Udon Don @ Sri Petaling

This 'hidden' restaurant is located on the1st floor, right above Domino's Pizza in the neighborhood commercial area, hence not many people notice it.

People will only see the huge Domino's signboard and entrance, but totally ignored the narrow staircase at the side that leads to this Japanese restaurant.

I didn't know about this shop either until I saw an advertisement board that they put nearby the Domino's entrance....

The advertisement board shows pictures of their lunch set meal with affordable price.

So, out of curiosity, i walked up and saw a quiet shop with no one inside....except the staffs.

Surprisingly, it is well furnished and has ample dining space which can accommodate up to 50 pax (or more)

Clean and neat interior with calm ambience.

Quiet and serene, with Japanese song playing in the background.

[Below] The menu that lure me to this shop....

Browsed on more items from their main menu...

Their specialty is of course....Udon

But they also have rice bowl and soba

I had cold soba noodles with assorted tempuras. The iced lemon tea is provided with the set.

Do you spot something unusual?

Yes, it is this raw quail egg....

I have no idea what is this for...to pour onto the cold soba?😅

There are ice cubes beneath the cold soba....The noodle is refreshing, good to eat on a hot sunny day!

RM16.50++ for this meal, which is quite a good price considering a Japanese meal is usually above RM20 when dine-in.

Ichikakuya @ Sri Petaling

Tried out a newly opened ramen shop, originated from Yokohama...

This shop takes on the shoplot previously tenanted by Bosozoku Ramen (another ramen restaurant)

I guess they retained some parts of the interior without much renovation.

On the wall, it showcases their various outlets in Japan....it seems like an established ramen shop in Japan.

[Below] The ramen bar for solo diners😀

Menu board....

For those who are seated far from this bar and couldn't see the menu board, no worry, menu is provided.

I asked their staff what is their specialty ramen, and he pointed out the Yokohama Iekei ramen....so, there you go...

It has a soft-boiled quail egg, a slice of pork charsiu, seaweed sheets and blanched spinach (i think) with thick pork broth...The pork broth is so flavorful, though could be salty for some.

Their noodle is slightly thicker than the usual ramen, but it is still good and al dente.

It was a good bowl of soup ramen.

This is how the entrance looks like...very Japanese style...

Price is reasonable, I will definitely be back to try out other ramen😀

Family Dinner at Chee Seong Restaurant

[Throwback] End of last year. 

We decided to go Chee Seong after so many years. This restaurant was usually crowded in the weekend (since the pre-Covid time) and now business is booming again when they opened a new shop opposite the original premise, serving more customers with this additional dining space. 

We ordered 5 dishes for 5 pax.

Clockwise from left to right:

Onion ginger fish fillet

Claypot tofu with assorted veggies

Thai style chicken

Salted egg deep fried squid

Stir fried sweet potato leaves

Each dish was well-cooked and suits our palate. I guess their chefs perfected the cooking, hence every dish was spot on.

The bill came to RM164.60 nett with rice and drinks.

Kawan Place @ Sri Petaling

This was sometime ago, early this year. Back then, it was my first visit to Kawan Place restaurant which is strategically located at the junction opposite McD.

Tried their nyonya chicken nasi lemak....

The so-called 'nyonya chicken' is actually curry chicken with potato...I was surprised to see 2 pieces of deep fried wanton with the nasi lemak.

It was a good meal. I like the potato in curry. The chicken is also flavorful with thick curry, almost like rendang style.

The bill came to RM15.30 after service charge....It somehow reminds me of Papparich nasi lemak which is around that price and quality. Too bad, Papparich has closed up lots of their outlets in Malaysia.

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On another visit, I ordered the rendang chicken, which doesn't have any potato....and there is no wanton....The plating was not as pretty as the first one, without a separate bowl & saucer for the chicken dish & sambal....shrinkflation!

Nevertheless it still tastes as good. I prefer the nyonya chicken coz i like potatoes.

Pudu 五谷渔粉 @ Sri Petaling

Pudu 五谷渔粉 (Wu Gu Yu Fen) or translated as 5 grains fish noodles has an outlet in the neighborhood.

I have never heard of this shop before but well, it must have been originated from Pudu😂

It has been ages since i last went to KL city center and its vicinity.....so pardon me for not knowing the famous eateries there.

Anyway, out of curiosity, i went in to have a look...

The menu looks OK, so i ordered a mala soup with dory fish noodle.

It was a huge bowl with red hot soup. I dig out the noodle and only sip a little of the soup to taste. Not too spicy, but it's oily.

The colorful noodles....5 types of grains used: sorghum, rice, buckwheat, millet and corn.

The noodles texture similar to mixian, chewy and slippery.

On my second visit, i ordered the golden soup version.

It tastes like salted vege tofu soup, but it is in yellow soup...I have no idea why the colour is yellow, but the taste was pleasant.

The tofu cubes....

I prefer the golden soup as it is not spicy and less oily compared to mala soup.

Price is around RM20-RM22++ per bowl, depending on the type of ingredients/fish that you choose.

Young Sanna Mee

Tried out a sauna mee restaurant in the neighborhood. It has branches everywhere in Klang Valley (Cheras, Puchong, SS2, USJ, Kota Kemuning, Setapak, Kota Damansara, Bukit Tinggi, Menjalara)...

There's also a branch in Pavillion BJ. Here's the menu:

Numerous combinations to choose from: 

type of noodles/rice to soup base to type of meat/vegetarian.

I was there for their RM9.90 promo

I had fish slices in fish soup.

The rest of the ingredients were default in this promo.

Two types of chili sauces - green chili and the red chili sauce. Garlic flakes were provided by default.

Sauna mee was served on a stone pot with boiling soup. The soup is refillable.

I had spinach noodles...but i couldn't detect any spinach taste...just the colour is slightly greenish.

This is a healthy meal as the soup is naturally flavored from chicken or fish broth. All other ingredients are mostly vegetables, corns, carrots and mushrooms.

Total price for this meal is RM11.10 nett after service charge and tax. Quite worth it, but i think the promo has ended some time this month.

Shrinkflation, closed down...and some surviving!

    With the economy picking up, no doubt price increase is unavoidable. Everything is getting more expensive since the end of lockdown. Even my fav McD cone sundae has increased to RM2.10++ and the size is getting smaller these days.

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For those businesses that are striving to survive, they could only woo customers with attractive promo such as RM9.90nett set meals...like this:

this was a RM9.90 set lunch/dinner from WangDeFull minibowl some few months ago.

The set lunch consists of 2 dishes + 1 soup + 1 rice + unlimited tea.

The choices of dishes are limited, but it has at least fish or chicken or pork to choose from.

I had mala fish. It was boneless and have 3 pieces, soaked in chili oil. It wasn't spicy, unless u accidently bite on the chili or drink the oil😄

The other dish that i choose is stir-fry eggplant with okra and long beans.

A satisfying simple meal indeed.

Unfortunately, this promotion unable to get them to cover the operational costs and therefore the business closed down in just half year (or slightly more than that).

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Another shop that was just recently closed down is Nine Cafe. I noticed the changed in the shop name, hence most likely the owner has changed.

Before closure, they also have this RM9.90 set lunch consists of ice lemon tea + nasi lemak.

The ice lemon tea was not sweet at all, quite refreshing on a hot day.

Nasi lemak was just so-so....it is Chinese style nasi lemak, as the sambal was not spicy at all. 

Acar was one of the side dish to give more crunch apart from the cucumbers. 

The interior was unique....with a mixture of unmatching furniture taken from junk stores....

Their dining tables were supported by old sewing machine stand, as you can see there's a pedal at the bottom.

As of today, the BBQ shop located above this cafe has also closed down and recently renovated for another business. Let's see how long the new business is able to survive!

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[Below] A menu from the chicken rice stall in Thong Kee coffee shop. The chicken rice price is quite standard, meanwhile any porky rice would usually start at RM10 these days.

The hanging chickens and roasted pork...Which do you prefer?

I like all three!