Fullhouse is a novel dining place located in the heart of the Nui Ze Xui @ Ara Damansara. The set up of this place literally resembles a house, complete with different themed areas like your bedroom or wardrobe.

Almost everything at Fullhouse is for sale, be it clothes, cosmetics or the more notable food, which is what we primarily went there to try. The cosmetics are mostly from Korea, but nothing in particular caught my eye other than the simply zany décor of the place – plenty to see for sure!

Even the menu is different – it’s done up to resemble a magazine, and includes write-ups of the food and products, as well as a couple of easy-to-follow recipes!

A good deal to look at when you’re at Fullhouse would be the set menu which is served from 12pm – 4pm. Sets range from RM13.90 – RM18.90 for soup, main course, drink and dessert which is pretty good.

Forest Mushroom Soup – made from fresh shitake mushroom soup with toasted almonds. The toasted almonds made a good complement to the full-flavoured soup. I like my soup with a bit of bite rather than just cream, and the texture of this was just nice.

The Ice Lemon Tea came in a curious pitcher-like glass which had us intrigued – I was sorely tempted to bring it home, but looks aside it was just right and not too sweet.

We tried two sets – the first came with Spaghetti Cabonara, which had slices of turkey ham instead of bacon as well as mushrooms in a cream sauce. I found the sauce consistency a tad thin for the pasta, but flavourful nonetheless.

Next up was the Lamb Shank, which was voted the unanimous winner. Soft, tender and juicy, the meat was on the brink of sliding off the bone and tasted of a bouquet of herbs…I think I tasted some rosemary, oregano and a hint of five spice powder in the mix.

The accompanying sauce contained what looked like rehydrated raisins and a generous helping of black pepper which had my tastebuds wishing for more. Paired with a dollop of mashed potatoes and blanched vegetables, this was a very satisfying dish.

The set menu was supposed to come with a dessert tart, but in this case Fullhouse served small dessert cakes instead – one per set dish. There were quite a few variants, but we ended up with chocolate and blueberry mousse, both of which were pretty good, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Overall I’d say the lunch sets at Fullhouse are worth checking out – I haven’t been there at night, but lunch would definitely be worth the journey there.

Fullhouse Lifestyle Store and Café
C-G-11, Nui Ze Xui @ Ara Damansara,
No.2, Jalan PJU 1A/41B, Ara Jaya PJU 1A,
47301 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7885 0836
Sunday – Thursday: 12pm – 11pm
Fridays, Saturdays & Eve of Public Holidays: 12pm – 12am

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Value: $$

When it comes to Vietnamese cuisine, I have to admit I didn’t have Pho Hoa at the top of my mind thanks to a humdrum experience with them when they first opened at the Curve. However, when Sidney extended an invitation to join in a food tasting sometime back, I decided to see if they had improved since then and was pleasantly surprised.

The interior or the outlet is pretty standard, although I’m not quite sure why they decided to combine bamboo and lanterns in the décor…*shrugs*…but that’s not why we were there, right? On to the food!

For drinks, we were free to pick from the menu, so I decided to try their Blended Fresh Avocado Juice (RM7.95) while others went for the Vietnamese Drip Coffee with Ice (RM5.95). My avocado drink came ice cold and thick – I had rather a fun time sucking up the thick creamy (get your minds out of the gutter!) slush. The drink brought back childhood memories of eating an avocado treat my grandma used to make for me with mashed avocado and honey…loved it!

Since the Vietnamese coffee was meant to be served with ice, after it had finished dripping the coffee was decanted into a glass of ice. I was so taken with it that I succumbed to a glass after my avocado drink – the coffee wasn’t too sweet despite the thick layer of condensed milk at the bottom, which suited me to a T.

Another favourite was the Salty Plum Soda (RM5.95) which was touted as a thirst-quencher – it may be just humble salty plums mixed in with soda water, but the combination makes for a refreshing drink.

The food started appearing shortly after drinks were served and we were served some of Pho Hoa’s specialty dishes – first up was the Vermicelli with Vegetables and Grilled Chicken (RM12.95) which comes served with a tangy and slightly sweet sauce.

I remember reading somewhere that the more (naturally occurring!) colour your food has, the better it is for you. Healthiness aside, the vegetables were nicely julienned and gave some great texture contrast to the vermicelli noodles and sliced chicken. I wish I could have finished it, but as it is they warned us there were more dishes to come…

Summer Roll (RM3.95 per roll) is a typical Vietnamese rice paper roll with shrimp, chicken, salad and rice vermicelli. This was pretty standard served with a peanut and fish sauce paste.

Next up was a mix of three appetizer dishes usually sold separately – Fried Roll (RM3.25 per roll), Lemongrass Chicken (RM7.95 per plate of 4 sticks) and Sugarcane Prawn (RM7.95 per plate of 4 sticks). My favourites would have to be the lemongrass chicken which was exceedingly tender and fragrant, and the sugarcane prawn – I was gnawing rather unladylike at the sugarcane after devouring the prawn meat…oops…

Last but definitely not least was the highlight of Vietnamese cuisine…how could we leave without having Pho?? This is from the Adventurer’s Choice – Beef Pho with combination of Steak, Brisket, Flank, Tendon and Tripe (RM16.95) which was served with beansprouts, mint leaves, lime wedges and birds-eye chillies on the side. If I hadn’t been absolutely stuffed to the gills by this point, I would’ve actually quite enjoyed this as the soup stock was simply delicious. Prices for the Pho dishes start from RM13.95 upwards.

You know what they say…there’s always space for dessert right? Not knowing much about Vietnamese desserts, I was quite surprised when the Net Spring Roll with Ice Cream (RM5.95) was served – the combination of crispy fried yam served with ice cream was something interesting and even for someone who isn’t a big fan of yam to begin with, I ended up finishing every morsel.

Overall, I’d say this experience at Pho Hoa has managed to change my impression of the chain – the ingredients were really fresh and service has improved drastically since my first experience at the Curve outlet. I’ll definitely be returning for helpings of the Vermicelli and dessert for sure!

Thanks go out to Dennis and team for the hosting as well as Big Boys Oven for the invitation! I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Pho Hoa
Lot L-52, First Floor,
Tropicana City Mall,
3, Jalan SS20/27,
47400 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7728 1714
** Prices above are not inclusive of GST and service tax.

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Value: $$

Who’s guilty of overindulging in food? *sheepishly raises hand*…I know I could definitely stand to exercise some restraint, and what better timing than now just before the Christmas season?

Nando’s has done their part by launching their “Eat Responsibly” campaign which started on 29th October and will be running all the way till 3rd January 2010. Just check out the cool models they had at the launch!

To kick off the campaign, Nando’s enlisted the help of Kevin Zahri (whom you all would probably know as Malaysia’s health celebrity) to help choose the most suitable sidelines to accompany its Peri-Peri Flame Grilled Chicken…giving birth to the Peri Hearty Meal.

The Peri Hearty Meal is made up of ¼ chicken with sidelines of grilled vegetables and Mediterranean rice. Add on a bottomless Coke Light and there you have it – a pretty healthy meal for RM17.80. This set is currently available at all of Nando’s outlets nationwide. However, if you’re a member of Fitness First, the Nando’s Peri Hearty Meal comes at only RM14.50.

Fun Fact: Did you know that the famed Peri-Peri ingredient in Nando’s is actually rich in Vitamin C, Vitamin A, high in anti-oxidants and (best of all) contains capsaicin – commonly found in chillies – which helps enhance metabolism and burns fat. Gimme!!

If all that wasn’t enough, Nando’s will be rewarding diners with some lovely prizes – there are fun-filled activity holiday package for 2 to Club Med Cherating for five diners, as well as 50 consolation prizes of Nando’s gift vouchers worth RM100 each. All it takes is a minimum purchase of RM25.00 at any Nando’s outlet inclusive of a Nando’s Peri Hearty Meal.

So, who’s up for some Nando’s eh?

While walking around Wheelock Place in Singapore recently, I came across this shop at the top of the escalator that reminded me of an upmarket stationery shop…until I noticed that all those boxes on display were actually chocolate!

The selection of chocolates are quite something – all the flavours are divided into 10 different series which include alcohol, coffee, tea, fruit, nut, exotic, classic and special season flavours.

It so happened that they were having a 30% discount on selected ranges when I walked past, so after sampling a couple of the flavours I decided to pick up one to try.

Isn’t the box adorable? Each box comes with a different pattern

The flavor I chose was Mint (under the Exotic Series). It cost me just under SGD$7 for 70g, which is kinda pricey but the chocolate was pretty good

This is the cutest part of the chocolate – the inside is split in different sized cubes to match your appetite from “Small” to “Xtra Large”…dunno about you, but I found this hilarious!

There are also a variety of items such as mousepads, notebooks, mugs and such for sale there, all cleverly designed around chocolate…I particularly liked the lamp that looked like a melted chocolate spill…but it was about SGD$200 for the small thing *heart attack* so I had to get that out of my head real quick!

Chocolate Research Facility outlets:
- 9 Raffles Boulevard, #01-30, Millenia Walk, Singapore
- 501 Orchard Road, #02-10, Wheelock Place, Singapore
- 155 Changshou Road, Putuo District, Shanghai, China

Good Hokkien Mee is a must for any ‘dai chow’ (big fry-up) place. So far, the best place that I’ve tried would have to be this place – Ahwa Restaurant, situated on the border of Section 14 and Section 51A, off Jalan 222 in Petaling Jaya.

Your absolutely ‘must have’ dish – Hokkien Mee (also known as ‘black oil mee’ because of its dark colour!)

Their Cantonese fried noodles are also good…

Of course, for a typical Malaysian like myself, there has to be an array of food on the table (who ever heard of having just ONE type of food on the table during mamak/ ‘big fry’ sessions? Sacrilege!) There are several other stalls at the restaurant that are worth mentioning:

Chicken Wings…RM1.50 per wing. Has ‘nam yee’ in the batter somewhere I suspect…and it goes perfectly with the accompanying chilli sauce!

The ikan bakar (grilled stingray) – RM15 for a 2-person portion

Sotong Kangkong (cuttle fish with water convolulus) – a medium portion costs RM10

No need for words here – we polish off the whole lot every single time…check out how mangled the stingray bones look!

I eat here about once a month, especially when out with colleagues to rant about work (!!) One gripe would be the lack of parking in the area (most of the cars are parked along the road) but otherwise it’s not too bad – definitely worth it for the food there!

Ahwa Restaurant
66, Jln 14/48,
Section 14, Petaling Jaya.
(it’s directly behind the Shell station along Jalan 222)

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Value: $$