Chop 'n Steak (Serdang)

Thanks to someone, we finally found a Western food restaurant in nearby area which offers best value for money over the food provided. The Chop 'n Steak restaurant is a Malay restaurant, but selling western food (majority of the items from the menu). It is located somewhere near UPM in Sri Serdang.

The restaurant is pretty nicely decorated and the lightings of the restaurant somehow provide a jolly mood for dinner (The restaurant only opens for dinner). We have been there during weekdays and during weekends, the place is full of people! There are Malays, Chinese, Indians and even Iranians. However, luckily, we always got our seats.



When you order, you could see from the order that it is actually divided into a couple of sections. The restaurant is pretty organized that there are different people specializing in cooking different cuisines. Thus, the order could actually be separated between these "departments" and each "department" would prepare the food separately.

The Menu


The Menu


The Menu


The menu seems a little bit limited comparing to the Western food chains such as Chilli's or TGIF. However, having considered the size of the restaurant, I still think that it is highly acceptable, especially the price stated on the menu! You see, it's really hard to find a nice Fish 'n Chips with generous serving of Mayonnaise at only RM 6, plus an incredibly ice-blended fruit drink at only RM 2 (Some of the ice-blended drinks are at RM 2.50), the whole meal doesn't even exceed RM 10 for a decent Western meal! And yes, there is no "++" charges, you know what I meant, don't you? OMG! That's why I love you so, Chop 'n Steak!

Fish 'n Chips


Chicken Goldon Blue (Chicken Cordon Bleu)


Fresh Orange Juice


Ice-blended Mango Juice


Overall, this place is totally valued for money! If you opt for some average taste of Western food but having limited budget and living somewhere near Serdang, this would be the only place I would recommend for cheap Western cuisines. If you ask me to choose between F1 and Chop 'n Steak, I would not think twice and would head on to the latter.

Here are some other reviews of the restaurant :
http://reiko0607.blogspot.com/2007/11/chop-n-steak.html
http://nazri.flavert.com/2007/10/29/chop-steak-and-first-step-towards-world-domination/
http://hungwei.blogspot.com/2007/11/chop-steak.html (Chinese)

Address :
Chop 'n Steak
No. 379, Jalan 18/1,
Taman Sri Serdang,
43400 Serdang,
Selangor.

WikiMapia Coordinates :
3°0'21"N 101°42'55"E

Contact Number :
012-447 1639 / 019-335 7373

Jogoya, Starhill Gallery

Jogoya, Starhill Gallery is having a second anniversary promotion. Ladies are entitled to 50% discount on the buffet price while Gents are entitled to a prawn cuisine each.

19 Nov - 18 Dec 2007
Only from Mon - Wed
Ladies get 50% off price
Gents get a complimentary Prawn Cuisine

Red & White Wine Cocktail FREE Flow (no extra charge)
Daily 10pm - 12am

+603 2142 1268 for reservations & more info

At first, I was overwhelmed to be able to finally have my first buffet ever in Jogoya, Starhill Gallery... But lets look at some pictures of what are offered in the restaurant first...

The paper clips for ordering dishes which are cooked upon order. They are in the shape of the sign of Jogoya Restaurant.


Some soups...




Every table has this kind of heater to keep the soup warm.


Some sashimis...


Oysters


Prawn cuisine that guys are entitled to under the promotion.


Some other food...








Otak-otak


Dessert time... the Tiramisu


Black Sesame Mochi


Cream Roll Cake


Häagen-Dazs® Ice-cream!!!


Alcoholic Beverages...








Please take my opinions at your own risk... :P

The buffet spread is quite grand with various type of cuisines served to fulfill your appetite. However, to me, the arrangement of the setting seems a little bit unorganized. There have been mixed opinions regarding the buffet. In my humble opinion, the variety of food is huge and there are many special food served, such as the Alaskan crab, king prawn, etc. Some hits among the patrons are the Häagen-Dazs® Ice-cream and coconut (Yup, really, they were all grabbed in a few minutes). Oh ya, oysters need to be ordered too, as in the cook only pass a pair of oysters to you upon ordering at the counter (you would get it immediately though).

But, the tastes of these food are somehow average or below average. With the price at near RM 90 for the supper buffet, I was expecting more. To my dismay, my views stand with those who have negative opinions about Jogoya buffet. Though my reviews might sound discouraging, I still think that if you haven't been to this restaurant before, it is good to try it out, at least for the variety of food that you could enjoy there, especially when there is promotion now.

Some tips for the buffet:
* Please make sure you do your booking before you go especially when there are promotions as the crowd can be very overwhelming.
* Booking are easier to make in the morning than other time of the day (based on my experience :P, but it could be due to the fact that there is ongoing promotion now).
* I suggest that you drop your clips on those items which need pre-ordering first as it would take some time for the items to be ready and served in front of you. Then you can go for some ready-to-take food. :P

Some other food reviews:
http://masak-masak.blogspot.com/2006/02/jogoya-starhill-gallery-kl.html
http://kampungboycitygal.blogspot.com/2006/03/jogoya-starhill-gallery_10.html
http://pasankia.blogspot.com/2006/03/jogoya-kuala-lumpur-flagship-store.html

Address :
Jogoya
T3, Relish Floor
Starhill Gallery
181, Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur

Contact Number :
03 - 2142 1268

The prices for the buffet are:

Buffet Lunch - RM78++
11:30am - 1.40pm (weekdays) 11.00am - 2.00pm (weekends)
Buffet Late Lunch - RM68++
1:40pm - 4.20pm (weekdays)2.00pm - 4.20pm
Buffet Dinner - RM88++
5:00pm - 9.30pm (weekdays)5.00pm - 9.30pm
Buffet Supper - RM78++
9:30pm - 1.00am (weekdays)9.40pm - 1.00am (weekends)

Hu Xu Shen Grilled Fish (Serdang)

If you are a fish lover, you shouldn't miss this!

This restaurant is not obvious from the main road of the Serdang town. However, we passed this restaurant by accident on our way to other restaurants. Each time we passed by, we noticed that there are a lot of patrons enjoying their dinner inside. Thus, one day, we decided to check it out and the first time we tried it, we fell in love with it.

Take a look at the picture of the specialty of this restaurant first : Salt-Grilled Fish. Overall, the fish is very fresh, we went there at least 3 times already and it never fail our expectations. Being salt-grilled, the fish has a light taste of salt and the texture of the fish is very smooth and fresh. The fish is not over-grilled and so the flesh is still juicy.



The dish is not complete without the special sauce prepared by the restaurant. Its ingredients consist of light soy sauce, finely-chopped garlic, finely-chopped chilli and maybe some other ingredients. The first time I tasted it, it was a little salty to my liking. However, fulfill your appetite by dipping the fish into the sauce before eating and it would be heaven! The specially-made sauce would stimulate your taste bud and introduce additional savour to the fish!


The fish has substantial amount of salt on its skin. Thus, before serving, it is served with the skin removed from its flesh. Another interesting fact dining in that restaurant is, when you have finished eating the upper side of the fish, the waiters and waitresses would turn it over for you. Similarly, the skin is removed, and the bones of the fish are actually removed as well. Cool service~ Normally, they would do that automatically when they notice that the patrons have finished one side of the fish. If they don't, which could be due to the heavy flow of customers, you could request them to do so.

And now, the price? We ordered the salted-grilled fish (big serving), Chinese omelette, vegetables, white rice and Chinese tea, the whole meal cost four of us RM 55.50 which is quite reasonable for what a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur could offer you, especially with a fish as part of the meal!

Address :
鬍鬚伸小食店
No. 249-B,
Jalan 2，Kawasan 6，
43300 Seri Kembangan，Selangor.

Contact Number :
016-2888089

Business Hours :
5.30pm～12.30pm；5.30pm～1.30am(Saturday)；Off on Mondays

Pricing :
Fish at RM 20 per kg. Bean curd at RM 6 per serving (small). Vegetables at RM 6 per serving (small). 四大天王 at RM8 per serving (small).

Spicy Soup (Serdang)

I didn't notice that there is the existence of this restaurant until I came across it from a newspaper. The restaurant is not really located in an isolated place, but it is somehow a little bit hidden from the main road. Anyway, today I would like to introduce the spicy soup from Serdang to all of you.

That place is quite famous with its spicy soup and stewed chicken in Chinese wine I think as the place has quite an amount of eaters the time we visited it. The spicy soup is actually heavily "pepper-ed" soup with various pork intestines and organs. The soup I wouldn't say is the spicy as in from the curry, but it seems overwhelmingly warming up my stomach. If it is a cold rainy day, it would have been a very right choice to have the warm spicy soup go through your throat and warming up your whole body.

As for the stewed chicken in Chinese wine, the smell of this dish is very nice, credit to the Chinese wine. The Chinese wine used is Huadiao Jiu (花雕酒). Taste-wise, it has rich flavour of Chinese wine and black soya sauce.

Huadiao jiu (花雕酒; pinyin: huādiāo jiǔ; lit. "flowery carving wine"), also known as nu'er hong (女儿红; pinyin: nǚ'ér hóng, lit. "daughter red"): a variety of huangjiu that originates from Shaoxing, in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang. It is made of glutinous rice and wheat.
(Extracted from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangjiu)

Another dish I want to introduce is the vegetables (油菜). This is so far the most crunchy vegetables that I have tasted. Even though it's cooked, but the crunchiness still remains. We all agreed that this vegetables is cooked perfectly. It's not very oily and it's crunchy! By the way, is crunchy a right word? :P



Spicy Soup


Spicy Soup


Vegetables


Stewed Chicken in Chinese Wine