Jessica Johnson Tea Room @ Bandar Sri Damansara

This was a place that I had visited last week and then when my parents suddenly came down this weekend as a surprise visit, I was a little dumb struck as to where to take them and this place came to mind.

Jessica Johnson Tea House

The last trip there, there was quite a number of items that I could not try and was planning to try these today. As it is of close proximity to me, driving there was a breeze and we were in Sri Damansara in less than 15 minutes. Fro those who missed this place in my last entry, this is a family owned restaurant.

It is run by the father and daughter and they mostly serve their usual customers. One of the reasons that I feel so is because they operate only for breakfast, lunch and early tea. Though they have a great menu offering including home baked cookies and cakes, they are not keen to stay up late and serve dinner too.

Looking through the menu

To my parents this was a new experience. Everything you see in this restaurant from the furniture to the flower offerings, is for sale. The owner is an ardent traveler and has a great collection of antique furniture for sale. 

The Interior of the Restaurant

Once we placed the orders, we had abundant time in our hands. All food is cooked from scratch here and it does take quite a while. No condiments are pre prepared and hence the waiting time for the food to arrive is quite long. When it is full, it can take up to an hour.

As I had loads of free time, I decided to tour the shop to take some photographs of the cakes and other offerings here.

Freshly Baked Scones

Muffins

Yummy Pies

Assortment of cakes available today

Finally after a 20 minute wait, here comes my coffee. Please bear in mind that everything served at this restaurant is low in sugar, this includes the cakes too.

My Low Sugar Coffee

After a while, here comes the food. All the food dishes here are priced around RM 10.00 - RM 15.00 on average and can be shared between two to three pax.

Balinese Rendang Chicken

The above Balinese Rendang Chicken is a must order dish everytime I come here.

Duck in Yam

This Duck in Yam is super duper delicious and is highly recommended!!!

All Set to Dip In....

Salad comes as a complimentary side dish

The Salad that you see above was complimentary as it was part of the set meal.

Clean plates...proof that it was really good!!!

A Small Piece of Cake as Desert

On the whole, this place is a great place to dine. Only setback, being its rather limited opening hours which makes it non accessible to people not living or working close to Sri Damansara. Kindly do note that it is closed on Sundays too.

Address: Jessica Johnson Tea Room,

No. 16G, Jalan Cempaka SD 12-2,
Bandar Sri Damansara,
52200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 - 6275 6755

Opening Hours: Monday - Saturday: 0830 - 1730

Jessica Johnson Tea Room @ Bandar Sri Damansara

Today I was just looking up Google to search for some eateries in Bandar Sri Damansara, which isn't too far for me and that is when I came across this place called Jessica Johnson Tea Room. Somehow this was the only place that was highlighted across my entire search and most of those blogs were from at least  two years ago. I was not too sure if this place still existed and therefore decided to call the number listed and Bingo....it was still open. Having got the address confirmed, drove in for lunch.

Jessica Johnson Tea Room...just beside the Post Office

The outlet is located just beside the Post Office in Bandar Sri Damansara. Not too difficult to find though. It is a family owned restaurant and pretty much, you would find the father and daughter manning the restaurant. The father was a designer by profession but cooking had always been his passion. He is a very talkative man and loves to share his experiences with customers. 

Very English like setting

From my observation, they have their very own set of customers who come by quite often. The feel that I get here is that they do not intent on growing the business but prefer keeping it the way it is...simple and local. The owner has a personal touch with all his customers and by the end of my lunch, I had felt the same too, which is good.

Nice settings

This restaurant, though it speaks of being a tea room and has the similar setting, serves more of Nyonya food. The exception being the cakes and pastries. The menu is also unique that it is hand written with marker pen and initially I had some problem reading it as it was not easily legible. 

Deco inside

They mostly come in set meals which consist of a Rice dish, main entrée, coffee / tea and a piece of cake. All this for between RM 15.90 - RM 18.90 depending on the dish. Of course, you could also request for an additional dish without the set and I feel the price is decent, not too expensive but once again, would have to wait to taste it before saying anything further.

This teak table is for sale...RM 16,000

 Now as you can see the restaurant has loads of furnitures and flower arrangements and these are for sale too. The front area of the restaurant has also been separated as it caters for another business that is owned by the same owners. I believe it is an insurance agency where they also handle road tax and other arrangements.

My White Coffee...lightly sweetened

The food here takes some time to arrive as everything is made to order and they believe in serving the food hot. This is good definitely but sometimes, can take a little longer especially when there are around 2 to 3 tables waiting fore their orders. It was the same today and the owner came and informed me that it may take a while. I'm okay with that as I am free the whole day. 

Waiting for our food to arrive

One thing that I like about this place is that they do not include any artificial coloring into the food and MSG is out. Even the cakes are low sugar. My coffee was good too, low sugar and just the right taste. The way I love it.

Yellow Rice with Timun Acar

The first dish to arrive was the rice. One thing that deserves mention here is that the Timun Acar was simply superb.

Balinese Rendang Chicken

This dish was fantastic. A quarter chicken cooked in Balinese Red Curry, Rendang Style. The meat was tender and infused with the right spices. Great dish!

Thai Style Chicken

This was another good dish. Done pretty well, but on a personal note, I preferred the earlier dish over this. 

Quarter Roasted Chicken

The roasted chicken was good. The meat was tender and juicy.

All Set to attack the dishes

The food is surely good here. I enjoyed all the dishes that we ordered and would surely come back here again soon. With lunch done, I am now eagerly waiting for my piece of cake to try the bakery stuffs.

A Slice of Banana Cake

The desert finally arrived. It was a slice of Banana cake. Well, no exaggeration, the cake was very good. I could taste real bananas in the cake and it was lightly sweetened. Good effort keeping diabetics in mind.

Muffins & Scones for sale

More cakes for sale

 As you can see from the above photos, they have a great variety of cakes, muffins and scones for sale and are baked fresh daily.

More items available for breakfast

More food items

Well, the timings of this restaurant are a little odd though. As mentioned earlier, they are just catering for the usual locals. That being said, they are open from Mondays to Saturdays catering for breakfast to tea only and it is close at 5.30 pm. Sundays is an off day. So if you do not live in this area, the only way you would be able to hit this restaurant is to head here on a Saturday for lunch. 

Contact Details

Contact Details

On the whole, its a great place to dine. Good affordable Nyonya food!

Address: Jessica Johnson Tea Room,

No. 16G, Jalan Cempaka SD 12-2,
Bandar Sri Damansara,
52200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 - 6275 6755

Opening Hours: Monday - Saturday: 0830 - 1730

Restaurant Fish Castle @ Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya

This is one of my favorite joints around Petaling Jaya for Curry Mee. I have been to this place many times in the past, but never recorded it through my blogs as this food blog was a recent initiative which I had just started last month. 

Restaurant Fish Castle @ Damansara Uptown

This restaurant is located in Damansara Utama a.k.a. Uptown along the Standard Chartered Bank row, closer to the Starbucks end. It is owned by a local Chinese man but the workers are mostly from mainland China. 

Guarantee of Quality

There are three main specialties about this restaurant. Firstly, it is Halal and this attracts a lot of Muslim crowd here. Secondly, as per the picture above, they use 100% fish meat for their fish balls and other add ons. And finally, the Curry Mee is superb and you would be able to see this from the photo below.

Waiting for the dishes to arrive

Since parking in this area is a little bit of a problem, I usually visit at night. Just like the previous visits, today we came here for dinner too. Usually, I would order curry mee for me too but this time around, wanted to try something different and a few add ons. 

Crispy Fried Sui Kau

The first add on that we ordered was the above, fried Sui Kau. This is one of my favorite items here.It is made to perfection. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Lovely!

One of the best Curry Mee in town!

Then comes the Curry Mee. As you can see, it is loaded with a lot of fish paste, has some fried Sui Kau and the lovely thick curry itself....hmmm is mouth watering. This is definitely heavenly.

The Sambal that goes along with the Curry Mee

The above photo is of the sambal that goes along with the Curry Mee, usually served together.

Angel Hair Home Land Mee

The above dish was what I ordered for myself today. Not sure why it is called Angel Hair noodles, perhaps due to the texture of the noodles itself which is a little thinner. This was also pretty good but a little too light a dish for me. I perhaps, can have two of this. 

Fish Balls in Soup

The fish balls here is a must try. They are soft and fluffy, reminds me of the 70's. The soup is quite good too and definitely they do not use MSG.

Us having our dinner

On the whole, the food here is great. I have recommended many in the past and none of them had a complaint about this place. They have always thanked me for introducing this place to them, especially Curry Mee lovers. The price, is very affordable too.

Address: Fish Castle Restaurant,

106, Jalan SS 21/39, Damansara Utama,
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Tel: +603 7725 0462 

Opening Hours: 1000 - 2200

Sen Kee Satay @ Desa Amanpuri

This is a place that I had wanted to visit in a long time but never got the chance The specialty here is the Duck Satay, Lamb Satay and Pork Satay. This afternoon, I decided to visit this place later at night for dinner. I have been reading quite a number of blogs on this stall and from that, I understand that they have two outlets, one in Desa Jaya, Kepong and another in Desa Aman Puri. Luckily, the contact numbers were given too and I called that number. Spoke to a young lady and she informed me that the other two places mentioned above had been closed down and they had just moved three days ago to Ehsan Industrial Park which is not too far from the previous outlet in Desa Aman Puri.

The Present Stall of Sen Kee Satay

Later at night, I head out to the location as advised by the boss earlier. When I was not too far in that area, I called the handphone number again but no one answered. I just waited where I was to call back shortly. To my surprise, the owner Mr. Yap called me back. He then guided me over the phone to his shop. I was touched by this gesture.

The Stall With The Various Write Ups Cut Out

 Once I reached his stall, he immediately recognized me. Such a nice man. This stall is located inside another Chinese restaurant but is clearly visible from the roadside. I placed my orders with him and then moved over to an empty table.

Mrs. Yap Preparing My Orders

Then Mr. Yap came up to my table and then he started telling me about his past. Quite an interesting story. He mentioned that he has been doing this for the past 36 years. Originally he started with the first stall in Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong and a few years back, he started the second outlet in Desa Aman Puri. However, due to immigration issues, he had to close the outlet in Desa Jaya as the workers that were running that outlet were from Cambodia. 

Seating Area in the restaurant

His sons are also not interested in the business and presently he only has his wife and daughter assisting him. He is already 68 years of age and said that he would continue doing this until such time where he deems possible. He also mentions that it is a very tedious process and takes up the entire day for preparations. His sons are not interested as they prefer office jobs and do not get themselves involved in this business.

The Duck, Lamb and Pork Satay

However, he also has a big group of supporters. He does a lot of functions and even now, his Saturdays have been booked right up to the month of December to cater for parties and private functions. Otherwise, his official close day is every Tuesday. So please bear this in mind before heading over as in short most Saturdays and every Tuesdays, he is closed. It is also good to call before going to confirm that the stall is open. The numbers are there on the first photograph. 

The Duck, Lamb and Pork Satay

The satay itself was quite good. I took his recommendation to try the satay without the peanut sauce dip and then with it. I personally preferred it without the dip as you get to taste the juicy meat and each of those variations, gave a different flavor. 

The Duck, Lamb and Pork Satay

The Thick Peanut Sauce

The Peanut Sauce that he prepared was also very thick when compared to that of Satay Kajang Hj. Samuri and it surely was very low in sugar. 

The Prices of the various Satays

The price is also very reasonable for the size of each skewer. On the whole, I would definitely visit this place again soon for many reasons which includes the price, taste and the warm reception of Mr. Yap. As I was about to leave, he also showed me various magazine write ups on his stall in the past and even some interviews which he did with ASTRO Chinese Channel. 

Address: Ehsan Industrial Park, Kepong

GPS :  N 03.20978 E101.61727

Tel: Mr. Yap +6019 218 7538
Closed on Tuesdays. Open 1800 - 2230