Soho @ 1U

Soho by Jun

G218 Ground Floor

One Utama Shopping Centre

Tel: 03-77222155

Not many people know about this restaurant, probably because it’s tucked away in an obscure location. It's located in the corner under the escalator on the Jusco supermarket floor. Although there are a few posters pointing the way, not many people bother to follow the arrows, which is quite a pity – because Soho is a gem.

When you walk into the restaurant, you’ll get almost blinded by the glaring light pouring in from the huge glass windows framing one entire wall, looking out into the LDP facing 1U. The theme is black & white – stark, by any standards. The backs and seats of some of their white fabric chairs are painted with black caricatures of faces – different faces. These face paintings are replicated in the aprons worn by their service staff.

The other thing which I like about Soho is their elegant tableware. Their white plates are flower-shaped, even their sauce plates. Their black chopsticks have elegant metal tips. It's so prettily black & white here!

Service is fast. Once you have been ushered to your table, the crew is ready to take your orders.

I always have my favourite Rose Tea (RM6) here which they serve in a pretty glass teapot and small glass Chinese teacups.

I never fail to order their Xiao Loong Pau which is very good value at RM7 for 6 pieces. The only “complaint” I have about it is that the pastry skin is a tad too thick. The soup and meat filling inside is excellent.

The Dumpling in Spicy Sauce – 6 dumplings served in not-so-spicy sauce (RM12). The meat filling was identical to the filling of the Xiao Loong Pau.

La Mian with Garlic Pork Rib (RM14) was actually “pork fillet” (3 pcs). The pork was well-marinated and tender, fried just nice. The la mian was ordinary. It was the pork fillet which lifted it.

Seafood Fried Rice with XO Sauce (RM16) was spicy. There were cubes of prawns, squids, chicken, carrots in the rice, fried with eggs and bean sprouts! It was tasty but a bit too spicy and a tad too oily.


Soho does exellent Rice Rolls (cheong fun) and they have a few varieties. Not the usual “prawns” or “cha siew” like in most restaurants – they have stuff like “prawn & beancurd skin”, “prawn & kalian”, “beef with spring onions” – just to name a few. We tried their Prawn & Beancurd Skin Rice Rolls (RM14). It was served in an elegant crescent-shaped plate. The very-fresh prawns was rolled in crispy fried beancurd skin which in turn was wrapped by the smooth Rice Rolls. Imagine – a myriad of textures – succulent springy prawns, the beancurd skin was still crispy despite being rolled in the steamed smooth rice rolls! Heavenly!

Prawn & Beancurd Skin Rice Rolls

The 1st dish of rice rolls was so good that we just had to have another one. So we ordered the Prawns & Kailan version (RM14). This time, again the super-fresh prawns together with crunchy kalian stalks were rolled in the cheong fun. Excellent! We vowed to try ALL the other cheong funs in our future visits!

Prawns & Kailan Rice Rolls

Kinsahi Japanese Restaurant

Kinsahi Japanese Restaurant
Lot F-11, 1st Floor
Aeon Bukit Tinggi
Klang
Tel: 03-33232229

The spanking new Aeon Bukit Tinggi boasts quite a no. of restaurants. Being the Jap food fan that I am, I couldn't resist trying out Kinsahi.

This is the only other Jap restaurant there besides Sakae Sushi andI guess it originated from Johor, looking at the list of their other outlets. The interior of the restaurant was fashioned in a rather sombre mood, with dark walls and white japanese verses imprinted. There were some diaphanous drapes hanging from corners and the whole deco looked almost like a harem in some dubious Arabian scene. The chairs had very high backs, quite un-japanese, I must say.

When we were seated, a bowl of cubed vege tossed in mayonnaise was served to us, as appetizer. We didn’t order that – it was like those peanuts they serve you in Chinese restaurants and then charge you RM2 for it. But for the small plate (like 5” diameter plate), we were charged RM5! It’s a rip-off – the “Egg Wasabi Mayo” was bland, except for the tinge of wasabi.

RM5 for this!

The Futo Maki Udon Set @ RM18 came with 4 pcs of Futomaki, a small dish of Guava salad and a small bowl of Soup Udon. The futomaki was just passable, the Guava slices rolled in mayo was over-ripe and the udon was miserable. The soup tasted bland and there were only 1 slice of Japanese fishcake and a few pieces of seaweed floating in it. The udon was not soft enough.

The Kinsahi Bento Set B comprised of rice, 3 slices of salmon sashimi, teriyaki chicken, a few pieces of fried fishcake, 2 pieces crabstick, 3 pieces of tamago (egg omelette), a dollop of indiscernible vege salad and a small bowl of miso soup. The set was RM30. None of these rose above average.

Their California Temaki (RM5.90 each) came with soft seaweed sheet – it must have been left standing somewhere for sometime. Taste-wise, it lacked “oomph” and the rice was hard.

The only dish which made any kind of visual impression was their Caterpillar Maki (RM16.90). It was served on a wooden board – all 7 pieces of maki rolled with crabstick, unagi, mayo veg, cucumber and rolled in ebiko. Its taste, however was pretty mediocre, certainly not as nice as its appearance.

Ocha cost RM1 per person

Din Tai Fung

Din Tai Fung Restaurant

Lot LG-207, Lower Ground Floor

The Gardens, Mid Valley City

Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2283 2292

Much has been said about this latest Shanghainese Tim Sum joint that has recently opened. On a late Tuesday morning, the place was pretty full when we were there. But that's probably because it was filled with shoppers from Selangor since it's a public holiday for Selangor!

The "Story" of the Din Tai Fung chain of restaurants was printed on the paper placemats for diners to read while waiting for their food. Apparently it was founded by a poor Chinese dude in Taiwan and he became successful selling his siew-loong-paus. Seems his restaurant has been touted as one of the Top 10 Restaurants in the World by The New York Times. I think the New Yorkers are not very familiar with shanghainese food.

Siew Loong Pau

The Siew Loong Pau was RM11 for a basket of 5 - pricier than Dragon-I. However, it didnt even match up to the taste and quality of the latter. The soup in the dumpling was lacking, both in terms of quality and quantity. Nothing much to shout about.

La Mien with Vege+Meat Dumplings

I had their La Mien with Vegetables + Meat Dumplings - minced pork with chopped vege, essentially. I found the texture of their la mien lacking in elasticity and the dumplings were pretty mediocre. That bowl of soup noodles cost RM13.

Pork Buns

The pork in the bun

Two pieces of their Pork Bun were served in a basket. I have tasted much better Minced Pork Buns (sang-yook pau). The pau pastry was not fluffy enough and the meat filling inside was quite tasteless. Besides being a bit saltish, I could not distinguish any special flavour in the minced meat.

Shrimp Fried Rice

LL just had to have his fried rice, so we ordered the Shrimp Fried Rice. It took a very long time for them to serve this and when it finally came, it looked pretty plain & bland. There was absolutely zero garnishing and the serving was rather small. The rice was just fried with 7 medium-sized prawns, a sprinkle of long beans and eggs. At RM14, this was disappointing, considering the small serving.

Kwailin-ko (black turtle jelly)

Of course LL had to have his Kwailin-ko dessert as well. It came in a dainty glass goblet and at RM7, that's really not worth it. According to LL, it tasted just like any other black jelly and he has had better.

I would say there are other much better value-for-money shanghainese fare elsewhere. While service here was tolerable, their menu was pretty limited. I'd go to Dragon-I any day!

Nyonya Colors

Nyonya Colors
Aeon Bukit Tinggi, Klang

Every time I passed by the Nyonya Colors outlet in 1U, there's always a long queue and I always wondered how good their food is. However, those long queues always put me off and I have never tried their dishes until I visited this outlet in Aeon Bukit Tinggi.

There were hardly any customers there when we popped in last Sunday morning. Perhaps it was still early or perhaps the place was still new. The place was done up in simple kopitiam style but what was a bit unique was their colorful square stools. Some of them had been painted over in bright nyonya designs. Food has to be self-ordered and paid at the counter before they served you at the table. They had those banana leaves-packed nasi lemak and mee siam. I tried one of their pre-packed nasi lemak - the sambal was unusual - it had a lot of kunyit in it, hence the orange colour. Apart from that, nothing outstanding about it. Unfortunately, we were hungry and forgot to take a pic of it before finishing the packet!

We ordered their Yellow Curry Mee which was actually served with meehoon. The curry was again heavy with kunyit and daun limau purut so it was just the normal nyonya-style. What was a bit different was the pieces of wintermelon (toong-kwa) cooked with chicken in the curry.

Yellow Curry Mee

We also tried their Dry Curry Mee - which came not dry, but with thick curry gravy. And this was served with the usual yellow mee. It tasted like any normal curry chicken with taufu puffs. Again it was very "yellow" in colour - almost like their Yellow Curry Mee, except that this one had taufu puffs instead of wintermelon. Quite mediocre, I would say.

Dry Curry Mee

Their toast bread with kaya was miserable. The kaya was just sweet, without any pandan or coconut fragrance.


I tried their Bubur Pulut Hitam. Nothing outstanding about this - it was just a tad not sweet enough and lacked the full-body santan that would have uplifted this simple thong-suey.


Overall, I would say their food is over-rated and not very different from other kopitiam fare. Oh we tried some of their pre-packed nyonya kuehs too - much like any kueh you can get from those carts in the malls.

Meatball Noodles @ Kota Kemuning

Restoran Imbi Road Meatball Noodles

15 Jalan Anggerik Vanilla N31//N

Kota Kemuning, 40460 Shah Alam

(a few doors away from Maybank)



This shop is run by a family and they serve ONLY their famous Meatball Noodles, nothing else. I guess it's a spin-off from the well-known joint in Imbi Road.


You get to choose the type of noodles: Yellow mee, meehoon, kwayteow or loe-see-fun (rat tails noodles). And then you get to choose either served "Dry" or "With Soup". I always go for the "dry" version. The noodles are tossed in a black sauce and topped with their famous minced pork and lard.

The rectangular meatballs are served separately in a bowl of porkbone soup with 1 slice of barbequed intestine ("siew cheong"), sprinkled with choped spring onions. My favourite is the loe-see-fun. The noodles are smooth and slip easily down your throat, infused with the fragrant black sauce, lard and tasty minced pork. The soup is well-flavoured, a bit peppery and tastes wholesomely of good porky stock!

The chilli sauce that accompanies the noodles has its own unique tangy flavour - with enough "zing" to spice up your tongue!
Service is fast and friendly - watch out for "Speedy Gonzales" - the cute waiter with the crewcut hairstyle who dashes all over serving the bowls of food to customers!

Each set of noodles costs RM4.00.