Gastro Cafe – Nice Food, Reasonable Price. Good to Go

Discovered a nice eating place over the weekend and would like to share this place with readers ofthis blog.

Gastro Cafe is situated at SS15/4B of Subang Jaya. It’s just a short drive from the colleges like Taylor’s, INTI & ELS Language Centre. Those the signboard looks a bit old, don’t be deceived by it. The interior is tastefully furnished (at least, to my taste :-)  ) It occupies 2 shoplots and and next to Ipoh Chicken Rice Restaurant. The 4 Chinese words on the signboard indicates that this restaurant serves Hainanese cooking.

We choose a table at the air-conditioned area which is also next to the non-airconditioned area. Service is fast, perhaps it’s a Sunday. I bet if you’re at this place during weekday, getting a parking place will be a challenge too. The cafe uses a wireless system to buzz for waiter/waitress if you need to be served.

 

Gastro Cafe – No. 4 Jalan SS 15/4B

 We ordered the Hainanese chicken chop and Nasi Lemak with Chicken. For drinks, we had the Ice Lemon Tea, Herbal Tea and Barley. Topping it up, dessert were Cendol and ABC.

Malaysians’ All Time Favourite – Nasi Lemak

 We waited for around 10 minutes for our orders to arrive. Since Nasi Lemak is usually a pre-cooked dish, it arrived to our table first. We found slices of ginger in the rice. It adds a nice aroma to the steamed rice. Standard condiments and side dishes came as one would expect from a Nasi Lemak. Gastro Cafe’s Nasi Lemak comes with a half soft boiled egg, some sambal, anchovies, peanuts and a few pieces of chicken. Mum like the Nasi Lemak. To me, most importantly, the anchovies should be fried crispy and not those left overnight with soft texture. Even though I didn’t taste the Nasi Lemak but from the feedback I got from both Mum and my Wife is that the Nasi Lemak is tasty.

Hainanese Chicken Chop – Yummy!! Must Try! 

 Next came my highly anticipated Hainanese Chicken Chop. I love Chicken Chop and Gastro Cafe’s Hainanese Chicken Chop is done in an authentic Hainanese style. The gravy comes in a generous serving and the chicken piece gets to be soaked in the gravy instead of having some miserable scoop of the gravy on the chicken piece. The gravy comes with peas, onions and slices of carrot. What surprises me is that Gastro Cafe serves its Chicken Chop with a slice of Hainanese steam bread. This is for the diner to dip the steam bread into the gravy and entranced with another gastronomic experience. Very thoughtful of Gastro Cafe. I have not come across another cafe that serves Hainanese Chicken Chop to offer a slice of steam bread to go along with the Chicken Chop. Even Mum commented that the Hainanese Chicken Chop tasted nice, like an original Hainanese Chicken Chop. ( You see, we’re Hainanese and Mum can really whip up a good Hainanese Chicken Chop! ) To get a credit from her on someone else’s Hainanese Chicken Chop is really a great compliment. Personally, I really enjoyed this Hainanese Chicken Chop myself. Love the gravy lots!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABC with finely shaved ice

My drink were a letdown though. My Herbal Tea tasted so bland that even my Sis didn’t finish hers. The Ice Lemon Tea was better, along with the Barley. I didn’t take any photo of the drinks as these are very standard servings in every cafe. After our main course, we asked for our desserts to be served. I ordered ABC. It comes with some basic serving without those overly coloured syrup, which is good for me. The ice is finely shaved and this makes the ABC taste good. My only grouse is that adding some gula melaka would enhance the taste of the ABC.

Gastro Cafe’s Cendol

The Cendol and ABC are basically the same thing except that in ABC, it’s topped with sweet corn while in Cendol, you guess it – Cendol strips, duh!

The price of the food serve in Gastro Cafe are reasonable considering that this place is of high catchment area that serves both college students as well as office workers. Will definitely re-visit this place for another round of Hainanese cooking……