Having to make a decision for dinner last weekend before a movie, I was trying to be smart and told Lorna (my petrol heroine) that I am bringing her to a pretty interesting place without first giving her the restaurant’s name. We then walked past Sushi Zanmai, and she told me “my sister and I went to another Zanmai place last week, the one downstairs”

“Pasta Zanmai?” I asked. She said yah. That was exactly the place I thought I’d surprise her with, so you can imagine what an ass it made me feel. Well the important thing is that we still ended up there and I was able to finally give Pasta Zanmai a try.

pretty nice interior with an integrated shop

Pasta Zanmai is actually from the same group that runs RakuZen at Subang Jaya, Chulan Square, as well as the Sushi Zanmai branches. I have always had positive impressions at their establishments, so my expectation was rather high stepping into this place.

It was a rather busy Saturday dinner time, we decided to sit at the bar right in front of the glass shielded kitchen rather than wait for a table. The interior decoration was pretty nice, with ample lighting, comfortable chairs, and a busy pace.

crab meat avocado spaghetti, Japanese curry rice

The menu came accompanied with pictures of most dishes, which makes ordering that much easier. I couldn’t resist the combination of kani (crab) and avocado with pasta, and Lorna ordered the Japanese curry chicken rice. We also asked for ikura (salmon roe) and teriyaki hotate (scallop) as appetizers. A big pitcher of ice fruit tea was shared.

Despite the crowd, food didn’t take long to arrive, and they were good! Ikura was a bit smallish in serving size, but I guess there isn’t much to complain as the quality was good and the price reasonable. My spaghetti was really delicious, good portion of avocado and kani (real crab and not crab sticks) with the slightly salty pasta sauce that wasn’t over powering. The ebiko (flying fish roe) sprinkled on the pasta gave it an added sophistication as well. I really liked it.

ikura, hotate, and the giant ice fruit tea

The curry chicken rice was true to the taste as well, slightly sweet and not exactly spicy. I like the fact that they use real Japanese rice in this dish. As for the teriyaki hotate (scallop), they were so sweet and succulent I was so glad we ordered them.

Total bill came to Rm 100.05 including tax and service charge. Highest priced item was my RM 25 pasta while the other dishes and drinks ranges from RM 12 to RM 22. Give it a try!

Address:
Pasta Zanmai
G210B, Ground Floor Promenade
1 Utama Shopping Centre
Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.150050, 101.615939
Tel: 03-7728 1210

Others:
Masak-masak
Brought up 2 share
blueepinkk

Tags:  1-utama,  dining,  Japanese-Food,  pasta,  spaghetti

Posted by KY | 32 Comments »

I have wanted to try Carl’s Jr. ever since it was reopened in Malaysia last year, but for one reason or another, I didn’t manage to try it until just a couple of days ago when my colleagues suggested that we should have lunch at the joint at Sunway Pyramid. When I saw the tag line on one of it’s posters saying “Screw the Diet“, I started to like the place already.

Think of Carl’s Jr. sitting in between Chilis/TGI and Burger King/McD. While it is set up as a fast food joint, the quality is far above BK & McD, and priced accordingly too.

unlimited refill of drinks (including ice lemon tea, coffee) and pickles/onion

Being my first time there, I didn’t really know what to order. I had wanted to get the Portebello Mushroom Burger but they ran out of stock, so I naively followed my colleague and ordered myself a medium size SuperStar double combination, or something like that.

I got my cup and filled it up with some coke while waiting for the burger to be served. The one thing I like about Carl’s Jr. is the fact that other than soft drinks, they have unlimited free refill for coffee, ice lemon tea, pickles, onions, and even slices of lemon.

it was a big meal

When the burger came, the size of it makes the Whopper look like a White Castle sandwich. The taste was actually rather good as well, the two charbroiled beef patties were juicy and tasty. While I prefer the real bacon, this halal version did not disappoint either. I actually had to waste more than half of the fries as my stomach was totally stuffed up after finishing the awesome burger.

While the price is a little high at RM 10+ to RM 20+, I think the size and taste factor do make up for it. I’m going to get the Portebello Mushroom Burger next time!

You can find Carl’s Jr. in Sunway Pyramid (new wing), Mid Valley, 1-Utama (old wing), and Pavilion KL. I’ve heard that they’re going to open 40 outlets between Singapore and Malaysia, can’t wait!

GPS: 3.150050, 101.615939 (1 Utama)
GPS: 3.073297, 101.607576 (Sunway Pyramid)

Tags:  1-utama,  bacon,  beef,  burger,  sunway pyramid

Posted by KY | 43 Comments »

For one reason or the other, I found myself eating at SOHO (新煮意) no less than 3 times in this very young year of 2008. I guess it is appropriate that I write about this restaurant as the first “KY eats” post of the year.

SOHO 新煮意

SOHO is located at 1 Utama shopping complex, a place with mysterious attraction to pretty much every female (they just want to go there every weekend!). More specifically, the restaurant is situated just between the Jusco supermarket and One World hotel. The mostly white interior decoration of the place is pretty nice, but in the evening, the restaurant tend to be a little too cold.

The menu is rather extensive, they have everything from dimsum to la mien to rice dishes. There’s also a good selection of Chinese tea and other drinks as well.

glutinous dumpling, creamy and flowy custard, shanghai xiao long pao

So far I have tasted quite a few dishes at SOHO. The glutinous dumpling was really nice, I particularly like the subtle sesame taste and the sweet soup with strong ginger taste. Being a new-age Chinese restaurant, the Xiao Long Pao did not disappoint either, they come in half a dozen. However, my favorite dimsum dish from there has got to be the “creamy and flowy custard”. This thing is like a sweet bun with hot salted egg yolk based cream inside. The combination is superb, little wonder that this is the hot chick’s must-order item.

crispy schezuan duck, braised pork ball, porridge, and other dishes

Other dishes I had were the crispy Schezuan duck, braised pork ball, pork and vegetable porridge, fried fish filet, a tofu dish, fried noodle, and a couple types of vegetable. Generally speaking, the taste was not overly strong but still flavorful to the ingredient’s natural taste, I find that quite refreshing. The duck that looked like a pile of mess was actually the work of the waitress who deboned the bird to our convenience.

Price wise, SOHO is pretty similar to Crystal Jade and Dragon-i. A typical meal would be RM25-40 per person. While not the cheapest meal out there, it provides decent value and pretty good taste in a convenient location (ie. every girl’s best weekend hangout place)

Address:
G218 One Utama
Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya
Selangor
GPS: 3.150050, 101.615939
Tel: 03-7722 2155

Tags:  1-utama,  chinese-food,  dimsum,  soho,  xiao-long-bao

Posted by KY | 16 Comments »

The first time (and incidentally, the last time) I went to Jack’s Place was sometimes in 2005. The reason it took me so long for this second visit was not the lack of quality in their food during the first visit, but rather my general absence from the malls in weekends since working at KLCC. Why head to the mall during weekends when I am walking in one every on single working day? Anyway… I shall not digress

as I ponder what to order..

The ambiance at this little restaurant is actually very nice. Not very brightly lit, but gives one a sense of relaxation, I prefer it to the rowdiness of Fridays or Chili’s. Since it was an afternoon, we took advantage to order from the very reasonably priced set lunch menu. I got a NZ Rib eye, medium rare, and the hot chick ordered a Dory fish set with the option for lobster soup instead of the standard mushroom cream.

I also asked for my steak to be served on a normal plate with the sauce separated instead of the sizzling plate. This is to prevent the meat from getting cooked all the time while I’m trying to have my lunch. I also believe that good steak should not be tainted by some “brown sauce”.

this medium rare was a little too rare, but juicy nonetheless

Our two main dish didn’t take long to arrive, but the server actually forgot to serve the soups until I reminded him. We ended up only getting the soup more than half way into the meal. I guess the service standard in Malaysia still has a long way to go.

While pretty juicy and actually rather tasty, the medium rare here emphasized the word rare way too much. You can probably see it in the picture above on how pink the meat was. The Dory fish (and chips) was a pretty good dish too, but the serving size was a bit overwhelming.

While the mushroom soup was pretty average, the lobster bisque was actually very nice. There were chunks of lobster meat to chew on while you savor the rich creamy taste of the soup. Pretty good for only an additional RM 4 upgrade from the standard set lunch.

the hot chick wasn’t complaining

Including a 10% service charge and the standard 5% government tax, the bill came to around RM 55. Pretty reasonable for a satisfying lunch. Jack’s Place does offer a pretty extensive menu that can be found here. The lobster and crab stuffed mushroom appetizer is not to be missed if you are prepared to shell out some RM 18 for it.

Address:
F346, First Floor Rainforest
1 Utama Shopping Centre (New Wing)
No.1 , Lebuh Bandar Utama Damansara
47800 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.150050, 101.615939
Tel: 03-7725 1433

Tags:  1-utama,  dory-fish,  fish-and-chips,  mushroom,  rib-eye,  steak,  western-food

Posted by KY | 12 Comments »

One of my favorite local delights in this part of the world is the otak-otak. Now, there are two different types of otak-otak, noobs such as Suan would love that the southern type that is thin, wrapped with banana leaf, and cooked over charcoal fire; but the Penangite in me still prefers the northern Nyonya style variety that is thicker and bigger, often steamed instead of grilled.

my god, brain.. brain!

In Klang Valley, you can often find the southern style otak-otak in pasar malam and many Malay markets; but to get a decent peranakan otak-otak, now that is a bit of a challenge. Which was why I was rather delighted to have spotted this otak-otak set offered at Kopitime in 1 Utama.

Despite the slight over pricing of the item, I just had to order it. The set came with two decent size otak-otak and two slices of roti bengali. The otak-otak turned out to be actually pretty good, and the roti bengali does serve as a pretty good companion for the light meal. Though the RM 7.90 + tax is a little too much to pay, however, I wouldn’t mind it once in a while.

not exactly cheap..

Kopitime is situated at 1 Utama new wing facing the bowling alley, though I believe they have some other branches too. Other than the otak-otak set, we had prawn mee and laksa, both dishes were pretty bad and best left unmentioned.

By the way, the word otak means brain in the Malay language, though the food does resemble a little on the fascinating human organ, it is best not to remind yourself of this fact when consuming this dish.

GPS: 3.150050, 101.615939

Tags:  1-utama,  otak-otak

Posted by KY | 11 Comments »