Skive, Bangsar

Date visited : 13 April 2018

Let me introduce you to the new kid on the Bangsar block... they are called Skive.

If you're wondering where exactly in Bangsar, it's located right opposite Bangsar Village II,beside Nirwana, at the same spot where Tous Le Jours was previously. They just had their soft launch on 10 April 2018.

I was there for lunch with my colleagues because we were so tempted with their mouth-watering food photos shown on their FB page.

From the time I stepped into the restaurant, I was greeted with one of my favourite sights... freshly baked bread and pastries!

As I was walking further in to get a table, I can't help but to feast my eyes on their beautiful cakes on display.

Once we were seated, we focused on more serious matters... what to order for lunch!

While we were busy deciding what to order, we were recommended these old school drinks...

These are called Long Chan's soda. We were told that these were way before Fanta drinks showed up... maybe during my parent's younger days. It's not very gassy and it tastes really good.

I also ordered the Pink Basil Lemonade. It's very refreshing and would be a great choice for a hot day.

Now let's get on with the food.

My colleague fell in love with the photo of this dish even before we came here...

The Big Mexican Breakfast. Their shakshouka consists of beans, capsicums, mushrooms, 3 eggs, potatoes, cherry tomatoes and a chicken chorizo sausage served with salad and a croissant. When the croissant is eaten together with the shakshouka, it tastes amazing! If you are an egg lover like my colleague, you would definitely love this dish.

This dish is called the Lamb Mysore Soldiers. The lamb is so soft and tender. Don't get intimidated by the sight of it because it's not spicy as you might thought it would be. I even thought it would be great if eaten with tosai or even chapati.

Next is the Sourdough Tacos - BBQ Thai Chicken. This would be a great choice if you're looking for a lighter dish.

This is also one of their recommended dishes, the Jerk Cured Salmon served on a german black sourdough, avocado swirls and mango salsa. The ingredients complimented each other so well that every bite is a wonderful surprise of flavours.

I was contemplating for so long whether I should order this dish because the photo of this dish spoke to me the most but because of its price, I hesitated. But for the love of good food, I finally decided to order it... the Lychee Duck Curry.

It is served with cous cous, grilled aubergine and grilled sweet corn. The duck meat is so soft and tasty. Eaten together with the curry and cous cous, it tastes amazing! I have no regrets about ordering this dish.

Last but not least, our dessert...

We shared a slice of freshly baked Lemon Chia Seed Cake and a Almond Suji cupcake. When I took a bite of the Lemon Chia Seed Cake... it was OH MY GOD!! It tastes SO GOOD that I almost died. The Almond Suji cupcake was good too.

I wish I had more space in my stomach for their own made ice-cream but thanks to their friendly staff, we were able to sample a few of them. I tried 3 flavours, the Soybean, Ginger and Caramelised Yew Tiao, the White Chocolate and Salted Pecans and the Durian Avacado.

The Soybean, Ginger and Caramelised Yew Tiao was like an ice-cream version of soya bean curd with Chinese oil stick. The White Chocolate and Salted Pecans was the first white chocolate ice-cream that I've tasted and the salted pecans complimented it so well. And finally the Durian Avacado. I usually don't eat durian in any other form other than the fruit itself. But this ice-cream made me felt like I was eating the fruit itself.

This was the most awesome lunch I've had on a weekday and I had to come back for more on a weekend.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 4/5 

Service : 4.5/5

Food Quality : 4.5/5

Price Range : $$
Status : Pork Free

Other information:
Address : Shop 1 Ground Floor, Telawi Square, No 41 Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur.
Business Hours : 9am - 9pm (Monday-Friday) / 7am - 9pm (Saturday & Sunday)
Transaction : Cash (for now coz the Credit Card facility is not ready)
Links : https://www.facebook.com/Skive-Bangsar-1901029370152369/

Banh Mi Cafe, Bandar Puteri Puchong

Date visited : 8 April 2018

This place has been in my neighbourhood for a long time now. I was googling for good food in Puchong some time back and this place came up. I drove there just to have a look but when I got there, I changed my mind. So at that time I left it as that.

Recently this place came highly recommended on FB and my sister even shared it to me. So since I was nearby on a Sunday afternoon, I thought it was time for me to give it a try.

By the time I got here, it was packed with locals, mainly families, as well as Vietnamese. Once I step into the restaurant, I felt like I'm in a local restaurant in Vietnam. It is not like one of those fancy Vietnamese restaurants, it is a cozy family restaurant that serves casual Vietnamese food.

When we talk about Vietnamese cuisine, the first thing that comes to my mind is...

The Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup. The taste of this beef noodle is quite similar to the ones I had in Vietnam. It is not adjusted in anyway to our local palates and that makes it delicious and very authentic.

Before we had our mains, we ordered two popular Vietnamese snacks.

This is the fresh Prawn Spring Roll. You can also choose to have it with pork instead of prawn. The dipping sauce was a tasty compliment to the spring rolls.

Another one of our favourite are the Fried Spring Rolls. From the looks of it, you might think that the skin is thick but when you take a bite into it, you'll soon find that it is actually not. It tastes as good as the yummy ones I had in Vietnam.

For my main, I ordered the Vermicelli Bowl Grill Pork & Spring Roll with Fish Sauce. This dish is quite delicious. From the picture it may look like a dry dish but it is not. The fish sauce moist the vermicelli enough and taste really good eaten together with the grilled pork and spring rolls.

This is not a dish that I usually find in a Vietnamese restaurant... Sizzling Beef Steak with Baguette. If you have a hearty appetite, this may be a choice you might want to consider.

Another nice choice was the Crispy Chicken Wings in sweet and spicy fish sauce. However, I would have liked it more with lesser onions.

We saw this on the menu and decided to order the Grilled Prawn for trying. Now this turn out to be a bit of a let down because it was too dry for my liking.

That's all we had during this visit and I may come back to try their Bahn Mi, a Vietnamese style baguette. If you're looking for some casual Vietnamese food in Puchong that's not too expensive, you may want to give this place a try.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 3.5/5 

Service : 3/5

Food Quality : 3.5/5

Price Range : $
Status : Non-Halal

Other information:
Address : 1 Jalan Puteri 7/10, Bandar Puteri Puchong, 47100 Puchong
Contact No. : 03-8060 0127
Business Hours : 10.30am - 10pm (Daily)
Transaction : Cash
Links : https://www.facebook.com/banhmikl/

Pim's & The Rama, Aman Suria PJ

Date visited : 1 April 2018

A friend of mine who has been following my fantastic food quest, recommended this place to me with a money back guarantee. Since I was nearby for a movie and was with the right company, I decided to go to this place for an early dinner.

It has been ages since I've been to this part of PJ and this place is pretty new in this neighborhood, just about 7 months old. Pim's & The Rama... a Thai restaurant AND a bar.

Before we go to our main highlights, let's order some drinks first...

Uniquely Thai drinks... Chang beer, Thai royal milk tea and coconut shake. Nice!

Let's move on to the food section.

On the front page of their menu was their signature Tom Yum Pot. 

Just by reading the items included in this Tom Yum Pot will make you salivate. However, I decided to save this for my next visit if their regular dishes are good. So I went for the usual Thai dishes.

First and foremost, the Pim's Signature Tom Yum Seafood.

At first I was afraid that it might turn out to be one of those overly spicy kind of tom yum soup that might spoil my taste buds for the other dishes. But it turn out to be just the right balance of spicy and sour. The prawns in this soup was fresh and the portion was just right for 4 pax.

Then we also ordered their Chef's Green Curry Chicken.

This is one tasty pot of Thai green curry. It has a strong yet pleasant aroma and the thickness of the curry is just nice. It also comes in 2 other variant, seafood or beef.

For our first visit to a Thai restaurant, we will usually include at least a serving of Pineapple Fried Rice.

Even though it was served on a plate and not in a pineapple shell, the flavour of this Pineapple Fried Rice is way better than many of those served in one. The added chunks of pineapple, raisins and cashew nuts made this fried rice bursting with flavours. Even when eaten with the green curry, it still taste as good without being overpowered by the flavour from the green curry.

Next is the Pandan Chicken.

It is well cooked... not too dry and in good size. I like the size of this Pandan Chicken because it's not too big. If it's any bigger, I may be too stuffed to try out other dishes.

Other than the Pandan Chicken, I also ordered a serving of the Rama's Donut Prawn. It was highly recommended by their reviewers on Facebook so I too wanted to see if it was worth the hype.

It is definitely worth the hype. I love how it is not too oily and I could taste generous portions of prawn meat in every bite. 

The next is one of my favourite Thai dish... Steamed Sotong with Chilli & Lime Soup.

I almost left this dish out because of all the other dishes I've ordered and I was afraid it was too much for 4 of us to finish. But for the sake of this review, I decided to order this at the very last minute and I'm glad I did!

The sour and slightly spicy taste of the soup makes it very appetizing. You have to try this yourself to appreciate this dish.

Other than the above dishes, we also ordered a vegetable and an omelette dish.

At this point, I'm already quite full. But I had to make space for my favourite Thai dessert... Red Ruby.

Now my Thai meal is complete with full satisfaction. Every dish was tasty and complimented each other, from the drinks right up to the dessert. I HIGHLY recommend this place 👍👍

I also want to give a big shout out to the staff here for great service rendered.

I will definitely come back with more people and for the Tom Yum Pot.

Now I have to give my friend a treat for recommending such a great place for Thai food.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 4/5 

Service : 4.5/5

Food Quality : 4.5/5

Price Range : $$
Status : Non-Halal

Other information:
Address : 22 & 22A Jalan PJU 1/43, Aman Suria Damansara, 47301 Petaling Jaya
Contact No. : 03-7802 8386
Business Hours : 11.45am - 11pm (Sunday-Thursday) / 11.45am - 1am (Friday-Saturday)
Transaction : Credit cash & Cash
Links : https://www.facebook.com/pimsramathai/

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

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

Links : https://www.facebook.com/doma.modern.korean/