Venoth's Culinary Adventures: April 2014

Sunday, 27 April 2014

Restoran Garden Seafood @ Tanjung Malim, Perak

This is one of the local restaurants in Tanjung Malim that is quite famous among all races. Despite it being a Chinese Seafood restaurant, it has the Halal status which attracts a lot of Malay customers here, besides the usual Chinese and Indians. This place is also a favorite stop over restaurant for many of the tour operators in the country. Sometimes, even when we locals want to have our lunch or dinner, there are no available seats as buses of tourist stop by. In such cases, the owner would inform us before hand.

Luckily, today was not such a day. It was just having the usual weekend crowd when we arrived. In fact for this restaurant, there has been a lot of mention in the local news papers as well as magazines. The owner, a Chinese guy from our neighborhood, came up with this idea of setting up a Halal restaurant instead of the usual Chinese restaurant and today, he has no one to compete with.

Restaurant Garden Seafood in Tanjung Malim

The Entrance

Antiques

Antique Wall Clocks on Display

Interior of the Restaurant

The entire restaurant has a antique taste to it. The owner is a great antique collector and he displays his collections here. They range from wall clocks, to old bicycles, gramophones and paintings. Just like the one above, there are loads of sketches on the wall hung up for display. They show the various places in the town as it was in the 60's and 70's. Very nostalgic to people like me who belong here and grew up here.

This restaurant occupies three shop lots and there is a large dining hall on the first floor that can be used for private functions.

The Menu

Vegetarian Dishes Available Too

The Menu

They have an extensive menu and the pricing is very reasonable, in fact cheap. As there were only four of us for lunch today, I had to be careful as not to splurge too much food on the table as I do have a tendency of doing it and have done it many times. Well, today, I decided to cut the rice just 2 bowls to be shared among four of us and this would enable us to taste more of the dishes. Do note that they have a good spread of vegetarian dishes too.

Cutlery

Chinese Tea @ RM 0.50

Coca Cola @ RM 2.60

Waiting for Lunch to Arrive

Luckily it was not too crowded today and the dishes started arriving after around 20 minutes.

White Rice @ RM 1.50 (Big)

White Rice comes in two portion sizes. The large one is priced at RM 1.50 and the smaller one is priced at RM 1.20 per plate, both of which seem very reasonable to me.

Honey Sotong @ RM 12.00

The Honey Sotong was nice, just that for the price of RM 12.00, the portion was a little small. Even in Kuala Lumpur, the portion is slightly larger than this. Taste wise, the cuttlefish was well prepared and I would rate this dish at 7.8/10 .

Tofu with Minced Chicken @ RM 9.00

This was another good dish. The minced chicken was slightly sweet and spicy and it was topped on the deep fried Tofu. Definitely a good preparation and I would rate this at 8.3/10 .

Fried Baby Kailan with Garlic @ RM 10.00

Baby Kailan stir fried with garlic. The Kailan was fresh and still crisp when served and the flavouring was nice. Not the best that I have tried but it was still nice. I would rate this at 7.5/10 .

Baling Mushroom with Bean-curd Skin @ RM 12.00

This is one of their vegetarian dishes. Baling mushrooms are served with bean curd skin. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, this was a wonderful dish. Definitely a highly recommended dish here. I would rate this dish at 9/10 .

Kam Heong Crabs @ RM 45.00

The crabs were just okay. It lacked the spices and would have been great if there was more gravy provided. In this dish, the gravy was so minimal that it didn't seep in well all over. Just a so so dish and I would rate this at 6.5/10 .

On the whole, this restaurant was just okay today. We have been dining here for years and personally, I feel that the quality has dropped. The prices have remained constant but the portions have reduced too. It would be great if they serve up to the old standards again, not sure if the flaw was just today.

Address: No. 7 & 8, Jalan Wangsa Utama, Taman Wangsa,

35900 Tanjung Malim, Perak, Malaysia.

Opening Hours: 1200 - 2230 Daily

Telephone: +605 458 3398

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Garden-Seafood/117021175005196?sk=info&ref=page_internal

Friday, 25 April 2014

Steven's Wok Corner @ Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya

I am sure that many are familiar with Damansara Uptown Hawker Centre. This hawker centre has a good spread of food options and they are all Halal. Since my last trip here to try the Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun, I noticed the next stall called Steven's Wok Corner, not to be confused with Steven's Western Corner, does serve some fried Chinese dishes and he too had a decent number of customers while I was there. Having made a mental note then, I decided to try the place out tonight.

Steven's Wok Corner in Damansara Uptown Hawker Centre

Seating Spaces

The stall number is 1098 and he is located right beside the famous Ah Keong Yong Tau Fu & Chee Cheong Fun stall, right opposite Steven's Western Corner and it is hard to miss this place. He only sells a number of dishes, 12 if I am not mistaken and the orders seemed to be piling up for him. After contemplating for a while, we decided on what to have and went over to his stall to place the orders. He handles the order taking and cooking and serving is done by a helper.

Fried Cuttlefish @ RM 12.00

It took about 20 minutes for the first dish to arrive. The Fried Cuttlefish was priced at RM 12.00 and the portion was quite decent. The batter used to coat the cuttlefish was nothing more but the famous Kentucky flour, but it takes an art to fry it to a crisp golden brown perfection and Steven did it very well. The cuttlefish was crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. You don't need the chili sauce provided to dip as even on it's own, it was very nice. I would rate this at 9.3/10 .

Char Kuey Teow @ RM 5.00

The Char Kuey Teow was just okay. It was cooked with an egg and a single piece of prawn was in the dish. It was decent but would have been better if more eggs and cockles were added to the dish. This seemed like the preparation that you get in a normal restaurant when you ask for Fried Kuey Teow and it was not up to the mark of those specialty Char Kuey Teow vendors out there. For the price of RM 5.00, the portion was decent. I would rate this at 7/10 .

In summary, I was impressed with the cuttlefish but not the Char Kuey Teow. Perhaps, should try out his other seafood dishes the next time we are here. Maybe, just maybe, those would be equally good as the Fried Cuttlefish.

Address: Stall 1098, Damansara Uptown Hawker Centre, Jalan SS21/39,

Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Opening Hours: 1800 - 0200 Daily

Saturday, 19 April 2014

Restoran Yin Her @ Kampung Baru Sungai Buloh, Sungai Buloh

If you are looking for good Chinese restaurants that serve course dinner around Sungai Buloh, then Restaurant Yin Her is one good option. Being located inside the Sungai Buloh New Village, this restaurant has it's own loyal crowd that come from afar for it's cheap and good food. If you are coming from the old Sungai Buloh - Shah Alam road and assuming the Military Camp is on your right, you would have to turn right shortly at the traffic lights. Once you have turned in, go straight for another 300 meters and you would be able to see a big sign that says turn left on an unpaved road leading to the restaurant. Within 100 meters, you would arrive at this restaurant which is located right beside a fishing pond.

Restaurant Yin Her in Sungai Buloh New Village

Ample Parking Spaces

Outdoor Seating Area

The Fishing Pond

The Air-Conditioned Dining Hall

This restaurant has ample of parking spaces. Once inside, you would have to enter through the air conditioned dining space but I would recommend you to head to the open air dining space which is built on an elevated platform above the pond where it is more scenic. Unlike other restaurants beside a pond like this, you do not get the stench coming from the pond as it is well treated and it is a treat to watch these anglers in action. This space is also well ventilated with fans thus keeping the place rather cool.

Coca Cola @ RM 2.00

White Rice @ RM 1.20

There isn't much of a menu card here and most of the ordering is done through the lady boss's recommendations, unless you are familiar with their dishes. If you are a first timer here, then ask her for their Signature dishes like what I did today and she would enlist all their dishes and you could then choose the ones that you would like to have. Don't worry about over ordering as she is quite honest and would cut you off saying that's it's a little too much for the number of pax. Also, she would adjust the portion sizes based on the number of dishes ordered. Although we arrived here at almost 9 pm, the place was still crowded with customers.

Homemade Tofu @ RM 10.00

On my previous visit, I had tried their homemade seaweed tofu and it was good. Wanted to order that again but it was sold out. Instead the lady boss recommended me to try this homemade tofu. For RM 10.00, the portion was quite huge. The Tofu came cooked with a thick broth and minced meat in it. The dish was good though simple. Definitely a nice one here. I would rate this at 8.8/10 .

Mantis Prawn with Salted Egg @ RM 15.00

This dish was pretty good too. The Salted Eggs coating stuck well to the Mantis Prawns giving it a full flavour. The only setback with this dish is the portion size which I felt was a little less for the price. Otherwise, the dish was good. I would rate this dish at 9.2/10 .

Kam Heong Chicken @ RM 12.00

This Kam Heong Chicken was super good! It was very spicy, the portion was huge and was only filled with chicken fillets with no bones. The portion would have been good for five pax and it was a mere RM 12.00 . Definitely a highly recommended dish here. I would rate this at 9.5/10 .

Pucuk Paku with Belacan @ RM 12.00

Usually we would end up ordering Kangkung with Belacan but today the lady boss recommended us to try the above which was good for a change. The dish, was very well prepared and you can see that it had loads of Belacan, dried shrimps and onions in the sauce. The Pucuk Paku was also still crispy and not overcooked. The portion size too was quite big and I was surprised that it was only priced at RM 10.00 . I would rate this dish at 9.2/10 . Just a point to note that on my last visit, this same dish for four was priced at RM 10 and this time it's up by RM 2. Must have been the price of the Pucuk Paku itself that has gone up.

This restaurant definitely has some very good dishes to offer and they seem to be able to keep the prices low without compromising the quality of the dishes. I am truly impressed with this place and definitely we had a very satisfying meal which is very much wallet friendly.

Address: AL 114, Jalan Welfare, Kampung Baru Sungai Buloh,

47000 Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia.

Opening Hours: 1100 - 2300 Daily

Telephone: +603 6156 5876 & +6012 298 1889 (Amy)