Boat Noodle at Siam, Publika, Solaris Dutamas, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
Lot30A, Level G3, 
Publika Shopping Gallery,
Solaris Dutamas, Jalan Dutamas 1,
50480 Kuala Lumpur

Opening Hours:
Daily, 11am-9pm

Time Visited:
Around 5pm, Wednesday evening

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
1 Pathumthani Beef Thai Rice Noodle, 1 Ayutthaya Beef Thai Rice Noodle, 1 Pathumthani Chicken Thai Rice Noodle, 1 Ayutthaya Chicken Thai Rice Noodle and 1 Ice Blended Thai Coffee

The place wasn't as nice and cooling as I expected. I'm not sure if there's any air cond but I know that there's fans above. So it's quite warm inside. The wooden furnitures is quite uncomfortable for me but bearable for an hour or so. Despite having sat down without a menu in front of me, the wait staff saw me sitting down but did not notice that I'm waiting for the menu. The best thing that one of the staff ever did for me is smile at me. I had to signal him to give me a menu then only out of nowhere another wait staff from behind provided me one.

Their menu is the steel kind and is quite colorful with some pictures in it provided. It's just a one page menu. They also had recently added a few new items and printed it out on a smaller separate sheet of paper.

In order to order, you have to write down what you want. I didn't fully understand the menu because there were 2 items indicating beef rice noodle but differently named and there were 2 items indicating chicken rice noodle but also differently named exactly like the beef counterpart. I asked the waiter to fully explain this queer naming convention and he clarified for me that the Pathumthani is the spicy dish and the Ayutthaya is the less spicy dish. I was wondering to myself, if that's they case, can't they just add in the word spicy in one of the dish? A quick google tells me that these are Thai Province names.

The Ice Blended Thai Coffee came in a fancy plastic cup equipped with a straw poking out from the cover for easy access to the beverage. The taste of coffee was strong enough but all in all average. Or maybe slightly above average.

When the bowls of noodles came, I had such a difficult time differentiating which is which. LOL. They all look the same! The only thing I can differentiate is the meat which darker one means beef and lighter ones means chicken. But if you were to mix the bowls together, I bet even the staff can't recognize which is the spicy one and which is not.

The Pathumthani is indeed the bowl with the spicy taste and at times even I couldn't stand the lingering spiciness and I'm a cili padi eater! But it's not all too spicy. It should be bearable to most people but not for those who's unable to eat spicy food. As for the Ayutthaya, it contains a sweet taste to it instead of spicy and is quite a weird combo for me for noodles. But nice enough to be eaten by me. A bowl of boat noodle probably took me about three mouthful to finish. The meat balls that represents the beef and chicken are nice but it's merely half a ball. :(

Due to the uncomfy nature of the place, I left after about an hour later.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM18.35. RM1.90 for each bowl of noodle and the coffee cost RM8.90. 6% GST implemented and a 5% service charge as well.

Final Verdict:
4/10. Environment not comfortable and the staff were unattentive, hard of understanding and do very little unless being told by the customer. Despite an easy open situation where one glance you can see all of the tables, some customer still need to catch the staffs attention a few times before being noticed. I know the staff are foreign workers but can't they learn a little bit more on basic English and Bahasa Malaysia? I see a lot of the customers struggling to convey certain messages to the staff including myself. I'm not sure whether this behavior stems from being a low peak period or if it's the same during busy dining times. Well, at least one of the staff smiled at me when he saw me.

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Moonlight Cake House, Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
No. 1, Jalan Radin Bagus 9, Bandar Baru Sri Petaling, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 9am-2am

Time Visited:
2:15pm, Wednesday afternoon. Which was scorching hot.

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Lady Violet Cake, Regular Frappuccino Coffee and Bamboo Charcoal Smoked Salmon Burger

I got a little lost while trying to find my way here. This place's road name sounded familiar and as I approach the area, I remembered that it's a place that I've been for a review on one of the restaurants before.

Moonlight Cake House is actually an established franchise that has a few branches in Johor hence when it opened up a branch in Sri Petaling, it has a hype of crowd since they have a membership system that affords 10% off for it's members.

Parking in the area during the days (and as I recall also in the nights) is a nightmare since it's a very crowded area with the place teeming with cars and crowds and a department store nearby. However, right opposite of Moonlight Cake House is a private car park where they charge RM3.20 per entry which is cheap to me. There's plenty of parking space inside this parking lot. Of course if you manage to find those public car park it would be considerably cheaper if you only parked for less than 5 hours in the day and in the night it's free.

When I caught sight of Moonlight Cake House, I was in awe as I wasn't expecting such a large place for just a bakery. A 2 story building spanning of a corner shop lot.

The downstairs area is the main bakery place where people congregate to buy pastries on display while the upstairs area consists of the dine in area where patrons can have a meal there or just a cup of drink if they so wish. The downside about this is that if you fancy having a cake that's on display downstairs, you'll have to buy it first and carry it upstairs because it's not gonna be listed in their menu. This was the case for me when I ordered the Lady Violet.

Actually, in the beginning, I wasn't aware about their arrangement and went to the counter to order a drink. The guy told me in Chinese that I can order my drinks upstairs if I'm having it there. I somehow managed to understand what he said. I also somehow managed to muster up enough of my Chinese to tell him that I also want a piece of the Lady Violet cake which he annoyingly attended to me due to my imperfect Chinese. LOL.

The Lady Violet is an Almond Sponge Cake that has pastry cream filled with yam cubes enveloping it. It kinda reminded me of another yam cake that I've ate before at Tokyo Pastry in Avenue K. That one was better. But for this one, you can taste the yam cubes and can even see it when you scoop into it. The taste is not strong but more of a neutral feel. It should go well with some coffee.

During my time upstairs, I was attended to more properly than the busy cashiers downstairs with a full menu. Their tables are huge and mostly catered for 4 people. Only a few that are against the wall that's for 2 person and that's already fully filled. I felt a little guilty for taking up the big four person table but I had no choice. They closed off an area by putting reserve signs on tables over at the bar side. Despite being after 2pm which is after lunch hour, this place still has a lot of people visiting be it sitting around and dining or downstairs people busy buying their preferred pastries.

Halfway through my yam cake, my Frappuccino arrived but after my burger was served.

The burger looks nice and inviting. The charcoal bun was tasty and wasn't flaky nor falling a part easily. It was proper. The onion rings had 2 piles (in my case). One fully stuck on to each other making it a little difficult for me to eat since I need to break it while the other was not bad. In it's own respective pieces. The onions were small in pieces inside while the batter surrounding it were huge. The chicken floss I felt was a nice touch because it added some sweetness to the bun making it a little more nicer to the taste. The smoked salmon though was a little too salty and too much in it's fish taste for me which is too overwhelming. But all in all, it was okay.

The Frappuccino was good. A nice coffee taste to it with the syrup not being too sweet but sweet enough for an average joe.

The ambiance of the place was soothing. The shades hides off the interior from the scorching sun outside and the lighting gives off a mellow and cool feel to it. One thing I have to say is that the place is way too big for the staff to manage. Many people need to flag down the staff several times to get their attention. Those sitting at the corner or blocked by the pillars would suffer the most. Water is self service should you require some. Although I was provided with the WiFi password, I did not manage to get it working and gave up and use my data instead. The place had Kenny G's saxophone melodies playing on repeat and made me feel as if I'm in one of those 80s Canto-drama. Pretty soon, I felt a very great sense of sleepiness and kept dozing off during my 2 hours stay. The coffee had zero effect in keeping me awake and the annoying music that I every so often hear the same tunes fail to do the same as well. I occasionally had a violent blast of cool air from the air cond unit above starting from 30 minutes before I leave helped me to maintain an alert state. This is one very unique bakery to me.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM7.30 for the Lady Violet Cake which I paid downstairs and RM30.40 for the rest including GST. No service charged imposed.

Final Verdict:
6.5/10. It's not very lone diner friendly not because of the staffs attitude, but because of it's popularity and the lack of 2 seater tables. They should also implement a cake menu for dine in customers or have a separate display case above so that people can sit in and just have a cup of coffee with some cakes without the hassle to travel down and up just for it. Other than that, it's soothing surrounding got me dozing off at times.

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Coliseum Cafe (1921),The Gardens Mall Branch, Mid Valley City, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
Lot LG-216, Lower Ground Floor,
The Gardens Mall, Mid Valley City,
Lingkaran Syed Putra 59200
Kuala Lumpur

Opening Hours:
Daily, 10am - 10pm

Time Visited:
6:50pm, Wednesday night

Attire worn:
Business seeing that it's after work

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Lipton Tea (Iced) and Roasted Chicken with Turkey Ham

 Coliseum Cafe always boast of it's longstanding business started ever since 1921 where it's original HQ cafe still stands and is still operational even 94 years later. It's a cafe that has fused the Western and Eastern delicacies together but is not fusion food. Rather, it merely serves western food along with Hainanese Cuisine that has some western influence in it.

For the whole of my life, I have never ever try the food of Coliseum before and now that they've already established 4 branches, I thought to myself it's about high time that I give it a go.

The place is regarded as a good steakhouse with some of the best meats in Klang Valley to munch on. But as always being the odd being that I am, I differed from the norm and opted for the Roasted Chicken with Turkey Ham.

The Lipton Tea (Iced) is nothing special at all. In fact, it's just a plain ordinary milk tea where you can certainly get from a mamak stall. The only difference would probably be that mamak stalls are known for their awfully generous portion of sugar and condensed milk making their milk tea a highly likely contributing factor to diabetes while the milk tea at Coliseum Cafe had just the right amount of sweetness to it.

Coliseum Cafe also like boasting about the Lingham's Chili Sauce as depicted in the picture above that even their condiment holder has a special section stating Lingham. The Tomato Ketchup bottle that's on my table though is sitting at the wrong place indicating that it's supposed to be for Chilli Sauce. LOL

My Roasted Chicken with Turkey Ham arrived really quick. It just took around 5 minutes upon ordering to my amazement. However, a closer inspection on the side dishes of the main rears an ugly truth. The salad wasn't as appetizing as I wanted it to be and the vegetables and fries were merely lukewarm. This gives off a lackluster appeal to me in wanting to dig in more. The turkey ham though is what I like eating. It's a thick slice of meat but looks like it came out of a can. However, I can't be sure of that though there is a fairly similar facade to it. The taste though may be the varying factor since this taste a little bit tastier than those out of a can. The mushroom sauce that comes with it is adequately thick in it's taste thus I'm giving it points for that. The Roasted Chicken was surely the highlight as it is the best thing on the dish, moist, tender and delectable. Adding the mushroom sauce to it complements it brilliantly. Although the vegetables and fries were hugely a disappointment for not being hot at all, the chicken is at least at the right temperature. One thing I noted though is that the cauliflower has a buttery taste to it which is quite pleasing to my palate. The rest were forgettable.

Total Wallet Damage:
It cost in total RM40.10 which is not as expensive as expected. But then again, I'm only eating chicken and not their steak which it alone could rack up to RM70.

Final Verdict:
6.5/10. Although Coliseum may boast of it's fine steak, it's chicken is also not bad. And this The Gardens Mall branch is quite lone diner friendly with about 2 to 3 others besides me during my presence there. I really like their huge table which gives you ample space for your food and drink.

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Basil Pasta House, Off Jalan Kuchai Lama, Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
No. 21, Jalan Kuchai Maju 6, Off Jalan Kuchai Lama, Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park, Wilayah Persekutuan, 58200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Wednesday to Monday, 12pm - 10pm. Close on Tuesdays. (However, during my visitation, they closed off during 3.30pm for some reason. I don't know whether this is a permanent thing or due to special occasion.)

Time Visited:
Around 2pm, Saturday afternoon a presumably public holiday.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Black Tea Latte and Spaghetti Madras Curry & Crispy Pork Chop

After waking up this morning, I was a little lazy and hesitant to move out of the house but I just got to. To prevent myself from intense suicidal intent, I just got to move out of the house and be among the public. I just have to train myself not to let it show to the public and to prevent any negative vibe from me rub on to people around me. Initially wanted to have a nap before going to Basil Pasta House, my sudden sleepiness has disappeared when 1pm came. So I decided to head out during that time.

It was cloudy as I headed out with my car and with it being a public holiday and many people being out of town, it was a breeze driving to this place. It looks like my GPS still works after having a bit of a problem when I tried using it one day and it just went wonky to me. Anyway, glad I headed out at the right time because they somehow started to close off during 3:30pm and told some of the customers who came afterwards that they're closed. Not sure if this is due to a special occasion.

I entered into a very busy restaurant, almost full house but I manage to get a table in spite of the crowd. Families and friends outing galore with just me being the lone single diner at this establishment. Kind of like a fish out of water but that's okay. The place was bustling and almost full to the brim and yet I still sat at a four person table with the waiter allowing me to do so (thankfully!). I browse through the menu meticulously observing that they had a wide variety of different pastas with different toppings and choices. There's also a menu page on Risotto as well and squid ink being one of their ingredients in a pasta and Risotto dish. But I refrain from choosing those and decided to go for the Madras Curry & Crispy Pork Chop.

I had to admit the servings were slow and if you were an office worker with an hour lunch time, you'd be in trouble dining here. My cup of Black Tea Latte alone takes around 20 minutes to be served to me. The Black Tea Latte is a flavored latte with no coffee in it. In it's place, it has tea in it. So basically, flavored 'teh tarik'. :D The first sip bore no taste at all. I thought that I needed to stir a lot first but doing so yield no difference. I soon discovered that it's actually because of the foam. Once I past the foam, the milk tea had it taste just fine. However, I don't see the difference as oppose to a normal 'teh tarik' just that this is something that's way less sweeter and more thick in it's foam.

The Spaghetti Madras Curry & Crispy Pork Chop came around 40 minutes since my arrival. I was quite surprise with the portion they serve. It's huge! The Crispy Pork Chop by itself can be a main dish. On top of the Pork Chop, there's spreads of sesame seed both black and normal ones. It's also coated with a Wasabi dressing which isn't those that is too strong and spreads to the nose but rather those with the taste but do not have that pungent effect. Kind of like the Wasabi sauces instead of the plant produced kind. The spaghetti is a pleasure to eat and the curry sauce is actually the Japanese curry, sweet and not spicy. But in it is also mixed with some chili flakes for a bit of heat. Every ingredient that was put together in this dish serves a purpose and plays it's own role perfectly. I'm surprised of a dish well done and I guess the wait was just to ensure that enough care has been put in the dish to be served to the customers.

Total Wallet Damage:
Total RM29.45. RM8.90 for the Tea and RM18.90 for the pasta. GST of 6% is imposed.

Final Verdict:
7/10. I like the place. the ambiance is good and it gives a sense of calmness. I also like the food. Although I don't mind the waiting time, I seriously think that this would trouble a lot of people when they're in a hurry hence I believe they would require to work on that. I also feel a little intimidated seeing the place not having a lot of seatings for a single diner. There were around 20 odd tables within the place but about 95% of it seems to cater for 4 people. This would probably be a problem for me if they were to have a crowd like this on a daily basis.

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Menya Musashi (麺屋武蔵), 1 Utama, Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya (PJ)

Address:
Isetan, One Utama, Eat Paradise, 47800 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 10am - 10pm

Time Visited:
12:15pm, Public Holiday Friday.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Musashi Ramen and hot Green Tea.

Their Ramen consists of four different broths which are Shiro (Onion Flavored Oil), Kuro (Special Oil combined of fried shallots and garlic flavored oil), Aka (Home made Musashi chili flavored oil) and Ki (Home made Musashi curry oil). I decided with the Shiro Musashi Ramen which contains 2 Chashu, 1 Ajitama (soft boiled whole egg), spring onions on top with leek, Bamboo Shoots and Black Fungus.

It was amusing watching them preparing the ramen. With the softened ramen in the sieve, they would flip it upside down and would let out some sort of a battle cry. It's as if they're practicing some martial arts move and it's quite a sight to behold.

Once the ramen appeared in front of me, it was appealing in sight with the 2 chashu on top begging to be eaten. They serve in a bowl that even consists of their chosen picture which are samurais. The first bite no doubt was heavenly. What my friend told me as being the best ramen he's ever eaten is true. I completely agree with him. He also told me that the P. Ramlee branch is better than here in 1 Utama. Better than this? I have to try it one day. The Chashu was thick and juicy. Nice porky lingering flavor as you bite on it after being soaked in it's broth. The broth upon first sip was mesmerizing. Full of pork flavor and not too salty. Just the right appropriate taste to mine. The spring onion enhances the flavor of the broth and the ramen is tender and pleasant. The leek and bamboo shoots provide some crunch to it. But unfortunately, as with most ramen, the problem is as time goes by, the delicious factor begins to fade and all that's left is a lukewarm bowl of soup with soggy ramen soaked in it. Hence, eating it fast would be most advisable as eating it slowly will epitomize this fact. Once educated by Ippudo on this to me before, I never realized it much till I compare the freshly made and one that's left for awhile. But for Menya Musashi, there's not even a need to compare. You can distinguish it as clear as crystal since the first few bites and sips of the dish were so delectable. This is one of those times I regret being a slow eater.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM29.70. RM26 for the Ramen, RM2 for the Green Tea and 6% of GST.

Final Verdict:
8/10. Love this place. Especially when it reeks of an authentic Japanese Ramen restaurant. The food is lovely to me. And just like an authentic Japanese Ramen joint, it caters for lone diners like me with many seats that a lone diner can sit and eat. In fact, I even bypass those that needed lots of seats like 6-8 because they had to wait till there's a table with that many seatings available. The only problem is that this place can get really crowded and you feel the pressure of taking up space when there are people in line waiting for a place. But the staff did not hurry nor glare at me to finish up. I still hurried myself because I felt so bad. Especially after an emotional roller coaster self reflection the night before.

P.S,: Oh, there is another problem with it as well and that is that their Green Tea is not refillable anymore ever since the implementation of the GST. That's a bummer.

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Ales & Lagers, Publika, Solaris Dutamas, Kuala Lumpur

Address:
D1-G4-6, 1 Jalan Dutamas 1
Solaris Dutamas
Kuala Lumpur
50480

Opening Hours:
3pm-10pm, Daily

Time Visited:
Close to 7pm on a Friday Evening

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Bridge Road Brewers Beechworth Robust Porter dark beer and Bridge Road Brewers Beechworth Chestnut Pilsner.

Course I didn't order anything to eat because after all, this place is just for drinks. There's nothing to eat. LOL. Initially planned this trip to be on a Wednesday night but something came up. I then thought that my friend really wanted to go with me to try this place out hence I pushed it to Friday instead of going on a Thursday evening but turns out I was wrong. Oh well. That's why I'm a lone diner.

This place got me excited when they mentioned of craft beers. Immediately, my memory brings me back to the time I tried Taps Beer Bar at 1 Mont Kiara where I experienced the most delicious beer I've ever tasted in my life.

But over here, I peered into the fridge that's filled with the many different beers available and was a bit overwhelmed with choices. I then proceeded to ask for recommendations instead. Hence for the Porter Dark Beer, I got the Robust Porter and for the Pilsner, I took the Chestnut Pilsner.

The Porter Dark Beer tasted very chocolatey which is not in accordance to how I like my beer. I then saw that this beer is made of roasted barley and chocolate malt. In fact, they use a lot of malt on their flavor profile and way less of hops.

After that not so satisfactory first for my taste, I decided to take the Chestnut Pilsner to try. The Chestnut Pilsner is made from the same company as the Porter Dark Beer that I ordered earlier unbeknownst to me till later I saw the label and as the name suggested, it's made of Chestnuts. It has a very mild but smooth taste to it and it gives off some oaky feel. A sweetness envelops it as well that produces a nice tone but it's not overly sweet hence being suitable to my taste.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM58. It's quite a hefty sum to pay for the beers here but then again, they are imported and are craft beers instead of your usual run of the mill go to beers. Each cost RM29 without tax hence the amount to RM58.

Final Verdict:
6/10. This may not be actually a suitable place for drinking since it is afterall like a sundry beer shop but cater for sit in drinkings as well. The guy that was serving at the shop clearly poured my beer expertly without sacrificing it's taste too much. This may not be a usual place like a pub to hang out and chill, but it is a place that's good to appreciate some fine beers that's not so common in the market.

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