For whatever reason, it has taken me this long to write about Kangsane Korean Restaurant in Ampang despite having been there numerous times since more than a year ago. In fact, this is the Korean restaurant I most frequent in recent times, and there is a reason for it: simply the best Galbi (marinated beef ribs) anywhere!
nice ambiance, illustrated menu
Kangsane Korean Restaurant is situated right in the middle of Little Korea at Ampang, that interesting commercial square where you can find dozens of Korean restaurants, grocery stores, and even optical shops. This place is to Korean like Brickfields is to Indian. Parking is usually not an issue here.
kimchi jjigae (soup), samgyeopsal (pork belly), and Galbi (marinated beef ribs)
Just like most other Korean BBQ restaurants, Kangsane serves various BBQ meat, stews, bulgogi, and of course, all these comes with plenty of Banchan (side dishes) that is the signature of Korean food. The must-order dish here would be the Galbi, I just couldn’t get enough of the succulent and perfectly flavored beef ribs.
I suggest that you always give them a call to make sure that the supply of Galbi is ample before heading there. We had to go for pork galbi on the last visit as the beef version ran out of stock, while it was still very good, the beef ribs is simply irreplaceable.
the many banchan (side dishes)
The other commendable dish is the samgyeopsal (pork belly), do start with this dish first if you also order galbi as the pork carries a more subtle taste that might be overpowered by the beef if you reverse the order.
Of course, a good Korean restaurant must also serve good banchan (side dishes), and the good thing about Kangsane is that they always have different banchan every time we go there. From anchovies to tofu, kimchi to some funny looking vegetables, they are always very delicious and accompanies the main dish very well. I also absolutely love their kimchi jjigae (kimchi soup)
good food is to be enjoyed with friends: Kim, Kelvin, Pinkpau, ST, Kenneth
Price wise, this place is pretty much in par with similar Korean restaurants. Some BBQ meat dishes, stews, and maybe some dumplings will usually cost around RM 40-50 per person for a table of 4-5. Very worth it though.
Kangsane is situated in the Little Korea at Ampang, KL
Address:
C5 Jalan Ampang Utama 1/1
One Ampang Avenue
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.155283, 101.751364
Tel: 03-4251 2598
It’s been a while since I had any decent Yong Tau Foo (釀豆腐) like the one at Ampang, so we headed to Segambut for the famous Jalan Ipoh Yong Tau Foo last weekend. The name might be a little deceiving, for this restaurant is not exactly located at Jalan Ipoh, but at Jalan Segambut, just off Jalan Duta.
much better set up and parking situations than Ampang
We got to the restaurant at about 2pm in the afternoon, purposely avoid the heavy lunch crowd. As the restaurant is a converted bungalow, there are ample parking space, unlike Ampang Yong Tau Foo’s dreadful parking situation.
Ordering the food is pretty simple here, they provide a form and you basically just fill in the numbers, like some of the dim sum places. This saves time for both the customers and the restaurant operators, I can only wonder why the other places don’t do this. For the five six of us, we ordered 72 pieces of goodness and some rice for the first round. Of course, we added 10 more for 2nd round.
don’t these make you drool? Yummm
If my memory serves me correct, there were 5 pieces of white tofu, 8 pieces of brinjal (egg plant), 4 bitter gourd, 10 red chili, 8 lady fingers (okra), 10 fish balls, 11 fried sui kow, 6 soup sui kow, 15 fried foo chok (bean curd skin), 5 rice, and some drinks. On top of that, we had a fruit rojak as appetizer. Quite a portion for 3 4 guys and 2 girls.
For the newbie to Malaysian cuisine, most Yong Tau Foo pieces are stuffed with fish paste. The exception being sui kow, fish ball, and foo chok.
we didn’t leave anything behind
The good thing about this place is that the food is served almost instantaneously, so you can satisfy your hunger right from the get go. As for taste, it is right up there with their Ampang counterparts, with the rojak being the exception. I guess Penangites are a little more picky when it comes to fruit rojak.
Price wise, at REM 0.70 a piece, it is very competitive. We spent only around RM 15 each after filling our stomachs to the point of having difficulty in walking.
This Yong Tau Foo place is just a stone’s throw from the Duta round-about
Good food, reasonable price, and a comfortable eating environment, this place is definitely worth repeating visits.
Address:
Ipoh Road Yong Tow Foo
67, Jalan Segambut,
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.180645, 101.677523
Tel: +603-6252 6473
HP: +6019-309 8283
When one talks about satey, undoubtedly msot of you will think of Kajang. However, if you are like me, who thinks that Kajang is bit too far and you agree with the popular sentiment that Kajang satey has gotten abit overrated these days, there’s still hope. Right here at the heart of KL, you can find pretty awesome and very affordable satey.
I was originally introduced to this particular joint by the chow Ah Beng, Galvin Tan, a couple years ago. So when we were stuck at KL traffic on the way back from KLCC just the other day, I suggested that we settle for dinner there. We ordered some 20 Chicken sateys (from my past exprience the beef satey wasn’t very great) and a couple ketupats for the 3 of us.
The satey is very juicy and not overly done. The satey sauce (peanut based) is pretty much free flow, for the chili lovers, you can add sambal to the sauce, too. The ketupat, well, tastes like how ketupat should, soft and blunt, but goes well with the satey and sauce. With 3 drinks, the total came to be about RM 14 or so, less than RM 5 per person for light dinner. Pretty good deal, not to mention it’s rather tasty too.
Other than satey, the restaurant sells other cook to serve Malay food, such as various types of fried rice, nasi paprid, and so forth. However, satey is their main speciality and pretty much ordered by every customer. Give it a try, and save some money on toll and petrol by not having to go to Kajang.
Here’s how you get there, bla!
The place is just opposite Menara Celcom. If you are using Lebuhraya Mahameru going towards Ampang direction, make sure you don’t go up to the elevated portion of the highway. Take the left turn instead.
note: it’s bulatan Pahang, instead of Kuantan. hehe
GPS: 3.167828, 101.713759
I am sure some of you noobs here have heard about Ampang Yong Tau Foo, and might have gone to some shady shops with the “Ampang Yong Tau Foo” signs. However, if you haven’t gone to the original place, all you’ve had would just be akin to any stalls in KL claiming they serve “Penang Char Kuih Teow”. Lets get old school, lets get the real stuff.
argh, i’m starting to drool..
Now there are 3 shops right next to each other at this original Ampang Yong Tau Foo place that is situated in an old school area with all the pre-war buildings. I have tried each of the 3 shops and thus far think that all of them are pretty much equally good. So these days we just go to the one that we manage to find a parking space.
we ordered quite a feast for 3 people
Last weekend we visited the middle shop, called Restaurant Orchard View Yong Tau Foo. Each piece of yong tau foo is RM 0.60, and they serve a variety of other dishes too. We ordered “mui choi khau yok” (fatty pork with some fermented vege,) glass chicken legs (boneless chicken feet, served with carrots, chillie, parsley, lime,) peanut soup, oily vegetable, and 20 pieces of mouth watering yong tau foo. Terence was there, that explains why we ordered so much.
Some purists will say that the place should sell nothing but yong tau foo, and I think one of the other shops is like that, but I think it doesn’t hurt to have a little variety. The yong tau foo is fresh and have a pretty nice texture to it. They come in chilly, okra (lady’s finger), bitter guord, tofu, foo chok, and gyoya if you just ask them to mix it up. Of course, you can order seperately.
Here’s the map, foo!
If you love yong tau foo, this is the place to go. Any of the 3 restaurants will do justice to the Ampang Yong Tau Foo name. I never walk out of that place with an unsatisfied stomach. There was once I had to down 18.5 pieces of yong tau foo cos we mistakenly brought a Malay friend there and found out it wasn’t halal after ordering 30 pieces for 3 person. The other chump only had 11.5, wtf.
The restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch only.
GPS: 3.144619, 101.763284
