While walking to our original intended target – the pork free food court between Wisma Cosway and Wisma Genting, a few colleagues and I chanced upon this new little restaurant by the name of Siamese Cafe located just behind the interesting Yashi-no-mi Japanese cafe.
NOTE: unfortunately this place has already been closed down
the glorious siamese nasi lemak with chicken, squid, petai & prawn
The restaurant has only some 10 tables that sits 2-3 people each, and on the menu there are less than 10 items on offer. This is fine by me, the bigger the menu usually only means the bigger the confusion and time taken to order.
The choices are simple, you can either have nasi lemak, or Siamese mee hun to go with fried chicken, Kristan chicken (a type of thick curry), ikan kembung, assam squid, sambal petai prawn, or kerang (cockles).
there’s siamese mee hun too, and those anchovies are darn good
Everything is priced at RM 8, except for Nasi Lemak (or meehun) special that comes with squid, petai assam prawn, and fried chicken, that is at RM 10. The set comes with an ice lemon tea, and the sides that includes half a hard boiled egg, peanuts, some potato + onion thing, and fried anchovies.
and here is winnie, as your eye candy
While the meehun tends to be a little on the dry side, the nasi lemak was fragrant and full of santan flavor. The chicken, petai, and squid were all very good too, and I particularly love the sweet and spicy fried anchovies they serve at the side.
The special set is really value for money at RM 10 with drinks. Business seems to be quite brisk at this new place, and I certainly hope this cafe is here to stay.
Address:
Siamese Cafe
Ground Floor
Wisma Cosway
Jalan Sultan Ismail
50540 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.150875, 101.711812
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By now, many of you are probably familiar with MilkADeal, a local discount site where you often find incredible deals on all sorts of stuff, like food, spa, travel packages, adventure activities, photo album, car tinting, and more.
Do check out the site for stuff that you need and many that you want for a steep discount.
And while discounts are neat, I want to highlight what that MilkADeal is also using their site as a vehicle to do good. There is a TLC Promise Me campagin that is running right now, and you can buy the “deal” at RM 20 with 100% of the money going to Rumah Aman Children Home, an orphanage that needs their electrical wiring and lightning protection upgraded.
For those who donate over RM 100, you can even request a receipt for tax exemption too.
p/s: this is not the first time MilkADeal runs community service “deals”, I remember there was one for Japan earthquake too.
I must have walked by Yashi-no-mi at least a dozen times without thinking that it was available for lunch.
The outside says Japanese Cafe, but with the darkened glass panels and dodgy looking main entrance, this place looks more like an old school arcade or pubs where married men prefer not to let their wives know if they went there the previous night.
Yashi-no-mi Japanese Cafe at Wisma Cosway
Feeling a little adventurous yesterday, I walked by Yashi-no-mi again yesterday, and just by chance I spotted a piece of laminated A-4 paper that says (among other things), lunch at 12 pm – 2:30 pm. The door wasn’t fully closed, I peeked in and saw a handful of diners in there eating something. I decided to head in too.
buta shougayaki don – pork belly in ginger sauce with rice
The cafe looks like it was lifted from a neighborhood pub in suburban Japan and got transported to this country by mistake. Maroon faux leather bench chair, wooden tables, a brick wall, heavily tinted glasses, and a TV older than most college kids.
The place is quite hideous, but at the same time it was also quite charming, a little old lady prepares your food right behind the bar, the server was friendly, and time slows down by at least a factor of two when you are there.
the set comes with salad, miso soup, and drinks
There were less items on the menu than you have fingers, which makes it easy to order. I chose the buta shougayaki don that comes with a bowl of fried pork belly with onion in light onion sauce on rice, a serving of salad with the lovely wafu dressing, a drink (choice of ice lemon tea or green tea), and a bowl of miso soup too.
All for RM 17, if you order the “S” size. Add 2 bucks for M, 4 for L, and so forth.
The pork belly and rice I had was excellent too (same can’t be said about their miso soup), and I think I’ll be heading there whenever I need to get away a little. There’s still a few dishes to try out, like maybe that pork cutlet with mayo.. ermm.
Address:
Yashi-no-me
Lot G.01, Ground Floor
Wisma Cosway
Jalan Sultan Ismail
50540 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.150875, 101.711812
Tel: 03-2148 4254
I’ve been working at the proximity of Bukit Bintang for over half a year now, and I gotta say that compared to KLCC, this place has so much more lunch options. One of my relatively recent discovery is this little Japanese ramen shop on the first floor at Wisma Cosway – Ton Chan.
Ton Chan at Wisma Cosway
The interior decoration is not unlike other simple Japanese outfit, with plenty of lanterns and empty sake bottles. I spotted a few Japanese dining within, and that was when I decided that this is probably a place worth visiting.
Chasiu ramen with glistering pork & 3/4 boiled egg
On my first visit I ordered the Chasiu Ramen (RM 15), since it’s supposed to be a ramen restaurant, they should serve good chasiu ramen, the original stuff.
And what came was a bowl of ramen with five pieces of chasiu that stared at me so seductively it could make a grown man cry. Half of a perfectly 3/4 boiled egg, plenty of green onion, home made ramen, and their light but tasty soup made up the rest of the dish. It was a bowl of good ramen that ensured my return to this restaurant.
rice with pork, rice with chicken & egg, ramen
On my second visit with a few colleagues, I tried their braised pork with rice. Served with the same half an egg and a side of soup, the braised pork were seriously one of the bests I’ve had. It was fat, succulent, and super savory. I’m gonna have trouble choosing between this and the ramen.
My colleagues tried ramen and liked it, another ordered oyakodon (rice with chicken and egg) and gave good reviews to them too.
A meal at Ton Chan typically costs somewhere around RM 15-25, but you do get real Japanese food that are different from your typical sushi/sashimi shops.
Give it a try if you’re at the area.
Address:
Ramen Ton Chan
Lot 1.18-1.21, 1st Floor
Wisma Cosway
Jalan Sultan Ismail
50540 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.150875, 101.711812
Tel: 03-2148 9389
Being from Penang where pan mee is not common, this is still one hawker dish that I have yet fully embraced. I guess same can be said for most from central region with regards to Penang style curry mee or even koay chap.
dry “mala” pan mee with chili sauce
So I was a little bit apprehensive when Winnie suggested that we give this a try (since the lunch gang of Terence, Horng, and I all felt that our wallets gotten too light). After trying, I went back there again a few days later, it was very good!
This particular pan mee place is located at the ground floor of Wisma Cosway, just across the street from Pavilion. The tables are sprawled along the corridors below and behind the escalator, and they are rather popular with the rat racers over lunch, and often times you have to wait for an empty spot.
with anchovies and lard too
There are a few versions of pan mee to choose from – dry, soup, mala (麻辣) dry, mala soup, and so on. My favorite is the mala dry version. The chili sauce here is closer to traditional pan mee chili (unlike the dry chili at superkitchen or kin kin), but they are really really super spicy (do ask for extra serving, usually the portion of chili is very small).
The soup that came with the noodle is a bit underwhelming, but the dry noodle itself was superb when you mix in the chili. The combination of super spicy chili, anchovies, pan mee, black fungus, and of course lard in that dark sauce is perfect.
map to wisma cosway
If you’re around the area on weekdays looking for a good bowl of spicy pan mee, look no further than this place at Wisma Cosway. The whole thing is less than RM 5-6 including drinks too!
Address:
Ground Floor Wisma Cosway
Jalan Sultan Ismail
50540 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.150875, 101.711812
