Sunday 25 February 2018

Restoran Xfrens, Kemuning Utama

Date visited : 24 February 2018

It's Chinese New Year again and it also means feasting time! For some, the feasting starts 15 days before Chinese New Year and continues till Chap Goh Mei, the 15th day Chinese New Year which is also the last day of the celebration.

This year, we decided to have our annual school friends CNY dinner get together at this place, Restoran Xfrens, Kemuning Utama. When I was searching for the location in Waze only did I realize that they also have branches in Subang Jaya and Puchong Jaya (I'll share the addresses at the end of this post).


I arrived at 7pm and the place was already packed. Thank God my friend was wise enough to call and made reservations for 2 tables the day before, otherwise, we would have been one of those standing around waiting for tables to be available. So, if you're planning to come on a weekend with a big group, it is advisable to make reservations prior to your visit.

At first we thought of ordering a CNY set that starts from RM688, but because the ala carte dishes on their menu seems more interesting, we decided to each choose a dish from their ala carte menu instead.

Since it was CNY, Yee Sang was definitely a must, so we ordered the Yee Sang with octopus.


The Yee Sang was very tasty. There was a good balance between the sweet and the sour. Since there was a lot of unfavourable noise about salmon, the octopus was a rather good replacement.

Let's start with the vegetable dishes first.


This is the Stir Fried Potato Leaf with belacan. It is not very spicy and not too overwhelmed with the taste of belacan.


This is the Stir Fried Lotus Root with Waterchesnut. The combination of vegetables in this dish was quite tasty. The thing I appreciated most was they actually removed the "string" from the snow peas which many restaurants failed to do.


This is one of my favourite dish in the beancurd category, Beancurd with Pumpkin Gravy. I like the way they prepared this dish because it has that creamy buttery taste with a hint of spiciness from the bird's eye chili (cili padi) and fragrant smell from the curry leaves.

Now let's proceed with the meat dishes...


This is the Claypot Kampung Chicken with Chinese Wine. Maybe because of a bad first experience, I usually try avoiding this dish... even if it was cooked by my mom. I didn't want to be picky about food in front of my friends, so I decided to give it a go. To my own surprise, it was good! 


This is the Pork with Salted Fish in Claypot. It is also nice because the meat is not too fat and on overall, it's not too salty.


We also ordered another pork dish called the Pork Ribs in 3 Flavours. It is savoury, sweet, spicy and a fragrant taste of curry all at the same time.


And the last dish is my all time favourite, Salted Egg Mantis Prawns. It is crispy and well covered with salted egg. Yummy!

I highly recommend this place if you're looking for a decent place for a Chinese style dinner with your family or friends. Also, it won't burn a big hole in your pocket at the end of the meal.

OUR RATING
Ambience : 3.5/5 
Service : 3.5/5
Food Quality : 4/5
Price Range : $$
Status : Non-Halal

Other information:
Shah Alam Branch :
Address : No.10 & 12 Jalan Kemuning Prima E33/E Kemuning Utama, 40400 Shah Alam
Contact No. : 03-5131 9279
Business Hours : 11am - 3pm / 5.30pm - 10.30pm (Closed on Wednesdays) 
Transaction : Credit cash & Cash

Subang Jaya Branch :
Address : No 51, Jalan SS 18/1B, SS 18, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor
Contact No. : 03-5611 0488
Business Hours : 10.30am - 3pm / 5.30pm - 10.30pm (Only 10.30am - 3pm on Wednesdays) 
Transaction : Credit cash & Cash

Puchong Branch :
Address : No 7 & 9, Jalan Kenari 18B, Bandar Puchong Jaya, 47100 Puchong, Selangor
Contact No. : 03-8080 7800
Business Hours : 11am - 3pm / 6pm - 10pm (Daily) 
Transaction : Credit cash & Cash

Monday 12 February 2018

Doma, Mont Kiara

Date visited : 28 January 2018

It was one of those days where we couldn't decide on what to eat and I decided to try out a new place recommended to me.


I passed by this area so many times and I didn't even realize this place being here. 

Doma is a modern Korean restaurant that serves Korean food with a twist and some Western food with a Korean twist.

Pineapple Juice
Sikhye
This my favourite Korean drink... sikhye. Sikhye is a traditional sweet Korean rice drink. This is the best one so far served in a can.

Korean food is never complete without banchan. So even though it is a modern restaurant, banchan is definitely a must.


Everything looked interesting in the menu and since there were 4 of us, we each chose a dish.


This is the Spicy Pork Slice Rice with cabbage, carrot, paprika and chili sauce. It is very tasty and it is served with a very generous portion of spicy pork slices.


This is the Crab Meat Fried Rice. It looks rather pretty when served because the tuna flakes spread all over the fried rice seems to be dancing gracefully.


Next is the Spicy Chicken Rice. This is somewhat similar to the Spicy Pork Slice Rice just with a different meat.


This is one dish that I don't always see in a menu of the usual Korean restaurant...Wok Fried Baby Octopus Rice. It is interestingly delicious.

Now the main reason of our visit here is because of their signature dish, their fried chicken called Doma's KFC.


It comes in 4 flavours, original, honey soy, hot spicy and sweet chili. We ordered the sweet chili flavour because it came highly recommended by the staff.


It was crispy on the outside but still juicy and tender on the inside. The white cube pieces you see in the center are actually pickled radish.

We also ordered 3 items from the Korean BBQ selection...

Fresh Pork Belly
Gochujang Marinade Pork Belly & Spicy Baby Octopus
Maybe because we requested for them to be barbecued for us, when it was served, it has cooled down a little. So this was a bit of a let down for me as it did not taste as good as it looked.

By the time we finished all our food, I was so full that I thought my stomach would explode anytime. It was disappointing though because I have no space left in my stomach to try their bingsu. Their bingsu looked awesome on their menu.

I guess the bingsu will have to wait for me to come back next time.

OUR RATING
Ambience : 4/5 
Service : 4/5
Food Quality : 3.5/5
Price Range : $$
Status : Non-Halal

Other information:
Address : Unit No. 15-0-1E, Ground Floor New Wing @ Mont Kiara Shoplex, Jalan Kiara, Mont Kiara
Contact No. : 012-490 7928
Business Hours : 10am - 12am (Sunday-Thursday) / 10am - 12am (Friday-Saturday) 
Transaction : Credit cash & Cash

Saturday 10 February 2018

Restoran Tian Tian Seafood, Sunway

If you are looking for a place to have a simple Chinese dinner with your family and friends, this would be the right place for you.

This can be considered a hidden gem as it is not located at the busy parts of Sunway and it is known mainly to the locals and people working in Sunway. I too did not know about this place until a friend who works in Sunway brought me here. I would have never wander to this part of Sunway on my own.


By day, it's just an ordinary neighbourhood food court. But in the evening, after the other food stalls closes, Restoran Tian Tian Seafood opens and dominates this place.



They have quite a variety of dishes to choose from and I have yet to try most of the items on their menu.

Let me show you some of the dishes I have tried so far...


This is the Salted Egg Squid. This is one of my favourite dish here.


Their Sweet & Sour Pork are quite delicious too.


This is their version of the Butter Milk Mantis Prawn. It may have been better if it was prepared differently because I find this a bit dry and the taste of the butter milk is not distinct enough.


I quite like the Steam Eggs served here. The texture is very soft and smooth. There are bits of century eggs, fried shallots and spring onions added into it too.

Stir Fried Kai Lan
Siong Tong Yuen Choy (Chinese Spinach Soup)
In summary, this place serves good food that will not burn a hole in your pocket. So if you happen to try out this place, let me know if you've discovered any other dishes that you may like.


OUR RATING
Ambience : 2.5/5
Service : 4/5
Food Quality : 3.5/5
Price Range : $
Status : Non-Halal

Other information:
Address : Selera Sunway Food Court, Jalan PJS 9/5, Bandar Sunway, 46150 Subang Jaya, Selangor
Contact No. : 016-283 3495
Business Hours : 6pm - 10pm  (Closed on Wednesdays)
Transaction : Cash only