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!