Tang Shifu @ KSL Mall

Another over-due updates on my food blog. I think this is at least one month old. But I am quite happy to have dine over at this place. So let me share this with my readers here. The place I am referring to is Tang Shifu. This particular branch I went to is located at KSL Mall, JB. Yup, this is on one of my company sponsored makan trip again. It's closed to 9pm if I am not mistaken when we decided to walk in this place. I  saw this place before in the Klang Valley but felt like their food are over-priced and all. So I didn't have the chance to give it a try. I guess now is the best time to try it out then. 

We are served with some appetizer once we are seated. Menu was handed to us to browsed through. Actually the food isn't that much expensive once you think about it. I saw their one of their premium item called Mixed Seafood (which consists of abalone, dried scallop, mushrooms, mussels and many more) is selling at less than rm40. That is affordable. But we didn't go for that as we thought that it's a bit too much for a dinner. 

My friend decided to ordered their Ginseng soup with Chicken. The brown rice is actually a side order of the main dish. The portion is just nice for one person. If you are a small eater, you can even share this with your friend. The soup was nourishing and you can taste the strong ginseng in it.

Decided to order a vegetable and saw this broccoli dish which  looks really nice in the menu. Well, as we all know, what we see doesn't really end up in front of us. This is exactly the case for our broccoli with sliced abalone & scallop. Sounds nice but the picture in the menu does look more nicer than the actual dish. I guess the vege and scallop shrink after they steamed it. Nevertheless this is one healthy vegetable dish. 

Here comes my dinner. Dried scallops with PETITE abalone mixed rich. This dish is totally over-rated from the menu. Everything looks more better than bigger in the menu. hahaha!!!  The mushroom looks bigger too but in reality all had been sliced to bits. It's actually your normal mixed rice but enriched with abalone and scallops. 

  I think they are not kidding when they say PETITE Abalone in their menu. 

Yes, there's more to our dinner. We decided to order this sliced pork. Again the pork sliced looked so mouth watering in the menu. I can accept what we got at the end for this. "Di Huang" should be referring to the sweet sauce which comes with this dish I think. There are four slices of pork per dish. 

So basically you wrapped everything in one slice of cabbage and add in the sauce and give it a big bite. Really juicy but you won't really feel that much of fat from the pork since you are eating it together with the cabbage. Not bad. 

Overall, the visit was pleasant but the food in the menu doesn't really tell the whole story. Maybe their mixed seafood also the same. Will need to verify that on my next visit here. Their soups are really nourishing for male and female. So do give it a try and let me know what you think.

Rating: 

Food: 3.8 out of 5.0

Service: 3.8 out of 5.0

Ambiance: 3.5 out of 5.0 (a fly kept bugging us during our dinner, a bit annoyed)

S'Mores Bar-Restaurant-Chill Out @ Bangsar South

I know it's been a while since my last update but heck I am getting lazier now to post. Don't ask me why. Maybe due to life commitment or work. But it's upsetting to see my blog left unattended for so long. I still eat around and snap lots of pictures but I don't really have the time to update them in here. After a long morning of sorting out my pictures from my phone, so here goes. S'Mores is located over at Bangsar South which I heard about since last year. I was actually looking forward to their beef burgers but was disappointed that I can't find any over there during my visit. 

So I browsed through their set menu and saw some pasta under their set lunch. Decided to go with that. I ordered a mushroom soup as usual to warm up the old stomach before the main course. Well, it's your usual mushroom soup from the cane if I am not mistaken. Better save the money. 

I can't decide on either ordering their chicken or pasta and at the end decided to go with their cream sauce pasta. Damn, I made a huge mistake. The Alfredo based sauce is too watery to my delight and the portion is that sufficient either. Looks nice but don't really fancy me at all.  

My lunch buddy decided to go for their Pesto base pasta which was a good choice indeed. Well at least it's way better than mine. The mint flavor from the Pesto sauce is quite strong although I still prefer the one from Louisiana better. But this is acceptable for me. 

 In short, cream sauce fail, pesto sauce save the day. Although it's just a set lunch I do have quite high expectation on my pasta. And this cream sauce just didn't pass the average line. 

There's plenty of seats inside and it's air condition which is really good. Like the atmosphere as it's good to bring your customer for a lunch or meeting ending with some beers on the side. 

They do have some promo going on for Happy Hour kakis at night. They served beers and liquors too. Not sure how's the crowd at night but I heard it's quite alright. Maybe you can drop by some day and let me know how's your lunch/dinner goes. Cheers~! 

Rating:

Food: 3.5 out of 5.0

Service: 3.8 out of 5.0

Ambiance: 3.8 out of 5.0

Hot Star Large Fried Chicken @ Subang Jaya

During my trip over to Taiwan two years back, I was told that their fried chicken over there are famous. Famous their size at least. There are a few different outlets over there but the one that stand out would be Hot Star. Now, they have finally came to our shore. The first outlet is this over at Subang Jaya, SS15. It's located below Chatime (previously Tien Pin Ge Ge). It's the same row as Starbucks and Snowflakes (opposite Asia Cafe). You can't really miss it since this has got to be one of the most crowded street over at SS15. 

I was thinking to myself, what else do they sell in here? They can't just be selling fried chicken right? So here's their menu. They have their famous large fried chicken, crispy drumlet & wing combo, tempura, sweet and sour plum potato and crispy fries. You can either make a combo out of it or order ala-carte which I did. Since I just wanted to try out their large fried chicken. 

 It's operating like a fast food chain restaurant where you queue up to make your order. 

After ordering, they will only prepare to fry the chicken. So it's prepare only after there's an order which means that all their fried chicken are made fresh. The set back would be the waiting time I guess. I had ordered extra spicy and the guy was happily to add in edition chili powder for me. 

And here is the place where you collect your food. It took them around 5 minutes (give or take) to prepare my chicken. Take note, I was the first in line, so I guess it's bearable if you are not in a rush.  

 You have 4 level of spiciness to choose from. As usual, I ordered EXTRA SPICY! Yummy!! 

 Just to show how long is the chicken. I put side by side with my Grande size SB mug. Actually it's around the size of Shih Lin's XXL fried chicken. 

 This is how the fried chicken look like with extra spicy chili powder. I noticed that they only applied the powder on one side of the chicken only and not both. 

The chicken was smooth and tender. Not as much starch as I would imagine if you compared it with Shih Lin's XXL fried chicken. The meat is thicker I believe too over here. Spicy? Not really for me, but don't be bold if you're not into spicy food like me. The portion was quite large frankly speaking. It was my lunch and I can't even finish it at one go. 

The fried chicken was well known not only for it's taste but also it's size too. It's measuring at 30cm in length. That is really long for a fried chicken if I would say so myself. 

The location is hard to find parking during the weekdays, but I went during the weekends so it's more easier to get a space. The restaurant is air-condition so it's comfortable for you if you thought about dining in here. The place is brightly lit up and nicely decorated. Give this place a try if you are around the area and fancy some large fried chicken. How was is compared to the one over at Taipei? Can't really tell the difference I guess. But it's best having it on a nice cold day. 

Rating: 

Ambiance: 3.8 out of 5.0 (nice and simple and air condition)

Service: 3.8 out of 5.0 (accommodating with my request)

Food: 3.8 out of 5.0 (affordable and can be shared among friends)

Edo Ichi Sushi @ First Subang

Had this pictures taken few weeks back but a bit lazy to transfer it back to my 'lappy' until now. This is actually one of the expensive or above average in terms of pricing Japanese restaurant I had. Since I have my benefactor with me that day, we are all set to fill with our tummy with wonderful delicious yet expensive sushi. The name of the place, Edo Ichi which is located in the new First Subang tower.

The place was half full during lunch hour when we arrived. I think it's due to the new lunch set which they introduce. This is our second visit and we had decided that we won't be returning unless someone is buying the other. LOLX!! We were seated inside and flipping through the menu looking for expensive non-filling items. Decided to go all out on sushi and sashimi and no bento set lunches. 

First on the table would be their fresh sashimi or salmon. OK, I am very particular in my fish and I had to say that this is one fresh salmon we had. Five slices of this baby cost us around RM25. I guess money can buy happiness in this case. It was fresh and nicely cut. Juicy~!  

Decided to go for salmon and since we love mayo, we had this. Not the best we had but still worthy of the price we're paying I guess. Actually we thought of ordering another grilled unagi but decided to call it off at the end worried that we can't finish it. Since we have 2 soft-shell crab roll after the salmon. 

We wanted to try something new so we had this una cheese roll. The cheese on top was a nice touch but the whole sushi didn't really tickle my fancy that much. I think I can say the same for my lunch buddy too. The roll does look inviting and all but it's doesn't really reach that 'WOW' level yet. Maybe a 'Oh, OK' level only. 

Lastly we had this salmon, crabstick and cheese roll which we had during our first visit. This is better than the una roll at least. Both agreed that this is reaching that 'WOW' level too. After this dish, we had tons of green tea clearing our throat. Thought of ordering some small sushi on the kentai belt but we really can't stuff anymore. 

When the bill came, it amounted to RM95 which upsets my benefactor since she thought it would be more than RM100. It was a good fulfilling lunch for both of us and we again agreed that we won't be back anytime soon unless someone is buying lunch. They have a few branches in Malaysia if I remembered correctly from the menu. There's one over at Solaris Dutamas and another over at Island Plaza. So do drop by the place and let me know if you think it's worth your money. 

Rating: 

Food: 3.8 out of 5.0 (quality is good but a bit pricey)

Ambiance: 3.8 out of 5.0 (quiet and not too crowded) 

Service: 3.8 out of 5.0 (staffs are friendly and served fast) 

Kedai Kopi Hing Lee @ Tawau

I am not sure if I had been to this outlet before as it has close to two years since my last trip over to Tawau. This has got to be the must visit shop for foodie like me over at Tawau. Well according to our family friend information that is. I had tried their branch outlet the day earlier and it's not that bad either. So this should be better I guess. Don't really but remember where is it exactly located but it's within the city. 

The place was crowded when we arrive that afternoon. Luckily we managed to get a table in minutes and quickly made our order. The shop is handled by mostly young ones which surprises me. I thought the cook should be at least in his 50s or so. Anyway, I'd learnt from experience to not judge by the cover or in this case the age of the cook. 

Since I don't read Chinese, I am not sure what the pricing on the wall said. But by all means those who can can at least make some sense out of it. 

The sauce available are very standard. We have soy sauce, pepper and their home made chili sauce.  They do have this additional fish oil sauce for you to add on your noodle. 

I was hungry so I'd ordered a large portion of the noodle.  The noodle looked similar to the one over here but actually it's not. The main different would be the missing taste of "kan sui" or the preservative they added to the noodle which most of the people hate over here. The noodle over there are made fresh so they won't need the additional preservative as I was told. 

The preparation of the noodle was simple. But as they, simple food are the hardest to prepare. As you can see above, there are only a bit of thick soy sauce and some bit of onions and spring onions to top it off. But trust me when I saw, this has got to be one of the best noodle I had in years. The oil they used to mix with the onions are cook together with pork so you can taste bit of onions and also pork in it. Damn delicious. My only comment would be the cooking time of the noodle. A bit hard for me although I like mine that way but then again I didn't told him how I wanted my noodle to be cook. 

I am not sure if the noodle is the main or the soup with the pork is. But I trust it would be the latter since the name is "Sang Yuk" or fresh pork.  The pork are sliced just nicely not too thin and not too thick and being cook in boiling water. It's tender and it's soft. I was really surprised that it was pork and not fish. I heard that their soup will be cook for the whole day long so trust me when I said that the soup is sweet.

The combination of a good bowl of noodle and pork soup by the side. Both a simple dish but make a  heck of a combination together. 

I totally love Tawau. When you ordered ice lemon tea any where, and I do mean any where. They really are putting in slice lemon for you. Not like our side, where you can only get this in kopitiams and not stalls outside.  

Food are served fresh and fast although the place are pack with customers. But it doesn't affect the quality of the food served. You got to love this place. Definitely one of the best food I had over at Tawau during my trip. 

Rating: 

Food: 4.0 out of 5.0 

Ambiance: 3.5 out of 5.0

Service: 3.8 out of 5.0