Wednesday 29 August 2012

Restaurant Jin Xuan Hong Kong, PJ Old Town

Dim sum for brunch is something I can never resist. Today I went to Jin Xuan in PJ Old Town. Jin Xuan has 6 outlets. The latest one is at Kota Damansara. They have also got outlets in Damansara Jaya, Uptown, PJ Old Town (of course!), Kuchai Enterpreneurs’ Park and Puchong Jaya.


I arrived at quarter to 11 and sadly, not even one table was available. So, for the love of dim sum I had to wait a good 5 minutes for someone to finish up their food so that I could then begin my dim sum meal.
The first thing I did was order drinks. At RM4 a glass I would rate this as expensive. Here’s what I drank – longan – very sweet and thirst quenching. Love it!
Below is the array of dim sum that I ate. Call me a glutton, but if you don’t eat lots of varieties, then there’s no point in having a dim sum feast, right?
Siew mai RM4.50 – tasted very good

teamed meat dumplings RM6 for 3 – that would be RM2 each – wow! Quite expensive. When it was served, the gravy was already oozing out – so, can I get a discount for this?
 S
BBQ pork rice roll RM4.80 –filled with lots of pork , so I can’t fault them for this dish –absolutely worth every sen!

Deep fried turnip cake RM4

Tasty loh mai kai RM4.50

Golden bun RM3.60 for 2 – I love this – the buns are filled with pumpkin and the juice will just ooze into your mouth with every bite –heavenly!


Sharkfin dumpling RM4 –I believe it’s just the name – didn’t see any sharks fin in it…anyway, can’t expect much for RM4, right?

Thai style beancurd RM4 – true to it’s name , it was a little hot!

Sticky rice lotus leaf RM4. I found this too sweet for my tastebud. Well, perhaps it’s because I don’t have a sweet tooth.


Seaweed roll RM4. I enjoyed the seaweed roll  and would highly recommend this.


Marmite spareribs RM10 – try this if you are an avid fan of spare ribs – you won’t be disappointed –that’s for sure

Fried sticky rice RM5 – a little too bland.

Fried yam pastry RM4 – tasted as good as it looked….excellent

This is called fish stuffed root – don’t ask me what it means cos I’ve no idea, but it was very yummy!

rystal shrimp dumplings (RM4.50) ….couldn’t get enough of this.
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Steamed beancurd (RM4).  One gem of a dim sum!


I also tried these:-




Well, that ends my dim sum fiesta for today!




Address: 19 Jalan 1/21
46000 Petaling Jaya
Tel : +603 7781 5688

Mastercard & Visa accepted


















Sunday 26 August 2012

Udon Koubou, SS15 Subang Jaya



When Ifirst told of  Udon Koubou I said ‘What? Udon Cowboy?’

And the people around me said almost in unison ‘No lah, Udon Koubou’

OK….so what’s this place all about? That was what I set out to discover.



Occupying 2 shop lots on SS15/4B is this restaurant that specialises in home made udon. A look at the pictures displayed prominently along the glass doors tells us what they serve –besides udon, that is. They have rice and tempura as well. Frankly choices are rather limited here.



The first thing I noticed as I walked in was that although the restaurant occupies 2 shop lots, there were not many tables in it. The second thing that caught my attention was the fact that many of the patrons were Japanese….and the kitchen crew (at least the one I saw) spoke limited English and was more conversant in Japanese. An important fact that I must highlight based on my observation today was that the restaurant was spotless –really clean!



The concept of this restaurant is such that you are given a menu (which wasn’t really necessary) –you make your selection- and then you place an order with the cashier and pay before you are served. You can then help yourself with hot water or normal plain water which is available at another counter. You have a choice of mugs or  plastic cups.



I ordered a plate of Japanese curry with rice (RM9.80). …hmmm…it looked really different from the picture displayed in the menu. Anyway, the portion was too tiny for me. With hardly anything in the curry except for pieces of potato and some carrots, it felt like daylight robbery. But one thing I must mention is that the taste was pretty alright.



This is known as Lunch set D (RM13.30) and it comes with a free drink –you have a choice of Coke, 100 Plus or green tea. With a very soggy prawn tempura on a bowl of udon,we decided to just forego the tempura. Potato salad was also included in this set. Well, the salad was superb –it was fresh and had chopped onion in it.





As the portions were small, we ordered another set known as Dinner Set A –photo below. For RM15, I would say there wasn’t much to eat -  a bowl of plain udon, a bowl of rice, some fried vege and a bowl of potato salad.




This is fried chicken (RM3.80) – the pieces of chicken were aromatic and we polished off  everything within seconds!


Address : 50, Jalan SS15/4B, Subang Jaya

Opens for lunch & dinner

Cash terms only



Wednesday 22 August 2012

Don Kaiten, Klang Parade



Probably one of the best Japanese restaurants in Klang – hidden away in the rather quiet Klang Parade – is Don Kaiten. Well, the good thing (or some may say not so good thing) about this restaurant is that it is what I call a stand-alone restaurant, meaning that it does not have outlets mushrooming all over the Klang Valley.


A group of 5 of us decided to catch up over lunch one day..and Don Kaiten was our choice. It was rather empty as we made our way there at 12 noon. …really….the Klang folks just don’t know what they had missed out on!

Anyway, it was the perfect place to chit chat as it was quiet and the ambience definitely pleasing even to a fussy person like me!

All of us ordered green tea…for this, you are given a tea bag and a cup. You need to fill the cup with water from a ‘tap’ which is found at every table…meaning that you can refill as many times as you wish. Yeah! On every table is also a container filled with ginger – I tasted some and wow! They were truly delicious that I had another helping..and another …and asked for more!


They had the sushi belt as well as ala carte. For starters we decided to have something from the belt.The photo below shows the price of the various coloured plate. I noticed that this restaurant had many unique sushis which are not often found in other Japanese restaurants in Malaysia.

These are some of the food we had from the belt :-









This is a called a kid bento (RM13.90) – 2 triangular shaped rice with deep fried scallop, prawns, etc ..and 2 yummy konnyaku jelly. Even as I write now, my mouth starts to water as I recall this wonderful bento!


Unagi chawan mushi (RM29.90) – an interesting set that comes with an extremely smooth chawan mushi (the best I’ve had in years), miso soup, a bowl of rice, 2 slices of watermelon and some fried salmon skin. What I love about the unagi was the way they cook it here at Don Kaiten – the unagi did not have tiny bones which I loathe and sauce was  very delicious – it wasn’t too sweet thus I could really savour the unagi. Love it!

Sashimi chawan mushi (RM26.90) – this was also perfect. The smooth chawan mushi was a delight and the freshness of the sashimi amazing.The bowl of salad (top left hand corner in the picture below) was not only fresh but also very appetising.


This is seafood fried rice  (RM9.90) – it had lots of seafood in it and was indeed very tasty. But one thing they could improve on would be the presentation…..I would have preferred the rice served in a plate instead of this bowl which was filled to the brim.

Excellent food coupled with excellent service - A true gem!


Address :G39 & 40, Ground Floor, Klang Parade
No. 2112, KM2, Jalan Meru, 41050 Klang

Tel: 603-33451668


Mastercard & Visa accepted