Restoran Good Taste, SS14, Subang Jaya, Selangor

Address:
36, Jalan SS 14/2, Ss 14, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, I think 7am - 9pm.

Time Visited:
12:30pm, Monday afternoon.

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Roasted Pork Rice, Coffee Ice, Taufu Pok and Curry Pork Skin

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience.

On the Monday that passed, my colleague out of the blue invited me out to eat (read: be her driver) since she didn't prepare any food the previous day. And so we headed off to SS14 to eat.

The plan started with trying out the nearby restaurant that serves good noodles that has many people lining up during the mornings. Her statement indicated that lunch time is a better time to try and that the crowd won't be that many. (Don't ask me how this is logical and why people mainly flock to it in the morning. LOL). But then later, we discovered that they close on Mondays and so we headed nearby to Restoran Good Taste to eat instead.

I didn't realize in the beginning but this is a place I've been to before to meet up with my friends at the branch in Bukit Jalil just that I didn't try anything. They were there eating their breakfast while we were about to try out The Owls Cafe. Anyway, I only remembered it when I saw the big backdrop listing other branches that they're located at.

So over here, I started to order the Siew Yuk Faan (Roasted Pork Rice) and I just gotta have my coffee to drink while my colleague ordered Curry Noodles. They do employ quite a lot of foreign helpers in being the waiters, cooks and order takers with their limited grasp of the Cantonese language but the Chinese owners do take on the role of order takers and waiters as well. However, cashier is a dedicated staff which occasionally doubles up as wait staff.

The orders were taken and the food was dispense almost instantaneously! Their speed of getting food to the customers were incredible even though they had quite a variety of dishes. I'm impressed. And so I taste tested their Roasted Pork Rice and to my surprise, the roasted pork was succulent. It was so delicious and unlike a lot of hawker stalls, their pork are of the choicest pieces and not just all fat. On top of that, the amount given was slightly more than my experiences with a lot of hawker stalls too which was great. Enough for me to finish off my rice with a satisfied amount of pork to go with it.

After seeing the portion of our orders, my colleague decided to order the Curry Pork Skin because she love eating that and she's craving for it. On top of the order, there's also a side order of Tofu Pok asked as well. Well, I would say those were just how you envisioned the taste to be, nice to eat but same no matter where you go. The only difference would come from their curry. Their curry broth has that tastiness and a little heat at the back but mainly not really that spicy. More towards milky texture and taste.

The tables in between are spaced adequately and even has one or two tables that's setup outdoors for those who prefer that or should they wanna smoke. Mainly a very busy place when lunchtime arrives.

Total Wallet Damage:
Erm, again I'm not sure because my colleague took the receipt from me to pay me back later. LOL. Anyway, I saw the menu price for the Roasted Pork Rice at RM7.90. That's all I know.

Final Verdict:
7/10. Great Roasted pork and porky dishes. It provides me an alternative to go to besides Kar Heong, one of my favorite place to frequent.

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Fancy Breakfast Club, Bangsar Baru, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
6-1, Jalan Telawi 2
Bangsar Baru, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Opening Hours:
Tue-Fri:
8:00 am - 2:00 pm
6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Sat-Sun:
11:00 am - 2:00 pm
6:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Time Visited:
Friday, about 1pm

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Well, my portion consists of Battle of the Waffle and a Latte (hot)

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience.

It all began when my friend said whether I'm free on Friday for lunch. But being a normal salary man, I could not. But then, on that day, the branch office at TTDI had some trouble and I had to go over and resolve it. Though it took me quite fast to do so, I figured why not meet my friend for lunch anyway since now I'm able to do so if I'm here. And so, off I went headed off to Bangsar to this place Fancy Breakfast Club.

Though my friend said that they'll be there at 12pm, I became the first to arrive despite it being almost 1pm. LOL. And so, due to my shortage of time, I decided to start ordering over which my one of my friend arrived in the nick of time. I ordered the Battle of the Waffle and a Latte (hot) while my friend DIY the breakfast platter as well as have a latte too.

This place being on the first floor is hard to spot having their signage covered by the awnings of the shop downstairs and also it feels really hot inside here even though they have air conditioning units in the place with some fans blasting. My latte arrived and I took a sip of it. It's according to my taste but the milk is a bit runny and isn't frothed the way I like it. Other than that, my coffee tasted fine. However, my friend didn't like hers as she says it's way too bitter and can hardly taste the milk to cover it up. Oh well.

The waffle came after a considerable amount of waiting period and it's cut in four pieces and stacked on top of each other. At the topmost sits the ice cream while the whole dish is bombarded with chocolate sauce and down below, you can see the maple syrup is present as well. There's strawberries distributed throughout the dish but I don't see any blueberries as indicated in the menu. Due to the overwhelming amount of chocolate sauce and maple syrup, I find this dish way too sweet for my taste with the strawberry just balancing out with it's sourness a little. But unfortunately, the strawberries were small and few in numbers. The waffle texture isn't exactly what I like and it isn't exactly the crunchy material. So all in all, this dish just isn't something for me.

But true to it's name, their breakfast was quite nice but my preference still leans towards Coffee Sprex even though their items may be store bought ingredients. Other than Coffee Sprex, if I fancy an elegant breakfast like here, I also would prefer Battery Acid Club than here. Throughout the entire lunch period, there were just a group of girls and us. Nobody else came to visit this cafe but I guess their crowds are towards the weekends? Maybe. Anyway, this isn't a place I fancy going especially as a lone diner.

Total Wallet Damage:
Just my portion alone would amount to RM25 with RM8 being for the latte. There's no GST nor service charge.

Final Verdict:
5/10. Sorry to put it at an okay score but not only is this place too hot for me to stay, the waffles ain't the thing that I would like. Though their breakfast may be not bad, there's plenty of other places I prefer. Sorry again.

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Seremban Har Jie Roasted, Hicom Glenmarie Industrial Park, Shah Alam, Selangor

Address:
No 26, Jalan Pekedai U1/35, Hicom Glenmarie Industrial Park, 40150 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Mon-Sat:
10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Time Visited:
Thursday afternoon, around 12:30pm

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
White Chicken Breast and Salted Lime + Lemon + Sour Plum

It's been quite awhile since I last visited this place that I used to frequent for lunch, Glenmarie! Although it's near from my office, I stopped frequenting here for quite sometime due to the fact that the parking enforcement officers that fine cars who did not display parking coupons has been very active at lunchtime. And so, I just simply stop going so frequent.

But of late, I went there once after so long once more and I spotted quite a number of new eateries when I went to eat at Hing Loong. My curiosity piqued and it got the better of me to visit this place called the Seremban Har Jie Roasted. I'm not sure about it's history and whether if it's from Seremban at all but all I know is that it's a restaurant that offers meat rice to it's customers and that it runs it's business just like how Kar Heong does it, organized and one dimensional. Unlike Kar Heong, this place is way cheaper, just slightly above your normal hawker chicken rice stall and also only has one type of noodle dish which is the Ipoh Hor Fun (shredded chicken). Other than that, it's all meat rice dishes. Like I mentioned before, they run their restaurant in an organized manner like how Kar Heong does. You sit down first and will be handed a menu for you to choose. The person that prepares the food are not the ones to take your order. You pay at the cashier just like Kar Heong but that cashier woman doubles up as a person who hands you the menu and take your order as well as serve you your food.

What I find unique about this place is that it's the only place that serves, White Chicken, Roasted Chicken, Roast Pork, Char Siew AND Roasted Duck all under one roof - one stall. This is what I rarely see. Often times when a place sells roasted duck, they will not sell chicken. Some places don't even sell pork alongside roasted duck. But this place has it all. Steamed and roast chicken, pork and roasted duck. First I've actually seen. But that day what I did was just try out their White Chicken.

Since the place wasn't that busy, the food came quickly to me and their portion looks quite good. Along with the meat and the rice, they also give you a free vegetable soup that's quite thick in it's flavor but it's just vegetable soup lah. The chicken was not bad. They drizzle it with the standard dark soy sauce and oil to enhance the taste of the chicken. Initially, at the side, I tasted a little bit like peanut taste. Don't know why but that was nice. As I go inner from the slab of chicken, I tasted the oil that smoothen the white chicken more and lastly I tasted the dark soy sauce which gives off some salty taste. This was simply cool.

As for the Salted Lime + Lemon + Sour Plum, that tasted good. But it's nothing new to me as I've tasted such drink before. They don't use preserved sour plum but rather the real fruit and they put a slice of lemon at the bottom. This place simply took me by surprise. Though it may not be as good as Kar Heong in it's Steamed Chicken, it's a good alternative should I decide on a much cheaper and less crowded alternative. Next time, I think I'm gonna try their Roasted Duck and compare it with Hing Loong's which is just directly opposite each other.

Total Wallet Damage:
All in all, RM9.60. I know RM5.50 is for the White Chicken Breast and RM3.50 for the drink since it's written on the menu, but where did the extra 60 sen come from? (By the way, I didn't get a receipt). Maybe it's GST.

Final Verdict:
7/10. Not bad serving the full types of meat that's available at hawker rice stalls. Something which I've never seen done before.

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Lum Choong Kee, Restoran Crab House Kepong, SS23, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
42, Jalan SS23/11
47301 Petaling Jaya (PJ),
Selangor

Opening Hours:
7am (?) till 3pm. But currently, it's so popular, it finishes by 12pm. Occasional Tuesdays are off.

Time Visited:
8am on a Sunday morning

Attire worn:
Very very casual (well, to me lah)

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Char Siew Wantan Noodles and some Pork Balls

I stumble upon a friend's conversation on Facebook indicating this place where he went there to try but were told that their Char Siew were sold out even though it's just 9:30am in the morning. This got me intrigued. Is the char siew over here really that good till people flock to this place and it's sold out by 9:30am?

So being a person who had trouble sleeping 8 hours straight, it certainly isn't a problem for me to get up and head over here early especially since this place is so very near my place. So by 8am, I'm already at this restaurant called Kepong Crab House where this hawker stall called Lum Choong Kee was one of it there. Although the name of the place indicates a place to eat crabs, this is true only in the nighttime. By day, the hawker stalls ply their business upon this restaurant. What fascinates me the most at this place is that although it's a Chinese restaurant with hawker stall, over at the back, there's an Indian couple that sells Thosai, roti canai and the likes back there. This is something I rarely see. The other place I can think of is only Restoran Do Re Mi at Ara Damansara but that Indian stall sells Indian rice.

Over at the Lum Choong Kee stall, they've taken over the table beside their stall as a place to manage the orders and their numbering system. LOL. This time around, they left a lady there in charge of the orders and numbering. Anybody that approaches the stall, the lady will immediate ask them to order with her while the two concentrate on preparing the food and one concentrate on serving it. And so I ordered the Char Siew Wantan Noodles and the Pork Balls. I was given a cup that's written a number on it as their numbering system queue. So I sat down nearby to observe them and wait and see how long do I need to wait. I've heard horror stories indicating that someone had waited 1 and a half hours before. Since it's a Sunday where this was my only plan before heading off home to sleep again, I have time to spare to see if this is true.

Since it's just 8am, there's a few empty tables around but even so, there's already quite a crowd at this place. And it does look like that it's true. Lum Choong Kee seems to be the only stall that's crazy busy while the rest await for someone to order. There's a big group of people in the middle who seems to be there for the long haul where they look like they know those people that's running some of the hawker stalls there. It didn't take as long as I've heard for my orders to arrive, just 20 minutes which is okay enough.

So therein lies the burning question in my mind, is the Char Siew here really that good? It does look a bit sloppy on my dish with some char siew just slapped on top of the noodles while the Pork Balls that I ordered were put in a bowl ready for me to consume. Frankly speaking, I did find that the hype of their Char Siew overrated. It does melt in your mouth, yes. But I find that it lacks taste and quite bland. But of course, there are places that I did taste some flavor in it due to the sauce. Other than that, the char siew didn't seem to emit much taste at all for me. But what I can assure is that their Wantan Noodles were unique to me. It did tasted of Bamboo shoots taste which is somewhat a unique taste to me. So the noodles gave me a better impression than their char siew. Finally, the pork balls were not bad too. They were big and large and full of meaty goodness. The pork taste in it is good and succulent. That's something I adored.

As soon as 9am hits, the place started to fill up with more and more people and pretty soon, people had to latch onto the table I was on as well. I had a nice conversation with a mother and daughter on foods nearby. It's been so long since a stranger had strike a conversation with me for a chatter that I grew nervous. So nervous that I keep forgetting names of food places. Oh well. That's what you get for being a loner most of the time. LOL.

After when I was long gone only did I realize that they forgot to give me wantan and I didn't even noticed. So it's not really wantan noodles to me after all. LOL.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM13.50. RM6 for the bowl of pork balls and RM7.50 for the Char Siew Wantan Noodles. Obviously, being a hawker stall, it's devoid of any GST and service charges.

Final Verdict:
5/10. I somehow feel that the Char Siew isn't something that's of my taste but I do like their Bamboo Wantan Noodles. But they still have some major improvement to do in shaving the waiting period for customers. :)

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Bebe Recipe, Digital Mall, Section 14, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
Lot G-02, Ground Floor, Digital Mall, No. 2, Jalan 14/20, Seksyen 14, 46100 Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 10am - 10pm I guess.

Time Visited:
6:20pm, Saturday night.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Thai Fried Rice and Carrot Juice

I use to go to this place everytime when I need to go to Digital Mall which used to be quite frequent back then due to the incompetence of my company for failing to come up with a backup plan in case a computer system goes wrong. And so far anything that I order from Bebe Recipe, they never fail to deliver a good dish. Till this day, that still is the case for me. It doesn't matter what food you order. It's bound to taste nice. The drink may not have that wow potential as their food but still it's a decent cup of drink always. I sure love the consistency of their cook. But why I stopped coming here even though I still go to Digital Mall from time to time is because I dislike their ambiance. The place though receives air cond from Digital Mall itself yet it's still quite warm indoors due to them having a huge opening with no doors to keep the air cond in. And also, the thing I most dislike about this place is the amount of flies that tend to settle around whichever table you sit at. There's always bound to be lots of flies here and I worry incessantly of the sanitary aspect over their cutleries which are left opened up at each table.

During this day, I decided to eat here because as soon as I was about to leave, a massive storm broke out cooping me in and rendering me immobile. The thunderstorm was so great that it took out and trip the servers at my office despite having generators and backup UPS and also took out one of my condo's lift. Anyway, since I couldn't leave, I decided to just have my dinner here. This time around, I decided to order the Thai Fried Rice and a Carrot Juice where I've never tasted their Thai Fried Rice before.

As usual, they took quite fast to bring me my orders and of course at one glance, it doesn't look that all impressive. But as usual, they manage to deliver on their consistency of good taste which is what I felt as I scoop a spoonful of the rice. The ingredients given were adequate and the portion of the dish was just right, enough to keep me full. The Thai Fried Rice is not a spicy dish though even though it contains chili. In fact, there are pockets of mouthful that tasted sweet and tomato-ish. However, for their onions, they were a little lazy in smashing them up and so there's large chunks of it in little ball-like marble sizes. Every part of the rice grain were perfectly cook despite it's less than presentable looks and there's none that are undercook nor portions missed out which throughout my life I've seen many doing so.

As for the carrot juice, though it's not really that fresh a carrot, you can tell they still use a genuine carrot instead of just using it out of a can or container. One thing though is that it lacks ice to chill the whole drink. It's not that super fantastic but it's average which is a passing mark to me.

When the storm had abated, it just so happens I had finished my meal and am ready to leave.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM13.80. RM8 for the Fried Rice and RM5 for the Carrot Juice. A 6% GST is imposed.

Final Verdict:
6/10. They consistently deliver good tasting food to me though presentation-wise don't look that appetizing. As for the ambiance, well, it's not very pleasant with the amount of flies the restaurant inside attracts. I think it's because it's really close to the dumpster at the back of the mall.

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WhupWhup Restaurant & Cafe, SS13, Subang Jaya, Selangor

Address:
12, Jalan SS13/3B, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Wed-Sun:
11:00 am - 10:00 pm

Time Visited:
Nearing 2:30pm on a Wednesday afternoon

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
I'll only list my portion. The Cowpenters (Fettuccine) and The Beauty and Gramps Apple Pie for dessert

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience.

One Wednesday afternoon, I decided to take half day off for a much needed break to go gallivanting for some new places to try. Along with me, I managed to drag 2 of my friends along (because you know, I'm no longer a lifestyle blogger and so there's no food review that's free that I can invite my friends anymore. So my poor friends had to put up with me in forking out their own money just so I could get some companionship. LOL). I'm surprised that they decided to join me along but very happy that they did so. :D

So one of my friend decided that we should come here to WhupWhup in order to try out their dishes as well as their coffee. And so off we went to this place that's secretly hidden within the factory area of Subang Jaya. Being at a lot that's at the end of the road, this place used to be a factory and their yard has been turned into a parking lot. The place is huge and it reminded me of PULP by Papa Palheta because that too was a former factory turned into a cafe. But between the two, of course the ambiance here is better due to the humongous space where they can easily put tables far apart with big decorative pieces and still room for more things. They also rent out space at their outlet to showcase artworks and whatever stuff you desire should you so want to.

Scouring the menu, you'll see that they have cheeky names for everything from their main dishes to their desserts to even their coffees. What people usually call a latte, they call it The Beauty. What usually people call Hot Chocolate, they call it a Brown Cow and so on. I went for a pasta dish which is The Cowpenter. You get a choice on whether to have spaghetti pasta or the Fettuccine which of course I chose the Fettuccine. The Cowpenter is basically beef stew meat upon the pasta of your choice drizzled with olive oil for taste. There's no pasta sauce. It's mainly dry with only the olive oil as a coating for your pasta like an Aglio Olio. The plate is a plate where it slightly tips to one side on it's design which looks superb for presentation but upon finishing the pasta, you'll see a pool of oil right at the bottom. LOL. The Beef to me was nice. Fine and tender that breaks apart easily as it enters your mouth with minimal effort in chewing. As for my friend, he finds the beef lacks of salt to bring out the taste of the beef and hence it's a bit flat. To me, it's not lacking at all and it's fine. The Fettuccine may be okay on it's oil coating for taste but once I get to the bottom, due to it being concentrated right at the bottom, it's a little too much to handle when you reach there. It's mentioned in the menu that this dish contains red wine in it as well but I tasted none of it so the alcohol content is obscure, hidden away in the beef.

As for the coffee, during my time there, they were out of filter coffee and that's a little disappointing since I wanted to try out their filter coffee. But I would say their latte is not bad. Above average. The ratio was okay but the milk is not one that is strong yet it's creamy enough to give you a smooth taste. The coffee was very strong in it's caffeine taste. Somehow it's not something that I'm acclimated to but still it's good enough for me.

For the grand finale, I went with the Gramps Apple Pie which contains Gula Melaka crust. Big mistake. The crust was so hard that I almost always tip the top contents over in an effort to break the crust. I don't think any gramps would be able to bite through such a hard crust. LOL. Anyway, the taste of the pastry is okay, just that it's so hard to break! Even with a steel fork! The rest were just your typical Apple Pie ingredient which is a nice scoop of ice cream on top and apple bits as the fillings. Nothing out of the ordinary that contains a unique wow factor to it. Just a nice pie.

As mentioned before, this place is huge which gives you a very free feeling. That adds to the great ambiance and with a very good amount of sunlight piercing through the roof, it brightens up the place effortlessly. I'm liking the environment a lot.

Total Wallet Damage:
All in all including my friends food and drinks as well, it all amounted to RM94. But to break it up with just my portion, The Cowpenters costs RM22 while The Beauty (Latte) costs RM10. The Gramps Apple Pie costs RM10. No service charge nor GST.

Final Verdict:
7/10. Environment lovely. Food not bad, coffee not bad too. The only problem is the apple pie being way too hard. It didn't even have that Gula Melaka taste on the crust at all.

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Restoran Hing Loong, Hicom Glenmarie Industrial Park, Glenmarie, Shah Alam, Selangor

Address:
No. 17, Jalan Juruaudit U1/37, Hicom Glenmarie Industrial Park, Glenmarie, Shah Alam, Selangor, 40150 Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Not really sure but I think should be 11am - 8pm on weekdays and 9am - 1pm on weekends (?)

Time Visited:
Around 12:30pm, Monday afternoon

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Roast Duck Rice and Chinese Tea Ice

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience.

Opposite from the Meng Kee Char Siew restaurant where many people sing praises on it's heavenly Char Siew and whatnot lies a lesser known stall but to me is a better restaurant called Restoran Hing Loong.

Over here, the family business are better known for their Roasted Duck where it's glistening skin hangs upon the makeshift stall that sits just outside of the restaurant for preparation. Make no mistake, that's the only stall in this restaurant. There's nothing else here unlike usual hawker stall so it's something like the Meng Kee Char Siew restaurant where it has it's own restaurant by itself. On this day, my colleague out of the blue invited me out for lunch just so I can ferry her around and that she also wanted to buy some baking flour as well. But as we were out on our way for food, we had changed our minds about four times before finally deciding upon Restaurant Hing Loong to have our lunch.

And so we sat right down and ordered what they're most famous for, their Roasted Duck Rice. To wash down all the grease and grime, we had the Chinese Tea Ice to wash down those oil. In this place, you can sit down first and a person will come and take your food order while the drink order will be separately done by someone else. The ambiance of the place is not much being just a normal kopitiam kind of restaurant but only thing is that there's only one stall.

It didn't take long for the order to be brought to us. Well, it shouldn't anyway. Because it's just make sure what was the order, chop up the correct meat and serve with the rice and gravy and soup. The amount of meat given for my meal was adequate and sufficient. In fact, it looks a little more than some places give out. The duck meat glistens and beckons me to bite into it as I salivate while taking a decent picture of it. The free soup was just a normal plain soup with not very thick taste but good enough. As I always like to do, I would drench my rice with some of the hot soup to make the rice maintain a warm temperature. As expected, the duck meat was nice and juicy. Most of the time, duck meat are tough and hard to get meat off the bone but this is not the case though a certain amount of effort is still required. The duck may not be better than Loong Foong Seafood Restaurant nor Sunrise but it does hold it's own to be a good duck meat to consume.

I find this place a better location to have rice than Meng Kee Char Siew because Meng Kee's portion is small and always leave me not really satisfied in eating and I'm a person who never order extra rice. On top of that Meng Kee Char Siew is pricey and is always full of people as oppose to Hing Loong where Hing Loong's price is just ordinary like any other rice stalls at your local kopitiams. Their spacing between tables are also good giving you ample amount of room although I must say there are times they may be filled with people as well. However, you're still assured with a lot of room at your seating place.

In addition to their duck meat, their roasted pork are also not bad though they're not the best around. Still, it's more than good. So if Meng Kee looks way too intimidating with it's always crowded atmosphere, this is a very good alternative place. Plus, there's nowhere else to get duck meat around here. Well, not that I know of.

Total Wallet Damage:
I can't really remember. If I'm not mistaken, it's RM6 for the Roasted Duck Rice and 50 sen (?) for the Chinese Tea Ice.

Final Verdict:
7/10. Give this place a try. It's quite good in my books.

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Monte Gelato Cafe, One Utama Shopping Centre (1U), Bandar Utama (BU), Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
SK 107, One Utama Shopping Centre (1U)
1 Lebuh Bandar Utama,
Bandar Utama (BU) 17800 Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor.

Opening Hours:
Sunday - Thursday 10:00am -10:00pm
Friday - Saturday   10:00am -10:30pm

Time Visited:
8pm, Saturday Evening

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Latte (Hot). That's all.

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience.

After a hearty meal with my buddy at Tonkatsu by Ma Maison, I was craving for some coffee and some desserts (yes, even though that satisfying Tonkatsu meal with refillable items, it still left me craving for something to eat). So then we headed to this place called Monte Gelato Cafe at one of the island area in the middle where it's not a proper shop outlet by itself. Noticing that the time was too near to the movie starting time, I decided to just consume some hot coffee without any dessert to try.

Monte Gelato Cafe features the Gelato Fruity Ice Cream and surprisingly, I do see some people visiting this place to eat their ice cream. Someday I may want to try their ice cream and see if it's nice. The place is very open being an island on it's own with no doors nor walls so any passerby will be able to see you as they go about their shopping business. This place is self service and so you'll have to do your ordering at the cashier counter which I did. I just placed an order for a latte since I don't have much time for dessert. After paying the amount, me and my buddy sat down at one of those lounge chairs. I waited for my order and it did took a while till it came over.

The latte wasn't that impressive. For starters, there's no coffee art. Just a blob which tells me that they actually attempted but fail miserably. Secondly, the glass is not really a latte glass so the ratio for milk to coffee will definitely to be not to my liking. It's one of those tall glasses where franchise coffee places like to serve and this cup very much resembles the one that is serve at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. When I took a sip of their latte, though there's large quantity of liquid in the cup, still the bitterness of the coffee was very very strong. The milk in it didn't even do anything to stop that at all and the coffee taste isn't something that I like nor was the milk. To tell you the truth, there were no comforting thought to this. There's no point about that drink that I like at all. The only thing that I like about this place in particular is the transparent glass table which looks classy and the fact that I adore people watching and so the openness of the area gives way to me being able to see everyone passing by.

I don't know. Perhaps they are just an outlet for dessert but based on that cup of coffee, it just doesn't work for me. I finish my cuppa when the time comes for us to depart of towards the cinema.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM10.90. There's 6% GST involved.

Final Verdict:
3/10. Bear in mind that this is based on the perception of a cup of coffee.

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Tonkatsu by Ma Maison, Eat Paradise, Isetan, One Utama Shopping Centre (1U), Bandar Utama (BU), Petaling Jaya (PJ)

Address:
Tonkatsu by Ma Maison @ Eat Paradise,
Level 2, Isetan, One Utama Shopping Centre (1U),
1, Lebuh Bandar Utama, Bandar Utama (BU)
Petaling Jaya (PJ), 47800 Selangor

Opening Hours:
Mon-Sun:
11:00 am - 9:30 pm

Time Visited:
6:45pm, Saturday night with my buddy

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Jumbo Rosu Katsu set and a Root Beer Float

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience.

Everytime I think back about Tonkatsu by Ma Maison, my heart flutters and I get all excited and happy about it. It's similar to being in love but with a milder effect with longing eyes and my mouth watering everytime I think about the tasty pork loins.

It started off with a plan to stay at home the whole day sleeping since my plans to watch Batman vs Superman were seemingly dashed when my friend told me that he's going back to our hometown for the celebration of Qing Ming (think of it as a Chinese All-Souls Day). But he told me in a very unconfirmed way that he'll tell me again whether that it's happening. The day came and I thought nothing about it and so I slept till way past noon and then I saw the message from my friend indicating to me that his plan was cancelled and asking whether I wanna watch Batman vs Superman. But since I slept past noon, we can't make it for the morning show anymore. I was suggesting to go on Sunday but it seems he already had plans with his family on Sunday and so suggested that we go that evening itself. And thus was born this day where we had dinner at Tonkatsu by Ma Maison.

Despite this place looking pack everytime I pass by, there's plenty of room that day and we chose a brightly lighted up place to sit at. There's instructions on the table that tells you how to enjoy your tonkatsu more and looking at the array of condiments to play with just makes me feel happy. My friend had reservations in ordering the Jumbo Rosu Katsu set because he said that he was full to the brim the last time he ordered but as for me, I just saw that the meat provided was a mere 250g and that made me question in my mind, isn't that equivalent to a steak? I felt that it was almost the same as a steak dish and so I ordered that anyway and enticed him to do the same. LOL. I then ordered a Root Beer Float to quench my thirst which had also enticed my friend to do the same. Haha. They first serve a ball radish as an appetizer where you can add in Tamari Dressing (which is basically soy sauce) to eat with. The radish ball is refreshing and tends to cleanse my palate incredibly.

What's great about the Tonkatsu Sets at Tonkatsu by Ma Maison is that it comes with refillable rice, cabbage and tonjiru (type of miso soup that's made with pork. Also known as Butajiru). It took quite a while of waiting for our meals to come but the funny thing was that they served to us one by one instead of both at once even though we ordered the same thing. That's rather unusual in my books but nonetheless a small forgivable and negligible thing to be concern about. The portion looks huge especially with that mountain of cabbage and the presentation was impressive. As for the condiments, I followed down to the tee by putting rock salt on all 3 compartments of the sauce dish and adding in the sweet sauce at the sweet section and the spicy one at the spicy section. As for the rice, I added in sesame seed to it to enhance some flavors into it. I sure love playing with all those condiments. LOL. What I always like to do is that I love taking the pork loin and dip firsthand on the spicy sauce, then on the sweet sauce and finally onto the rock salt. It greatly increases the taste of the pork loin by hundredfold! If you were to just dip it on one of the sauces, it does give out some good taste and probably enhance the taste a bit, but to me, I gotta dip it on all three. This really does elevate the tastiness to a whole new level. Yum! The cabbage is served along with a dollop of mustard at the side and I can tell you, their mustard is way spicy. I think it contains some wasabi because it gets to my nose.

Anyway, the pork loin meat is awesome with it's thick cutlets and juicy but a little bit oily pieces but all that increases many times when I combine the sauces. Haha. The rice was lovely and is something I can actually eat it on it's own. And the cabbage....well it's cabbage. Hehe. As for the Tonjiru, it's very tasty and since it's made with pork, it does have that much edgier taste compared to a normal miso soup. All in all, I just love, love, love their Tonkatsu meal.

Though this may not be my first time eating Tonkatsu by Ma Maison, it certainly added to my wonderful experience with them. I will continue to feel delighted everytime I hear the name from now on as I reminisce about their lovely pork cutlets and the wonderful time with my friend. :D

Total Wallet Damage:
Ahem. What can you expect from a place like this. It's bound to be expensive. 2 of our meals amount to a total of RM89.55. How 2 of the same order came up to a figure that's not divisible by 2 is really beyond me. But it looks like the culprit came from the 6% GST. There's a 10% service charge involved.

Final Verdict:
9.5/10. This is almost heaven to me. Perfect pork dish, loads of condiments to fiddle with, nice ambiance, attentive staff (I was wondering why they were serving my drink first and not along with my friend's since it's the same order and I look back over my shoulder and they knew what I was thinking and assured me 5 minutes) a decent price for that kind of food. Not to forget, many of their refillable items which makes it very worth it. Not only will I come back again, but I know I will definitely crave for it after awhile. After all, I love pork. :P

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Kedai Minuman dan Makanan Teluk Pulai (Pottery) Bak Kut Teh, Klang, Selangor

Address:
32, Jalan Batai Laut 5, Kawasan 16, Taman Intan, Klang, 41300 Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 7am - 3:30pm.

Time Visited:
About 12:30pm, Friday afternoon

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
What else? Bak Kut Teh! The dry and the soup claypot version with Chinese Crullers (Yau Char Kuay/ Youtiao) and lettuce and a pot of Chinese tea.

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience.

First of all, I apologize for the blurry pictures. I was pressured to hurry up since I had my colleagues with me that day and I got stressed.

Anyway, we initially thought of going to the Bak Kut Teh in Centro, Klang but after me asking what kind of Bak Kut Teh it was, the thought suddenly changed to deviate to this place called the Teluk Pulai Bak Kut Teh. It is rumored to be the ones who started Bak Kut Teh in a claypot and till this day still draws a very big crowd to it's restaurant.

My colleague told me that they just ordered the ordinary and that she just said that it's for 4 persons. That's it. What we were given were a claypot of Dry Bak Kut Teh meat, a soup Bak Kut Teh that consists of needle mushrooms, fishballs and of course, the pork meat. There's also a plate of Chinese Crullers and also a serving of Lettuce that has oyster sauce at the side and some dried shrimp also at one side. When we were there, it was packed to the brim but it's also easy to get a place because the turnover of customers is quite fast. Also, the serving of the dishes were also quite fast. When my colleagues went to reserve a table while I park my car, by the time I met up with them, some of the dishes were already on the table. As for the tea, they serve in a small teapot and an even smaller serving pot along with 2 tiny teacups per person. If you wanna add hot water to the teapot, there's a kettle by a stove that you can help yourself for faster service. LOL.

The place was quite hot being a very hot day plus we're very near the stove that's heating the water in a kettle not to mention the many Bak Kut Teh dishes that were served all around which contributed to the heat. I especially love the Dry Bak Kut Teh. The meat was tender and nice but the sauce is what makes it so tasty. Whereas for the soup version, it's also nice but I feel to me it's not as nice as the Dry Bak Kut Teh mainly because there's no gravy to elevate the taste. The soup was full of the herbal taste but also makes me feel very thirsty and irritates my throat a bit which I had to wash it down occasionally with the hot tea. The meat in the soup version was also very tender and soft and nice to consume. It separates easily from the bones effortlessly making it a pleasure to eat.

We didn't stay long there since it's so hot. But to me, I like this Dry Bak Kut Teh the most. Come to think of it, I've not eaten many dry Bak Kut Teh in my life. Most of it is the soup version with their different type of soups. For the soup ones, I feel that I like the Pao Xiang's version of soup the most.

Total Wallet Damage:
If I'm not mistaken, the amount total up to RM87.80. Ya, something like that.

Final Verdict:
8/10. This leaves me craving for more and makes me feel inspired to try other Bak Kut Teh shop to see if others are better than their Dry Bak Kut Teh.

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BMS Organics Vegetarian Cafe, Mid Valley Megamall, Mid Valley City, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
T-013B, Level 3, Mid Valley Megamall, Lingkaran Syed Putra, Mid Valley City, 58200 Kuala Lumpur.

Opening Hours:
Daily, 10am - 10pm

Time Visited:
7:30pm, Wednesday Evening

Attire worn:
Business attire

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Pumpkin with Nori Flakes Fried Rice and Premium Arabica Black Coffee

Seeing that I needed to be there at Mid Valley Megamall for a movie that night, I decided to take my dinner there as well. As Mid Valley Megamall is teeming with food outlets along with The Gardens Mall just on the other side interconnected, I had a smorgasbord of choice when it comes to food but as usual, shopping centers rarely offer me a specifically enticing place to dine as they're usually filled with franchise outlets that's available in plenty of other places. I finally settled for something healthy and organic at the BMS Organics Vegetarian Cafe at Mid Valley Megamall.

Due to it partly being a store that sells organic materials, the cafe part takes up only half of the entire place. Most of the tables are catered more for 4 people but there are quite a number that's for 2 people and so I finally settled for a table that's on the outside of the shop overlooking the walkway a Mid Valley Megamall's level 3 corridors. There's still place for the indoor but I preferred the outdoor because the indoor section looks a bit cramp when it came to the 2 people seatings.

I was given an order chit and a pencil to write down my orders along with a menu that has a vast amount of things to eat and drink. It's like a library or a dictionary. LOL. I finally decided to have the Pumpkin with Nori Flakes Fried Rice and decided to order......Coffee! There's call bells available on every table so all you need to do to grab their attention is to press the button and they will attend to you shortly.

They started off with serving a set of pills and a mysterious liquid which I know from it's color that it's not the coffee I ordered. LOL. I then proceeded to ask what are those pills that they had laid out upon me? But from the sip that I took from the mysterious drink, I know instantly also from it's smell that it's a ginger tea of some sort. They told me the pills were Spirulina. Ooooh. That's the first time I ever had a restaurant serving me pills to eat. XD

At a fair waiting amount of time, the coffee arrived and also the fried rice. The coffee was served with sugar syrup which is a nice touch. I've never had sugar syrup served with hot coffee before in my life but usually got it from cold coffee due to the difficulty of sugar to be dissolved in a cold drink. Hence, eateries usually serve those with cold drinks so that it mixes in since both are liquid and syrup doesn't need dissolving. The coffee has a somewhat caffeine aromatic taste that although doesn't really go well that much with the syrup, it does do it's job in sweetening up an otherwise inert coffee.

As for the fried rice, it was pleasant to look at from it's presentation. It was served with a small dish of potatoes covered in carrot strips and some greens. As for the Nori flakes, it has the unusual flair of serving along with some poppadom on top of it. The poppadom was nice in taste and crispy but it's crispiness quickly faded away being in an all air-conditioned mall. This seems to be the case with these small poppadoms which I wonder why that's the case. Being organic, the taste of the fried rice were more lacking in it's taste but to tell you the truth, it's still quite tasty. It seems to me like it's a grower. The more you eat it, the more tastier it felt to me. This has never happened before in my life but this seems to be the case for me with regards to this dish. I mean, I have changed my opinion on certain ingredients before with me not liking a certain type of food when I was little but now quite like it but never in my life had I experience something so quick in it's changes. So in conclusion, the fried rice is quite tasty for me.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM25.80. RM17.90 for the fried rice and RM7.90 for the coffee. These are inclusive of 6% GST.

Final Verdict:
I'm gonna give it a 7/10. I'm won over by this BMS organic shop. Though it may not be my favorite organic restaurant (my favorite of all time being Medifoods at SJMC), I'm giving it a rating on par to them simply because this is purely vegetarian while Medifoods serve meat and they've done enough to impress me with their food.
Note: I'm not sure if this is vegan material but I think they are. Didn't see any ingredient that has to do with animal products. 

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Delectable by Su @ Glasshouse at Seputeh, Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
17, Lorong Syed Putra Kiri, Level 2, Glasshouse at Seputeh, Seputeh 50460 Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia 

Opening Hours:
Weekdays 10am-6pm
Fri, Sat, Suns 10am-11pm

Time Visited:
2pm, Wednesday afternoon.

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Guilt-free Sundae, Apple Crumble and hot Latte

The day came that I took half day in order to attend an event at this lovely looking place called Glasshouse at Seputeh. The place just exudes tranquility and calmness with the much greenery around and the lack of traffic coming in this road; it's simply a marvelous venue to just destress for a while. I arrived an hour earlier before the stipulated time of the event particularly to try out this place called Delectable by Su. Who's Su? Well I gather it must be the owner. LOL.

So there I was scouting upon their hard one piece menu and I was thinking about trying out the Terrarium. But unfortunately, the smallest size seemed to cater merely for 3-4 persons and I'm only a lone diner. :( So I asked for their suggestion on what's the next best seller items in terms of dessert and the Filipino manning the cashier to take my order tells me that it's the Apple Crumble and the Guilt Free Sundae. Out of pure overambition, I decided to order both to satiate my cravings to try new things. To drink I ordered the Latte as my usual type of coffee.

It didn't take long for my orders to arrive but then again, it's easy to get lost and distracted by the lush greenery surroundings outside and the occasional curiousity on my part as to why some people started to drive down this road. I soon started digging in the desserts that were put in front of me for easy access.

I first started off with the Apple Crumble. Warm and tangy granny smith apple covered in a crisp and buttery oat topping. Dotted with Raisins and served with 2 scoops of strawberry ice cream, that's what the description read. Although the name may contain the word apple in it and it's supposed to be filled with some Granny Smith apple, I somehow missed on tasting the apples entirely. But what I did get were very sweet strips of what seemed to look more like apple skins? Of course they may have peeled the apples instead of putting it as small pieces. The apple crumble over at Delectable by Su is basically a bowl of healthy loose ingredients rather than being a pie. Sorely disappointed in this due to it's way too sweet taste that dulled my tongue when I proceeded to try the Sundae. It totally ruined the Apple Crumble image for me that I so delighted when I tasted one of the best of all at Broadbean Cafe at Aman Suria.

So onwards with the Guilt-Free Sundae. The description reads: Bountiful scoops of our freshly churned berry ice cream, strawberry preserve, fresh fruit, chia seed and sugar free agar. A light and refreshing option for the sugar cautious. There were 3 scoops of ice cream on it and it was the same ice cream that's on the Apple Crumble. Meaning to say, on that day, I had a whopping 5 scoops of ice cream altogether. LOL. The Guilt-Free Sundae though was quite the opposite of what the Apple Crumble was. Whilst the Apple Crumble has a very overpowering sweetness to it particularly on it's apple strips, the Guilt-Free Sundae was the extreme end of the spectrum in contrast. It lacked sweetness and barely had any strong taste in it. It could also very well may be that it's because my tongue was well shot away by the Apple Crumble sweetness and all I taste from this Guilt-Free Sundae was a lack of any taste but merely the difference in texture in it's also many loose ingredients that's supposedly healthy. Although these 2 desserts weren't up to my expectation, I finished the whole lot of it.

As for the Latte, that too also wasn't one that I adore. It's way to forceful in it's caffeine taste covered with bitterness. The milk could do nothing to mellow off the strong coffee taste and the only comfort that I could get out of this meal was the nice butter nutty cookie that's given accompanying the latte. That cookie was the nicest thing among all that I had over at Delectable by Su. A nice sesame seed taste enveloping the cookie and complementing the buttery goodness and also a nuts taste to give off a woody effect that works very well with this unique biscuit.

Soon the time came for me to attend the event downstairs and I headed off. One thing I would give them props though is their courteous Filipino staff in making the effort to greet me and await my order as I browse through the menu. That deserves a mention.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM43. RM18 for the Sundae, RM15 for the Apple Crumble and RM10 for the latte. There's 6% GST involved.

Final Verdict:
5.5/10. I may not like their desserts and coffee but I can't deny the peacefulness and tranquility this place brings. I may return once again with a friend to try out their Terrarium dessert. >.<

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Char Kuey Teow (Duck Egg) at Restoran New Apollos, USJ 4, Subang Jaya, Selangor

Address:
Jalan USJ 4/6b, Usj 4, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Not sure but I suppose daily around 8am - 9pm(?)

Time Visited:
1pm. Wednesday afternoon where I'm half day.

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Char Kuey Teow. For drinks, Chinese Tea Ice.

It was some time back where my colleague decided to guide me over here to try out some of the food. She likes the Ngau Yuk Hor (Fried beef hor fun (flat noodles) with gravy) here and I've tried it too and find that it is not too bad just that the pricing isn't right for me. But when I ordered this particular Char Kuey Teow, I quite like it's taste. It may not be the best but it suited to my taste buds.

First off, let me preface by saying that their drinks are awfully expensive. The Chinese Tea Ice surmount to 70 sen which is the second kopitiam restaurant that I know of that charges that high with Sun Hin Loong, SS2 being the other one. However, on that day, I've forgotten about their high price on their drinks and accidentally ordered the Chinese Tea Ice. For a high price like this, I would usually avoid ordering at all. But the funny thing about their Chinese Tea here is that it gives of a fragrant taste that's quite unique to this place. It tasted some hints of barley in it. The first time that I ordered it, I thought that they never cleaned their cup properly but it seems to be that way each and everytime I come here to drink Chinese Tea Ice. That small amount of barley taste is consistently there without fail everytime. And so I conclude they must've added an extra ingredient to their Chinese Tea Ice. My colleague agrees with me and do taste that same strange taste in the Chinese Tea Ice everytime.

So back to the Char Kuey Teow. Usually when I'm there, there's not many people ordering yet because I tend to be early but on this day, I was particularly later than usual due to me being half day off and so I could take my time coming here. On this day, not only there were quite a number of orders for his food (which didn't deter much on the waiting time) but somehow there's an old lady serving the food which on this particular day it's my first time seeing. Usually, he just do the serving. But due to the lady not knowing who ordered and who came first, she took my plate of noodles on a journey around the restaurant before it finally landed on my table. Despite that, it's still quite warm in the temperature department. Just that on this day, the Char Kuey Teow just didn't seem to be on par of how it used to be. It's consistency in taste throughout the whole dish was lacking. No doubt the same brilliance in the taste permeates through at certain areas but on this day it just doesn't seem that way throughout the entire dish. There's pockets of the noodles which lacks in it's taste and places that just didn't seem as nice as it's supposed too. What's more is it's Cockles were rubbery and lap cheong were lacking. But overall, it's still good enough for it's RM6 price. I'd still go back to order it. I just hope he would upkeep the consistency the next time around.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM6.70. Cheap eats at Subang Jaya...........not! RM6 for the Char Kuey Teow is decent but 70 sen for a Chinese Tea Ice? That's daylight robbery!

Final Verdict:
5/10. Well, I'm just here for the Char Kuey Teow most of the time and my colleague is just here for the Ngau Yuk Hor.

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