Sin Hup Kee Restaurant – Bandar Puteri Puchong

Last Sunday, our lunch took us to Bandar Puteri, Puchong where we tried out a Chinese restaurant – Sin Hup Kee (SHK). It occupies a single shop lot in Bandar Puteri Puchong and has about 10-15 tables (both round table and square tables).

SHK – from the outside 

 Bandar Puteri Puchong has grown into quite a “makan” place with many restaurants at this area. This commercial hubs also house a few local and international banks as well and you have a hypermarket at this area too. It’s really a busy commercial area during work days.

SHK’s menu

One complain I have about this restaurant is the quality of their menu. Don’t get me wrong! They have a good spread of dishes but the menu book itself is quite worn out. I think it will give customers a better impression if they take pride in their menu instead of presenting worn out copy to customers. 

SHK – from the inside

I like the wall of Sin Hup Kee as it’s decorated with big photos of their dishes. It gives the diners an idea of what to expect and whet up the appetite before the actual dishes arrive. We reached there about 12:30pm and it was quite packed with lunch crowd on a Sunday where families usually eat out on weekends. Despite being full house, we didn’t have to wait too long for our dishes to arrive. 20 minutes is an acceptable time frame, considering the crowd. We ordered a few dishes which I am going to share below:-

Deep Fried Salted Egg Squid (Small - RM18)

Deep fried food with salted egg is always a favourite within our family. The little kiddo loves the savoury taste of salted egg in the food as it enhances the batter. Squid itself is rather bland in taste, with rubbery texture. So, it’s usually cooked with curry or deep fried based on Oriental cooking style. Since we ordered a small portion, the size of it came as expected. Simple dish garnished with lettuce and curry leaves. SHK gave a generous amount of salted egg and hence, you can really taste the salted egg in the deep fried batter. Also, it comes with a hint of pepper to enhance the taste.

Deep Fried Salted Egg Squid

Marmite Sauce Chicken (Regular - RM16) 

Since my daughter also loves marmite, marmite chicken is a regular order whenever we dine out and the restaurant happens to have a dish with marmite sauce. SHK uses chicken breast meat to cook with the marmite sauce. I am not a fan of chicken breast meat as this part of the chicken is too dense with meat. I prefer other parts like thigh or drumstick. As a result, I feel that the marmite sauce didn’t really get sipped into the breast meat. The sauce only managed to coat the surface of the meat but not sipped into it.

 Marmite Sauce Chicken

 Deep Fried Fish Tail (700gm - RM49)

Initially, we did not order this dish but the fish slices with mango sauce. The dish was not available on that day and the waitress recommended this dish to us. We obliged and it turned out quite tasty. The fish tail is deep fried and very crispy. You can tell that it’s fried on the spot and then the sweet and sour sauce poured onto it immediately right before being served to the table. I would much prefer more garnishing ie more slices of tomatoes and onions to accompany the generous portion of sauce that comes with the fish. Overall, this dish is worth a go.

Deep Fried Fish Tail 

Stir Fried Long Beans (Regular - RM12)

We also ordered the stir fried long beans with minced meat as we need to balance meat intake with veggies right?? For a regular plate of the dish, I think the portion given is quite generous. The taste of this dish is nothing to shout about, a regular dish that you can find in most Chinese restaurants. However, I do find the long beans a bit overcooked. It should have been crunchier but I find it a bit on the soft side for my liking.

 Stir Fried Long Beans

Deep Fried Salted Egg Mantis (Small - RM18)

Here’s another dish that is cooked with salted egg :-) Mantis prawns. Another of our family’s favourite seafood. Again, the popular style of cooking the mantis prawns favoured by us is to deep fried it with salted egg. Similar to the squid, the batter came with a generous portion of salted egg. This makes the mantis prawns well-coated with the batter mixed with salted eggs. Another thumbs up for the dish.

 Deep Fried Salted Egg Mantis

Fiery Pork Ribs (Small - RM12)

This dish is chosen by my Mum as it was one of the items featured on the wall of SHK. Since none of the dishes above has got pork, we decided to order this dish as well. Let’s see how one of their signature dishes fair. Well, it actually tasted quite good. It taste like sweet & sour pork ribs with a hint of vinegar in it to bring out the sour taste. The ribs are cooked just right with the sauce managed to seep into the pork ribs. The right temperature of the wok is important in bringing out the finer taste of the food and with this pork ribs, I have to say it deserve to be one of their signature dishes.

Fiery Pork Ribs 

 Steamed Eggs with Century & Salted Eggs (Small - RM10)

This dish is ordered to balance out the rest of what we have ordered so far. We are missing some protein based dish :-)

Besides, my daughter loves to eat eggs too. So, this is also another dish ordered for her. With century and salted eggs cut into small pieces and added into the steam eggs, you do not need additional flavouring. The combination of these 3 types of eggs itself is enough to make it a tasty, protein-based dish. I would suggest to top it up with some fried scallions and spring onions would be a good garnishing. 

 Steamed Eggs with Century & Salted Eggs

Yin Yang Kailan (Regular - RM12)

Our last dish ordered is another vegetable. This dish is gaining popularity amongst Chinese restaurants. The catch is frying the green leaves of the kailan. If the chef is not careful, he may over-timed the frying and as a result, you will end up with a bitter taste a.k.a burnt taste of the leaves. Luckily, I didn’t experience the burnt taste with this dish. The chef managed to deep fry the shredded leaves without overcooking them. The stalks part of the kailan are also blanched just right, not too hard for my liking. Again, I think this dish is a thumbs-up for me.

Yin Yang Kailan

As a whole, it was a fine dining experience at SHK. Service was within the expected time frame despite it being a full house on a Sunday afternoon when I visited the restaurant. As mentioned before, my only complain is that the menu book should be re-print as it looked worn out. Not a very pleasing sight for customers.

 

Address:

Sin Hup Kee

No. 64, Jalan Puteri 2/4,

Bandar Puteri,

47100 Puchong, Selangor.

The Apartment Restaurant & Bar @ The Curve

 

When you have a group of great colleagues as your dining companion, it already add “flavour” to your meal. This has certainly happened to me on Wednesday when I invited my colleagues and team-mates for a department’s dinner at The Apartment Restaurant & Bar, The Curve Mutiara Damansara.

   This is my first complete meal at The Apartment per se  as my previous visit was for dessert and to unwind after dinner at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant. When I wanted to invite my mates for a dinner this time around, The Apartment came to mind as it’s a Theme Restaurant and I personally love the deco of this place. The “homely” feel of this restaurant sets the mood for a cozy and relaxing dinner. The place exudes a warm and welcoming atmosphere just as if you’re inviting your best buddies to your own apartment for a home-cooked meal.

   Located along “The Street” section of The Curve shopping centre, The Apartment has TGIF, Marche, Starbucks amongst its neighbours. It’s not hard to find The Apartment as it’s situated right in the middle of The Street.

The Apartment

   The decorations and settings of this restaurant are mainly adapting the concept of …… you guessed it, an apartment! It gives you the feel as if you’re walking straight into an apartment with all the deco and furniture pieces which you are expected to find in a decorated and furnished home. The Apartment is segmentised into the living area, the study area, the bathroom area and not to forget the dining area and patio. Here, you can opt for the indoor dining area or the alfresco area. Of course, when you’re at an apartment, it just feel right to be seated in the apartment itself. Right? Right! Of course, if the alfresco or balcony presents you with a majestic sunset view and you’re enjoying a romantic dinner, then naturally the balcony would be the ideal setting. Else, sitting inside The Apartment would be a natural choice, duh!

Welcomed by the little sofa, work desk and soothing lights – great ambience!

   A stone throw away from the entrance, you will be greeted by the Study area which comes complete with tables and chairs best suited for couples ( perhaps couples who enjoy reading more than eating, haha! ) Along the wall, there are book shelves come complete with magazines and books for those who don’t naturally take out their smartphones and start social networking the moment they sit down. Ooh, I forgot to mention that The Apartment comes with free wifi too! So, you can really start “viber, whatsapp, foursquare, check in” before you warm the seats!

I guess with the dimmed light, you’re not supposed to read here. Start looking into each other’s eyes and build up the coziness

The Bathroom – an interesting section of The Apartment. Shower before you eat ?  

   My reservation was made a week ago in order not to be disappointed by not getting a table at my favourite section of the restaurant. From my previous visit, I think that the dining area setting would be the best area for the 8 of us since it’s situated right at the end of the restaurant and flanked by 2 smaller tables. The dining table sits 8-10 and decorated with portraits and picture frames.

Pencil sketch or charcoal drawing ? Can you tell ?

    As much as what Murphy’s Law epigram: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong", it did happened to my reservation. On my first reservation made a week ago before the actual date of the dinner, I did asked to be seated at the Dining Area of The Apartment. Was being told that the section is available and I’m being reserved for that. 2 days before the day, I called again to re-confirm my reservation and again reiterated that I wanted the Dining Area. Again, was being told that it’s available. On the actual day of the dinner itself, I received a call from the restaurant’s supervisor to confirm my reservation. To my horror, when I reached the restaurant, I was ushered to another section of the restaurant. I was puzzled and annoyed when being informed that the Dining Area has been reserved by another guests! I called for the Supervisor; who unfortunately was not available, but another person-in-charge (sorry I forgot your name Bro!) came to look into my complain. Upon checking the reservation book, I saw that I was indeed being allotted the Dining Area but it was erased and changed to the Window section. I don’t want to look like some goldfishes in aquarium and be seated along the corridor with people passing by us! I want a private corner where we can eat & laugh & be loud if we want to! In the end, the P.I.C got things sorted out and moved us back to our reserved corner – Dining Area. Phew!!

My favourite corner – the Dining Area

   The “Hungry Eight” did not take long to decide what to eat (by my standard, this time it’s not long). Some of us ordered the same dish despite the variety ranges from Asian to Western dishes….2 minds, 1 heart perhaps? Haha, get over it! I was surprised that no one ordered any Mocktail or drinks. I wanted to try the range of mocktails available. I guess the 2 bottles of plain water that came earlier put off the idea.

Clockwise from top left : Irish Lamb Stew, Seafood pasta, Baked Fish, Surf N Turf, Piquant Chicken and Salmon Fettucine

When everyone’s busy chatting and laughing away, time passes by without you realising it. I guess our orders came in around 15-20 minutes?? Here’s my personal opinion of some of the main courses we ordered. I didn’t pinched all the food from some of my colleagues but managed to taste some of the them.

Irish Lamb Stew : The lamb is cooked to tender and the gravy is not too watery but just nice. The bread slices made great companion to dipping the gravy.

Seafood Pasta : I didn’t taste this but the muscles look tempting! I didn’t get too much complain from the person who ordered this though she prefers Chinese food :-)

Baked Fish : This is what I ordered. I find the fish is too dry for my liking. The melted cheese is rubbery and does not complement well with the fish. I would much prefer it to be more watery like the carbonara sauce. The potatoes are lightly salted and come with some herbs. It tasted better than the fish. I don’t know what you call the vege but it has some bitter taste. Ah ah, I don’t like this vege. Perhaps blanched baby carrots & baby sweet corns would be safer bet.

Surf N Turf : I am confused by the name of this dish as it’s a combination of grilled beef topped with prawns. I didn’t get to eat the beef but the prawns are big and juicy. Perfecto!

Piquant Chicken : The name sounds complicated! I don’t know about the taste…

Salmon Fettucine : An Italian version of Chinese pan mee :-) You need to “hunt” for your salmon on the plate. They’re rather small slices but the taste of the fettucine is alright. For me, carbonara is still my ideal sauce for fettucine.

   No dinner at The Apartment is complete without ordering some of its signature desserts. Since I have eaten the Baked Chocolate Pudding before this, it’s a must try for first timer here. Since there were 8 of us, the main course already filled up most of the tummies. We only shared 4 desserts. Since I highly recommend the Baked Chocolate Pudding, we ordered 2 of this. Be assureded that it’s worth the wait even though you have to wait 15-20 minutes for the pudding to be baked. Just continue chatting please and wait for your dessert.

 

Left to Right : Apple & Pear Crumble, Strawberry Pavlova, Baked Chocolate Pudding

Apple & Pear Crumble : I’m not a big fan of apple. Given a choice, I would not order this dessert but those who loves apples, this is quite nice with the crusty top layer hiding the gems below : the apple & pear cubes. I did tasted a spoonful of it but I find it sweet though. Also, I’m not a fan of vanilla ice-cream. I leave it for the rest to cherish the dessert.

Strawberry Pavlova : The name exudes class and stirred our interest. Of course, the menu with its picture in it, made it more tempting to order. We had not much idea what it’s  going to taste like. It tasted like some frozen marshmallow. I can still bear with its sweetness but 3 portions of pavlova on 1 plate is a bit overwhelming even for the 8 of us.

Baked Chocolate Pudding : I deduced that this must be the “star” of The Apartment’s dessert as it is described as heavenly. I didn’t realise the same adjective was used in the menu when I described the taste to my fellow colleagues. I did tell the rest of them that this is a “must-try” in The Apartment ( very hard-sell ). At the end of the day, from the look of everyone’s face, I believe that I didn’t make a poor recommendation to them. I did saw satisfied faces after trying out the pudding. The freshly baked aroma of chocolate evoke the “I wanna try” spirit before the chocolate pudding reached our table. After you savour the top crust, the rich chocolate pudding is complemented by generous offer of chocolate sauce inside the hot pudding. This is best eaten while it’s still warm and complementing it with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream brings out the best of hot and cold in 1 serving. I wonder besides vanilla ice-cream, do they have other flavour? I should have enquire this earlier.

   The total bill came close to RM350.00 (including service charge and govt. taxes) for 8 main courses and 4 desserts. A reasonable price considering that it’s a dinner at a Themed Restaurant in a popular shopping mall. I guess in the end, I got my desired table and managed to gather my team-mates for a get-together dinner. All well, ends well. I always believe that having the right ambience and the right companion(s)  do compliment a GREAT meal !! The price of the meal is secondary in this aspect.

Thank you guys and gals for being able to share the moments. Love you all !!

Address:

The Apartment

Lot 72, 73 & 74, 152 Ground Floor,

Western Courtyard, The Curve

Mutiara Damansara

Tel: 03-77278330

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……

Arisan Taiwanese Fried Chicken – Yummy !!

 

This is another blog entry about food. Any Malaysian can swear by that food is everywhere and you can get food at any time of the day (or night). During my uni days in overseas, I really miss the the easy availability of food at any hour in my home country.

OK, back to the blog entry. This place was actually featured in “Everyday” – another site which offers daily discount coupons. The pictures in the featured article already set my tongue salivating with all the wonderful pictures of nice Taiwanese desserts and fried chicken. The deal itself is very attractive with a Arisan Taiwanese Fried Chicken + Desserts of Your Choice at only RM5.90!! It is said that this promo is 57% off is normal price of RM5.90. Since I have been studying at Subang Jaya area for nearly 3 years during my college and uni days, the location of this shop is not hard to find. Furthermore, having GPS and Google Map nowadays, is certainly making travelling and locating a certain spot much more easier. Without thinking any further, I bought myself the deal and waited patiently for a few days for the vouchers to be available for use.

The very Oriental furniture in Arisan

  Round marble stools along the 4-legged chairs

Reaching the shop around lunch time on a Saturday, there wasn’t a big crowd at the restaurant. I presume this is because Saturday is not a studying day at nearby colleges, hence, business slows down. The shop is well decorated and clean. The furnishing is done up in a very oriental manner whereby once you’re in, it will automatically gives you an impression that this shop serves Chinese food. The pictures hanged on the wall in the shop highlights the food that it serves.

Service is fast here. The Owner I presume (left)

  Walls decorated with printing of Arisan’s specialty

It didn’t take us very long to decide what we want as the menu is kept simple at Arisan. For our discount coupon, the chicken chop is already a fixed item. You only have to choose the type of ingredient you want for the dessert. The dessert is actually a bowl of either soya ice/ grass jelly or caramel ice topped with either green bean + lotus seed / sweet potato + barley / red bean + peanut / yam + red bean / kidney bean + pearl. So, all you have to do is choose a base and a topping to go with it.

The dessert arrived at our table in no time. I ordered the grass jelly + peanut while my wife ordered the green bean + lotus seed. This is the first time I tried this type of dessert though I understand there are a few shops in town offering the same thing. The serving is of decent proportion, just the right size for my appetite. The ingredients are cooked just nice. I’m not sure the what’s the actual name for the flour dough. It has a nice chewy texture.

Green Bean + Lotus Seed

As for my bowl of red bean + peanut, personally, I would much prefer the salted uncooked peanut like those being served in ais kacang. Arisan’s peanut for this dessert is a bit soft for my liking.

Red Bean + Peanut

Our plate of fried chicken took some time to be served. I guess they fried the chicken instantly as it’s still hot when served to our table. It reminds me of the chicken cutlet you get from Shilin, also another Taiwan eatery. The outer layer is fried to golden brown with a nice crispy texture. The cutlet is made using chicken breast, hence, you won’t be biting into bones. I do like the taste of Arisan’s Taiwanese fried chicken. However, one small complain I have is that they should have given more of the chilli / mayonnaise dipping. With the number of chicken pieces you get, the dipping is considered very little. Perhaps they should have provide a bottle of the dipping sauce on each table rather than giving out a small plate of dipping.

Arisan Fried Chicken – thumbs up!!

Overall, the food served at Arisan is worth coming back for more in my opinion. There are some other offerings on the menu which I would definitely come back another round for a try.