Legend's Briyani... A clay pot version!

Briyani is an Indian cuisine and well known dish in many countries.

Its rice (normally basmati rice) cooked with Indian spices such as ghee, cloves, cardamom, coriander, ginger, etc. It is also common to serve non-vegetarian version which mostly served with chicken, mutton, prawns, etc. Its common to serve briyani with curry or kurma, boiled egg, salad and papadam. You can find many variation of briyani available out there.

Legend Briyani has a new outlet in Kelana Jaya which is close to my work place. I have never heard of them prior to this but I was told that they are famous for the claypot briyani and have been around for years. 

So I guess I had to try it!

On my first visit, I tried the claypot chicken briyani. Its briyani rice layered with seasoned chicken. It seems to me that the briyani has been pre-cooked and it’s being cooked ‘well’ in a clay pot upon order. 

So its really hot when its being served!

The taste of briyani is good and it is well seasoned, not too heavy with spices. The chicken pieces (boneless) are tender and juicy. My only feedback would be to add some ‘moisture’ in the rice as I find it too dry.  Its served with cucumber raita (cubes of cucumber with yogurt and onions), curry and papadam.

I think the briyani here is good and well spiced. Most of the restaurants tends to ‘spice up’ the briyani until it is too over-powering with spices which I dislike.

Don’t fancy briyani? Well they do serve banana-leave rice, thosai, puri, fried noodle and so on, just like an Indian restaurant. The price is also following ‘restaurant’ standard so you might find it ‘slightly’ more than the typical outlets. I do have to say, this outlet in KJ is very clean and well ventilated. The food seems good and worth paying.

Oh yea, I love the nescafe Tarik here. Very kow! Hehe

They have set meals for lunch which starts from RM5+ which is a good deal. I have been here on numerous occasions which are during lunch hours.Anyway, if you are craving for some briyani or indian food and happens to be in Kelana Jaya, why not give Legend a try!

Visited in 2014. How would I rate them? (Scale 1 to 5, 5 being the highest score). 

The atmosphere: 4 / 5, Service: 4 / 5, F&B: 4 / 5.

P/s - some of these images are taken from their official site: http://www.legendsclaypotbriyani.com

Saya suka Satay!...

What is Satay? It is actually small pieces of meat on bamboo skewers and grilled. Normally the meat would be seasoned and marinated at least for few hours (or overnight for better taste) before being skewed and grilled. Satay is normally served with nasi himpit, peanut sauce (sweet & spicy) and cucumber. It is a common dish in Malaysia and well like by all.

Satay is very famous in Kajang , a small town in south of Kuala Lumpur. Depending of traffic, it can take about 40 minutes or more to reach here from Kuala Lumpur. You can find variety of satays such as chicken, mutton or beef easily. There are some places that serve fish, pork, deer, chicken liver / gizzard, rabbit, etc.

Since I am staying in south of KL, it is very easy for me to go to Kajang. One of my favorite satay place is Haji Samsuri. I normally visit their outlet at Bangunan Dato Nazir for many years now.

Why do I like the satays here? Well, you can variety of satays here. The peanut sauce is very good. If you like your sauce to be extra spicy, then just add the grind chili sauce for additional ‘zing’.  I normally like the sauce to be extra spicy.  The quality of satays here is good. 

I remember many years ago, they used to be a much ‘smaller’ restaurant and waiting for them to prepare the satays will take a while. Nowadays they have a very big kitchen and waiting time for the satay is not that long anymore which is a good thing. So, if you are here in Malaysia, 

do give it a try! 

Visited in May 2014. How would I rate them? (Scale 1 to 5, 5 being the highest score). 
The atmosphere: 3.5 / 5, Service: 4 / 5, F&B: 4.5 / 5.

Review of Plan B Midvalley.

I have visited Plan B in Bangsar Village and Midvalley. This review will be based on my dining experience at Midvalley. I have to say I like their concept; simple and clean ‘minimal’ look.

On this visit, we were here for lunch. We had carrot juice, watermelon lychee drink, soft shell crab pasta and lamb meatball pasta. The carrot juice comes with no sugar which is good. If you prefer to have you juice with sugar, they will be able to do that for you. You can also have your juice with milk, mix with other fruit juice ie orange, with ice etc. The Watermelon lychee is watermelon juice being blended with with lychee together with some mint leaves. I find it very refreshing. Drinking water is provided free of charge. 

Moving on to the food. The soft shell crab is deep fried and served in a bed of pasta. The sauce is cream base with a touch of local spices. The taste is nice but I feel the sauce is too ‘diluted’ for me. The pasta was well cooked which is a good thing. This is a common ‘issue’ in most restaurant serving pasta as most time it’s over ‘cooked’.

The lamb meatball is served on a bed of pasta with tomato based sauce. The lamb meatball is cooked well, a bit too soft if you ask me. The flavour of the spices in the meatball is well balanced, doesn’t carry strong smell of lamb. The tomato based pasta is good.

Generally the staffs are attentive, food are prepared fast and served fast. Overall, I would say I am happy with my dining experience. Will be heading back here soon! 

Visited in May 2013. How would I rate them? (Scale 1 to 5, 5 being the highest score). 
The atmosphere: 4 / 5, Service: 3.5 / 5, F&B: 4 / 5.

Review of Antipodean Cafe Midvalley

Well, this is one of the cafes that I really wanted to try especially with all the reviews online. I was here very early in the AM (10+am on a Sunday, yes it is very early for me!), I thought why not give it a try. In case you didn’t know, Antipodean now is available at Midvalley. 

Despite being ‘early’ we still have to wait for a table. I was waiting for another 2 friends to arrive so I queued for a table. Word of advice, they do not sit incomplete parties so don’t waste too much time queuing if all of you are not here. Anyway, they did put us on the ‘waiting list’. I came back after about 15minutes as all of us are here so we went back to Antipodean and managed to get a spot in few minutes. That’s nice!

We were seated next to the menu which is on the wall next to us! So guess what? Checking out the food menu which is at the top portion of the menu board can be ‘irritating’.  I wish they had placed it at a more convenient place for all customers. The seating area seems compact hence you probably could hear the next table’s conversation easily which is something not very comforting. Since it’s a Sunday (Merdeka day) perhaps that would explain the overcrowd?

So what did I have? I had Big Breakfast with chicken sausage (RM20). My friends decided to have same dish except theirs were with pork sausage and bacon. As for drinks, we had a flat white (RM9), long black (RM8), orange juice (RM9), and a cappuccino (RM9). Drinking water is served without charge here which is a good thing.

We only had to wait probably about 5-10 minutes for all our food to be served. Surprising the coffee and drinks took slightly longer time to be prepared which is a bit funny. Anyway we were just glad to get our f&b in reasonable time considering it was pretty packed at that time. The staffs were attentive and quick-moving…or should it be considered ‘rushing!’

The big breakfast is plate of scrambled egg, a chicken sausage, a generous portion of sautéed mushroom, a piece of hash/mash potato and a piece of toast wholemeal bread. Everything seemed well seasoned and tasted good. The chicken sausage is homemade but was slightly salty to my liking. According to my friend, the bacon is not as greasy and tasty as the regular bacon. The portion of the dish is big hence the name ‘big breakfast’. Some of my girlfriends couldn’t finish the dish.

I had a flat white which was just okay. I would say its average tasting and only comes in one size. Since I love coffee I thought I could size it up but they couldn’t. The long black was average too. The orange juice was fresh and served in a decent size glass. Oh yea.. I did have a peanut brownie cookie which is not very good. It’s filled with lots of peanut and tasted like a plain butter cookie. That was at RM5 for one piece and I think you can skip that one.

So what do I think of my dining at Antipodean? Well, the food was good. The coffee was average. On another note, I didn’t like the feeling of being rushed to clear the table to accommodate the waiting customers. I would like to have my meals without being rushed, especially on a Sunday. The staffs were not ‘rude’ at any time but you get the feeling after they kept asking you ‘would you like to order anything else?’ I might go back if the café is not that busy and if I don’t need to queue that long. The food spreads are mainly on breakfast offerings which may not much if I were to dine at a later time of the day or in the PM. The café environment is simple and nothing to shout about.  

Where at? GE-011A Ground Floor Midvalley. Right smack between Delicious and Chilis.

Visited in September 2014. How would I rate them?  The atmosphere: 3.5 / 5, Service: 4 / 5, F&B: 3.5 / 5 (Scale 1 to 5, 5 being the highest score).

Food Review : Bubba Gump

Guess what, it’s time for makan! That means time to eatJ. So here I am at Bubba Gump Citta Mall for lunch with colleagues. Surprisingly there were not many customers at that time. We were attended almost immediately. The staff looked energetic and lively. 

So, we placed our orders for Scampi pasta (RM32.90), fried chicken (RM27.90), boat trash (RM44.90) which to be shared. As for drinks, we had signature drinks which are Mango Sparkler, Speckled Strawberry and Speckled Blueberry (RM12.90).

Now, let’s talk the food. We got our food quite fast and the dishes were hot when it was served. Scampi pasta is actually an olio pasta dish with prawns served with a piece of toast bread. The pasta tasted good, well-seasoned and cooked well (al dente). The Prawns were cooked just nice. The boat trash is a combination of pieces of fish fillet, prawn, lobster tail and fries which are deep fried, Bubba Gump style. Since I have had this dish since the day they been operating here in Malaysia, I ‘feel’ the portion of this dish has gone slightly ‘smaller’. The other dish we had was fried chicken served with coleslaw, corn, and a scoop of mash potato. Overall the food tasted good. I still prefer the Chili’s country fried chicken though. We shared the food among 4 of us and it was sufficient.

The signature drinks are bottomless (free refill). My favourite drink here is still Mango Sparkler.

We had Mud Pie for dessert (RM22.90). It is a big size dessert and can be shared with at least a few people. In my case, shared with 4 of us and yet we struggled to finish it.

So, to sum it up, Bubba Gump is still good place to make meals with your family and friends. Some of the dish has big portion so always check with the staff before you ‘over order’. A number of drinks are bottomless which is good for most people. The restaurant carries the signature look which is standard with other outlets here in Malaysia or overseas.

Visited in May 2014. How would I rate them? (Scale 1 to 5, 5 being the highest score).

The atmosphere: 4 / 5

Service: 4 / 5

F&B: 4 / 5

Coffea Coffee… An average affair!

Flat White

Coffea Coffee

I am a fan of coffee but have been disappointed with many cafes which serve mediocre coffee.

So, whats up with Coffea Coffee? I had a chance to try this out when I was at The Curve Mutiara Damansara. They claim to serve coffee beans from South America.

They serve all sort of coffee, hot and cold. Madonna and Maestro is their signature blending techniques.

Not a fan of coffee, don’t worry! You still can hang out here having tea, smoothie and some funky ‘ice blended’ drinks. They also serve limited food such as sandwiches, cakes and cookies.

So, what did I have here? Well, since it was a few of us, we ordered few types of coffee; Caramel Macchiato, Caramel Latte and a Flat White.

Coffea Coffee

Hmmm Peanut butter choc cake?

The flat white was mine. In case you didn’t know, a flat white consist of double shot of expresso with steamed milk so it supposed to be stronger than some other coffee that contains milk. Did I like it? I find it having a right bitterness however doesn’t feel the kick of having a flat white despite choosing Maestro which supposed to be ‘stronger’ bodied. The aroma of the coffee was good though.

I did try out the other drinks my friends had but was not very impressed with it. Don’t get me wrong, it does taste good but not up to my expectation.

One of our friend paid using HSBC card so we enjoyed 15% off the drinks. I find the price is higher compared to some other cafes. I had a cake which I can’t recall the exact name but something along ‘peanut butter chocolate cake’ which I find was average.

Coffea Coffee

The environment of cafe is simple with some wood furnishings. I find the coffee here is average, maybe not up to my expectations.

Visited in April 2014. How would I rate them? The atmosphere 3.5/5, Service 3.5/5, F&B 3/5.

Review of Indian Heritage, Subang Jaya

I came here some time ago. At that time, they used to have the buffet lunch for less than RM20 which was considered okay price for a north Indian restaurant. Unfortunately when we came in July, they no longer serve buffet for lunch. They are now offering set lunch and different menu for each day.

Since it was a Wednesday, the set lunch of the day would be Mutton Madrasi. Since I don’t take mutton, I ordered some dishes from the a la carte menu.This is the set lunch which one of my friends had. The portion is more than sufficient for one person (RM13.90). The set lunch consist of acar (pickle), papadam, mint sauce, mutton madrasi, navrattan korma (vegetable curry), aloo gobi (cauliflower) and gulab jamun for dessert. 

  

This is ‘chicken pokaras’ (RM9), my first time having this. Normally it is the plain or the onion version and it would be called ‘pakora’. The taste was OK but can’t really taste any chicken in it. The portion is just nice for 3-4 people.

Here is the Chicken Madrasi (RM18.50) and Brinjal Masala (RM11). We also ordered garlic naan (RM5) and plain briyani rice (RM6). The chicken madrasi tasted nice, not too heavy with spices, the sauce is not too thick as well. So when you eat it with naan or rice, it will be a good combination. The brinjal masala was so so.  The naan and briyani rice was good. The only thing I would comment is that the portion of the chicken madrasi and brinjal masala seemed small for the price.

I had the mango lassi (RM6) which was ok. I find it too sweet and doesn’t taste like fresh mango is used. Since we came here at around 12+pm, we didn't had to wait for our food for long. 

Visited in July 2014. How would I rate them? The atmosphere 4/5, Service 4/5, F&B 3.5/5.