7A
Ara Damansara
Subang
Petaling Jaya
47301

Opening Hours:
Daily, 4.30pm-2am

Time Visited:
7:30pm-ish(?)

Attire worn:
Casual. With my drink responsibility T-Shirt. LOL. I felt like an asshole wearing that at a pub.

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Caesar Salad and half pint of Asahi

Despite taking a half day leave and actually planning to find some friends for lunch, I chickened out at messaging my friend. Somehow, my feelings of unworthiness and feeling guilty to bother them where she would just kindly oblige my request has put me off messaging to get together. Besides, she's a very busy individual and I don't wanna bombard my friends with my relentless negativity and rain on their parade. Wish I can change the way I think. Anyway, I ran a few errands instead and coming home then plonking myself in bed before waking up and headed to Oasis Square, specifically, Tom, Dick and Harry's for dinner on my own.

It wasn't my usual self today because I ordered a Caesar Salad to go with a half pint of Asahi. And as I've said time and time again, I'm not a salad person. Yet, today, I've decided to go for the greens.

I sat myself down at the bar area since their tables all seemed so large and cater for a big crowd. As I gazed upon the inside and contemplated on whether should I try to see if there's a seat indoors that I wouldn't feel bad hogging the table with, the staff that mans the bar area has now awaited for my order. When I turned back and face the bar area, the staff did a Batman on me and was crouching on top of the sink. I find that particularly peculiar for him to behave that way but thought nothing much about it. After all, nothing surprises me anymore. LOL.

I then asked for the menu which he handed two of them to me, one for the food, another for the drinks. He then proceeded to tell me on the happy hour ending at 8pm and that's when I assured him don't worry, I'll be ready to order before that and I study the menu further. It bemused me that the Caesar's Salad description included the words, "Caesar himself came back and said he'd never tasted anything like this in his kingdom!" LOL. Unfortunately, I spotted the misspelled word of the dish itself where they put it as Caeser's Salad. The description spelled it correctly.

Tom, Dick and Harry's at Oasis Square garner quite a lot of people during the nights because it was almost packed when I arrived. Boy, people around Oasis Square sure like to hangout at Tom, Dick and Harry's to drink.

Anyway, my food and drink arrived fairly quick. A mere five minutes. Asahi tasted fresh and I believe it's drafted from the tap itself. Hence, a much more refreshing and less flat taste compared to canned and bottled counterparts.

The Caesar's Salad despite having just ordinary ingredients, it appealed to me and screams "Eat me." Instead of serving cut out hard boiled eggs, I'm so pleased and enticed that they serve a sunny side up egg in place. There's 2 garlic bread propped up at the back and bacon shreds and succulent looking chicken pieces permeates from the dish. Somehow the greens took a background approach in this dish despite being a salad. It's dull green color dressed with white condiment serves more as a backdrop than being highlighted as the star. I loved the bread, not too much garlic taste but yet enough to allow you a certain sense of garlic. The bacon bits is always a welcome to me as bacon is one of my most favorite thing to consume and it never failed in this dish. The chicken pieces were not dry and taste alright in all it's splendor and glory. Egg was done to perfection with a perfect runny yolk. The 2 types of green were decent to eat but gave off a little bit of a bitter taste occasionally. But I don't mind it at all because it's still nice.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM39.30. RM17 for the Asahi, RM22.30 for the Salad and these items include 6% of GST which amount to RM2.22.

Final Verdict:
7/10. Not a bad place to chill but being an outdoorish kind of setting can get a little warm if you're drinking alcohol. Oasis Square has always had a great ambiance and looks beautiful during the nights. Tom, Dick and Harry's staff seem very busy most of the time hence, it might take a while before they notice you and attend to you but eventually, they'll get to you. Or if you're impatient, just flag them down. I did notice one thing though. They're very attentive when it comes to see you finishing your drink and ask you would you like another. I've been asked a couple of times on whether I need a refill. Wish they were just as attentive to me when my food was served and when I started to sit down.

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