The Italees Restaurant @ Bangi Review

I was hankering for Dave's Deli's spaghetti carbonara one day but it was too far away to get so my hubby suggested we go to Bangi and scout out new restaurants to try out. We opted to try and eat at Italees Restaurant since the name did indicate that it's an Italian restaurant.

 The front Italees Restaurant @ Bangi.

The restaurant is located in a shop lot area right next to Mohd Chan's Abdullah's restaurant. The seating arrangement is just like any ordinary restaurant would have with a few booths lined up at the right side of the eatery. There was not a lot of customers so we opted to sit at a booth. A waitress came and gave us single laminated sheets of menu each. My heart fell a bit as I scanned the menu and found out that there was no pasta or spaghetti section at all. I asked the waitress and she confirmed that the restaurant did not serve spaghetti nor pasta. Most of the menu listed consist of Malaysian dishes you can get at any restaurants and there was only a teenie weenie section on Western food. Hmm.. maybe the name Italees has some other meaning rather than indicating on Italian cuisines..

After the initial shock webbed away, I decided to order their Chicken Chop with BBQ sauce and my husband asked for their Hainanese Chicken Rice with beansprouts. For drinks, we decided upon Iced  Sprinkled Milo and warm barley.

It didn't take too long for the drinks to come with the Hainanese Chicken Rice. The barley was perfectly brewed making the drink quite enjoyable to drink. The Milo was well.. like Milo. You can never go wrong with Milo unless the mixture is made too thin.

Milo and Warm Barley

The chicken rice was nicely cooked. The rice is not too oily nor too dry. The chicken was very tender and the hainan sauce was not too salty. The beansprout was also very tasty (this coming from someone who does not eat beansprouts!). The only thing I did not like was the chicken broth which I found a little bit bitter. Maybe it was because there was too much parsley mixed into it.

 Hainanese Chicken Rice

The bread was warm and crispy on the outside but very fluffy and soft on the inside. The fries was just okay but the veggies were a bit soggy. The chicken chop was just so-so to me. I did find that some of the fat from the chicken fillet was not fully removed. The BBQ gravy was quite oily and it has a bit of a sour taste to it. The combination of the veggies and the chicken chop did not go too well together. Maybe the chef had an off day that day. The highlight of the dish was the bread because I really enjoyed it. Yum!

Chicken Chop with BBQ sauce

Yummy bread!

Overall, our dining experience was okay. The food had a 50-50 affect on us since we like the chicken rice and the bread, but did not really enjoy the chicken chop. I would really recommend the chicken rice if anyone is up for a dish of Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Papa John's Pizza Restaurant Review

My husband and I went to Jusco Equine for grocery shopping a few weeks back and we stopped by Papa John's Pizza Restaurant which was newly opened there. 

The restaurant has a very cosy and comfortable atmosphere but the lighting is a bit low. The menu consist of typical pizza restaurant which has an array of pizza choices, pasta and some side dishes such as lasagna, chicken wings, garlic bread and soups. The service is quite fast and the waiters are friendly too.

We opted to try out a personal sized pizza with Zesty Chicken topping, Cheesesticks, a bowl of creamy mushroom soup and a glass of ice lemon tea. We didn't have to wait too long for our order to come.

Ice lemon tea.

The cheesesticks is actually a pizza bread (not in stick form) cooked with generous topping of cheese and garlic sauce. It came on a thin wooden round pizza platter with a bowl of tomato sauce for dipping and a couple of pickled chilli for zest. The cheesesticks is a bit salty (my guess is from the cheese), not too garlicky though because I  couldn't taste the garlic sauce. I prefer eating the bread on its own rather than dip it with the tomato sauce (which is actually the tomato topping base on pizzas).

The platter of cheesestick.

A slice of cheesestick.

The mushroom soup came in a big bowl. It has a thick and creamy texture. The creaminess and saltiness of the soup blends very well. There is a generous amount of mushroom bits in the soup. For someone who does not like mushroom, I enjoyed this bowl of creamy mushroom goodness very much indeed.

A big bowl of mushroom soup.

Lots of bits and pieces of mushroom in the soup.

The Zesty Chicken pizza also came served on a thin wooden platter. The bread crust crunchy on the outside but the dough is soft on the inside. the bread is not tough. The topping is a bit bland and tasteless because there was no tomato base for the topping. The topping is generous though so maybe a change of pizza topping choice would've made out dining experience of the pizza a little bit better.

The platter of Zesty Chicken pizza.

The pizza and breadsticks were served on flat wooden pizza platters with no coasters underneath them. I think it would have been better to have something underneath to elevate the pizza platters because they are definitely very flat on the table. All in all, the dining experience at Papa John's left us with mixed results which might be affected by the choice of menu we made that day. The service is good and friendly, the atmosphere is warm and cosy and the food is okay to my tastebud. Maybe we could come again and order something else next time. The soup is definitely a repeat.

For our first time dining at Papa John's, the bill amounted to RM31.05.

Redup Rimba Cendol Corner Review

I have a soft spot for all things sweet. My one weakness is definitely dessert thanks to my sweet tooth. Cendol (which is basically a concoction of green rice flour jelly served with coconut milk, palm sugar and shaved ice) is a great sweet and cold dessert that hits the spot when the day is smelting hot. Yummy!! There is even an entry on cendol on wikipedia. So when my husband told me that there is a stall serving cendol somewhere in Bangi, I jumped for joy because it's quite hard to get a bowl of decent tasting cendol around Putrajaya.

The place my husband took me to get out bowls of cendol is called Redup Rimba Cendol Corner. It is a stall on the side of the road near Teras Jernang heading towards Bangi Lama. It is called Redup Rimba because the stall is located beside UKM's reserved jungle.

There are several plastic tables and stools placed under large garden umbrellas and the main stall is under a blue canopy. There are wooden planks placed over the big drain for customers and waiters to cross over to the tables and stall. There were customers sitting at almost every table and we were lucky enough to get a table just in front of where we parked out car. The waiter came to get out orders a few minutes later since there were quite a lot of customers to tend to but we didn't mind the wait.

The main menu served at Redup Rimba is Laksa and Cendol. You can get the original recipe cendol or with additional ingredient like pulut (sticky rice) or tapai (fermented sticky rice). We usually get the original recipe because I like my cendol tasting authentic. Hehe.. The cendol served here is the usual basic ingredient added with red sago, red beans and a spoonful of sweet corn. The vendor is really not stingy on the palm syrup because you can see it dripping on the base of the bowl. When the shaved ice is mixed up properly, you can see a milky dark chocolate colour of the palm mixed with the coconut milk indicating that the bowl of icy dessert is gonna taste delicious.

A bowl of cendol freshly served.

A spoonful of cendol. The rice-flour green jelly is seen submerged inside the pale, unmixed melting ice.

This is how the cendol would look like after it has been properly mixed. The shaved ice has melted a bit but the taste is still superb!

We also ordered a bowl of Laksa to be shared among the both of us (since I am a light eater who likes to eat repeatedly!). I was a bit skeptical since great tasting laksa is hard to come by these days and boy was I surprised! The laksa actually tasted really good. The fish-based gravy has a well balanced taste of fish and sourness and there is also a slight spiciness to it. The handmade rice noodle is also soft and a bit chewy but it is not tough. The texture is just-right. Overall, the bowl of laksa is really delicious and this is coming from a person who does not really like laksa. There is also additional condiments such as petis (a thick and sweet shrimp paste) on the table for those who likes their laksa to have a little bit more kick.

 

For those wanting to just sit and enjoy a great tasting bowl of Laksa and a heavenly sweet and icy bowl of delicious Cendol, you can definitely give Redup Rimba Cendol Corner a visit and I guarantee you would not regret it. The only downside of this stall is that in terms of take-away orders, they are a little bit unorganized and sometimes forget who ordered first and what, which might make you end up feeling a little bit flustered. But, all in all, the icy dessert and bowl of noodle goodness is excellent. The Cendol cost RM1.60 per bowl and the Laksa is RM3.00 per bowl. Pretty cheap and worth every penny! Yummy!!

Redup Rimba Cendol Corner opens from Tuesdays to Sundays and closes on Mondays from 10.30 am to 6.00 pm.

The Ice Room Review

A couple of weekends back, I went to Bangi with my husband to try out The Ice Room. The place was packed with customers having ice creams or plates of a la carte dishes. We were lucky to get a table on the terrace since a couple of ladies got up just as we walked by after scouting inside of the cafe with no luck.

The Ice Room, Bangi.

After a few minutes of waiting, a waiter finally came and gave us a menu. Since we were not very hungry and I just wanted some dessert, we opted to try out their ice cream. I was indecisive since all of their ice cream looked yummy and very tempting. My husband wanted to try the Tropical Mixed Fruit Snow Ice and I opted to try the Strawberry Snow Ice. The waiter took our orders and we waited and observed everyone around us having a merry time mostly eating ice cream. 

 Hubby's choice: No. 1018 - Tropical Mixed Fruit Snow Ice.

My choice: No. 1005 - Strawberry Snow Ice.

The waiter came back and told us that the Tropical Mixed Fruit Snow Ice is unavailable since there is a shortage of mango in the cafe, so my husband had to change his order to something else. He perused the menu for a while and finally decided on the Nut Case Peanut Snow Ice.

Hubby's secondary choice: No. 1004 - Nut Case Peanut Snow Ice.

The ice cream dishes came about 10 minutes later. The ice cream dishes were quite large and the ice cream were piled up into a small hill (reminded me of Air Batu Campur), so for someone with small stomach capacity, I had a feeling it's going to be a little bit difficult for me to finish off one dish in one sitting without any help.

The Strawberry Snow Ice is basically strawberry ice cream topped with corn seeds, Koko Krunch (what?) and strawberry sauce with basil seeds. Yup I was quite perplexed about the Koko Krunch bit too. The texture of the ice cream was very soft and creamy. The ice cream had this shaved and layered texture to it. The strawberry ice cream tasted well, like strawberry and it is really light and fluffy. It was a bit sweet and not too sour. The corn seeds and the Koko Krunch bits really did not go well with the ice cream for me and I felt that the combination of the toppings were kind of weird. But I did enjoy the creamy ice cream.

My Strawberry Snow Ice.  It's HUGE!

The special shaved and layered texture of the ice cream.

When compared to the picture of the ice cream in the menu, I was expecting fresh strawberries to be heaped on the ice cream generously. Boy, was I ever wrong! There were no strawberry fruits freshly cut and toppled onto the ice cream. I did find a kind of shriveled up piece of strawberry deep inside the ice cream though. Talk about false advertising..

This was the only strawberry I found.

The Nut Case Peanut Snow Ice on the other hand was surprisingly very nice. I usually avoid nut based ice cream but this one is really yummy. It is basically a creamy nut flavoured ice cream. It was topped with a generous amount of crushed nuts and some raisins. It also had the same shaved layered texture like the strawberry ice cream. The taste of the nutty ice cream was really nice and creamy. It was not overly sweet and the creamy taste of the nut goes very well with the topping. We could eat this ice cream without feeling too sick from too much sweetness.

Hubby's Nut Case Ice Cream.

Creamy shaved layered ice cream. Yum!

All in all, the experience of dining at The Ice Room for ice cream ended with mixed feeling. The unique shaved and layered texture of both ice creams were very nice. The creaminess of the ice cream were very stasifying. We could tell that the ice cream produced here is of high standard because it does not melt easily even when served outside on the terrace. The only downside is that the ice cream served did not meet up to the picture of the menu and the combination of the strawberry ice cream was quite off for me. Maybe next time we could try some other flavours. 

You can find The Ice Room @ Bangi here:

Bandar Baru Bangi
No 45, Jalan Medan Pusat 2D,
43650, Bandar Baru Bangi,
Negeri Selangor
Tel ； 03-89271501，0389269986

You can also go to their Facebook page at:
The Ice Room Facebook Page

Ayam Penyet Restaurant Review

A couple of weekends ago, my husband and I went shopping at iOi Puchong Mall. I actually wanted to go all the way to Mutiara Damansara but my husband insisted that it was too far and he's kind of tired, so we opted to go to iOi instead. After buying all the things we needed and feeling a little bit famished, we decided to try out Ayam Penyet Restaurant there (actually that was the nearest restaurant at the moment and we didn't want to walk any further! Hehe..).

First off, when we walked into the restaurant, there were not many patrons dining in at that time. We sat at a table near the window and waited for some time watching the waiter walking by several times without acknowledging that we are still not served. After quite some time, a waiter finally decided to come and give us the menu. Hmm.. talk about service! I was about ready to get my bum off the chair while my husband was still playing it cool wanting to wait.

After perusing the menu, we opted to try the signature dish, Ayam Penyet AP, Gado-Gado, Sayur Pucuk Ubi (Cassava leaf sprigs in spicy coconut milk) and two plates of plain rice. For drink we ordered Indonesian Hot Tea with Milk and Blue Coral Shake. Surprisingly, the drinks came quite fast making my desire to get out quick cooled down a little bit.

The Indonesian Hot Tea with Milk is basically Teh Tarik. It tasted just normal, nothing to shout about. My husband said he had tasted better Teh Tariks but this one is just all right. The Blue Coral Shake is definitely yummy! It tasted sweet but not overly sweet and has this ice cream soda-ish tang to it. It reminded me of a drink I had a long time ago but had forgotten what and where. There was a bit of Palm Sugar at the bottom of the glass giving the drink a creamy sweet taste. Oh, there was some bubble sagoo bits at the bottom too. I did ask the waiter about the blue soda-ish ingredient but even he didn't know what it was and only said, "It's blue coral". Anyway, it'd definitely delish to my tastebuds.

Left: Blue Coral Shake, Right: The Hot Tea with Milk.

Next, the dishes came a little bit later.

Top left: Gado-Gado, Top Middle: Ayam Penyet, Top Right: Sayur Pucuk Ubi.

The Gado-Gado is vegggies such as potatoes, cabbage, spinach, bean sprout and salad all mixed together with spicy peanut prawn sauce. This dish is served with some crackers on the side. Basically the dish is the same as any vegetable rojak. The peanut sauce was spicy but was not that sweet. For those who doesn't like sweet tasting sauce, this might go down all right though. As for me, I would have liked it better if the sauce was a little bit sweeter to complement the vegetable.

Gado-Gado.

The signature dish Ayam Penyet is a very popular traditional Indonesian dish originated from Surabaya and is served as the main dish in this restaurant (hence the name of the restaurant).The chicken is marinated with herbs & spices and then smashed with a wooden hammer making it flat (hence the name: penyet which means flat). It is then fried to golden brown perfection with the chicken being crispy on the outside and juicy in the inside. In this dish, you will get a quarter of the chicken served with hot sambal belacan (shrimp paste) with some bits of fried fritters as topping, some vegetables on the side and a couple of fried bean curd.

The chicken was indeed quite spicy (I think it was the belacan sauce). The outside of the chicken is very crispy and the inside is tender. We both enjoyed the taste of the marinated fried chicken. It's great to eat with a little bit of spicy & sweet soy sauce and white rice. If compared to Wong Solo Restaurant's ayam penyet in Bangi, I think the latter fared a little bit better. But if comparing size of the chicken, then this dish wins.

Ayam Penyet.

Next is the Sayur Pucuk Ubi (Cassava leaf sprigs in spicy coconut milk). Now this one I like. I am normally not a vegetable lover but this dish was prepared nicely. The coconut milk gravy was very creamy and has a little bit of spiciness taste to it. There is also a hint of sweetness from the Cassava leaf sprigs. Very nice to eat with rice and the chicken. Now only if they'd put in more sweet potato the dish would definitely be the bomb!

Sayur Pucuk Ubi.

My verdict: Dining at Ayam Penyet Restaurant iOi was only so-so for the both of us. The service at first was quite slow even though there were only a couple of patrons in the restaurant. The food was okay with some being delicious but nothing that I would crave over though. Well, maybe I will crave the Blue Coral Shake one day.

You can check out their menus at their official website.

Saba Restaurant @ Cyberjaya Review

A few weeks back, my husband and I went for a drive around Putrajaya just looking at sceneries and houses. It was quite late when we ended up in Cyberjaya and decided to have our dinner there. There were a lot of restaurants offering Arabic food in Cyberjaya and we decided to dine at Saba Restaurant (mainly because there were a lot of customers there and so we thought the food must be great to make the restaurant flocked with hungry people).

 

The Saba Restaurant at night. 

The restaurant's name and logo is on the long fluorescent-lighted signboard,

couldn't be captured with my lil' old camera phone.

The ambience of the restaurant from outside looked promising and warm. Inside the restaurant was just like any other food court with the tables and chairs arranged quite close together. We chose to sit at a table nearest to the counter. We had to wait for quite a while to get the attention of a waiter so that he could give us the menus (already a sore point for me as I was quite hungry). The waiter also had some trouble understanding my questions about the cuisines offered in the menu making me quite frustrated being deprived of sufficient information prior to ordering. I wanted to try something like naan and gravy but the breads in Saba Restaurant are only sold as breads without any gravy or dip together with it. So, in the end I decided to order the Rashush Bread and Fool Medammas for dipping. My husband ordered Chicken Kebab. For drinks we weren't feeling too adventurous so we just ordered Teh Tarik and Iced Horlicks.

After the waiter had taken our order, it was another waiting game that we had to play since our orders came quite late (another sore point!). As we wait, we could see that quite a number of patrons were still waiting to get their food as well.. Hmm.. not a very good sign.. Our drinks arrived first so we just sat there, sipping our drinks moderately as not to finish them before our food came. The dishes did arrive some time later but in stages.

Our drinks. The top is Teh Tarik, bottom is Iced Horlicks.

The first dish to arrive was the Fool Medammas which is actually an Egyptian bean stew. It tasted not like the usual dhall curry complimenting naan bread but more to herbal and a little bit salty with a hint of spiciness (not too spicy, just a hint) and sourness to it. It was quite all right to dip the bread with.

 Fool Medammas.

Next to arrive was the bread in plastic wrapping. The waiter just plopped the bread on our table and left without any explanation whatsoever. We assumed it was the Rashush Bread. I was quite perplexed as of why was the bread not served on a plate? It was quite troublesome to eat out of the plastic wrapping. The bread was actually just plain ol' pitta bread. We ate it with the Fool Medammas.

My husband's Chicken Kebab came next. It was served with half a slice of pitta bread (so much pitta bread!), a stalk of green chilly, half a slice of tomato, a slice of lemon and dollop of mayonnaise and chilli sauce on the side. I think there was capsicum too under the spoon. The chicken was more like chicken fried fritters than a kebab. It tasted just okay and nothing to shout about.

Chicken Kebab is hidden under the fries. 

My husband is showing the billing card.

So, all in all, our dinner looked like this:

Whoopss.. my hubby is trying to leave the table.

Since there was pitta bread aplenty on the table, we tried our best to finish at least one serving of the plastic-wrapped bread. It was quite a challenge because I am a very light eater and the bread is quite filling. After we had had enough and threw in the towel, suddenly the waiter came and brought us a plate of a very large bread. We questioned the waiter and he told us that this is the Rashush Bread we ordered. What?!

The real Rashush Bread that came too late.

We looked at each other with blank faces. The Fool Medammas we used for dipping sauce was finished and there was this whole lot of bread sitting in front of us waiting to be eaten. In the end we called the waiter again and told him to just pack the bread in a doggy bag to go. 

The total for the whole fiasco was: RM34.00.

We pondered upon the whole dining experience and on why we were given two sets of pitta bread in the first place and why the Rashush bread came so late at the end of our dinner. We actually left the unopened pitta bread because with the real Rashush bread, there was too many bread to go around. 

All in all, the dining experience at Saba Restaurant was quite a let down because of the slow service, uncooperative waiters, so-so tasting food and sloooow serving of food (hence the Rashush Bread). The only interesting thing about the restaurant was their billing method which involved the card with the number. The card is needed to be presented to the cashier and all our orders are automatically calculated making it easier to be tracked and paid for. I don't think we are going back there unless there's a tremendous change in their service and food and somebody convinces us to do so. 

Chili's Grill & Bar Restaurant Review

Earlier this year, my sister, her husband, my husband and I joined the Hospis Tresure Hunt 2010 and we received RM100 voucher for Chili's Grill & Bar Restaurant (among other vouchers). Since we never dined at the greatly raved restaurant, we agreed to go on a weekend when everyone is free.

We finally went to Chili's at KLCC and had to wait 30 minutes after leaving our name at the receptionist. We were brought to a table near the window (non-smoking section). We had a view of the pool outside of KLCC. The restaurant is quite packed with hungry people enjoying their lunch.

The menu was quite extensive and there were a lot to choose from depending on your preference for meat, poultry or fish. I chose to have the Crispy Honey-Chipotle Chicken Crispers (RM24.95) which was basically strips of chicken hand-battered then breaded and fried to perfection for the extra crispy crunch. The chicken was topped with Chili's spicy and smoky honey-chipotle sauce. The Crispy Honey-Chipotle Chicken Crispers was served with a corn cob on a stick and fries.

The strips of chicken was indeed fried to perfection and I really liked the honey-chipotle sauce which had that sweet and not too spicy taste to it. The portion of the dish was quite large too.

My husband ordered the Firecracker Fish Fillet (RM28.95) which was a grilled fish fillet (dory perhaps?) brushed with sweet & spicy glaze and garnished with red chile tapenade & sesame seeds. The fish was served with vegetables and rice.

The fish fillet was very tender and moist and it didn't have that fishy smell or taste (thumbs up!). The sauce complements the fish and goes well with the rice. For someone who doesn't really like fish, I find that the dish is delicious.

My sister wasn't feeling too adventurous that day and she ordered the Fish & Chips (RM22.95). The description on the menu for this dish states that this dish consist of prime cut of fish fillets fried in Chili's own crispy batter, served with home-style fries and tartar sauce. There was the usual wedge of lemon you'd normally find on any fish and chips dish.

My sister enjoyed this dish but I find that I didn't really like the tartar sauce (we usually disagree on food taste anyways.. hehe). I had once came across a very delicious tartar sauce but I don't remember from which restaurant. The fish was fried to perfection and also didn't have that fishy smell or taste which is good.

My brother in law wanted to try something different so he opted to have the Fajita Trio (RM40.95) which was tender grilled steak, marinated grilled chicken and spicy garlic & lime grilled prawns, served with onions and bell peppers. This dish was also served with three or four (I don't remember!) fajitas.

The grilled steak, marinated grilled chicken and spicy garlic & lime prawns

The fajitas and garnish plus the sour cream and guacamole (I think) cream sauce

The whole dish altogether

The portion of this dish was very large. I think it really was meant for three people to eat (hence the Trio). The taste of the garnishing and sour cream and the green stuff was not that bad actually. I had eaten fajitas at another restaurant sometime last year and I didn't really like the sourness of the cream. But Chili's fajitas were quite okay for me and my sister did enjoy them (she likes these kind of dishes).

For drinks all of us ordered Bottomless Fruit Juices (Mango, Apple and Orange) except for my sister who opted for Grape Soda (also bottomless). I'd say it was a brilliant move on her part!

The fruit juices were okay but I didn't really enjoy them since they were not too sweet (I have a severe case of sweet tooth!). The orange juice had a bitter taste to it. My brother in law tried to finish off the juice and wanted to change to Green Guava but the waitress always came and took his glass for top ups before he could finish his drink. He ended up drinking three glasses of bitter orange juice! Hehe.. we had a good laugh about it later.

For dessert, we ordered a slice of rich, smooth and creamy cheesecake served with a bit of strawberry sauce. The cheesecake was indeed very rich and creamy. The strawberry sauce compliments the creamy texture of the cake and it balanced the sweetness of the cake. Since all of us were quite full from the main dishes, we had quite a tough time finishing off the cake.

The total of our lunch that day came to a whopping RM189.25.

All in all, it was quite a gastronomical dining experience. I'd really like to go back and try other dishes but I think I will always remember the Crispy Honey-Chipotle Chicken Crispers the best.

Note: The portion of all the dishes are large! No kidding! :)

Here's the link to Chili's Grill & Bar Restaurant (Malaysia): http://www.chilis.com.my