Birthday Dinner @ Rahsia Bistro & Wine Bar

Last Sunday, Sayang asked me, what would you like to go for your birthday, I said anything also can. You just don't expect this kind of answer from someone who blogs about food ! But, I really have no preference when it comes to food, I literally eat anything under the sun. I am that obedient son who eats anything that is put on the table. So Sayang consulted her friend whom she trusts to have taste, and made the necessary arrangements.
It wasn't much of a secret, although the restaurant is called Rahsia. Being the birthday boy doesn't mean you get chauffeur driven to the restaurant too, so at some point of the day she told me, we are going to 13, Jalan Damai. I googled it and found their website. The design looks delicious too, with much thought put into it.. nice website. Got awards for a few years in a row some more, very impressive.
When we arrived after a long journey ( we were stuck on Tun Razak for like 40 minutes, with the jam starting from within the SMART tunnel), again as the saying goes, Tunnel Smart, Gamen nOT, me less smarter coz I paid TOLL, to get stuck in a massive jam....

To start off, we must first have drinks. We were ecstatic when we saw, FREE Cosmo drink ( yup everyone gets one free Cosmo each), alcoholic drink. Wah this place so nice give free cocktail all. They had a list of cocktails on their real menu, but not put up their website. Sayang ordered an ASMARA (RM 15) top of her Cosmo... and I ordered a house pouring Red Wine ( RM 15 only).
They also served plain water... wah another plus point.
While waiting for our food, we took a little tour of the place. Really neat, nice old bungalow if you ask me. Since it was evening, and we were sat in the backyard of this really ncie old bungalow, mosquito coils were lit up to keep those mozzies out. But you can always seat inside, but the backyard had a better ambience to it, if you ask me...

We had an appetizer and a salad before the main arrived. Malinjo Crackers was an appetizer (RM5 only). Didn't like it a single bit, especially the normal chilli sauce dip. Would have tasted a lot better if it was sweet soy sauce, with chilli and onions, and a squeeze of lime. But this was their secret recipe ma.. so nothing to say.. hahaha.... The thai duck salad though was superb, and out of this world. The usual salad leaves were given and a generous amount of deep fried duck meat with skin ( crispy wan) was served.... Definitely recommend this to anyone.


We ordered a lamb shank to share ( one main only ). 3 pieces for RM55. Over priced and tasted so so, and ok lah. It wasn't superb, but to point out, the meat was tender, juicy and falling off the bone. Some people will really love this dish. My points: so so la, ok lah, bolehlah.


Tiru misu - this is Rahsia's version of a tiramisu. It aint a tiramisu, just lots of cream with wafer biscuits dipped in rum, dribbled with chocolate fudge. Sayang had a chocolate brownie, which we thought was below average.

After dinner we basically fooled around with the camera and ourselves. You know you are growing old when the round wine glass can't hide the roundness of your face anymore. It was a great dinner no doubt, but that was just the beginning of our night really....

I had a few seeds of durian after dinner, which then I threw up 3 times the whole entire night. I suspected that it could be the cheap liquor they gave us. Or it could be the wine. So please stay away from their cheap drinks should anyone wanna go there.

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Their Website

Wendy's @ Sunway Pyramid

q: What do you call a happy burger ?
a: Bergembira !!



For some reason, that day, we went driving around the Subang area, before lunch to do something. Hearing that Wendy's is back and has got one branch in Sunway Pyramid, I was just waiting for someone to ask, where do you want to eat lunch ? I quickly suggested, why don't we go to Sunway Pyramid and find something to eat. lol!!!
When we reach Wendy's it was already packed, and we quickly got ourselves a place to sit, in this really cramped restaurant. Opposite it was McD's which looked rather empty. I can only vaguely remember Wendy's in the older days, when it was in Sg Wang.

We ordered three types of burger, shrimp, fish and double cheese burgers. All sets came with a soft drink and fries. Their fries were thicker than those McD's fries, which I thought were quite nice. Something different, but McD's fries are generally tastier and crispier (according to me la).


The shrimp and the fish burger look similar, but according to Sayang, she thinks their shrimp and fish burgers tasted so much better than those you find at BK or McDs. As for me, I don't usually take chicken burgers, or fish burgers, because nothing beats the taste of real nice juicy Beef burgers. Actually I don't quite remember what this was, a double patty cheese burger or something lidat. I found the burgers to be quite nice, although I will also say the same about McDonald's, Burger King and even Carl's Junior.

Although Wendy's made a come back after many years absence in the Malaysian market, I find it a bit over priced. I have to agree with what some people think though that some of the stuff they give back to us are of fresher and nicer stuff, as compared with the cheaper burger places.

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Gurney Drive Restaurant @ The Gardens

This is perhaps our third visit to this restaurant, but I had only one other post on this place. I remembered the last I came, they just opened up, and apparently they brought these famous cooks from Penang and posted them here in the Gardens ( reconfirmed with one of the waiters).This time around, Sayang and I met up for lunch, and decided to drop by Gurney Drive again. Since Sayang don't get to go to Penang every other month like me ;) so I suggested we go eat some real Penang food @ The Gardens. Something on their menu changed this time around... they reduced their prices....

We usually do not hear of restaurants reducing their prices, this is really a first for me. So we ordered anyways. Sayang got her Char Koay Teow with less chili, hence the color abit more brownish than reddish. Of course I preferred to have it extra spicy but this was Sayang's CKT.... hehehe.. she enjoyed it no doubt.


Mine was a mee goreng mamak. I've had this before, in my previous visit, so I took the same mee goreng again.. It was really nice, not sure why, but the local mee goreng mamaks are either too dark, too salty or two wet. Theirs were fried to perfection. Popiah was just so so, but really no complains.

Surprisingly, as I do my research on other food reviews about this place, I found that others did not enjoy the food at all. Some will come up to a rating of at most, average. This must be whats going on, with this restaurant, which is why their prices dropped big time....

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It's located on the Second Floor of The Gardens, same floor as Flying chillies, Fong Lye and Sushi Zanmai.

Power Rojak in Langkawi

We were in Langkawi recently for a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of city life. And one of the highlights of the trip, other than boozing all day round, was the fact that you could actually find some really nice food by the road side.


This stall is found next to the airport runway, on the road to Pantai Tengah & Cenang. We usually drive past this stall whenever we make our way into Kuah town. Always noticing a crowd be it, afternoon or evening.
So on the last day there, en route to the airport, we stopped by this stall and found this crowd. Already expectations increased and we were hoping to get some really nice stuff.

Since the sign said, Laksa Power, we definitely ordered a bowl of laksa. It tastes similar to the Asam Laksa's we find in Penang, but it is still distinctively different. Not very fish, and we liked it very much.

Other than laksa, we noticed many bowls of mee rebus on other tables, so I asked for one. The mee rebus had a sweetish and it was also spicy hot. The funny thing was that, they mix the normal yellow noodle with some laksa noodle (rice noodle). Just changed the gravy, and gave us some keropok for the crunch.

We also had one bowl of Cendol, of which was great too. The picture, on the other hand, disappeared into thin air. Must have accidentally deleted it.

The food they served was simply and nice. What more when I asked for the bill, less than RM7 for two bowls of noodles, and a bowl of cendol.

Location,

From the Langkawi airport, take the road towards, Pantai Tengah. You will see a few vans by the roadside selling laksa. Just go for the one with the crowd.

Modesto's Hartamas and their giant Pizza

I wasn't sure why the both of us were not working that day, but we weren't. Its hard to find the both of us not working on a weekend, much harder to find us like this on a weekday. Anyways, we went to hartamas and started wondering, eh makan apa... we thought why not go check out Burger King. But parking was lousy there, and we spotted free parking for Modesto's customers only.

The next thing we know, we ordered a GIGANTOUS Pizza, and the free appetizer was Pizza Bread. It tasted like chicken biscuit, yummy..... we were both very hungry but had to wait quite some time before our pizza arrived.

When the pizza arrived, we looked at each other, and for only God knows, why we ordered this huge pizza. I saw Modesto asking the waiter, dei who ordered this Pizza la... then I saw the pizza point towards us, before he continued to walk towards our direction. hahahaha... This was the Hawaiian Pizza half, with chicken and pineapples.



We ordered a seafood something pizza for the other half. They had capsicums, squids, shrimps but most annoyingly they also had crap sticks. Since when was crap stick, seafood ?Overall the pizza was huge, you can have a spoon and a tabasco bottle to judge its size. Luckilly we found out that the pizza was 1/2 priced for lunch, so we found really good value at Modesto's. Food wise, I think comparable with Pizza Uno, which wasn't exactly great, but at least it was good value.

Address and contact details:

Address: Lot 46652 off Jalan Bukit Kiara Sri Hartamas 50480 K.L.
Telephone: 603 - 6201 7898
Fax: 603-6201 5779

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Joe's Visit

Hoo Yee Kee Prawn Mee @ Kepong Baru

I wonder why I have never blogged about Hoo Yee Kee before although we have been there like at least 10 times last year. KL is definitely not famous for coming up with really good prawn mee, oh well, not as good as the ones you can find @ Burma Rd, Penang, or 3rd Street, or the McAllister Rd Prawn Mee which I rave about so much.

My take on HYK prawn mee, is that, it's a stall that serves up a half decent bowl of Prawn Mee, for people in KL. If a restaurant like Oldtown can serve prawn mee like this in KL, HYK's prawn is like 10 times better.

This time we came over with Steve, who also knows this place very well. He ordered this bowl of Prawn Mee, Koay Teo , add Pork. If not mistaken this bowl is for RM9. Its a generous serving of extra pork there, and this stall also don't seem to stinge on giving noodles.


Sayang and I both opted for bee hoon, with extra Clams. Yummy.


To sum up, this place serves a decent prawn mee. A standard bowl of prawn mee costs, RM4.50, and should you want to customize and add more stuff like extra ribs, extra prawns, seafood, etc you can do so.

They also serve other types of noodles like lum mee, curry mee, etc.


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Gerai 7A, Jalan 29,Kepong Baru,
52100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel : +6019 - 318 1533
Operation Hours: 24HRS

Lunch At All Star Cafe, MidValley

Remember the last time we went to All Star Cafe ? We complained about lauya service ? Armed with that in hand, we went back one more time to have lunch, after all, the variety available in Mid Valley can be quite expensive.

Sayang ordered this TomYam Fried Rice, served with one piece of fried chicken, cashew nuts and some fried egg. The rice although formed like a bowl, it was quite a generous portion. I liked the taste, although I thought the serving of the fried chicken could be a little bigger. But Sayang didn't complain.

I ordered this chicken kebab rice. This two sticks of sate had a lot of meat in it, and I totally liked it because it was marinated with quite a bit of lemongrass. Mmm... tasty !!!

The meal was quite affordable, only came up to less than RM40 for both of us plus drinks. The service may have improved a wee bit, but don't expect too much. Food's quite nice there.

Phone : 603 - 9368 3885
Fax : 603 - 9368 3882

Address : Lot E11, Ground Floor Mid Valley 59200 Mid Valley City Wilayah Persekutuan

Operating Hours : Mon - Sun, 11:30 a.m. - 2:00 a.m.

Restoran Nasi Beriani Gam Johor

I have written about this restaurant before, but this branch is located in Bangi. This is also the same nasi beriani I was hunting high and low for, when I was in JB. I was just driving around Serdang when I bumped into this place, eh... very familiar sign...
Do read about my previous post on their Bangi branch here..
I ordered a Ayam Merah, with their standard beriani power, with papadam, mixed vegetables, and a bowl of dalchar. It was only RM5 for my serving and Rm1.50 for my Sirap Bandung. It tasted very nice, and I thought it was value for money meal. Great stuff...

Sometimes when you drive pass a restaurant, if it is packed, you always wonder why. Food good meh ? Is it expensive ? and other stuff that goes on. We drive past DeFoodLand quite a bit, and usually on the weekends, this place is full to the brim, 2 floors of a corner shop lot in Manjalara. I know one thing for sure after doing some research, they are famous for CRABS.

Our first visit, we only ordered one vege, and one serving of their signature, Butter Crab, which I found rather disappointing. The crab was good but cooking was not.

Anyways, since it was Mom in Law's birthday, instead of going to the usual Fullwealth, I suggested why don't we go try D Foodland. So we ordered this 4 heavenly kings, which I thought was different. Its cooked with little dried shrimps and garlic, minus the chilli.

Instead of rice, we ordered long noodles which symbolizes longevity.


This is Samsi Taufu, which is Tofu served with 3 thin slices of pork, mushroom and squid. I thought both the mushroom and squid enhances the flavor of this dish tremendously. This dish was great....

We also ordered this sweet and sour crab, which I thought came out a disappointment. The crabs were fresh, but the way they cook it, really can be improved. Even thought the crabs were fresh, I have had better crabs than theirs.

So much for a reputed Crab Specialist
Anyways, the fried mantau was good, and we ate with the sweet and sour gravy which came with the crab dish.

In the end I found this place rather disappointing when it comes to crabs. I am not sure if it was the expectation or it is just me. I thought the vegetables and the tofu dish were nice, they cooked it well.

The prices here are slightly higher than most eateries in Kepong, taste wise, I find it just so so. Ok la.... but their crabs were a disappointment. Order anything but their crabs if I were to return.




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Briyani @ Restoran Mahbub, Bangsar

I was given a task to tapau sandwich for Sayang one of those afternoons, but as I drove over to meet her, I thought it was quite easy to find a place where I can buy some sandwich. I remember most Shell Petrol Stations sell them, but I did not come by.

I was quite sure, that cafe in Lucky Garden sells them sandwich, and while I ordered the sandwich to go, I took a 2 min walk and I saw Mahbub. I was curious to see what people were eating, because it did not give me the vibes of "just another mamak". Most people do briyani here, so I also ordered one briyani, bungkus, and ordered Ayam Madu (since I missed out on Zabrullah's ayam madu).

I found that their Ayam Madu was nice, crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. Very nice, sweetish. The briyani is also served with two side vegetables, and gravy of your choice.

The downside though, was that pack of rice cost me 10 bucks. Abit high for some honey laden chicken rice, if you know what I mean, otherwise I thought the food was quite good.

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Map: Wikimapia
Address: 17, Lorong Ara Kiri Satu,
Lucky Garden,
59100 Kuala Lumpu

Tony Roma's @ The Gardens, MidValley

After being absent for so long (this will explain why), I am finally back. After a much needed one week break at Langkawi ( my virgin trip ), came back, recharged, and ready to work. This is actually the prompt revisit of Tony Roma after the Pavillion experience. We went back in a jiffy, as Sayang wasn't quite happy with her previous salad bowl, tuna one, too fishy and too our for her.


This time round, she went for a Salad with Grilled Chicken. The usual salad leaves were given in abundance, a beautiful and delicious piece of chicken grilled, and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, thats what I call a perfect salad. But of course, if they could do it, I'd prefer it with a few pieces of bacon too, but since its in Malaysia, you can only wish la... The serving was huge and just as Sayang would say, its a Salad meal, not a starter, lol...

I wanted to try something different but did not want to over stuff myself, so I asked for a Blue Cheese Burger. It came with onions, pickles, insufficient lettuce leaves, two strips of beef bacon , and a huge beef patty wrapped in blue cheese ( kinda reminding me of Ramli Burger's Spesial burger, only difference is that the wrap is blue cheese, not egg).

One big warning though, this burger is really not for everyone. The cheese is so pungent, from smelling it, the smells hits your nose even more once you put them in your mouth. I gotta say, I am not a real blue cheese guy, but its nice to eat it once in a while to remind me how durian smells like to the gwai lous... wakakaka....

I believe we will be coming back to TR's soon for more salads, because I believe its worth it. Should you go in after lunch and before dinner, Tony Roma now has a 50cents promo for coffee and hot chocolate drinks.

The salad's about RM20 and the burger is also about RM20. The bill came below RM50 for both of us, and I think its good value for really good food, although I might sound like I am patronizing them, it really was a good meal.

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Nyonya Colors @ The Gardens, MidValley

I have not heard of Nyonya Colors, until it opened at The Gardens, near the connecting bridge from Gardens to Mid Valley. But of course when one, googles Nyonya Colors, the results come back with a lot of Nyonya Colors 1 Utama hits, and links to very prominent floggers too.

It was just one of those evenings, you walk around Mid Valley, trying to decide what to eat. Nyonya Colors, as I saw it, gave me the impression of just another Kopitiam in an up market area like The Gardens. Anyways, we walked in one evening, and ordered this Pandan Nasi Lemak bungkus. I immediately loved the taste of this little packet of Pandan Nasi Lemak. The rice is aromatic, and doesn't stick to each other. Each packet is neatly wrapped in banana leaf and waxed paper, is served with ikan bilis, fried nuts and boiled egg. Their sambal was very nice, but believe me, they give you a different sambal when you order the Big Plate Nasi Lemak.

This yellow curry noodles, was what I really liked. It came with yellow curry, a little bit of sambal by the side, and the usual curry noodles ingredients, chicken, tofu pok, taugeh, etc. This one, I really recommend, very tasty bowl.

We also ordered Chendol, from Nyonya Colors. I believe this is how chendol is eaten in Melaka. Shaved ice, chendol, two tablespoons of gula melaka and two scoops of santan milk.

Gardens, Level LG Food court area.

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J CO Donuts @ The Pavillion, finally....

On the same day we went to Tony Roma's, one of the first shops we walked past was J CO. We got seated at Tony Roma's, then I told Sayang, eh, why don't i go line up and try tapau some JCO back.....

The line was long, I had to wait 15 minutes before the guy came over and help me with my order. I took me another 10 minutes to line up to pay. Overall, we had to wait a total 20 odd minutes.

I remember reading a comparison review from either Malaysian Today, or Yellow Post, of the three main donut players in Malaysia, JCO, Big Apple and Dunkin.

So after finally having gone through the Q, after tapauing for myself, I think J CO really does make the better donuts, as compared with Big Apple. ( I think Dunkin Donutz simply aint in the same league as these two now).

I find their pastry fluffier and lasts longer at the same time, while their chocolate tastes more kao than Big Apples'. I feel that Big Apple after opening up so many branches are facing some consistency issues here. Some branches actually make better donuts than others...

:D So finally did the Q up thingy and worth every minute of the wait...

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Tony Roma's @ The Pavillion

I remembered when I read the first flogger's post on an eatery at the Pavillion, hundreds or perhaps thousands have followed since. Upon reading them food reviews, I couldn't really motivate myself to make the trip down to KL, especially to that area, where traffic jams, are a norm.

Sayang works Saturdays, and first halves of the Sunday is dedicated to church, and the later half is dedicated to buying stuff for the new house and all, time is definitely not on our side. Luckilly for us, we somehow managed to make a few changes to our usual schedule, and squeezed a little time out to do a family lunch... @ the Pavillion.

Upon arriving at the Pavillion we were pleasantly surprised to find that traffic was not that bad after all, and we did not have to circle the car park for 20 minutes before getting into a space which is very common at places like the Curve, 1U, MidValley, and I believe parking spaces are scarce even at places like Leisure Mall.

He headed down to the basement where the famous Food Republic was, and we decided to go try out Tony Roma's. MIL and FIL both have not tried Tony Roma's before, so they agreed to try out. This bowl of soup was just great, as it had lots of ingredients in it. It has every feel of a home cooked soup, in every spoonful of soup you put in your mouth.

This appetizer, seems to appear in everyone's blog for some reason. My theory is that, the Onion Rings were being sold excessively by Roma's staff. On one hand I thought its a good appetizer, on the other hand, its just simple onion cut in rings, dipped in batter and dip(pardon my American spelling) fried. Cannot be simpler than this. Needed more seasoning, so when it arrived I took one onion ring neat, then the rest I dipped into chilli sauce... yummy !!

Sayang as usual was on her weight loss diet. She was going to have salad, and looking into the menu, the most ideal salad to have (if you are thinking about weight loss) was this Salmon or Tuna(grilled), Salad, that comes with the standard leaves, onions, I think they sprinkled a little bit of mozarella (kedekutnye), tortilla chips. The salad's tossed in a mix of Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and a squeeze of lemon juice. As a filler, two pieces of pita bread is also put at the side (capatee looking bread).
FIL, pulak ordered this grilled chicken, which comes with a generous portion of grilled chicken meat, a large scoop of chunky mash potatoes, coleslaw with honey mustard dressing. I think both mother and father in laws had the same dish.


Since no one eats beefy in the family I only get to eat them outside. Surely I will order my favourite item, burger. This is the Roma's Burger, it comes with beef patty cooked to well done, and wrapped in two slices of cheddar. On the side, half a plate of freshly fried french fries. I am seriously not going to compare this burger with Carl's, Burger King, Wendy's or McDs. This one is a real burger with real fries, and the best accompanied with a mug of cold beer, not soft drinks.

To cap of a wonderful lunch outing, I added this last minute order after everyone was waiting for the food to settle, I asked for the Avalanche. We were already stuffed by then, but the avalanche just looked so irresistible. Althought it was just two scoops of Vanilla ice cream, with a brownie on top, the chocolate syrup they put on it, completed this amazingly simple and delicious dessert.

Directions:
Goto LG level where the food republic is
Walk around, sure can find wan... wakaakakaka


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