Chola Spice Garden is slightly different from the usual Indian restaurants dotted around the country, serving a mixture of both northern and southern Indian cuisine instead of only concentrating on one. I was invited for a food tasting session and brought two noobs (Terence & Dree) along with me.

ready to eat as well as order to cook options available

Food is served in two ways here, there is the mamak/nasi kandar style self served food on the buffet line, and order to cook items from the menu as well.

Chicken Chitinat Masala, Chicken 65, Bombay Fried Rice

The first things we had was the strangely named Chicken 65 and the Chicken Chitinat Masala, to go with two types of tosai, the normal and “paper” version. I particularly like the strong tasting Chicken Chitinat Masala with it’s flavorful albeit spicy gravy. The Chicken 65 is a type of deep fried marinated chicken served with fresh onion and curry leaves. The contrasting texture and taste between the chicken and raw onion was quite refreshing and it became on the fastest dish to have gotten empty.

Pataya Fried Rice, Potato Cheese Paratha, Tosai, Poori

I like the aromafrom the Bombay Fried Rice, it carries a slightly tomato-ish taste while being not overly spicy. We also had the Poori with potato masala as the condiment. However, the most interesting dish would be the Potato Cheese Paratha. At first I thought it was just a normal “roti”, but as the bread is cut, fillings of potato cooked with cheese and spices is revealed. The deceptively simple combination actually tasted very good!

Madras Masala Tea, Mint Lime, Ice Blended Lemon, Mango Lassi, Saffron Almond Milk

As for drinks, we sampled 5 different types of thirst quenchers for the 3 of us. The mango lassi was very fruity and sweet with mango taste, ice blended lemon refreshing, and the iced mint lime drink rather interesting. My favorite though, would be the saffron almond milk. Creamy with a dash of sweetness and taste from saffron. It was the first time I had this drink, and I am sure it won’t be the last.

Chola Spice Garden is located just next to Sunway Pyramid

As for the price, Chola Spice Garden is rather reasonable. For a semi air conditioned restaurant, you can have a rice dish with a piece of chicken and vege for just a few ringgit. Dishes from the menu ranges from a few Ringgit onwards. You can certainly get a pretty interesting meal for just above RM 10 per person here. Do try the saffron milk!

Address:
No. 5, Jalan PJS 11/28
Bandar Sunway
46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Tel: 03-5633 9449

Tags:  chicken,  dining,  Eats,  india,  indian-food,  masala,  saffron,  spice,  sunway

Posted by KY | 14 Comments »

After getting to know about this from the ever popular Ho Chak series on 8TV, Kelvin suggested that we give Gopala Indian vegetarian restaurant at Brickfield a try. I didn’t have to drive there, so why not? Although I’m not a huge fan of vegetarian food, I’m always willing to try just about anything.

the restaurant is fairly clean and comfortable, other than the tiny ceiling fans

Located at Brickfield, KL, the restaurant is actually just a stone’s throw away from the Sentral Monorail station and the YMCA building. Gopala is a lot cleaner than most banana leaf or mamak places, which is always a good thing.

excellent satay and the unique Indian style yong tau fu

After looking through the rather extensive menu, we ordered a set of satay, a clay pot yong tau fu, sambal petai, mee goreng, nasi goreng, and a plate of mixed vegetable pakora . The list of items would be very ordinary in any food court, but do keep in mind that we were in an Indian vegetarian restaurant instead.

Of the six dishes that we ordered, 4 of them were rather ordinary, and with the mixed vegetable pakora somewhat disappointing as they actually deep fried the mixed (chopped) vegetable and dahl instead of having many different types of pakora instead. A different interpretation I suppose.

The two other items, however, were surprisingly good. The yong tau foo is not any less tasty than the real thing, and the soup carries a very unique peppery taste (in a good way) that is very different from the non-halal version.

The vegetarian satay too is surprisingly delicious. The peanut sauce has a stronger curry taste to it, and the best part is that you don’t have to deal with the tendons or fats that comes with eating meat. The texture is much more consistent and the taste is similar to very tender meat. It was a revelation. This is definitely the place to go if you were to introduce any of your vegetarian friends to this famous local dish.

The dinner came to be about RM 30+, not exactly cheap, but vegetarian food are never cheaper than the non-vegetarian counterparts anyway. The 5 sticks of satay did costs RM 5, but I think this is still a decent place to go for vegetarians to get a different taste.

Address:
59 Jalan Thambipillay
50470 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 012-351 3713

Tags:  brickfield,  curry,  dining,  Eats,  gapola,  indian-food,  satay,  soya-bean,  vegetarian

Posted by KY | 1 Comment »