Vicchuda Tomyam & Seafood @ Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya

This has been a restaurant that I have been frequenting for many years now but have never blogged about it. Today, since I am visiting here again, decided to blog about this restaurant. Restoran Vicchuda Tomyam & Seafood has been around in Damansara Utama for a number of years now. It is located along the same row as CIMB Bank. 

Entrance to the Restaurant

Outside seating space 

This restaurant is run by Thai Muslims and therefore the food is Halal and is really good and cheap. This place is mostly full during dinner. Now it seems quite vacant as the time that I have come here today is almost 11 pm, yet there are still a few tables occupied for supper. Ordering here is quite straightforward. They have a very comprehensive menu and you just have to pick the items that you want. Do observe when the waitress takes the orders. She always would write them down in the Thai language which further proves that they are Thai nationals. Another good thing here is that the food is served extremely fast. You would most often get all your orders delivered at one go and at most it takes them only 15 minutes. 

Teh Tarik @ RM 1.20

I ordered the above Tea and it came at RM 1.20 . To me, the tea was nice and not overly sweet. I would rate the tea at 8/10 .

Fresh Orange @ RM 3.00

The Fresh Orange came at a very decent price of RM 3.00 which I find it to be quite cheap. The drink itself was quite pure and surely they would have used more than one orange. I would rate this drink at 8.5/10 .

Spice Sambal with Cucumber

The above came complimentary and I observed that they served this to all the tables that ordered rice with a number of dishes. This was a daring act for me as I knew that the sambal would be super spicy. I just dipped the cucumber mildly into the sambal and even then my tongue was already on fire but it was really nice. I would rate their sambal at 10/10 .

White Rice @ RM 1.20 per plate

Telur Bistik @ RM 4.00

The above is an egg dish called Telur Bistik. It is egg cooked with a number of other ingredients like minced chicken, green peas, corn, diced carrots, onions and is served in a slightly spicy and sweet sauce. This is one of my all time favourites when visiting this restaurant. It is like a must order dish as I like their preparation. I would rate this dish at 9/10 .

Udang Masak Pedas @ RM 5.00

The above dish is a prawn dish called Udang Masak Pedas which means Spicy Prawns Dish. Priced at RM 5.00, I feel that the dish was worth it bearing in mind the number of prawns in the dish. Although the name of the dish mentions that it is spicy, the spiciness was rather mild but nice. I would rate this dish at 9.2/10 . 

Kailan Ikan Masin @ RM 4.00

The above dish is basically Kailan with Salted Fish. This again is one of my favourite dishes at this restaurant. I like this dish to be really salty and the saltiness must come from the salted fish and that is exactly how it is prepared here. The Kailan too was rather fresh. I would rate this dish at 9.5/10 . 

Ayam Masak Merah @ RM 4.00

Although a number of the above dishes may seem to have the similar colour of the base sauce, they all taste differently. This in turn is slightly on the sweet side. The chicken chunks along with the onion strips really make a great combination to this dish and they bring out the dish differently. Do note that there are some bird's eye chillies and that does give an occasional spicy taste which is rather unique. I would rate this dish at 8.8/10 .

Mixed Tom Yam Soup @ RM 6.50

This was a very spicy Tom Yam soup and comes with an assortment of meat. This seems to be prepared more like the Lanna style of preparation which has it's origins in the northern Thailand. The southern Thailand style prepare their Tom Yam soup to be red in colour and the norther regions prepare their Tom Yam soup to be clear like the above. Nevertheless, this is one of the best Tom Yam soups that I have tasted outside of Thailand even when comparing to some of those boutique restaurants. I would rate this Tom Yam Soup at 10/10 .

On the whole, this is a great restaurant that gives you good food at a very cheap price and super fast service. It is definitely recommended by me. I do know that they have a number of other outlets in Sunway, Kota Damansara and Shah Alam but I am not sure if the taste is consistent. My favourite outlet is always their Damansara Utama outlet. 

Address: 24, Jalan SS 21/35, Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Telephone: +603 7722 3481

Opening Hours: 1100 - 0000 Daily

Little Taiwan @ e@Curve, Petaling Jaya

Today we decided to try out this chain of restaurants called Little Taiwan which is found in most of the shopping malls. They claim to be Taiwanese food and it holds the Halal status but having visited Taiwan before, I feel that the food here had been altered to suit the Malaysian taste buds. Today we visited the outlet in e@Curve .

Little Taiwan Restaurant at e@Curve

Seats along the mall walkway

The outlet itself is rather small and most of the seats were arranged along the walkway of the mall. This restaurant seemed to be very busy today and there were only two workers serving the entire crowd. There were even many that got disgruntled for waiting close to 30 minutes just for the orders to be taken. Even we had a difficult time here but since we were in no rush, we decided to just accommodate. From where we were sitting, the kitchen was clearly visible and the chefs were two Bangladeshi guys. It is then I learned that no real cooking happens here. The food are all frozen and these guys just need to put them in the microwave, heat them up and serve and I wonder why that was raking really long. The best part is that there were only two microwaves in the kitchen. 

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

Specialty Dish here

Another Signature Dish

The menu was quite elaborate and the above are just some of their pages. It took us a while to decide what to have and then I finally decided on having two mains and some other side dishes just to try them out. Once I made the decision, I walked up to the counter and placed my orders instead of having them to come up to my table and that would probably take ages.

Chicken Meatball Soup @ RM 4.90

After an hour of waiting the dishes started arriving one by one. The above Chicken Meatball Soup was the first to arrive. I found this to be rather nice despite looking very simple. There were four meatballs and this dish came at RM 4.90 . The soup was quite nice and had some black pepper in it and the meatballs were nicely prepared too. Though they were slightly on the hard side, the flavouring was good. I would rate this dish at 7/10 .

Dumpling @ RM 6.90

These dumplings were just average to me. The filling was very little and the skin was just too thick and that gave it a very flat taste. For such small pieces, I feel the price of RM 6.90 was too much. I would only rate this at 5/10 .

Braised Egg @ RM 1.50

The Braised Egg was above average. I definitely have had much better ones in other places. The price was not expensive for the dish but I would rate this at 7/10 only . It is nice but not outstanding. 

Golden Yam Balls @ RM 5.90

The above Yam Balls were an utter disappointment. They were really horrible. The crisp skin was tasteless and had a deep oil stench. The filling was rather miserable in quantity. A waste of money. I would only rate this dish at 2/10 .

Side Dish Comes With Any Set Meals

Vegetable is Salad Cream

This side dish comes with any set meals and as we ordered two set meals, we received two of these. The Vegetable came with Salad Cream and was decent though miserable in quantity. I would rate the vegetable at 7/10 .

Rice & Molasses Crisps

The above Rice & Molasses Crisps was just average. We did not quite enjoy this and in fact we left it after just tasting a single piece. I would rate this at only 1/10 .

Braised Tofu

The Braised Tofu was pretty good. They used the same ingredients that was used for the eggs earlier but it tasted quite nice. I would rate this at 7/10 .

White Rice ...part of the set meal

Spicy Salted Fish Fillet Rice Set @ RM 15.90

This was one of the rice sets that we ordered. This came with the above side dish, white rice and also comes with another soup which I would writing more about shortly. At RM 15.90 for the full set, I found it to be quite reasonable. What we did was we ordered two of these sets and shared the mains which makes more sense as we wanted to try as many dishes as possible. The above dish was quite nice and it was surely altered to cater to the Malaysian taste buds. It was slightly spicy but not too much and so it suits well with people having a low tolerance level of spiciness. I would rate the above dish at 8/10 .

Taiwanese Supreme Chicken Rice Set @ RM 15.90

This was by far the best dish that we had here today. It was really nice and the only set back that I can say is that the quantity was less, or much lesser compared to the previous Spicy Salted Fish Fillet dish. To me, this seemed to be like an Indian dish instead of a Taiwanese dish. My rating for this shall be 9/10 .

Clear Soup

This soup came with both the sets. I found this to be rather good. It was slightly salty but delicious. I would rate this soup at 8.5/10 .

Desert Complementary

We got the above desert complementary as they had messed up our orders along the way and we had to wait close to an hour before our food arrived. Well, it was just the same items that they gave us with the main set meals with the exception of the two crab sticks. We just had the vegetables and the crab sticks and left the other crackers as we did not like it in the first place anyway. 

Generally, this restaurant is not bad as they do have some dishes that are nice. The major setback here is their staffing which definitely needs to be improved along with the waiting time for the dishes to arrive. Anyone having a meal in a mall would have limited time and people usually try to catch quick meals like this when they are waiting for showtime to catch a movie and if these people drag the orders this long, definitely most people would not have the patience to wait. One of their waitress was a foreigner, possibly from India, and she made loads of mistakes with us. There was even a point when she put a dish in front of us, something that I had ordered, and as I was about to eat it, she took it away just like that saying that that was not for me but for another table and that mine was still not ready yet. These gestures can really aggravate customers but I just kept my calm today. Otherwise, I think the place is just okay. 

Address: Level 1, e@ Curve, Mutiara Damansara, 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Opening Hours: 1000 - 2200 Daily

Telephone: +603 7725 1355

Website: http://www.little-taiwan.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LittleTaiwanMY

Anje...Nasi Beriani Gam Johor @ Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor

As I was in Bandar Baru Bangi today, I used my GPS to help me locate some good eateries here and it brought me to this restaurant called Restoran Anje...Nasi Beriani Gam Johor. 

Restoran Anje...Nasi Beriani Gam Johor in Bandar Baru Bangi

This restaurant is quite easy to locate. When you exit the Bangi toll on the North South Expressway, just head straight until you sight a Petronas station on your right. You would have to go straight and take a U turn to get back onto the other side and just after the Petronas station, turn in and go straight. You would be passing along some rows of shops and this restaurant is located right at the end of the third row of shops. As it was passed the usual lunch hours, the restaurant was not that packed. It was evident that this restaurant is used to having big crowds during lunch and dinner hours. 

Food Counter

Great Looking Dishes

This restaurant occupies two shop lots and is simple in it's design. At the far end of the restaurant is where the dishes are displayed and you would have to get in line to choose your dishes and then finally walk through to the drinks counter, choose your drinks and then walk along to the cashier. Definitely their main offering here is the Beriani Gam that comes with an assortment of various meats.From my observation, they had Fried Chicken, Ayam Masak Merah, Mutton Gravy, Beef Rendang and Squid for the day. They also have Laksa Johor and Mee Rebus but almost everyone in the restaurant were having the Beriani Gam. Even at this non peak hours, I had more then 10 people standing ahead of me in line. I was told by one of the waiter that during peak hours, the line even goes out of the restaurant with about 50 people ahead of you and according to him, that is a common daily scene. The Jalan Jalan Cari Makan Team had also endorsed this restaurant and their plaque is clearly hung on the wall. Finally when it came to my turn, the guy filled the plate with Beriani Rice, some Rice Crackers, a bowl of Dhall and then I choose my meat of choice. With that I walked on to the drinks counter and then to the cashier to pay for my meal. Then you can walk over to your table. Seemed more like a school canteen concept to me but I guess this is the best way especially when you have huge crowds on a daily basis. 

Mutton Beriani Gam @ RM 8.80

Another Angle 

I ordered the Mutton Beriani Gam as per the above photo. The portion is definitely huge. It comes with big portion of Beriani Rice, large chunk of Mutton, some Rice Crackers, a bowl of Dhall and some Cucumber Acar. I definitely could not finish the full portion and only managed to eat two thirds of it, even when being a large eater myself. The Mutton Beriani came at RM 8.80, Chicken Beriani is sold at RM 7.00 and Beef Beriani is sold at RM 7.50 . Coming to the food, the rice was really nice, the lamb was slightly sweet and cooked to perfection and it was easy to detach the meat from the bone. Even the bones were a delight themselves. The rice crackers went well with the rice and the Cucumber Acar was again pretty good. I enjoyed half my meal with the Mutton Gravy which was very good and half with the Dhall which again was well prepared. My ranking for this dish would be 9.5/10 . 

If you happen to be in this area, this restaurant is definitely very highly recommended. I am sure that their other Beriani's would be great too as everyone there were seen to be enjoying their meals. Their price also seems very reasonable for such a huge portion and the taste again is good. Once again, a great place to visit.

Address: No. 15, Jalan SS 15/1C, 43560 Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.

Telephone: +603 8926 8061

Opening Hours: 1030 - 2230 Daily

Weng Kei Chicken Rice @ Damansara Perdana, Petaling Jaya

Weng Kei Chicken Rice is a stall that is located inside Restaurant Ah Sai in Bandar Damansara Perdana, Petaling Jaya. Being manned by two foreign workers and the lady boss, this little stall does have some great meat to offer.

Generally, the overall cleanliness at this stall is quite good compared to some other stalls in this restaurant. Ordering here is quite straight forward just like any typical Chinese hawker stall. Just walk up to them, order your choice of meat and then head back to your table and within minutes, the dish arrives and you pay the amount due. Here the price list is also clearly visible on the cart thus avoiding any possible misunderstanding. I was really in the mood for some meat today and ordered a mixture of Roast Pork and Roasted Chicken with a request to double the amount of Pork. 

Rice & Chili Paste

Their rice preparation was very good compared to many other stalls out there. It was so good that it could be even eaten on it's own. The Chili Paste was no exception either. It was also well prepared. I would rate their rice at 8.8/10 .

My Meal @ RM 6.50

That's my portion of meat and is a rather huge one. In total, this meal cost me RM 6.50 which is really reasonable. The Roasted Pork was crispy and juicy and thinly cut to the right size. I think that this is one of the good places to get the Roast Pork compared to the many Chicken Rice places that I have visited. It is not the best, but surely one of the best. I would rate their Roast Pork at 9/10 .

Closer Look at the Roast Chicken

Besides the Roast Pork being good, I felt that their Roast Chicken was equally good too.The meat was tender, juicy and well marinated. Definitely something that I enjoyed thoroughly. I would rate their Roast Chicken at 8.8/10 . 

Clear Soup

The Clear Soup was really superb. Usually I do not enjoy the soup which is given in these Chicken Rice stalls but in this case, I asked them to top it up and they did it for free. It was really that good and deserves a perfect 10/10. Definitely the best that I have tried in a stall like this. 

Besides the Roast Chicken and Pork that I had today, they also had Roast Duck to offer. Their Duck Rice comes at a price of RM 5.00 per plate and Chicken Rice at RM 4.50 per plate. A whole bird of Roast Duck is sold for RM 48.00, whole Roast Chicken for RM 36.00 and 1Kg of Roast Pork for RM 60.00 . These are really affordable prices and with the quality of taste that you get here, it is truly worth it.

Address: No.1, Jalan PJU 8/5E, Damansara Perdana,
                47820 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Opening Hours: 1000 - 2300 Daily

O'Coffee Club @ Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur

Located in 1 Mont Kiara Mall is another restaurant called O'Coffee Club. This outlet is located on the Ground Floor of the mall and can be easily spotted once you are inside. This is actually a gourmet franchise outlet from Singapore and has two branches in Malaysia. The first one is in 1 Mont Kiara Mall and the other is in Fahrenheit 88. 

Coffee Club @ 1 Mont Kiara

Outside Seating on the other End

This restaurant has a huge dining space within the air conditioned mall but as I do smoke, I preferred to be seated outside. The outside seating is rather small with just two tables. Mostly their staffs would be seen having their meals here. This restaurant has a wide variety of different cuisines and the pricing is usually on the high side and the portions are rather huge too. I would not say that I am a great fan of this restaurant but as I was walking past today, I spotted their Set Lunches which seemed like value for money and that drew me to this restaurant today. 

Their Lunch Sets

Cutlery

Their lunch sets is only available for weekdays and that too between 1200 to 1500. They have two options to choose from, Western and Asian. The Western Set comes with a choice of either BBQ Chicken or Classic Chicken and is served with a choice of Mushroom, BBQ or Black Pepper Sauce. Above that, it also comes with a choice of Buttered Rice or Mashed Potato's. The Asian Set comes with a choice of Nyonya Chicken Curry or Lemongrass Chicken Curry and is served with Buttered Rice and Acar Rampai. Both sets comes with a glass of Ice Tea.  The Western Set is priced at RM 16.90 and the Asian Set is priced at RM 12.90 .

Ice Tea

Their Ice Tea was just quite basic and unsweetened. Of course sugar is provided and you could sweeten it to your preference. I found this to be just okay and would rate this at 7/10 .

BBQ Chicken with Mashed Potato's

BBQ Chicken

I went for the Western Set and chose the above BBQ Chicken with Mashed Potato's and the sauce of preference was the BBQ Sauce. The portion size was decent for the price paid but the taste let me down. I am not saying that it was bad, but it just was not good. The Chicken was rather hard too and the sauce was overly sweet and there seemed to be an overall flaw with the taste. It just did not hit the right notes on my palate. I would rate this dish at 5/10 . 

I have dined in this restaurant before and had been faced with the similar kind of dissatisfaction. For a while, that had been the reason as to why I had not returned here. After about a year, I am trying their food again and found it to be no different than what it was which is rather disappointing. They should definitely work on improving their dishes.

Address: Lot G-3A, G-5 & G-6, Ground Floor, 1 Mont Kiara, 

                No. 1 Jalan Kiara, Mont Kiara, 50480 Kuala Lumpur.

Opening Hours: 1000 - 2200 Daily

Telephone: +603 6411 0201