Garden Recipe Cafe @ Paradigm Mall, Kelana Jaya.

Being a food blogger has brought me to many places. Places with great food, places famous for great food and places with great chef who dishes out great food. Hah.... I reckon this is the best way to describe it with words.

Most food that tastes good are normally enhanced with MSG. This is something very common nowadays especially when food business are getting more competitive. One would have to resort to MSG to stay in business. There's no denying about this. But there is this particular restaurtnat I have heard so much of with so much words spreading and so much hoo-hah going around about how great the food is and the best part was the food is cooked without MSG.

Garden Recipe Cafe which originated from Melaka is the place..... boasting that thier food has NO MSG, NO Colouring, NO Preservative, Everything Natural and Organic. Well, I have seen so many restaurant boasting about the same thing but everytime I was short-changed and hopefully this time is otherwise. Let us embark in this journey to find out how it'll turn out.

The set up of the restaurant is simple and nice. Wooden tables and chairs dominated the entire floor. Whereby on one side wooden benches was the favoured choice instead of chairs which I reckon was the favourite seating space amongst the patrons. The walls was neatly decorated which has the 80's feel to it.

Service was good. Waiters was well manered and carries a smile. But when the crowd stated to build up their service turned topsy-turvy. I reckon it was because they were short staff and it would have made a difference if they had more floor staff especially during peak hours.

One thing that caught my attention was their daily set meals which strecthes all the way to dinner. There were a few choices to chose from and the price starts at RM12.90+ which comes with a cup of tea and some fruits.

A look at the meny suggests there were plenty of choices to chose from. From local cusine to Western cuisine, from rice meals to noodles and from soupy meals to sandwiches. I was pretty impressed with what they have. It would take a couple or more visits to really cover the entire choice of food served here.

Xiang CHun Sauce with Brown Rice Soya Noodle (Dry) @ RM12.90+

This healthy plate of noodles when served was at tall at the 'Empire State Building'. It contains lot's of vegetables from carrots to cabbage with some tofu surrounding the outer part of the plate. What you need to do was to mix it all up and viola your plate of dry noodle. :-)

It tasted good considering there was no MSG used. Of course you cannot compare the food here with others which uses MSG to enhance the taste but what they have done here was marvelous. I am pretty sure they could have used lot's of natural ingredients to bring the taste up. Well, it was good from my point of view as I am not a sucker for salty food.

Curry Chicken cw Brown Rice @ RM12.90+

Heathy indeed .... their chicken curry was cooked without the use of MSG and coconut milk. Served with it was a 'miserable bite sized water melon' and some salad. The portion was just ok-la which comes with some brinjals, some sliced cabbage and some long beans. Of course it comes with chicken and some potatoes.

It was a little 'bland' but I liked it. Again, as a reminder their food was cooked without MSG and I would give credits to the chef for a job well done.

Lui Cha'

'Lui Cha' is a traditional Hakka tea based beverage which was made into a meal. Tea leaf was used and pounded which was mixed with some other herbs to create the finishing 'tea' product. Other condiment includes peanuts,  corns, long beans, beancurd and leeks.

All you need to do is to put all the 'ingredients' into the plate containing the brown rice and pour the green lui cha into it and .... there you have it. Frankly, I am not a Lui Cha person and I find the tea a little too 'green'. But then again for someone who fancies this meal they will find it tasty and delicious. Truly a healthy meal indeed.

Chicken Ponteh

We also ordered a Set A meal from their set meal - Nyonya Ponteh Chicken with brown rice. This meal is a famous and traditional Nyonya dish and the best to come is from Melaka. Since this restaurant originated from Melaka this is one dish you will have to try. Chicken Ponteh can also be called Nyonya Chicken and Potato Stew.

This meal was a killer! It was so good, so delicious and so 'I want more' feeling. Unbelievable. I did asked myself.... sure ar boh MSG ar? Well, again hats off to the chef and to the one who came up with the recipe without using MSG.

Conclusion : Surprisingly I find this place to be really good. Serves really good healthy food. The environment was simple yet confortable. Service could be better especially during peak hours. A tad pricey but it's worth it! Highly recommended. A 4/5.

Cheers!

Garden Recipe Cafe
LG-29
Paradigm Mall
No.1, Jalan SS7/26A
Kelana Jaya
47301 Petaling Jaya
Selangor.
Tel : 03 7887 3318

G55
AEON Bandaraya Melaka Shopping Mall
No.2, Jalan Lagenda
75400 Melaka.
Tel : 06 283 9168.
www.gardenrecipe.com.my

Note : The above review was purely based on my personal opinion.

Note : The above picture of the 'Chicken Ponteh' is not the original picture taken at site. Will upload the original later as the picture taken was accidently deleted. Sorry guys!

Xiau Fei Yang Steamboat Restaurant @ Pudu, KL.

The 'makan' scene in Kuala Lumpur has changed tremendously for the past couple of years. It has been encouraging with so many restaurants mushrooming where we 'gila makan orang' were spoilt for choice when it comes to dining out. This is very encouraging as there are many restaurants opened by foreigners which dishes out what's great coming from different countries. And this makes this country a more cosmopolitan country which indeed will do great for the scene.

One particular restaurant I would like to share has been running their business along Lorong Thambi 2, Pudu succesfully. This restaurant is called 'Xiau Fei Yang Restaurant' which serves great China style steamboat and it is owned and run by Chinese (from China). LOL :D

This place has been attracting crowds from both local and tourists from China. Bus loads of tourists from China are being brought to this place for some great 'makan' which is part of the itinerary of major tour company specialising with Chinese tourists.

What is so attractive about their steamboat from my personal point of view comes from their 'broth'. There are 2 different types of broths available and both are equally good and well favoured by the regular patrons. We did opt for both that is 'Herbal Soup' and 'Mah Lat Hot & Spicy Soup'.

Herbal Soup and Hot & Spicy Soup

We were pretty lucky to have found ourselves a table as the place was super packed when we got there and the table which we got was the last available one. And it was only around 7:30pm. We were considered late as most of the patrons has been there much earlier, some half way through their meals and some are actually towards the end of their meals.

The restaurant was super noisy considering how loud Chinese from mainland China speaks. It was like they were screaming through their lungs for the others to be heard. Unbelievable. My apologies if I were being rude with my comments.

The decor of the place is very simple. A combination of big round tables and smaller square tables covers the entire floor. Nothing fanciful about the decors too. It's all about 'go for the kill' and 'leave'. LOL.

We had to wait awhile for the waiter to serve us since the place was packed and .... their service was just ok. You have to be fluent in Mandarin to communicate with the waiters as they do not speak any other language known to Malaysians.

Sure enough the broth was superb. It taste very different from the other steamboat restaurants and it has plenty of spices and aroma in it. Most of the ingredients were imported from China which make sense why they are able to pull in ther crowd and have quite a huge number of followers.

I personally preferred the 'Herbal Soup' over the 'Hot & Spicy Soup'. Not that the latter is horrible but the former was just 'amazing'. It tasted 'weired' at first but then when my 'tongue' got a hang of the taste there was no holding back. It was amazing, really. I wished I could pen it down how 'amazing' it was but I just couldn't find the words to describe it. You will have to try it to believe it.

As for the 'Hot & Spicy Soup' it was Sezhuan style which can be very spicy indeed. Lot's of spices were being used too and that what makes them so good and of course taste different from the 'everyday' steamboat you get from other restaurants.

They have a wide variety of food that you can chose to endulged in. What I know of is that they have some really cool 'beef ball' with fillings which is a must to order. I cannot remember the name of it but the waiters will be able to assist you.

From the crowd favourit 'beef slices' to chicken to fish to anything you can think of that is edible ... and yeah they have 'pork slices' too. Now, that's my favourite. I am going to show you what we ordered and it sure does makes a wholesome meal. Enjoy!

Pork Slices

Beef Slices

Yam

Conclusion : I wasn't sure about whether I liked it or not but the longer I am involved the more I liked it. I drank a few barrels of the herbal soup which made me super full. Yeah, I liked it. I wished the waiters there could speak a word or two of English or Cantonese or Malay. That would be really helpful. I find dining at steamboat restaurant to be pricey. Considering what we are eating or what we ate. I would prefered to spend the money on a proper meal with meat and fish and vegetables and tofu and whatever on the table. But then again it's different and incomparable. I would recommend this place to steamboat lovers and for those who doesn't it's worth an experience. And this is NOT a halal restaurant. A 3.8/5.

Cheers!

Xiao Fei Yang Restaurant
No.18, Lorong Thambi 2
55100 Pudu
Kuala Lumpur.
Tel : 03 2142 6789

No.40G & 42G
Jalan SS21/62
Damansara Utama
47400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor.
Tel : 03 7728 7633.

Note : The above review is purely based on my personal opinion.

Peppercorn Cafe @ SS15, Subang Jaya.

It was indeed a pure luxury to be able to have many varieties or types of English breakfast to chose from while residing in New Zealand. I always look forward for the weekends to come by so that I can have my daily breakfast at my favourite joint along Queens Street. They served the best breakfast I ever had in my life and will always cherished those moments.

Well, I find it rather difficult finding a restaurant in KL that makes good English or American breakfast. I have tried so many places big or small, famous or infamous, near and far but I always left with disappointment. Until now I am still searching for the ideal place .... but then again the search will go on .... this time to Subang Jaya.

This restaurant is situated in SS15 in Subang Jaya. It is a well known restaurant to the locals and many flock there for their breakfast set meals and also their lunch set meals. The restaurant wasn't difficult to find but finding a parking space for your car is. And this place is called 'Peppercorn Cafe'.

English Breakfast

As you can see from the picture their English breakfast set consists of 2 sunny side up egg, 1 halved sausage, 2 tiny slice of bacon, some baked beans and a couple of toasted bread. Your have a choice of either coffee or tea and a tiny glass of orange juice.

The other breakfast set comes with 2 sunny side up egg, 2 tiny slice of bacon, some baked beans, a couple of toasted bread and a piece of hash brown.

Well, what can I say about it. Nothing fantastic nor nothing great about it. But for something below RM10.00 this was really a good bargain. The only thing great is that we do not need to cook it and do the washing. Frankly, I could do a better version of this English breakfast.

Waffle

The waffle was good. Spread some butter or fruit jam on it to give it a better taste. Would have been great if there were ice-creams made available.

Conclusion : This restaurant is famous for it's value for money deals. It attracts many young patrons mainly uni-students. Breakfast and lunch crowd can be overwhelming. Restaurant set up is simple and nice, it's clean and service is ok lah. A look at their menu suggests they can dish something more complicated and more interesting compared to what we had. Value for money but portion could be better. A 3/5.

Cheers!

Peppercorn Cafe
No.21, Jalan SS15/4
47500 Subang Jaya
Selangor.
Tel : 03 5631 1808.

Note : The above review was  purely  based on my personal opinion.

My Elephant - Thai Restaurant @ Aman Suria, PJ.

Hot and spicy exotic Thai cuisine has been a favourite of mine since a very young age. I have never had a good authentic Thai meal in KL and the search still goes on. The best still comes from Thailand and the next best which was pretty close to the originals was in Kota Bahru.

Most so-called Thai restaurants in KL dishing so-called Thai food just doesn't taste as good as those found in Thailand or Kota Bahru. Most were cooked to cater to our local Malaysian tongue and because of this there will never be one restaurant that can dished out really original authentic Thai food. The search goes on and this time around is a restaurant called  'My Elephant'.

I have heard so much about this restaurant and it's about time I give my mystic tongue into some gruelling tests. We chose to patronise thier latest chain at Aman Suria where the place was easy to find and parking space are abundance.

My first impression on it's interior was simple and nice. Tables were well placed with white table cloths and white 'mahjong' paper used as table covers. Unfortunately the songs there were playing was English instead of Thai. It does make a huge difference if Thai songs were being played as it will enhance the atmosphere and mood of the place.

Their floor staff were mostly foreigners but they were well trained and very hospitable. We were greeted and ushered to our table by a waitress who was polite and professional.

A quick run through of their menu suggested that we had to order some 'common' dishes so that we can evaluate the greatness of thier food.

Firstly we were presented with some 'crackers' to keep us company. These crackers tastes superb and with the dipping sauce that came with it made it even more memorable.

Seafood Tom Yam

The seafood tom yam was pretty delicious. Just a tad to salty for my taste but it was fine. A little spiciness makes it more interesting. The setback was then portion was a little small and there was not too much seafood in it.

Green Curry Chicken

A must for us. Green curry chicken was very aromatic. The texture of the sauce was thick, full of santan or coconut milk which makes it taste really good. Again, it was a tad salty and the portion was really pathetic. Othewise, it would have been a great meal.

Brown Rice

All this saltiness goes really well with the brown rice which we had ordered. We opt for brown rice instead of the fragrant white rice as it is more healthy to consume. Indeed a wise choice.

Egg Plant fried with Minced Meat

This dish was highly recomended by their staff. And true enough this dish was a bomb. It was perfectly cooked with lot's of minced meat in it. It was very aromatic and goes very well with a plate of rice. Credits goes to the chef for this delicious palate.

Otak Otak Omelette

First we had a dish which was a bomb and now this otak otak omelette is a killer. This omelette was totally amazing. It was again perfectly cooked and we just couldn't believe our taste buds for picking up something so unique and so beautiful. Another yes from all of us. Highly recommended.

Conclusion : Nice lovely place for dining. Thai food was ok which was fine tuned for our local tongue. If I were to compare this with 100% authentic Thai food from Thailand, 'My Elephant' would fail miserably. So for now this place rowks as the food here is much better compared to other KL based Thai restaurants. Service was good and I truly hope they will play Thai songs instead of English songs. Price is above average and a meal like what we had costs us RM80.00+. A 3.5/5.

Cheers!

My Elephant Thai Restaurant
No.22, Jalan PJU 1/43
Aman Suria
47301 Petaling Jaya
Selangor.
Tel : 03 7886 1451.

Block C-G4 Happy Mansion
Jalan 17/13
46400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor.
Tel : 010 220 1283

20-2, Jalan Sri Hartamas 8
Taman Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel : 03 6201 0649.

Note : The above review is solely based on my personal opinion.

Ocean Shabu Shabu @ Taman Mayang, Petaling Jaya.

The sky is getting darker and gloomier. It was rather hot and humid. Weekend traffic crawls are never ending. Everyone is in a rush, somehow. Rushing to reach home, rushing for dinner, rushing for a movie, rushing for a great night out... Rush rush...a Paula Abdul song came to my head and started humming to the rythms.

It's a nigth out to celebrate a friends' birhday and it is going to be loads of food and loads of fun. I remembered mentioning this in one of my previous posts that spending precious time with friends or family over good food is just precious.

And it was a good choice of selection for tonight's dinner. We won't be dining in any posh restaurants, not Italian nor French, not the usual Chinese or Japanese food, nothing close to Mamak or Indian food but we will be having Hong Kong style Shabu Shabu 'steamboat'.

Ocean Shabu Shabu was the chosen one and we decided to dined at their branch in Taman Mayang instead of driving all the way to Sri Petaling where they first started. I have heard so much about this place for thier good shabu shabu and it is also famous to be expensive.

This place was in tip top condition as it is still new. The interior renovation was beautifully done and top notch too. It has an upmarket feel to it. The place was well lighted up and well air conditioned. It has two levels and very spacious. The selection of wooden chairs with fabric uphostery was comfortable. A portion of the wall (upper level) was covered up with beautifully taken pictures of the food they served which makes it even more appetizing. Crowd has started building up and we were all ready for a great feast.

In Shabu Shabu what is most important is the 'soup'. I have heard so much about how wonderful the 'soup' is and we could not stop ourselves for being over excited. We were hungry and all those pictures at the wall are making us drool. LOL

Pork Bone and Corn Broth @ RM20.00++

No wonder the soup or broth was the talk of the town. One look at the pot tells you that they put in lot's of ingredients to make it taste good. Pork carcass, lot's of corn, red dates, Chinese herbs etc.... it will taste better with all the food being put in to cook. This was one of the 10 different broth you can chose from.

The different type of broth are as follows: Pepper Pork Broth, Shark's Fin Bone Broth, Chicken Marinated in Yellow Wine Broth, Chew Chow Broth, Fish Broth, Preserved Eggs with Chinese Parsley Broth, Thai Tom Yam Broth and White Fungus Papaya Broth.

In Shabu Shabu you can have a freedom of choice with your orders. There were plenty of varieties to chose from and this was what we ordered.

Fried Octopus in Typhoon Shelter Style @ RM30.00++

This was for appetizer. The birthday gal specifically wanted to order this dish. It was fried with lot's of garlic and chili. Wonderful taste to it and we even saved the garlic and chili flakes for the main Shabu Shabu dish. Frankly, the octopus was slightly overcooked and it was pretty hard to bite. Otherwise, it was a perfect dish to start off with.

Four Seasons Meat Ball @ RM20.00++

This was the house specialty and a must try for first timers. These meat balls was freshly made special in-house ingredients. All home made.

Hong Kong Style Pork Ball @ RM10.00++

Deep Fried HK Fish Skin @ RM10.00++

This deep fried HK fish skin was superb. It was very aromatic and tasted very different. Great experience.

Angus Striploin Beef Slice @ RM30.00++

These beef slice was amazing. Well, not as amazing if compared to Kobe beef. It was good.

Mixed Mushrooms @ RM16.00++

Spinach Noodle @ RM3.00++  &  Fried Bean Curd @ RM5,00++

Celery Dumpling @ RM12.00++

Vegetable @ RM5.00

Dipping Sauce

As you can see we sure did ordered a large variety of food. We enjoyed this wholesome meal and never wanted to stop. Everything was so fresh which is very important.

Conclusion : No doubt it was rather costly to dine here but paying for good quality food which was both fresh and delicious was indeed worth the money. Of couse you cannot be having this everyday or every week but having it once in awhile would be really great. The restaurant was clean and in tip top conditioned. Service was rather poor as most of the waiter or waitress are foreigners, something that I really dislike. A3.5/5. And this is a NON-Halal restaurant.

Cheers!

Ocean Shabu Shabu Sdn Bhd
Lot 2-1, 3 and 3-1
Mayang Oasis Commercial Centre
Jalan SS26/9
Taman Mayang
47301 Petaling Jaya.
Tel : 019 228 8962.

Note : The above review is solely based on my personal opinion.

Memphis Bistro @ Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya.

What has happened to the weather nowdays? One minute hot and shiny as the desert and another minute thunderstorm rainfalls like the sky's giving way. This has been going on for days now. Just unbelievable and unperdictable. With all this chaotic weather it is a good idea to stay in and start blogging.

Today I will bring you to a fantastic restaurant that is tucked away from the hustling bustling area. It is located at 'Dana' at Ara Damansara. 'Dana' is a commercial place filled with offices and some retail outlets. "Memphis Bistro" is located towards the end of the most inner role of shops. My friends brags about how good the western food is.

We had to call the restaurant to place a booking for a table for 8. Otherwise you will not be able to dine there at all if you chose to walk in especially on a weekend. So, please play it safe and call to make a booking first.

I really loved this restaurant as it has the 'family restaurant' feel. This is one reason why you have to call to make a reservation because most patrons who dine there are regulars and who will more or less book the entire restaurants for small private function or just family dinner.

It is quite serene and we really do love the ambiance. People there are really friendly and it was a pleasure having the chance to dine there. Besides food they also have an area where they specialized in servince wines. So, for wine lovers this will be a good place to wine & dine, indeed.

A look at the menu confirms how well this restaurant flares in western food. So, the best way to prove it is to eat em all. LOL.

Manhattan Clam Chouder @ RM10.50++

First to come is the starter. We ordered 'Manhattan Clam Chouder' a classic creamy vegetables and clam soup sprinkled with some crushed cracker biscuits. Damn, oops...mind my language, this soup is out of this world. It is really yummy. The texture the taste and the presentation was simply amazing.

Escargots (1/2 Dozen) @ RM19.50++

Next in line came another starter and a great favourite of mine. The very first time I had these snails was dining at 'Victoria Station' almost 20 years ago. I never did look back since that day and it has been my all time favourite.

Escargots is baked French snails in shells with garlic butter serves with garlic bread. When the snails was brought to us I just couldn't hold my excitement and all I wasnted to do was to sink one of the snails into my drooling mouth. But.... I was dissapointed... dissapointed with how it tasted. It was not as good as those found at 'Victoria Station'. Really. It's not aromatic enough, not enough garlic-ky, not enough zing. Dang! we ordered 1 dozen. :D

Classic Caesar Salad @ RM9.00++

Salad for the ladies. Classic Caesar salad is a bed of romaine lettuce tossed with 'Caesar' dressing topped with croutons and Parmesan crisp. We were playing it safe with this order as this is another favourite of ours. This is another great dish one should not miss. It tasted really good and very appetizing.

Main dish will be next and first to be introduced is a couple of pastas.

Spaghetti  'Oriental'  Chilies Prawns @29.00++

I totally fell in love with this pasta. There is a great amount of frest water prawns together with spaghetti stirred in spicy chili sauce. Simply marvelous. Prawns was fresh which is important and the entire dish was full of the aroma of prawns which adds a little zing into it. Noodles was not overcooked, not too spicy and it was sheer pleasure to have had this meal.

Chicken Regina @ RM18.00++

This pasta consists of chicken tenders sauted with mushrooms, jalapenos chilies and tomatoes in cream sauce served over tagliatelle pasta.

Being a fanatic for cream based pasta I was expecting this 'chicken regina' to shine. It did shine but not at it's brightest. Firstly, it was not creamy enough and does not have the 'oomph' factor. It just lack something probably... garlic as it does not produce the sort of aroma which I craved for. Chicken tenders was OK. Could be better.

Breast of Chicken Madison @ RM23.00++

Doesn't it look pretty? It is making me hungry again by just looking at it. Yeah it was as good as it looks. The breast of chicken was panfried til golden brown, laced with forest mushrooms and sauce and comes with a grilled prawn. Was marvelous and very delicious. The sauce was the best part of this meal otherwise it will be a little bland.

Cajun Chicken Thigh @RM18.00++

Chicken thigh marinated in cajun spice basted with southern BBQ sauce and served with fries. Not my cup of tea. Didn't like anything with BBQ sauce. I just felt the strong taste of BBQ sauce will just kill or cover the entire taste of the chicken. Should not depends too much on the sauce to make this dish good.

Grilled Tasmanian Salmon @ RM32.50++

This palate was drizzles with some sesame-soya dressing. Not too bad indeed. Anyway, I am a big fan of salmon regardless how it was done. What is important is that the fish meat was not overcooked. Otherwise it's going to taste like a hard nut. Meat was still moist which is good. A tad pricey.

Hot Chocolate Lava Cake @ RM10.50++

This was supposed to be the house speciality and was highly recommended to us. I am not sure whether the chocolate lava cake didn't live to my expectation or I was too full to fully enjoy it... whatever.... there are much room for improvement.

Conclusion : Food was pretty good. Atmosphere or ambiance was good. Service was good. A tad pricey. Make sure to make reservations if you do not want to end up eating mamak instead. Non-Halal restaurant. A 3.8/5.

Cheers!

Memphis Bistro
D-6-7-G
Pusat Perdagangan DANA 1
Jalan PJU 1A/46
Ara Damansara
47301 Petaling Jaya.
Selangor.
Tel : 03 7843 6818.

Note : The above review was purely based on my personal opinion.