Asian Food House Restaurant @ Damansara Utama (Uptown), Petaling Jaya

This particular restaurant located in Uptown is quite hard to notice it if you’re not familiar with the area. As compare to other restaurant, you might opt for other well-known restaurants like the Village Park, Umai-Ya and many more…. But don’t judge the book by its cover; you might get some couple of surprises here.

Mainly this restaurant specialized in Taiwanese Cuisine and Bubble Tea, it is often associated with influences from mid to southern provinces of China, most notably from the province of Fujian (Hokkien), but influences from all of China can easily be found. A notable Japanese influence exists due to the period when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. Traditional Chinese food to be found in Taiwan, alongside Fujian and Hakka-style as well as native Taiwanese dishes, includes dishes from Guangdong, Jiangxi, Chaoshan, Shanghai, Hunan, Sichuan and Beijing. Also, serves Japanese, Korean and Thai dishes.

Firstly, they have a vast variety of Bubble Teas, is a tea beverage containing tapioca balls. The literal translation from Chinese is pearl milk tea. The word "bubble" refers to "bubbling", the process by which certain types of bubble tea are made, and not the actual tapioca balls (mixture of tapioca and carrageenan powder). The balls are often called boba or "pearls." Drinks with large pearls are consumed along with the beverage through wide straws; while drinks with small pearls are consumed through normal straws. For the below, there is the Honeydew Milk Tea (Regular Size and Large Size). It’s delightful, sweet and refreshing.

Then the following below is Honey Green Tea (it’s nice), Blueberry Milk Tea (Also nice and refreshing) and the Mother of Pearl (Original Taste).

The Ginger Honey (Hot Tea), it’s good for cold and throat.

For the main course, you should try their Taiwanese Style Pork Spare Ribs Noodle. Once served, you can strongly smell the pork scent coming out from the dish. The portion is just nice and they provide quite an amount of pork which is very tender and juicy. And most of all, the soup is marvelous and stunning.

If you don’t feel like eating noodle, you can also opt for rice. The Taiwanese Style Pork Spare Ribs with rice. The soup/gravy compliment quite well with rice. Very nice!!!

The Taiwanese Fried Pork Chop Noodle Soup, the noodle is average and the soup is clear (not much of taste actually, quite bland). However, the Fried Pork Chop is very crispy and tangy. So good so nice.

Overall, the place is cozy and service is good. And most of all, the price is not very high.

Food Review

Food Type: Taiwanese, Japanese, Thai, Korean (Non-Halal)
Address: No. 38, Jalan SS21/58, Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
Tel: +603-7728 7719
Price: Average RM7-13 per pax
Operating Hours: Daily

Taste Rating: 8/10
Ambiance Rating: 7/10
Service Rating: 8/10
Value Rating: 7.5/10

Overall Rating: 7.6/10

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Ajisen Ramen @ 1 Utama, Petaling Jaya

Ajisen Ramen was found at Kumamoto, Japan in 1968. Currently Ajisen Ramen already has 400++ chains in worldwide. More than 120++ store chains is mainly found in the Far East including Japan and China, but has a few locations in North America, and couple of branches in Malaysia. The restaurant setup is pretty neat and relaxing where the lights are soft lighting and there are sections which have tatami mats.

To start off with the Pan Fried Gyoza, typically consist of a ground meat and/or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges together or by crimping. The gyoza is crispy and serve good with soy-vinegar.

Then The Unagi Roll, is the Japanese word for freshwater eels and wrapped with rice roll. It’s tasty but they put a bit too much of the mayonnaise.

Chicken Teriyaki, using chicken breast meat and cook in teriyaki style which a cooking technique used in Japanese Cuisine in which the chicken is broiled or grilled in a sweet soy sauce marinade (tare in Japanese). It’s ok and tangy but not the best in town.

As for the main dishes, the Spicy Chicken Chasiu Ramen. Ramen is a Japanese noodle dish that originated in China. It is served in a meat- or fish-based broth, often flavored with soy or miso, and uses toppings such as sliced pork/chicken, dried seaweed, green onions and even corn. As for this dish, they put spicy minced meat and it’s quite…sorry, is very hot…. Soup is nice and chicken chasiu is alright thought.

And next is the Chasiu Corn Ramen, same thing but without the spicy minced meat and tops with lots of corn. Making the soup sweet and tangy.

Gyoza Ramen, The Ramen is serve with milky soup base, 3 pieces of Gyoza, 1/2 piece of boil egg, bean sprouts & seaweed. In general, it’s alright.

The Spicy Paikut Ramen, Paikut = Pork Ribs. With the usual ingredients and on top with that the spicy flake, the soup is great and paikut is alright, tender and flavorful.

Garlic Fried Rice with Chicken Katsu, apparently they are only great with Ramen only. Their fried rice is quite bland and not that fragrance. The katsu is also average only.

Hot Plate Ramen with Beef Teri, the beef is quite tender and nicely grilled and cook with the ramen on top of the hot plate. Nicely done and yum yum…

Point to highlight here is that the service is quite slow; this area is very much needed to improve here.

Food Review

Food Type: Japanese (Non-Halal)
Address: Lot S01, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, No.1, Bandar Utama (Old Wing), Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: +603-7726 6860
Price: Average RM20 per pax
Operating Hours: Daily (10am-10.30pm)

Taste Rating: 8/10
Ambiance Rating: 7.5/10
Service Rating: 5.5/10
Value Rating: 7/10

Overall Rating: 7/10

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Bar. B. Q Plaza @ 1 Utama, Petaling Jaya

Bar B Q Plaza has stepped into the barbecue restaurant business since 1987 by Mr. Choopong Choopojcharoen, who applied the long-famous Japanese-style barbecue. According to their website, Bar B Q Plaza opened its first branch at Central Plaza Ladprao. With its new and different style of food, enjoyable experience of grilling, and high-quality meats and vegetables, Bar B Q Plaza has become increasingly popular and opened their first branch in Malaysia in 2005.

The Nature of Business Bar B Q Plaza is a self-cooking Mongolian-and-Japanese-style barbecue restaurant. They use a selection of high-quality meats and vegetables which customers can enjoy grilling by themselves.

Patrons are given a bowl of brown vegetarian-based sauce that is imported weekly from Bangkok. The sauce is alright and got a unique flavor. Patrons are also given raw garlic, chopped cilipadi and lime juice to add to the sauce. Then they also provide pork lard for grilling.

Looking at their menu, it has variety of sets to choose from. From economy set to deluxe supreme set……the picture below is the supreme pork set, consists of pork slices, bacon, chicken slices, squid, Udon, cabbage, baby corn, carrot, lettuce and tomato.

The set comes with 2 bowls of white rice, you can opt for garlic fried rice…quite nice actually…

To start, once the chicken stock soup has been poured and the pork lard has been greased on the hot plate, place the vegetables in the soup…

Then, proceed to grill the morsels of meat and seafood on the hot plate. Leave it to cook till it turns light brown…. Yum yum… for other meats and seafood, cooked till golden brown…

For the soup to be sweet, continue to add more veges

Besides, patrons can order side dishes such as the Fried Bacon Roll, the chef uses the Enoki Mushroom wrapped with Pork Bacon then deep fried and comes with mustard dip. It tasted funny but tasty, appreciated with the creativity.

Lastly, the Fried Thai Springrolls, fresh out from the wok and nothing to praise about it.

Their marketing ad is interesting with the help of their mascot, Bar B Gon. He is a cute cheerful dragon that is friendly to children. He likes delicious food and can eat much food at a time.

Food Review

Food Type: Thai, Mongolian, Japanese & Fusion (Non-Halal)
Address: F338A, 1st Floor, Rainforest, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Malaysia
Tel: +603-7727 8148
Price: Average RM30 per pax
Operating Hours: Daily (10.30am-10.30pm)

Taste Rating: 7/10
Ambiance Rating: 6.5/10
Service Rating: 5.5/10
Value Rating: 4/10

Overall Rating: 5.8/10

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Central Café @ Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya

Central Café is by far the only (or a couple) Char Chan Teng in Dataran Sunway, but who knows; few more (or many more) may be opening soon. It is a Hong Kong Cafe Style food that is very popular among the young and trendy urbanites today. Central Cafe is opened for business since July 2008, and Mr. Harry, the owner of Central Cafe has adopted the Yellow rubber Ducky as Central Cafe mascot.

Looking at the menu, there is certainly no shortage of choices here at Central Cafe. They offer more than just popular food from Hong Kong. Its large menu is also filled with Thai, Korean, Japanese, Shanghai and local delights that appeals to every discerning taste buds.

Firstly, Yin Yong in Hong Kong style from Central Cafe is really a refreshment compared to others cafe offering. But oklar…

As starter, this is the mushroom soup (comes with set lunch). Basically, this soup is quite dilute and not tasty at all.

Next, the Chicken in Tomato Sauce with Fried Egg, this dish is alright though, but it’s not that great actually, it’s very normal dish only.

Then the Fried Pork Chop with Vegetable Rice, the pork chop is tender and juicy (nice). And the vegetable fried rice is quite tangy and uses the right amount of salt. Yummy!

Fried Spaghetti with Pork Fillet in “Hong Kong” Style, the overall dish is par only and nothing to praise and criticize about this dish…..(so so only)

The Fried Rice in “Yong Chou” Style, first thing first, the portion is huge and for patrons that love to eat rice for their lunch can try this dish. Taste wise, eeeeeeeerrrrrrrr……. Another ok ok dish… sad…

And then the Deep Fried Dumplings, the dumplings are actually not bad at all; it’s crunchy, scrumptious and mouthwatering….

Food Review

Food Type: Chinese, Thai, Korean, Japanese, Shanghai, Malaysian (Non-Halal)
Address: No. 27-1, Jalan PJU5/4, 47810 Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: +603-6141 8950
Price: Average RM12 per pax
Operating Hours: Daily (9am-11pm)

Taste Rating: 6.5/10
Ambiance Rating: 8/10
Service Rating: 7/10
Value Rating: 7.5/10

Overall Rating: 7.3/10

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