Wha Ga (火家), Empire Damansara, Damansara Perdana, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Address:
Lot F05, Heritage Lane, Empire Damansara, Jalan PJU 8/8, Damansara Perdana, 47820 Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Unsure. I think should be the same as San Nae Deul which is Daily 11am - 10pm. It seems that Wha Ga is a spin off of San Nae Deul which is located at all places where there's San Nae Deul? I think.

Time Visited:
About 11:15am. Saturday, Christmas Eve.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Sutbul Ganjang-dakgalbi set (숯불 간장 닭 갈비 세트)

Wanting to try Bungkus at Empire Damansara, I headed off there thinking it was still open. But when I got there, it has been totally replaced with a Korean restaurant alled Wha Ga. Wha Ga if I'm not mistaken is from the same family of San Nae Deul restaurant. This place serves more of individual dishes perfect for the party of one like me. I wonder why they decided to open up here since this place has very little foot traffic especially in the first floor.

I was curious what they serve there and so I browse the menu. The waiters there saw me and quickly attend to me and explain to me the menu. I soon was enticed and decided to go for their lunch set. Mind you this place is actually pork free. Over at the kitchen, a Korean head chef leads the kitchen team. The rest are all Bangladeshis, I think. But since there's no customers at all, it's really nothing to do at all but sit around and wait. It's a no brainer. Didn't take them long till my food comes.

The Apple Juice that I ordered which comes with the set is actually poured out from a large container. Generally, it's just store bought packed juice and not freshly made. As for the Charcoal Soy Sauce stir fried chicken, it didn't taste bad. In fact, it was quite okay. The lunch set comes with 4 side dishes that are refillable and a seaweed soup. The four side dishes that day was kimchi (which was quite nice and spicy), the second one I can't really remember but I think it's squash with some french beans, 3rd one is pickled cucumber and radish and the peanuts and anchovies along with egg with a little bit of sausage in it and a croquet of sort. Overall, not bad. Not much comment because I rarely eat Korean food. Hahaha. But this meal was acceptable to me and to me it tasted quite well.

Wha Ga has 5 outlets currently including this one and this one only receives cash. There's one in Oasis Square, one in Sunway Mentari, one in Sri Petaling and one in Solaris Mont Kiara.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM15.75. 6% GST inclusive and there's this weird 5% service charge. Haha

Final Verdict:
6/10. Not bad. This Korean food, I can accept and eat happily. The only thing I'm thinking is why do they decided to open in Empire Damansara 1st floor? It's a place that's hard to sustain.

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Doma Korean Restaurant, Mont Kiara Shoplex, Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Address:
21, New Wing @ Mont Kiara Shoplex, Jalan Kiara, Mont Kiara, 50480 Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Opening Hours:
 Daily, 11am-12am

Time Visited:
Sunday afternoon, 3:30pm, when it started to get hot with the sun finally coming out.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Iced Latte and Bacon & Egg Burger

As I stopped for break from work for awhile, I went over to Doma at Mont Kiara. Haven't not eaten anything at all for the day, this was my first meal of the day though it's at around 3:30pm in the afternoon. LOL.

Hence explains the bacon and egg burger choice because I craved for some bacon and eggs which is always my choice for breakfast. Though this place may not be a self service cafe, I helped myself to everything because I was impatient of waiting for them and the only guy that's supposed to attend to customers seems to be busy with something behind the cashier. But he did greet me welcome as I entered the vicinity. I helped myself to a menu at the cashier there and took it to my seat nearby to browse through. After making my choice, I stepped over again at the cashier area to make my order.

It didn't take long for my drink and food to arrived. I'd say probably in less than 5 minutes! It's really a wonder how they churned out that burger in such a speedy time. But I have no complains. Though the latte wasn't to my fancy due to a still yet very bitter taste that lingers on the latte and the milk never really penetrated through to mix with the other players in the drink and seems to be as a standalone.

The burger though small was done in good taste although RM17 for that burger would leave me feeling the price to be a little steep for such a small burger. Anyway, it tasted good. After all, bacon and eggs can hardly go wrong. LOL. As for the fries, it was done very well. It was crispy throughout my entire meal even though I've finished with my burger. The fries still remain as crispy and was a delight to munch on. I guess their specialty is frying since I've heard they're great in their Korean Fried Chicken as well which I didn't try. LOL. Anyway, though the seasoning of the fries were inconsistent, it's forgivable with such a lovely crisp texture on the fries that stayed on for such a long period and never got soggy. Simply delightful.

As for the ambiance, it was really a place that seems to be hidden within nature though it's just next to the main road. The many greeneries around had made a blockade of barricade from it so it really is like a fusion of jungle meets city. As for the Korean part, well, I'm not sure what elements of Korean that it has since I saw none at all apart from the Korean that's playing in the background. I think maybe the owner is Korean since I saw a Korean like guy sitting at a corner which is the boss of the place. Yeah. I guess that might be it. LOL.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM28.60. 6% GST inclusive.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Not a bad place. Perhaps may garner another revisit from me again since I frequent this area. Other than that, I won't go out of the way just to go back again.

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Beans N Beans Korean Cafe, Citta Mall, Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
Lot G-20, Ground Floor, Citta Mall, No. 1, Jalan PJU 1A/48, Pusat Perdagangan Dana 1, Ara Damansara 47301 Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Opening Hours:
Daily, 10am - 12am

Time Visited:
7pm. Thursday night after dinner

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Cafe Latte and a Cheesecake

After having my dinner here at Citta Mall, I've been drawn to try out this Beans N Beans Korean cafe.

Been putting off for trying here for so long. Each and every time I hear myself saying the next time around, the next time around but never really got to it. Finally today, I decided by hook or by crook, I'll try it even if I'm gonna fill myself up with dinner first.

The place has a warm ambiance with bright lighting where you can spot from afar. It is by far probably the brightest outlet in the row that it's in. Being a typical proclaimed Korean Cafe, it has to sell Bingsu. But I wasn't there for Bingsu that day. I was on my mission to try their cheesecake which I had consistently tried pairing it with a Latte/Flat White on 2 other cafes.

Being there on a dinnertime, the few people that were there were just leaving for their dinner as I entered the cafe. I wasn't noticed by the person behind the counter where he was busy cleaning the coffee machine but immediately greeted me warmly when he noticed my presence. Since it was nearing Christmas, the cheesecake had a Merry Christmas sign stuck on top of it.

Beans N Beans cafe is a self service cafe where you're given a call bell that will light up and vibrate when your order is ready. It took quite a while until I managed to receive my order and that was when I noticed that it's because that he's been preparing 2 other orders alongside mine concurrently. So that means, I got my order the fastest among the 3 since I ordered last. That's damn long.

The cheesecake was nice and tasted typical. There's nothing fancy nor out of the ordinary in taste just that appearance-wise, there's a Merry Christmas sign on it. It's nice and soft though. Tastes above average and costs RM9.50. The only problem with it is that it's small in size. But being packed with cream cheese, it's much more filling than those cakes that are fluffy and airy.

The latte wasn't to my liking. It's the bitter type where the milk is unable to hide the powerful punch. It also contains way too much foam and is like a cappuccino.

The place is comfortable enough for me to chill and unwind and has quite ample amount of power outlets to charge your phone or plug your laptops and work long there.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM20.95. RM10.30 for the Latte and RM9.50 for the cheesecake. There's 6% GST imposed but no service charge. After all, it is self service.

Final Verdict:
5.5/10. I never do understand the difference in Korean cafes. To me, it's just normal cafes that serve Bingsu. But if it's coffee I'm after, I prefer the ones at Caffe Bene if I were to compare among Korean cafes. This one just don't impress me much. One day, I just gotta go try Bingsu even though it's not really my thing.

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Dal Komm Coffee, SS21, Damansara Utama (DU) aka Uptown, Petaling Jaya (PJ)

Address:
No 61G & 61M, Jalan SS21/37, Damansara Utama (Uptown), 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Opening Hours:
Mon-Thur: 9am-12am
Fri: 9am-1am
Sat: 10pm-1am
Sun: 10pm-11pm

Time Visited:
4:08pm. Friday evening where it's a Public Holiday for Selangor.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Flossy Chicken Cruffin and Aloe Vera Latte

The previous night, I went to a party and got dehydrated due to me only managing 2 glasses of water for about 5 hours and the 3 glasses of beer that I have aggravated the situation since it's not really a hydrating agent but instead does the opposite. So I woke up today with a slight hangover. A friend text me and surprisingly I saw the message in just two minutes apart despite my phone on silent and was thinking of popping back to bed. The friend said wanted to hang out or something, I can't remember the actual words and I asked what time. But then she mentioned what was I planning instead and all I said was I'm just planning to nurse this headache I have. So I popped a Panadol and managed to numb the pain up. But unfortunately, she never got back to me as to when we were going on and after seeing a post on Instagram, I'm convinced she's already out with someone and didn't wanna be bothered and so I went back to bed.

But due to the morning tea I had in the morning and the Panadol in numbing my pain, I wasn't able to get back to sleep anymore and so decided to blog about Hecha Mecha that I had for dinner the night before. After duly done and relaxing a while at home, I decided to head out on my own anyway and decided upon Dal Komm at Uptown. It was raining really heavily when I started my journey. Unfortunately, there was a big splash of water that accidentally entered into my car and drenched my phone. Didn't think much about it and reached my destination in around 15 minutes time.

Dal Komm is a place where it's self service. There's an upstairs sitting area as well. It seems to me that it is a Korean type of cafe that serves Bingsu as well. They also have live performance from time to time and has already 5 outlets altogether including this Uptown outlet. The menu is all up for display on the board. So I decided to try their Flossy Chicken Cruffin and their Aloe Vera Latte.

It took a while but eventually the Aloe Vera Latte came first before the Cruffin and it was dispense to me before it with me still holding on to the calling device when your orders ready.

The Aloe Vera Latte taste quite pleasant and very milky. It has the right amount of sweetness and is very smooth due to the milk. But as I reach to the bottom of the mug, it was clear that all the aloe vera syrup was concentrated at the bottom and so it's undrinkable at the bottom due to the overly sweetness.

The Cruffin came in quite pretty in it's presentation. The cruffin is essentially a cross between a croissant and a muffin. So it's crispy and flaky at the outer layer but it's big enough to shape like a muffin. In fact, it's even bigger than a muffin even. For the Flossy Chicken, no surprise it's lavished with a very generous amount of Chicken floss on top. In addition to that, there's also a cooked egg at the center where below that and the chicken floss lies bbq sauce in between those and the pastry itself. The combination although may sound weird but it's quite nice to consume. Dal Komm Uptown is quite a relaxing and pleasant place to chill especially in these rainy weather.

Speaking of the rainy weather, I wanted to take pictures of the items I ordered with my phone but unfortunately, the deluge that was brought upon my phone has misted up my phone camera so badly, I couldn't take a decent picture. And so I only managed to take it using the front camera with that one photo above.

Later on in the day, I managed to take out the lens itself and started cleaning it. It looks okay for the moment and I hope it stays that way. Else, it's gonna take a while till I'm able to resume my Instagram and blog post since I may need to get a new phone or get a camera to snap my pictures. LOL.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM28.80. RM15.90 for the Cruffin and RM12.90 for the Latte. A bit pricey on their items.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Nothing special to me that brings it further to the top. Though the things that they produce is unique on it's own and it taste good, yet I still feel that they're a bit lacking in something. The price is a little more expensive than usual cafes.

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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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