The Pagoda Restaurant & Bar @ Bukit Tinggi

Babe had always wanted me to try this place out for some time but I always think that Thai cuisine are always meant to be enjoy with a bunch of friend cause you can order more and try. So the occasion came few weeks back when a some friends decided to have their birthday over there. The place is located opposite AEON Bukit Tinggi over at Klang. It's behind the main row facing the road. It's a corner lot, so you won't have a tough time finding it.

The owner was really friendly as some of us had patronized the place a few times already. But we had 10 people for that night's dinner and decided to asked for the owner for recommendation. So he had recommended us the followings for our dinner. Since the birthday boy had sore throat that day so we decided to go with something light. But then again it's Thai cuisine, so it's really weird not to order their specialties. So we decided to order two different soups.

The twin tom yum soup which  are the favorite over there. We can't choose so we decided to ordered both. Problem solved.

Clear Tom Yam Chicken Soup - RM22

This is the tom yum soup with chicken which as you can see is not spicy. But the taste is still very appetizing and a bit of spicy. I am not a big fan of tom yum soup actually so this isn't my bowl of soup for that night.

Spicy Tom Yam Seafood - RM25

Look at those mad red color of the soup and you know this is one hell of a spicy tom yum soup. This is rather better compared to the first as we ordered seafood tom yum. Definitely a must order for tom yum soup lover.

 

Thai Curry & Egg with Squid - RM20

This is really good. It's actually cooked squids with eggs mixed together.OK, it might look disgusting at this point but trust me it's good. Worth ordering.
  

Seafood beancurd on Hot Plate - RM16

This is the only bean curd of the night. It's actually a mixture of seafood with Japanese bean curd on a hot plate. There's plenty of prawns, squids, fish balls, green peas, carrots and if I am not mistaken cubes of luncheon meat. Nothing really special here but it's recommended and not half bad but nothing to brag about either. 

Thai Style Planta Squid - RM20

This is another must order dish. Who doesn't like fried planta with squid. I think most Malaysian like their food fried. High in cholesterol maybe but heck it's good. The first dish that we clean up that night. 

Pandan Leaf Chicken Wrap - RM30/6pcs

We ordered two set of these pandan chicken. This is really good. The taste and scent of pandan leaves really do sips into the chicken. Totally love this dish. A must order over at this restaurant.

 Deep Fried Fish with Chili - RM35

OK, the outlook of the fish isn't the best I had. But the sauce on top wasn't that half bad. Fish is served fresh from the cooking pan and it's best served with tom yum sauce on top. The meat is so tender and soft. A bit waste for the fish to be fried but this is one of their specialty anyway. Isn't the best I had but worth a try.

Baby Kailan wit Salted Fish - RM15

Nothing much to talk a bout here. It's fresh or it's not and in this case it's alright. At least it's not too starchy.

Kangkung with Belacan - RM9.50

I love this vegetable dish every time. It's kangkung with belacan. The vegetables are fresh but sadly belacan isn't as good or spicy as I thought it would be. A bit of disappointed. But still a good dish to order if you're there.

Overall the dinner was alright with plenty of food for all of us. Expensive? Well, OK I guess. There are hits and misses but I can accept that. I mean, you can have a perfect dinner with all the dishes being 100% and all, or could you? I mean for the price I am paying, I am quite satisfied with it. Not the best Thai cuisine I had but still worth a try if you are looking for some Thai cuisine around that neighborhood.

Food Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Service Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Ambiance Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Overall Rating: Average with nothing too fancy. 

Address: The Pagoda Restaurant & Cafe 

42, Jalan Mahogani 1, 

Bandar Botanic

Tel: 03-3325 8020

The Burger Shop @ Subang Jaya SS 15

Well since I am on roll with the burger theme this month, I might as well post this one up first before my Thai cuisine post. The next in line after Ampang's Bob and OM Burger, it's back to my neighborhood, Subang Jaya. This particular shop had been operating over at SS15 (outside the market) since my college time and it's back in the 90s. You can't miss the stall as it's parked at the edge of the market opposite the cyber cafe and it's a bright yellow truck. Trust me you can't miss it. Or you can always look for a bunch of people standing next to the road side for the stall.

This is the menu on the burger shop. Went through the menu and decided to give their Oblong Lamb Special with Cheese. The other reason why I choose the lamb is because I'd tried both OM & Bob's lamb tiesto and wanted to give it some sort like a benchmark of the same food. I am particularly interested in their mushroom hot dog. Maybe on my next round.

Now this is the main chef who is in charge of preparing the patties. Since the demand are high, he pre-prepared the patties on the side before reheating them again. This method seemed to be the same with OM actually. I had actually ordered a chicken double cheese special but changed to the lamb when I saw it on their menu. The girl was so nice to changed it for me even though he had already cooked the patties. The oblong lamb was cut into half before being wrapped by an egg. It's very different from the one prepared by both OM and Bob. Well, we will need to see how it goes with the taste now, don't we.

See the stock? They are well prepared. I mean, looked at those patties and cheese in the boxes. They can sell a lot of burgers in one night. I didn't managed to get the number but I guess over a hundred or so from the number of customers I saw during that 10 minutes. There's only one brand and it's Ramly, our local favorite.

All their ingredients are prepared fresh on the spot. You have cabbages, cucumbers, onions, mushrooms, capsicum and of course cheese. You have the usual choice of tomato, chili, BBQ, mayo and thousand island sauce. On the side, they sell drinks too as you can have your burger and wash it down with a can of cold drinks or mineral water.

Now here's my oblong lamb patty. Clearly it's being wrapped with an egg and before it's being place onto the bun, it's being laid onto this tray. For me it's a bit let down since I like my patty to go directly to the bun and not anywhere else. Doesn't really looked super delicious to me from that sight but as always we don't judge our food by it's out look.

After 'dressing up' my patty, it is laid onto this plastic container. My friend said it looked like a sandwich. Well, how I wish our sandwich looks like this. This is a good and hygienic way to pack the patty and not to mentioned won't de-figured the whole bun.

Oblong Lamb Special with Cheese - RM6.50

Walla~ Here's my oblong lamb special with cheese. The cheese is laid on the patty as you can see above. It's not the same way like Bob did which is placing the cheese on the patty during preparation and wrapping it with the egg. The cheese is cut into half before laying it on top of the patty and melted on it. Looks delicious from here. You have the usual BBQ sauce, thousand island, onions and tomatoes on the patty. Definitely one good piece of patty. But overall it still not as good as OM and Bob for me. What I can say is it's better than your average patty but not the best I had.

Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Like: Hygienic and nicely wrapped on a plastic container. 

 The Burger Shop 

Jalan SS15/8A

Subang Jaya

GPS Coordinates: 3.074235, 101.587110

Bob's Burger @ Ampang Jaya

After my rendezvous over at OM Burger, I decided to pay Bob a visit at the same night. Yes, if you read my previous post on OM, you know that I had finished off a lamb oblong just few minutes before arriving over at Bob's place. It was quite easy to locate the place since I have the GPS coordinates from online. It's actually located inside Taman Lembah Keramat.

Luckily when I arrived, I am the first in line for the order. Made my order and had a chat with the friendly boss. He is rather friendly and nice to talk with actually. There's a few tables placed outside if you wanna dine in. I was asking  asking for Bob's special and he recommended their rabbit special with cheese and lamb tiesto. I had lamb oblong over at OM but still decided to tried Bob's lamb tiesto since it's recommended.

Here's the price for Bob's complete burger & hot dog. Yes, there's plenty of variates to choose from compared to the usual Ramly stalls. I am actually interested with their triple cheese special but worried that I couldn't finish it off after OM's oblong.

Bob even do delivery services for nearby areas. I remembered it was 50cents previously but since petrol had been increased, so I guess it's alright. 

 The one on the left is rabbit patty while the right is the lamb. Actually this is my first rabbit patty and really looking forward to it.

This is how the base of the lamb tiesto looks like. He is using the hot dog bun and split it open and heat it up. There's the usual lettuce and onions with plenty of BBQ sauce and mayo.

After 5 minutes of preparing the patty, this is how both the patties looks like. The rabbit patty was rather thicker after frying it. Damn it's so mouth watering even right now while I am writing this post while looking at these two patties. Yummy~!

Since I had ordered their special with cheese and this is how Bob does it. The patty is placed on top of the fried egg and cheese laid on top with chili/tomato sauce to top it with. You can even asked for BBQ sauce or mayo instead of chili/tomato. Another good thing about Ramly burger, you can customized. 

This is my lamb tiesto looks like when it's placed on top of the fried egg with cheese on top. Simply delicious. 

Now here comes the best part. Bob will cook the onions with Rochester sauce and pepper before topping it onto the patties. You don't see this kind of preparation anywhere else.  

Lamb Tiesto Special with Cheese - RM5

This is how my lamb tiesto looks like after the onions was laid onto the patty. I had asked for extra mayo and BBQ sauce but you rather not see how the patty looks like after the topping. But I simply love the sloppiness of the whole burger.  The patty is thick and juicy. The onions on top really add a nice touch to the patty.

Burger Rabbit Special with Cheese - RM7

And this is how my rabbit special with cheese looks like before I sink my teeth into it. Trust me, this is one of the nastiest burger I had to date. And it's simply delicious. You can hold on the sauce if you wanted you burger to be nice and all. But like I said, if you wanted something nice and decent, go eat at McD. 

Overall, I liked Bob's burger compared to OM burger but that's just me. Both this stall sells really good local (Ramly) burger. And this is the benchmark for my future Ramly stall all over. Would like to thank Bangsar-bAbE again for the recommendation from her blog. Gonna try to finish the quest for the best Ramly burger on my next visit to Cheras. Hopefully it's gonna be as good as the one over at Ampang. Till then, do let me know if you know any good Ramly burger stalls over at your place or you tried before. 

Rating: Rabbit Burger Special with Cheese - 4.3 out of 5

Lamb Tiesto Special with Cheese - 4 out of 5

Like: Good & friendly service with good food

5, Jalan AU 5C/1,

Taman Lembah Keramat,

GPS Coordinates : N3 12.118 E101 45.278

OM Burger @ Ampang

I had planned this trip for quite some time after seeing another blogger (Bangsar-bAbE) blogged bout it few months back. It's her choice of Malaysia's Top 5 Ramly Burger over KL. After going through the list, I had tried only tried one of them and decided to tried out the one on the top of the cake, OM Burger. It's located over at Ampang so it's quite a distance from Puchong. But I am determined even though the trip started off raining over at my side. The place was quite easy to find as it's just next to the main road. You can see a 7-11 store right in front of the stall.

 

When I arrived, both the owner are busy preparing their famous burgers for the awaiting customers. Parking was an arse, so I asked babe to go down and make an order while I make another round for parking. The pakcik will do all the cooking and grilling while makcik packing and cashing in the money. Good husband-wife combination here.

The oil are reuse as you can see which is a bit unhealthy. But then again, what is so healthy bout eating Ramly burger right? The patties are reheated again from another tray full of pre-prepared patties.

As you can see, he pre-prepared the patties beforehand to handle the high amount of demand. I was a bit let down of this but I would not judge it just so fast. Since it was highly recommended, I decided to wait and see. You have the usual chicken, beef, hotdog and their special oblong lamb.

I read that they had been operating for more than 25 years now already. Wow~! That is one hell of a good track record for me. I mean, if you can operate that long and still pack a long queue, he must be doing something right. He start operating as early as 5pm till really late. How late? Till they run out of buns or patties maybe. But then again, 7-11 is just behind them. Maybe that's the reason why they are there in the first place.

Since I am trying out another joint later, I am not going all the way right yet. So I'd decided to go with the usual Ayam Special and their famous Lamb Oblong Special. I saw one of the customer ordered their benjo and it's quite different from the one we had normally as he doesn't used the metal thingy to shape the egg.

Follow in line now. Saw an advert on an online voting for their favorite street food on their stall. I read some where that they are once voted as the best burger/street food in town back at 2004 (if I am not mistaken).

This is how babe's Ayam Special with Cheese (RM4) looks like after unwrapping. As you can see the mayo, tomato/chili and bbq sauce are oozing out from the patty. This is how a real local Ramly burger should look like. Sloppy and nasty just the way I like it. But babe was not that enthusiastic as I am. He had a hard time eating it as it got smudges all over her face. 

This is how the patty looked like after the first bite. Babe was quite disappointed as it doesn't really felt any different from any she had before. I took a bite and had to agreed with her. The patty was too thin and we can't really taste the juicy and sloppy patty at all. Nice too see but not that nice to eat for us. Maybe we need to order their double special to really enjoy it.

Finally, my oblong lamb special with cheese (RM6). It was large. Imagine they split open a hotdog bun and just spread the patty on top of it and just hit everything they have on to it. It's sloppy and sauce was seen everywhere. I took a bite and it's really nice. I totally love this one. Babe had a bite and too agreed with me it's better than the Ayam Special. The patty is juicy and thick. The egg totally enclosed the whole patty and I love the pepper and Rochester sauce they applied to the patty during preparation. Simply delicious. This is highly recommended. 

After we clean up, I started my journey to the next stall. Yes, you heard me right. I am a man on a mission that night. Next stop Bob's Burger. OM burger is a bit over rated to me on their ayam special but luckily it was save by their lamb oblong. The lamb oblong definitely is one of the best I had to date. But I heard Bob's serve a packing with their lamb tiesto too. So you will just need to wait and see how it goes on my next post.

Rating: Ayam Special 3 out of 5 

Lamb Special 4 out of 5

Like : the real sloppy and nasty patty 

OM Burger can be located at

Lorong Kolam Air Lama 1, 

Ampang 

GPS Coordinates

3.160667,101.758665

Nihon Kai @ Off Jalan Kuchai Lama

I was looking for a lunch partner last week when she recommended this little secluded restaurant off the busy road of Old Klang Road. You can actually see the restaurant from the main road if you pay attention to it. It's the same row as the Micheline tyre shop. The restaurant is located at the furthest end of the shop row. You can't really miss it actually, there's just one Japanese restaurant at that place. The name of the place is Nihon Kai. For those who had been eating around would had already know or at least ate here before. I heard it's really good and prices are reasonable. So we were there around lunch hour and we were lucky to get a table as it's a full house that day.

 Sliced Beef Special Set Lunch - RM19

Browsed through the menu and the Little Princess decided to have their grilled beef lunch set. As you can see, other than the main dish, it also come with a bowl of misou soup, appetizer of sweet and sour vegetables and lastly the dessert. We ordered cold green tea to go with the set. 

The usual way of preparing a grilled beef is with onions and lots of it too. Totally love the taste and importantly the portion are really generous.  The beef are marinated and cooked to perfection. Just nice.

Tori Katsunabe + Sashimi Set Lunch - RM20

As for me, I had ordered their xxx. As you can see the set is really large. We have the main dish plus the sashimi (raw fish). Similar to my friend's set, mine too comes with the appetizer and also dessert with the misou soup. I am really full at the end of the meal. For the price that I am paying, this is worth every penny.

This is the main dish which is actually cooked chicken with egg and sliced onions on top. Portion again are generous. Taste is alright nothing that blows me away. I ordered this as they do not have any Chicken Katsu in their menu. And I needed something filling that afternoon too.

Look at those sashimi. OMG, it's so thick and fresh. If you eat a lot of Japanese food, you would have know or have some idea how much a place of the above sashimi cost. I am really excited with the generosity of the place. There are 3 slices of salmon and 2 smoked salmons. Yummy~!

For the whole meal above we paid around RM42 inclusive of drinks and taxes. I need to say that the place might not serve the best sushi in town but for the price you're paying this is definitely one of the best I had. Definitely going back with babe to gave her a try since she's go crazy with Japanese dishes. They have another branch over at Sunway Mentari which I might try out next week. Do let me know what you think of the place if you manage to go over. (Rating: 4.2 out of 5.0)

Address: Nihon Kai Japanese Restaurant 

No.4-2, Jalan Telok Gadong, 

Off Jalan Klang Lama, 

58100 Kuala Lumpur 

Tel: (03) 7982 3668

Business Hour: :Lunch 12pm - 3pm

Dinner 6pm - 10pm

Bird Man Cafe & Restaurant @ Neo Damansara

 I was informed by my ex-colleague of this new place over at Neo Damansara. It's located at Kota Damansara behind Sunway Giza if you are familiar with the location. It's those brown building behind Kota Damansara next to Giant hypermarket. The shop that I am going to introduce this time around is called Bird Man. Yes, you heard me right the first time. I was surprised when I first heard of the name in Mandarin called 鸟人. I am looking forward to what they are serving over at this place. Parking is an arse again over at this place similar to SS2.

As the menu said, the place serves contemporary international dining. In other word, fusion. They mix around between Eastern and Western and called contemporary or fusion dining. Browsed through the menu and some of the dishes caught my attention when I finally made up my mind by ordering something recommended by my friend who frequent the place before.  They do serve set lunch so it's very convenient and money saving.

 Hawaiian Style Fish Fillet Spaghetti- RM7.90

From the picture above, it does look like our local rojak you ordered outside but it's not in the inside. The fish fillet on top are freshly fried while the spaghetti is accompanied with vegetables and lots of fried garlic. The sauce is a bit tomato-ish if I remembered well. Not bad if you like fried garlic as much as I do.

 Pork Sausage Omelet Rice - RM6.90

I had ordered this pork sausage omelet rice which is so darn amazing. The dish might look a bit off from the outside and even plain if you really look inside. But the combination of the whole ingredients used really brings out the taste of the dish. Fresh omelet with Chinese pork sausage with a bit of green top. What's underneath you ask? Well take a look for yourself.

 It's steamed white rice covered with tasty crispy fried garlic (again!). Damn this is so darn appetizing for me. Cause I really love garlic be it fried or peel fresh. For those who doesn't like garlic, please stay away, but trust me you are missing out a lot.

 Mushroom Soup

We had ordered their set lunch hence the set come with their mushroom soup. You can choose either this or their Tom Yam soup. Although it's just a add on, but the soup is really nice. Not those plain from the can at least.

 Chocolate Pudding 

Dessert is included in the set which is their Chocolate pudding. I don't think they have anything else. It's self made so it's alright. Quite tasty and not too sweet.

 Cham Ice 

The drinks are included too from the set which you can choose from the menu. Thick with coffee taste, just nice.

The place seemed to be quite busy during lunch hour and the staffs are really friendly and efficient too. We are served by the owner himself so it's quite good. For an additional RM3.90 from the price above, you are complimented with the soup, drinks and dessert. Well, not too expensive I guess. Will definitely be going back again to try out their other dishes. Another recommended dish would be their creamy mushroom soup topped with puff which is similar to Dome's mushroom pie. It's located behind OCBC bank so it's not too difficult to find with that name. (Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0)