Skewers @ Subang Avenue

 I had actually been to this particular place called Skewers 1 or two months back for some beers with my gym mates. Then I saw their menu which offers one of my favorite dish, burgers. Fat juicy patties. So I had finally managed to give place a visit during my birthday. Babe don't have any preference when it comes to dinner venue. So I had to find a place where it's convenient for the both of us since we had movie over at Pyramid beforehand. So this place would just be perfect. It was around 6pm when we arrive that day, so there wasn't much customers. Good~ Heard that their patties are good so decided to have that for my main.

Since I know I won't be satisfied so easily, I had decided to ordered some side dishes to go with my main. So many to choose from and finally decided on their gourmet chillies fries. It's actually steak fries topped with chilli corn carne and melted mozzarella cheese. OK, the mozzarella part caught my attention. It's like putting A&W corny dog sauce on top of hot melted cheese and fries. Not bad, but make sure you finish it fast or the fries will become cold and soft.

I am contemplating whether to order their double patty or single and finally decided to go with their Ultimate glutton burger since I had ordered one side dish. My choice is correct. The single patty is damn large all together. As you can see, other than the burger, you have the salad and also steak fries too. This is really large. The burger consists of a 150g patty mixed with herbs & spices. Again it's mixed together with chilli corn carne (which contain beef), melted shredded cheddar cheese, fried egg, tomatoes, salad leaves, tortilla chips, gherkins & jalapenos. Man, that is a long list of ingredients to pack into one single burger. Trust me, it's huge.

As you can see, the yolk is oozing out from in between the patty. Damn it's so damn glutton as the name says. I am not sure if they do it on purpose or accidental, but I like my patty really much. Not the best I had but definitely one of the good ones. And recommended too. I'd read before that their patty are too dry, but maybe they had improve it after some feedback from the customers.

Babe decided to try their sandwich as she is not that hungry that night. It's boneless chicken with special Thai lemongrass marinated on it. On the side you have some of their pilaf rice and butter vegetables. The bread seemed a bit plain but babe like it. She particularly love the pilaf rice as it's so delicious according to her. Heck, it's not even the main in the dish. Sandwich to me was alright. Nothing spectacular but filling. I mean for the price you're paying, it's quite generous.

What to drink? A good pint of Hoegaarden of course to cleanse all those food down. Ambiance is alright and the service is good. Maybe cause there's not much crowd at that time. During the dinner, an ex staff came in and she shouted at the other staff. Found out that she was requesting her salary but in a really rude and loud way. Kept on telling the other people to F**K OFF!! Damn~ I am paying for food and a good show at the same time. It's also a good place to chill out with friends having some good beers too. 

Ambiance: 3.8 out of 5.0

Service : 3.8 out of 5.0

Food : 3.8 out of 5.0

Address:  

SG-01, Subang Avenue
03 5632 1368

Palate Pallate Restaurant & Bar @ KL

I was invited for a surprised dinner over at this small place called Palate Palatte.Com. It's located along Jalan Mesui which is behind Changkat Bukit Bintang. It's a small cozy place with an open concept but no worries as it's air condition inside but you can still opt to dine outdoor. The place celebrated their 4th anniversary on Dec last year. The place 

The place is nicely decorated by an artist called Su-Ann. I read from the website that she graduated from London and came back after graduation. She drawn the whole place like palate hence the name of the place. The place is co-own by her and Paul. You can really enjoy looking at all her arts all over the restaurant.

Since we're waiting for the birthday girl to arrive, we had decided to ordered some food to eat. I had decided non other than fried calamari. Portion is moderate but luckily we ordered another appetizer. A bit too much flour for me but heck,it's fried and crunchy.

Next appetizer would be the usual nachos. The nachos are fresh from the oven as we can still feel the heat. The dipping are really appetizing. There is this sweat and sour dipping so you can choose ever you prefer.

I had ordered their chocolate with vanilla float. This is because their coffee machine was out of commission. Not bad, it's actually quite nice to drink. But I actually wanted to try their mocha.

After browsing their menu, we had decided to order our main. So much to choose from in the menu but we can only order one main so we decided to share around and try it out.

Before the main arrived, we are served with this funny looking bun.

The bun is served together with this margarine cheese like ball. So cute~ 

Let's get into business now. No need to ask who ordered this. Yup it's me. They served fettuccine carbonara with bacon. The cream was a bit too liquid for me in the beginning but it turned thicken towards the end which I like. Although it should be a good plate of carbonara, but I am not sure why it's not.  Maybe it's because of the lack of cheese in the cream.

You know from the name that the dish spells cow. It's actually pasta with cubes of beef in it. The scent is really strong. For beef lover you might love this one. Pretty filling with the amount of pasta and the beef.

The presentation of the dish was so damn shocking. You have a stick poking into the fish with fried sliced potato being put through it. Not really bad, but just your normal plate of fish and chip to me.

It's simple and it's filling too. You have spiced chicken tandoori style. One healthy dish with tender spice chicken breast.  The chicken is properly spiced up and mixed with the dipping on the side, just nice.

The birthday girl had ordered this mushroom cappuccino which is recommended in the menu. Really strange as it's actually mushroom soup but with whip cream on top. Strangely nice~!

This is a bit plain to me. If you wanted something simple and filling, you can try this out. It's like any other fried chicken to me but with mash potatoes and corn on the side. 

Another recommended dish by the chef would be their saffron terrayaki salmon. Looking at it actually give you some fishy idea. haha~! You have two salmon put together which mash potatoes in between and a few slice of vegetable to add some color to it. The salmon was really soft and tender and the sauce by the side did compliment it. 

We didn't really ate much of this actually as we found out that most of us didn't take egg plant. haha~ Even the carrot seemed to be a bit bitter to me. Weird~! 

There's a bar for beer and liquor if you are in the mood. The crowd really comes in around 8-9pm. Luckily we made reservation that night. Food was alright and the service is good. Sadly that the coffee machine was down so we had to walk over to my friend's shop for coffee at Deluca. We had good laughs that night and since it's quite noisy with the music and all, so we didn't felt awkward talking and laughing a loud. Not bad for a night out with friends or a gathering. 

Food Rating : 3.5 out of 5.0

Ambiance Rating: 3.8 out of 5.0

Service Rating: 3.8 out of 5.0

Address: 21 Jalan Mesui
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

open everday 12pm-12am
friday & saturday till 2am
closed on mondays

Otak-Otak Place @ Tropicana Mall

After posting two Taiwanese dishes for my last post, I had decided to come back to our local food. We have plenty of local delicacies over at our country. Since we're multiracial country, so we had a lot of choices in term of food variates. And for my lunch last week, I had decided to give this place a review since I had tried it a few times already. The name of the place is Otak-Otak Place. It's located inside Tropicana Mall and I think this is the first of many branches around town if I am not mistaken. As the name goes, the place specialty would be otak-otak. For those who are not familiar with the term otak-otak (brain), no we're not eating any brain here mind you. It's actually a cake made out of fish meat to put it simple.

Once entering the restaurant, you will be brought back to your childhood time as the deco of the place are 80s. You have all the candies and tit bits from the 80s in there that you can check out and even toys too. I think they are under CNI group with all their products on display and all. They have another branch over at CNI HQ at Hicom Glenmarie too.

Here are some of the sweets which is on display on their shelves. Really brought back some memories. You have your Rota or Ding Dang chocolate in a box which is so ever famous during my childhood time. I think people who are in their 20s now never heard of this before.

Babe wanted to order their roti jala when she saw it inside their menu. I am not a big fan but since she was once in the flour industries, she's very fond of this particular dish after a road show demonstration on it. The roti jala is actually made out of flour, eggs and some coloring. A simple dish which you can make in your kitchen anytime. The main or rather side dishes would be the curry chicken to go with the net bread. The gravy was really thick and nice. Dip the net bread in the gravy and take a bite with some potato and chicken. A very local food and just simple and nice.

I had ordered Ice Lemon Tea since it came with the set lunch which I had ordered. 

They have a few type of tea to choose from and babe had decided on their teh tarik with ginseng. Really refreshing and it comes with a piece of biscuit too. Our local English Tea.

I had recommended the otak-otak char kuey teow for babe since I wanna give it a try too. The portion was large. I mean for the price you are paying, this is quite worth it. The kuey teow itself is above average and just the way I like it which is not too dry and eggs are everywhere on the noodle. The special part of it would be the extra otak-otak on the side. But that is not just all, cause they even added bits of it into the noodle when they cooked it. So you can bite into bits of otak-otak anytime. Something different for me but still it would be better if they have fried lard in it. 

As for my lunch, I had ordered their Western cuisine which is the black pepper chicken chop. I wanted to give their Western dishes a try although it's not my main purpose of the visit. At least I know both of their local and western food are alright when I recommend this place. The portion was just alright, not too large. Black pepper sauce isn't that strong of a taste which is just to my liking. Some of my friends preferred a stronger black pepper taste. Side dishes would be the salad and fries. Nothing too fancy but passable.

My set lunch comes with two stick of Otak-Otak fresh from the grill. 

Once open, you can see the otak-otak or fish cake is juicy and delicious. Took a bite and it's quite alright. For those who tried Muar otak-otak before, well this exactly the same to it but it's there somewhere. I heard that the owner shipped the otak-otak directly from Muar weekly over.

Overall my lunch is quite fulfilling and I am really satisfied with it. The amount of customers in the restaurant really shows how good is their food. Service is alright although your call for service might fall on deaf ear during rush hour. But I can still live with that since they come and apologize and are really polite in serving the food. My black pepper set lunch cost me RM15.90 inclusive of drinks and the char kuey teow is RM10.90. For lunch, I can still live with that price tag. Maybe not everyday but on invitation. 

Food Rating : 3.8 out of 5.0

Ambiance Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

Service Rating : 3.8 out of 5.0

Will I Return? Yup

Address: Otak Otak Place 

Lot L1-58, 1st Floor,
Tropicana City Mall, No. 3, Jalan
SS20/27, 47400 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan.

Tel / Fax: 03-7728 0403
Operation Hours:
10.00am – 10.00pm (Daily) 

Other Branches: 

One Utama Shopping Centre

IOI Boulevard

Suria KLCC

Wisma CNI

Number One @ KSL City Mall Johor

Since I'm talking bout Taiwanese food from my previous post, I thought it's good to follow up on this. From dinning in to snack. The place is located inside the new mall over at Johor Bahru called KSL City Mall. The mall has a lot of stalls to offer like Shih Lin which is just next to them and also other kopitiams. I was walking around looking for food when I saw this place called Number One. It's a shop selling Taiwanese snacks. This is new. So I went in and give it a look. Browsed through their menu and ordered almost all of them. 

The tray on the left is the crispy chicken and sotong balls on the right. The one underneath the chicken would be the fried potatoes. I asked if they pre-prepared this and he said he have to but will reheat it again since some customers cannot wait too long for the food to be ready. Well, let's see how the food taste then. 

Here's the ingredients for the cheese potato which I ordered. You have sweet corns, tuna mayo, minced luncheon meat and sort. They do not have other flavors like pineapples like the one I had over at Taiwan on my last trip. I did advice them on this and they might try putting it into their menu next time.

I had to have this. This is so evil. Looked at those cheese all around the potato. The potato is fried to crispy and cut open in the middle and stuff with all the ingredients mentioned above. Lastly the cheese is poured on top of the potato and you have yourself one super fattening dinner. The potato skin must be crispy for the crunchy feel of the whole time. Not the best I had from Taiwan but then again it's the only place I know that serve this.

 Second on the list would be the fried salty chicken. This is just your ordinary chicken chopped in small pieces and deep fried with flour to give that extra crisp. Add some curry powder and you have yourself a fried salty chicken. Noting special here but since it's a snack, so it's alright.

Dish no 3 would be their deep fried mushroom. I am not sure what are those stuff on top of the mushroom but it's damn crispy. Portion is moderate for the price you're paying. If you like mushroom then this is your dish.

Dish no 4 would be their house octopus ball. According to the staff, the octopus ball is blend by their own owner and I should give it a try. Oh well, I since I like octopus ball, I ordered it and give it a try. Didn't taste anything different bout it than the one I had outside. Sigh~ 

The last dish would be their crispy shrimp which he highly recommended. It's actually small shrimps deep fried together with their covers. This is a good dish if you are chilling out with a bottle of beer watching football. Definitely can get you through the night. Smell of shrimps are so strong. 

Personally I am quite fond of Taiwanese street food as they have a lot of variety and so a lot of people try to bring in some of their food over to our shores. But not all are able to get the same result as the one over there. This is sadly to say is one of them. Other than the potato cheese which is just passable, the others are just moderate and normal to me. Well maybe that is just me but there's really nothing to shout about. I still stick back to my Shih Lin for now. 

Food Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0

Ambiance Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0

Price Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0

Taipei Taipei @ Subang Avenue

We were all looking for a venue for a friend's birthday dinner cum New Year Eve dinner and finally we decided on this new place called Taipei Taipei. It's located at Subang Avenue next to Subang Parade. The place states that it's a modern cuisine cum tea house cum music lounge. This is not your usual Taiwan cuisine place like Fong Lye or Formosa but rather a bit more modern Western cross over with our Eastern cuisine. They served liquor at the bar down stairs too if you wanted to start the night off with some light refreshments.

Since it's New Year Eve, they only served set menu that night. And since we are expecting 9 pax that night, we ordered two sets of 4 pax menu. The menu come with unlimited steamed rice with one single glass of refreshment. We are a bit disappointed that they do not have a big round table to serve a large crowd since a long table is not suitable for a gathering in terms of chatting and passing the food around.

First on the table would be the 4 variates appetizer. 

This dish isn't that bad since it's sour, it's good for waking up our taste bud. 

Surprisingly all of us like this dish the most. I think that is sliced fried tofu. Most of the dishes are sour and spicy which is good to start the night off.

Nothing special bout this dish. Just your normal glass noodle with chillies. 

This isn't that bad if you like cucumber. For someone who doesn't like cucumber, I do agreed with the others.

They only served three types of teas that night, red tea, peach and lemon sprite type. My favorite would be the red and peach tea. 

Stewed pork, a bit too fattening even for me. Not much meat and taste is normal. Nothing special.

Damn, this dish is so RED. Most of us didn't taste much of it cause it's too oily. But I do like it since I don't really care of that as long as it's good. Not that spicy though. 

This is the only vegetables of the night. Again, not many like green beans. Me? I totally love this simply yet good dish. I am not sure about others, but I really like green beans. This dish, I like. 

Not sure why the appetizer came so late in between the mains. Not bad, but do take note to eat them when it's served or it will be very cold and hard. The dipping in the middle is sweet like honey so it goes well with the pan cake. 

A Taiwan cuisine wouldn't be complete without this clay pot 3 wine chicken. Isn't the best San Peh Chicken but still alright. A simple decent pot of chicken.

Last but not least would be the 3 flavor fish. The fish is steamed and as you can see they added lemon on it. So the taste would be spicy, sour and sweet all together. Fish is fresh but again not my dish of the night. Not the best fish I had but just your average steamed fish. 

Overall, the dinner was just alright but we did paid a lot for the dinner that night cause it's a set menu. Maybe a bit too much too. Isn't the best Taiwan dish we had or even Chinese cooked food. The only plus point of the night would be the decoration maybe. They do have a lounge upstairs which we continued later on for the countdown. Also a bit expensive and the environment seemed a bit quiet too. Not going into the details of the night over there since this is a food blog. Their normal price for a 4-5 pax menu is RM129 but that night, we paid almost double for that. 

Food Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Service Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Ambiance Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Address: 

Taipei Taipei

Subang Avenue Shopping Center,

Lot SG-06, Persiaran Kemajuan SS16,

47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor

Tel: 03-5635 6388

Business Hour: 11Am - 2AM