A couple Fridays ago, Eiling invited me to Cubes Chinese Restaurant at Jaya One for a food review session.
Jaya One is slowly becoming a pretty popular watering (and dining) hole in PJ, and it is not hard to see why. There are plenty of restaurants, cafes, and pubs offering a wide variety of cuisines, and parking is relatively cheap and easy to find.
Cubes Chinese Restaurant
Yiling, Eiling’s sister, but not Ziling, (mystery of the EZY sister naming convention) and I reached the restaurant and had a good 20 minutes flipping through the menu and chatting before our Eiling finally arrived.
The interior decoration of the restaurant is modern, chic, very different from typical high end Chinese restaurants. We were greeted by the owner, Mr. Ang, who turned out to be a very friendly, funny, and fine host.
probably the best London Aromatic Duck….
So we got started with a serving of “probably the best London Aromatic Duck”. The server flossed the quarter duck confit to and we then wrapped the meat with very fine crepe, spring onion, julienned cucumber, and the special sauce. Their signature appetizer dish, and it was very yummy! Reminded me of the similar dish at Kensington, Seremban.
braised peanuts, juice, enzymes
Throughout dinner, we were served hot tea, a variety of interesting juices (vegetable juice anyone?); and since Eiling is a buddy of the restaurateur, we were also served the little shot glasses of “enzymes” which were fermented juice that tasted very close to being alcohol but not quite, it was pretty interesting. An acquired taste I must say.
double boiled soup, tofu with spinach and mushroom, tiger prawn with rice crisp
We then had the Double Boiled Scallops with Tong Sum Soup. The pork ribs, scallops, and herbs certainly works very well together to produce a very sweet and herbal tasting soup, I like it.
Tiger Prawn with Rice Crisp came next. The prawn itself was the size of my palm, deep fried in a way that still leave the meat very succulent. The pairing of rice crisp is to provide a different texture to the prawn.
Homemade Bean Curd with Spinach and Mushroom provided yet another dimension of taste that is typical of Chinese cuisine. Soft, smooth, and certainly not lacking in taste, the mushroom with it’s sauce and scallop bits certainly adds a bit of character to the otherwise plain tofu dish.
honey roasted pork ribs, stir fry lotus roots and celery, almond soup and black sesame tong yuen
The dish that was probably most amazing in the whole dinner was the Honey Roasted Pork Ribs. I mean, just look at it, a generous piece of ribs, doesn’t look anything more like a slab of char siew (bbq pork), but when you cut into the meat, ahh. The meat immediately breaks on impact and the aroma of that perfectly roasted pork come rushing out. It was really succulent and really, really tasty. This dish should not be missed.
We finally wrapped up the main course with Stir Fry Lotus Roots and Celery, the vegetable certainly provided a fresh change of taste from the seafood and meat. The lotus roots is prepared in two ways, deep fried and by normal stir frying. This provides a slightly different flavor, the deep fried version reminds me of deep fried bitter gourd you get in places like Kanna Curry House
Yiling, KY, and Eiling
After we were absolutely filled to the brim, Mr. Ang ordered us (and we denied at first) the Almond Soup with Black Sesame Glutinous Balls. I think the almond soup was a tad too thick and would personally prefer soya milk in this case, but the glutinous balls was very yummy. Reminded me of the version made by (well, reheated) Mellissa one particular night at Melbourne.
Overall, the dinner was only bested by the company at the table. Eiling and Yiling always made good company, and Mr. Ang, being a fantastic host, made the entire experience that much better. Price at Cubes would be slightly higher than your run-of-the-mill Chinese outlets, but the combination of food and ambiance made it all very worth it.
So if you’re looking for a finer Chinese cuisine not located in a 5-star hotel, this would be one of the very few places worth visiting.
Address:
Cubes
18-1, Block L1-1,
Palm Square Jaya One,
No. 72A, Jalan Universiti,
Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.118298, 101.635294
Tel: 3-7958 6616
eh, did wanted to try out this restaurant but was denied by it cuz my friend said its kinda exp..after your review..woould drag my friend to give it a try..
Eh, I think I’ve been here before. It’s the place that serves some sort of char siew pizza right?
OMG somewhere with Crispy Aromatic Duck! Must go must go must go.
what sort of bill we are looking at?
taufulou,
Hahah good
Huai Bin,
Er.. I’m not very sure :S
ShaolinTiger,
Yess Yums!
blink4blog,
To be frank, I didn’t know! :X
not bad o…
Good try~
looks good, sounds good 😉
tho does the soup/tea/juices/enzymes all went well with the meal?
DSvT,
😀
Billy,
Yaa is good. The enzyme thing doesn’t. 😛
Yes I agree, the pork ribs is really good!
sorry for being anal but since you mentioned duck confit in a few of the posts, confit is actually a method of preparation (french) with the duck leg and doesnt mean the leg itself.
hhaah was thr juz now for Fronterra! was wonderin whetehr its gd. well i definitely wan to try tht duck!
Yiling,
Yums!
greedy gourmand,
Whops, you could be right, my bad. I’ll check it out. Thanks
never tried their food. but everytime pass by see but empty and dark…. like con house like that. i guess 2nd floor is just never good idea as food outlet.
the pork ribs reminds me of when i am having it at Restoran Siu Siu at Jln Syed Putra … this looks delicious too …. nice review, must go there to try one day.
My tong yuen in soyabean was like the most amazing thing ever okay! Granted all I did was boil them together BUT STILL!
ok i’m going there today! ;P
pork ribs looks yummy and Yilling looks scary.
aeroplane1234,
Yaa, location wise higher floor always loses out a bit.
vialentino,
Ooo, yess very nice
Mellissa,
Hahaha I know, and the black sesame, yums!
Jade Zheng,
Naisss
Myhorng,
Hahaha Yiling is dangerous! 😛
Why must both of you highlight that I am late?!!
eiling,
That’s only because you were very late! 😛
would have thought that eiling will have a puff somewhere in Jaya One and gets some dirty looks from peeps who hated CUBAN cigars . . .did she ?lolz
foodcrazee: I’ve fulfilled my quota for May! And I don’t puff when my friends aren’t doing it.
foodcrazee,
Hahaha she didn’t.
eiling,
Wah such a good girl 😛
NOwadays everyone is talking about those enzyme thing… it’s really an acquire taste 😛
allie,
Yah the taste is a bit odd, but I actually like it. 😀
mmmm looks very good. must give this a try.
babe_kl,
Yaa, and tell us your experience. 😉
hi ky,
went to cubes yesterday and ordered the dishes u recommended… for 2 pax, we ordered the london aromatic duck (the duck was a bit dry but still flavourful with the winning concoction of some cucumber, spring onion and sweet sauce to be rolled with the egg crepe….i love the spring onion idea though… then we ordered the same tofu as u ordered (not too bad especially with the scallop sauce but tasted somewhere better in puchong), and the fried vege with lotus root and celery (which my fren and i really enjoyed cos the celery and others were cooked till crunchy and not overcooked at all).. 2 white rice and 2 plain water.. the bill came up to rm65 plus… not too bad for a nice ambience like cubes… will go there again and try the ribs next time
connie,
ooo sounds like a pretty good deal, yah remember to try the ribs!
wow… sounds very interesting ~
wonder what is the price like
comparable to DucKing ?
ling239,
comparable I think. 🙂
Will try tomorrow evening. Not sure it will burn a hole in my pocket. Covered carpark available?
alan,
yah covered car park available