Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant @ The Gardens (Re-visited)

I am not sure about anybody else, but I haven't been to any great Taiwan cuisine restaurant before except this. The best I had to date would have to be Fong Lye in The Gardens. My first and second visits seemed to be a pleasant one. I heard that there is another one called Fong Lye Restaurant  over at Plaza Prisma ,Ville Desa Sri Hartamas which offers cooked dishes for a group of people rather than bento sets like over here. But for now, lets get back to Fong Lye. As usual, the place is packed with people when we arrived. But luckily we managed to get a seat as there's just two of us. If you're coming here in a group, you would need to wait around 10-15 minutes if you're lucky. 

During my first and second visits, I had tried some of their appetizer like their famous Taiwanese Glutinous Rice Sausage and Sweet Potato Balls. This time around, I had ordered their Fried Oyster with Egg. As you can see, it is served with sweet sauce on top. The portion seemed to be enough for two to three pax.

You have the usual suspect like oysters, eggs, flour (a bit too much) and onions. The flour seemed to be a bit too much actually. I like the way they prepared the dish as the outer layer is cooked to crispy and the over burn part. Nothing too special for me. 

My friend had ordered their beef with onion set. The set come with steamed rice with some stewed pork on top as always. It's quite a norm for their steamed rice with stewed pork on top. Nice.

So what do we have for the side dish? We have their famous half stew egg, asparagus and the last seemed to be fried tofu with mayo inside. The best would be the fried tofu as the mayo was oozing out when I bite into it.

Now let's get to the main course. The portion seemed to be a bit little quite sufficient as we have side dishes and the appetizer. It's a simple dish but heck it's really nice. The beef are marinated and the scent of the spring onions really blend well with the fried beef. Nice. 

If that is not enough? Try finishing this bowl of hot chicken soup. Although it's nothing much to brag about but it's really above average. The portion of chicken are really generous and I almost didn't managed to finish it. \\

As for my set, I had ordered their Spicy Fried Chicken set. I am really hungry and this is definitely a right choice. The portion is really large. The chicken is fried to crisp and later poured with chili based sauce on top. It's not that spicy but just alright. I had actually ordered it to be extra spicy. Not the best I had but still a good dish to have on an empty stomach. 

Again, my trip is a nice one. Everything was good down to the soup. Will definitely recommend to my friends as I had a better here compared to Din Tai Fung, Xian Ding Wei or Fun Taipei. Been here a few times but never tried their beef noodle soup before. Will bring a friend who seemed to be an expert of beef noodle. Do let me know if you had tried anything else from here or anywhere else. (Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0)

Le Bouchon @ Changkat Bukit Bintang

French anyone? Yup, this is gonna be my first French fine dining ever. And what better place than Le Bouchon. Actually I am eying for Frangipani but I heard some negative reviews of the service and inconsistency in the quality of their food so I gave this a try. It was recommended by one of my friend and drop by to check the place out beforehand. Before what? Well if you don't know already, it's the venue for my proposal. Yup, you heard me right the first time. 

The place is opposite Frangipani at the end of the street. From the outside they served beers and wine while but when you walked pass the bar, you will come upon a comfy small French styled restaurant. 

There were only 3 couples the whole night I was there which is nice as I don't like the place to be too crowded for the special occasion. And the ambiance was just perfect. 

Wines were everywhere in this place. They are in the wine chamber, the cellar the wall the floor, you name it. You can check out their long list of wine in their website actually. 

We are not wine drinkers so we ordered some plain water. Gonna clear up my taste bud before the real meal comes in. We had ordered their Gourmet Menu which consists of a 4 course meal.

This is a some crackers which the chef had prepared for us while waiting for the course to be ready. As you can see, there's two type of crackers here. One of it consists of raspberry on top of it while the other is some sort of tomato based Bolognese sauce on top. I like the one with the Bolognese sauce better.

  Salade Périgourdine

For the first main course we have a plate of medley imported lettuces, goose liver terrine, confit gizzards, smoked duck with Cognac sultanas vinaigrette. This is one hell of a good salad in simple layman term. The portion was generous especially the smoke duck. Pretty nice for a first course.

It's our first taste of goose liver or foie gras in French. It's actually better than we thought. The texture are some sort like cheese. But whole lot better. And there's plenty of it in the salad. Splendid.

Gratin d’asperges aux truffes du Périgord et au Champagne

 As for my first course, it's gratin of asparagus with champagne sabayon and black truffles from Périgord. Sounds pretty Frenchy and look French too. Little but nicely decorated. I had expected their course to be small in portion and this is what I meant. Asparagus is simple but the sauce on top of it was really nice.

Coquilles St Jacques grillées et fricassée de champignons sauvages, sauce au Porto

Babe's second course was again spectacular. It's grilled sea scallops with wild mushroom fricassee and Port wine sauce. It's a simple dish but the fresh grilled scallop will make you go crazy. This dish has babe go GaGa. The nice mixed wild mushroom and port wine sauce is just perfect. 

 Soupe de moules noires au safran et légumes aromatiques

What is French dining without saffron soup? So here's my second course which is black mussels and saffron soup with aromatic vegetables. This soup seemed to fall flat on me. Maybe I don't really appreciate the saffron soup since it's my first attempt at it.

Carré d’agneau à la croute de fromage de chèvre, courgettes à la fleur de thym,
sauce au Cabernet sauvignon

This is babe's main course which I choose for her. It's rack of lamb with goat’s cheese crust, roasted zucchinis with thyme flowers with cabernet sauvignon sauce. The portion was large this time around which surprises us. Luckily though as we were worried that we will starve to death that night. haha~! 

 We had ordered medium well and the lamb really tasted good. I think they cooked the goat cheese crust onto the rack of lamb as I don't see any of it. And there's a bit of crunchy feeling to it which we both like. But towards the inner part of the lamb, it seemed a bit too raw for us.

  Magret de canard rôti au miel de montagne, échalotes confites et fricassée de légumes aux tomates séchées au soleil

I was contemplating between ordering their grilled fillet of seabass with fennel, roasted tomatoes and caviar sauce and this. And the waiter had recommended me the duck. My main course is this mountain honey roasted duck breast, confit shallots and fricassee of vegetables with sun dried tomatoes. Finally something really good on my side of the course. This is like Western style roast pork but in this case duck.

 It's medium well again as I ordered and the even portion of lean and fat meat on the duck with it's crispy skin really make my night a good one. Totally beautiful.

  Crème brulée aux framboises

And finally for my last course which is the dessert. We are actually really full after the main. Surprisingly, Yes. This is their crème brulée with raspberries. The looks are simple but trust me it's really really nice. The top part (I suspect) is burn using a torch which melted the sugar icing on top. The lower part is cold but maybe not as cool as I wanted it should be. But nevertheless, it's a good dessert.

Tiramisu à la mangue

This is one of their famous dessert if I am not mistaken, which is their Mango tiramisu. There's slices of mango in the middle part of the tiramisu cake. Babe totally love  this but there's only one down side of the mango which is it's not freshly sliced but we suspect from the can. But the strawberry on top was fresh.

Overall it was a memorable night as babe accepted my proposal and the dinner is the best fine dining we had. Well, it's our first and only one to date though. So we can't complain much. The price? It's RM148 per head. It's actually quite worth the money if you really think about it. I mean the ambiance, the quality of food and also the service. It's not a casual night out but definitely something memorable which you wanted to last forever. (Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0)

 

House+Co @ Bangsar Shopping Complex

I saw this shop or rather restaurant on my last visit to Grand Imperial which is just opposite it. From outside it's a furniture shop as the name goes, Home+Co. You can see a lot of furniture and decorative items being displayed upon entering the place.

Once you go further in, you will notice that there's a restaurant in it. This is definitely an interesting restaurant. So I had called upon my new lunch buddy, K-Bear to try out this place. She was happily to obliged since she is alright with anything. :P We checked out their menu and it contains some local foods and also western too.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup - RM15/serving

For starter, she had ordered their roasted pumpkin soup. Nothing is better than a hot warm pumpkin soup served together with a roasted garlic bread. The pumpkin soup is topped with cream, nutmeg and pepper. The soup is thick just the way I like it. I am starting to like pumpkin soup after a few good encounters and this is one of them. At least now, I can order pumpkin soup rather than just mushroom every time.

Fish + Avocado Cheeser - RM24/serving

The women is contemplating between a few sandwiches in the menu and I had  suggested this for her. Actually I wanted her to try the pineapple+banana+cheese but she declined to 'experiment'. The sandwich is served with pan fried grouper, avocado, butter head lettuce and cheese. It's also served with a big piece of watermelon on the side and fresh salad.

As you can see the grouper and cheese are oozing out from the two piece of bread. This sandwich is really filling after finishing the pumpkin soup.

Nasi Lemak - RM24/serving

Finally my nasi lemak arrived. I saw one of the customer having this on my last visit and that day and decided to try it out. I am really hungry that afternoon, so this is just the right dish for me. I am really astonished when the waiter placed it in front of me. This is the most expensive plate of nasi lemak I had in my life. I mean, RM24 for a nasi lemak. This doesn't need to be only good, but really good.

The nasi lemak main attraction would be the massive amount of beef rendang served on top of a banana leave. When I said, massive, I do mean a lot. It's like a serving for 2 or maybe 3 people. The beef are really tender and warm. This is some really good beef rendang.

The nasi lemak also come with the usual cucumber, eggs, peanuts, anchovies and an addition of green too. The cucumber are served fresh and I do mean fresh like cut and served when needed. Even the anchovies are freshly fried before serving. I am really amazed. The vegetable are fresh and not too bitter. Love it.

The portion of rice is generous and really nice. It's warm when being served to me. It's not sticky and as you can see the rice are piece by piece apart. Just perfect. The sambal wasn't that much and nothing special bout it. But you should be busy with the beef rendang the whole meal to worry about this. Simply delicious.

Overall, the lunch is really good and I am 100% satisfied with the amount of money I am paying for the nasi lemak. I know RM24 is a bit steep for a plate of nasi lemak, but then again, you will need to consider the place and also the quality of the dish and not just the size or portion itself. There are also western dishes like pasta which I wanted to try on my next visit. Although this is the most expensive plate of nasi lemak I had to date, but I am a satisfied customer at the end. (Rating: 4.2 out of 5.0)

Kung Fu Pan Mee @ Puchong

We had Kung Fu Panda and now we have Kung Fu Pan Mee. I was driving around Puchong area during the weekend looking for food and babe wanted pan mee. So happened we come across this restaurant which their name captured our attention and decided to stop our search and try it out. The place is located at Pusat Bandar Puchong opposite IOI Boulevard. When we arrived, there wasn't much customers but as we leave, the place was half full. There were so many type of pan mee in their menu. They are not being cocky when they put their name as Kung Fu pan mee.

Hong Kong Siu Ji Pan Mee (Sauce) - RM5.90

We wanted to try something special and different, so we went for this plate of pan mee. It's filled with minced pork, sliced mushroom and fried onions. This seemed simple but when you add their chilly flakes on top, it's really something else. It's salty and spicy at the same time. Not bad.

Jiu Pai Jiong Fei Pan Mee (Braised Gravy Sauce) RM7.90

I had decided to not order their spicy pan mee and try this braised beef pan mee. As you can see the pan mee is all covered by the thick braised beef sauce on top. There's mushrooms and also broccoli which I really like. I had added their chilly flakes on it and it becomes spicy and trust me it's really nice. The portion of braised beef is really generous. I am so full after this bowl of pan mee.

Fried Salted Tofu - RM4.00

I ordered this side dish as it seemed interesting and simple at the same time. It's actually white tofu fried to crisp with some salt on top of it. Word of caution, don't put the whole piece of tofu into your mouth as it's damn HOT. Simple and nothing special. 

This is just two type of pan mee in their menu. I am definitely going back with friends maybe to try more of their pan mee. It's not the best pan mee I had but definitely something different. One think I found out is that their drinks are so cheap. Most of their drinks are below RM3. Even their white coffee or lemon ice. This is definitely a plus point for me, how bout you? Do let me know what you think. (Rating: 3.8 out of 5.0)

Belanga @ Empire Gallery

This place is recommended by a few members from my gym and I wasted no time to visit one night after my work out. It's located at Upper Level if I am not mistaken. The place serve Kelantanese cuisine. So for those who tasted Kelantan cuisine before, you can come over and have a try again and for those who never, then you should really come and try it out yourself.

The place is properly arranged and spacious. I guess, it's buka puasa time so there wasn't many crowd around when we arrived. I think most of the Muslims are patronizing the night market mostly. Anyway,  let's get to the food now. We went through the menu and saw some interesting dishes. Kelantan is famous for both their Nasi Dagang, Kerabu and Nasi Tumpang, so we decided to try it out. 

 Nasi Tumpang - RM6.50 (Fish) or RM6.90 (Prawn)

This is one of Kelantan local dish called Nasi Tumpang. It's wrapped inside banana leaf and another layer of paper outside. Now lets see what is inside now. 

Once unwrapped, you will see layers of pressed rice cakes, Serunding fish and curry fish in traditional style. You will also see eggs and anchovy sauce wrapped together inside this banana leaf cone. The rice seemed a bit cold and too soft for me. But other than that, the combination of layered fish gravy and anchovy is good for me. Not too spicy and not too filling too.

Nasi Dagang with Beef Rendang - RM13.90

 This is a traditional Kelantanese aromatic brown rice steamed with coconut milk, served with beef rendang and also egg and cucumber. Their brown rice or nasi dagang is definitely not your average type of rice you eat everyday. It's a bit long and quite filling too. The beef rendang is soft and tender. Just nice and not too hard. I like the beef as they really add a lot of coconut milk or santan in preparing it but a bit high on the cholesterol maybe. There is also a bit of chicken gravy on the side if it's too dry.

Nasi Dagang with Curry Chicken - RM13.90

This is the same as the above but the main dish is curry chicken instead. Again the portion is very generous as you can see above. Both the rice and chicken is still warm which is good as I don't like eating my rice and chicken prepared since early morning. Well maybe it is from the morning but at least heat it up, right? Nice. 

Nasi Kerabu with Ayam Percik - RM13.90

This is the nasi kerabu which I had ordered. And I really like it very much if compared with the others. The ayam percik is delicious and the gravy that comes with it really compliment the nasi kerabu. Nasi Kerabu is a East coast steamed turmeric rice. There is some floss on underneath that curry and on top of the rice. I like the small small piece of salted egg and also the crunchy prawn crackers too. Simply delicious. 

Lemongrass - RM6.90

This is a glass of special concoction of refreshing lemongrass extract , kaffir leaves and a tint of squeezed lemon. This might not be everyone's glass of drink, so please proceed with caution. Cause not everyone like lemongrass. But it's really refreshing to me.

Bandrex - RM3.90

Bandrex? I don't even know how they get to that name. It's a small glass of blended ginger extract, cinnamon powder & peppermint leaves. As the menu said, this drink is good to expel wind. 

Other than the food mentioned above, they also served cakes and dessert on their pantry. It's a good place for some quick lunch or a small bite for dinner. The place offer good food at affordable prices for me. Definitely coming back to try out the other dishes in their menu. Do try it out and let me know how you think of it. (Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0)