Category / State/Old Town
April 19, 2013
Dae Jang Gum Korean restaurant was actually one of the first Korean BBQ restaurants that I visited some 7-8 years ago. It was always under my impression that I’ve already written a review on it, but that was obviously not the case. Better late than never, so here goes.
Dae Jang Gum Korean BBQ at Seksyen 14, Petaling Jaya
Situated at the other end of the same building that includes Digital Mall in Petaling Jaya, Dae Jang Gum is a pretty old establishment. I suspect that the restaurant probably looked the same when it first opened for business years ago.
The decoration is dated, tables and chairs are old, but at least those BBQ vents still works very well. Then again, we’re here for food, right?
good variety of banchan, and their kimchi jiggae is one of the best
Like most Korean BBQ restaurants, there’s quite a selection of different types and cuts of meat available to choose from (minimum order of 2 servings per table to start the grill).
We chose Dae Ji Mok Sal (grilled pork neck, RM 28) and Bul Galbi (marinated beef spare ribs, RM 62) for the grill, and 2 bowls of kimchi jiggae (kimchi soup) for the four of us.
Service is pretty decent right here, and we were served about a dozen different types of banchan (small Korean dishes) within minutes.
grilled pork neck, fresh and unseasoned
The kimchi soup is really the reason we come here for. They are the thickest and most flavorful kimchi soup that I’ve had in a restaurant (the only thicker version is when we cook it at home). The spicy broth goes very well with the steamed rice provided, and that thick, almost-overpowering aroma and taste, superb!
Grilled pork neck doesn’t taste too different from pork belly, the dipping “sauce” is basically sesame oil with salt and goes well with the meat. Optionally, you can wrap it in a piece of lettuce before chewing em down. Flavor isn’t exactly intense, so if you want something stronger, other marinated versions might be more suitable.
galbi – marinated beef ribs, always rich and delicious
Marinated short ribs, or Galbi, is is one of my favorite Korean BBQ dishes, and the version at Dae Jang Gum did not disappoint. The beef is grilled to perfection and then cut into smaller pieces for your enjoyment. I like to wrap it in a piece of lettuce with some sauce and a piece of garlic to complete the flavor experience. Good stuff.
Yuki, Horng, & Haze
We usually spend about RM 30+ per person for a wholesome dinner here. Expect to pay a bit more if soju is involved, and alternatively you can order single dishes or go without BBQ meat to stay within a more limited budget. Whatever your decision, don’t forget to order the kimchi jiggae.
Address:
Dae Jang Gum Korean Restaurant
20B-2 & 20B-3,
Section 14/20,
46100 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.110188, 101.635439
Tel: 03-7957 2613
August 8, 2012
A few weeks ago we were invited to sample Toh Yuen‘s new a la carte menu. Some of you might have read about my previous visit to Toh Yuen back in 2011, well, of all the dishes prepared by Master Chef Lee this time around, only the fried rice and sea cucumber dish were repeats.
Toh Yuen Chinese restaurant at PJ Hilton Hotel
Regulars of Toh Yuen will be delighted that Chef Lee still stick by his principle of using the freshest and traditional ingredients with no additives in his cooking. For example, prawns are sourced fresh in the day and finished by the same night without ever being frozen. This ensures that the seafood you get here are some of the freshest one can get from a Chinese restaurant.
The slight down side of this method is that food generally tasted a bit more subtle, and thus might not suite tongues that are desensitized with too much tomyam and other heavily seasoned food, but if you are into traditional Chinese taste, this is worth a visit.
Here are the dishes we sampled:
chilled pacific clam, lamb with cumin & dried chili, soft shell crab
We got started out with three appetizers - chilled pacific clam with salsa (RM 28), deep fried lamb with cumin and dried chili (RM 28), and deep fried soft shell crab with garlic and chicken floss (RM 22).
Of the three, only the pacific clam is a cold dish, with the seafood sitting atop a bed of “salsa” arranged in a way not unlike tartar. The clams were sweet, but it did take me a while to accept having the pretty soft tasting salsa to go with them. A bold try but one that is still pretty experimental I thought.
The slightly spicy lamb was pretty good, and the chicken floss was an especially great addition to the soft shell crab, giving it an entirely different dimension. A trick I will shamelessly copy should I prepare soft shell crab (or even deep fried prawns) next time. I love it.
double boiled chicken with “shi hu” or “chong cao hua” soup
Like any proper 8 or 10 course Chinese dinner, our next dish was soup. we tried the double boiled chicken with “shi hu“ as well as the double boiled village chicken with “chong cao hua” soup (RM 32 per bowl).
Both were subtle but not lacking in taste. Herbal soup lovers will enjoy this, as I did. These aren’t of quality you find at Elegant Inn, and they weren’t priced as such either.
smoked duck with fruit sauce
My favorite dish of the night has gotta be the smoked duck with fruit sauce (RM 38). The duck breast has the perfect skin-fat-meat combination that reminds me of good quality roast pork, except with the slightly more exquisite taste of duck breast. The dragon fruit sauce gives it an extra bit of sophistication as well, I had at least 4-5 pieces (more than everyone 
)
prawns with salted egg, sea cucumber with mushroom, lamb with cumin & dried chili
Our first main dish was the sautéed prawn with salted egg yolk (RM 50). The freshness of the prawns were evident here, and I liked the fact that they were shelled and thus requires zero effort to consume. The richest dish we had, it was very well executed.
The sea cucumber with flower mushroom and abalone sauce (RM 80) is one of those dishes you often find at wedding dinners, but over here the sea cucumber were fat, juicy, and tasted quite a bit better. Older folks would love this dish for sure, and the sauce goes very well with steamed rice.
steamed Canadian black cod, sauteed celery with pine nuts, vegetarian “chicken” with yam basket
Next came steamed Canadian black cod fish with “yu feng” ginger sauce (RM 32/100 gram). The seafood was again very fresh, and the ginger/soya sauce base would go very well with steamed rice. I particularly love the fish skin and bits of fried garlic/ginger placed on top of the fish. This was a very luxurious dish to me.
Sautéed celery with lotus root & pine nuts (RM 30) is a blend of fresh crunchy vegetable with the texture of pine nuts. A bit bland for me, but a pretty good change of taste from the other dishes.
Our last main dish was the sauteed “gong bao” vegetarian chicken with yam ring (RM 60). This is a dish that I don’t particularly enjoy, and this has nothing to do with the taste but the fact that I usually like chicken to be .. well, made of chicken, and vegetable stayed vegetable, but if you’re those who enjoys fake fish and vegetarian meat, this isn’t a bad choice. The yam basket was delicious.
Toh Yuen fried rice, banana fritter & strawberry cheese cake dessert
We concluded the night with Toh Yuen fried rice (RM 35) and deep fried banana with strawberry and cheese cake (RM 20). The fried rice was very well balanced and tasted superb without having any ingredients that stands out, Haze over stuffed herself quite a bit trying to have as much as she could.
The dessert was decent, but a little out of place with the dishes that we had, I would probably prefer herbal jelly or snow hasma instead (which they have in their menu as well)
The full menu can be found here.
Address:
Toh Yuen Chinese Restaurant
Hilton Petaling Jaya
No 2 Jalan Barat
46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.10235, 101.64087
Tel: 03-7955 9122
July 29, 2012
Last week we attended the second buka puasa dinner buffet review session at Armada Hotel’s Utara Cafe, a place Haze and I went earlier in the year for their Mother’s day promotion buffet and was largely left impressed.
We braved the pre-buka puasa traffic in town (should have taken the LRT) and ended up parking a couple blocks away from the hotel to get there in time to take these photos before they were on everyone else’s plates. Ramadan is a month with fantastic food offerings at the markets and hotels alike, but the traffic.. that part I don’t like nearly as much.
buka puasa at Armada’s Utara Cafe – Sinar Ramadhan Al-Mubarak
Anyway, themed “Sinar Ramadhan Al-Mubarak“, the buka puasa buffet at Armada features over 100 dishes of traditional delicacies as well as some of the more familiar international offerings that wouldn’t be unfamiliar to those who has been to the Utara Coffee House.
These dishes are the brain child of Executive Chef Chew Teik Chye and his team of chefs.
ulam, kuih, rice, and even western style pastries
To start, there are kerabus, lemang, seruding, traditional kuih, and ulam with 4 different types of sambal, but unfortunately no tempoyak. Western style pastries are available as well, and if you are a fan of kerabu, they have kerabu mangga, kerabu sotong, kerabu kacang botol, and kerabu soo hoon.
lamb, beef curry, salad/rojak bar, roti jala, roti canai
There are also a few dishes from Middle Eastern cuisine that made their way into this buffet line up, you can find Qara Be Lahm El Ghanam (Pumpkin with lamb and cumin), Dajaj Mehawar (chicken with aromatic onion), Samkeh Harra Bil Kozhara (spicy fish with coriander), Fatet Dajaj (scented chicken with saffron rice), and Bayd Bil Forn (baked egg with spinach)
To be honest, those aren’t food I’m familiar with, but I did try a bit of them and my experience is a positive one.
satey, otak-otak, ikan bakar, roast lamb, nasi briyani, gulai with paku
Classic dishes such as gulai lembu (beef curry), ayam golek, pucuk paku, kambing masak merah, and many more are all present as well. Roti canai, satey, otak-otak, ikan bakar, briyani rice, and whole roast lamb too are some of the other dishes you can find. It is impossible to list them all down.
Oh, there’s also a stall where you can pick your own raw seafood and get the chef to cook it right there and then with the sauce of your choice. My advice is to try not to add bamboo clams into the mix cos the shells sometimes break and you end up having to pick them off the squid/prawns, troublesome!
sweet and sour beef, prawns, mussels, vegetables, and even duck
Other than the more “typical” Middle East and Malay food, there’s also raw oysters, sushi, smoked duck, steamed fish, and an assortment of dishes representing cuisines from all over the world. The 100+ dishes can actually be a little bit intimidating if you are those sort of people who always want to try everything at a buffet.
I took about 4 plates of food (not very full lah!) for dinner, and while not everything was 100% super fantastic, they were generally pretty good, and I particularly like the duck, steamed fish, and beef curry. Oysters were plenty fresh too.
steamed fish, raw oysters, sushi, and dined with some Muslim friends
This Ramadan feast is priced at RM 85++ per person, and there’s also a 10+1 promotion applicable for voucher purchase (to be redeemed till 31st Oct 2012). There’s also a competition at www.facebook.com/HotelArmadaPJ that you might want to check out.
Address:
Utara Coffee House
Hotel Armada Petaling Jaya
Lot 6, Lorong Utara C,
Section 52, 46200 PJ, Selangor
GPS: 3.104199, 101.640964
Tel: 03-7954 6888 (ext 4557)
May 16, 2012
I first came to Restaurant Good Food in search for curry mee, and so when I went back there again to find out that the curry mee has moved (back story in Penang-One food review post), I settled for another favorite of mine instead – the Penang kuih teow soup, or kuih teow th’ng (粿條汤).
restaurant good food at PJ Old Town
Kueh teow soup is a pretty common hawker dish in Penang that is akin to pork noodle in Klang Valley, their soup base is similar, but instead of everything pork, kuih teow soup usually comes with fish balls, shredded chicken (or sometimes duck, or pork), fish cake, and when you are lucky – coagulated blood (of pork or chicken/duck).
kuih teow soup with coagulated blood
The stall at Restaurant Good Food is operated by an old couple who spoke Penang Hokkien (always a good sign), and the kuih teow soup indeed tasted original and comes with all my favorite ingredients, most importantly lard and coagulated blood. It was subtle yet delicious, with the only downside being their somewhat average tasting fish ball.
For kuih teow soup outside the state of Penang, this one is definitely worth eating.
Address:
Restoran Good Food
Jalan Penchala
Seksyen 51,
46000 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.087026, 101.641479
morning till 3pm, close every 1st & 3rd Sundays
December 1, 2011
I’m a big fan of curry mee, in fact, it is probably my second most favorite hawker dishes all of time, just right behind char kuih teow.
But unlike char kuih teow that are almost always served with the same ingredients, curry mee can be tricky. There’re the Ipoh/central region variety that comes with curry chicken, cockles, and (if you are lucky) pork skin, and there’s the Penang version with prawns, santan based broth, cockles, and increasingly rarely – coagulated pork blood.
P/S: this stall has moved to Seapark, PJ. Click here to find out.
hail to Penang curry mee, with pork blood!
The Penang version curry mee isn’t the most common hawker offering in Klang Valley, and as far as I know, only a handful of them serve up a bowl with all the ingredients. So when I found out about this curry mee stall at the newish hawker center at PJ Old Town by the name of Restaurant Good Food, I was rather excited.
prawns, cockles, blood, and tofupok
The operator did speak fluent Penang hokkien, and the bowl of curry mee did indeed come with all the bell & whistles you’d expect – with some extra long beans & lime, but minus the mint leave (i’m nitpicking here).
Apart from the prawns being a bit smallish, this was actually a very good bowl of curry mee, it was the “right” flavor all the way down to the proper sambal with that iconic slightly burnt taste to it. I liked it.
For me, the curry mee at Restaurant Okay at SS2 still edges over this one, but I can almost never wake up in time before they are sold out (usually by 9 a.m. on weekends). This place opens till around 3pm, so hureii!
Address:
Restoran Good Food
Jalan Penchala
Seksyen 51,
46000 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.087026, 101.641479
morning till 3pm, close every 1st & 3rd Sundays
