While I was checking out the new wing at Sunway Pyramid sometime back (yes, very behind time I know, but what to do…I don’t go by that area very often – and it’s HUGE!), I chanced upon the Yogur Berry outlet. Quite hard to miss with its bright pink storefront.

See what I mean about the pink…but it’s quite cool isn’t it?

I loved what they did with the interior…especially the booth seats!

They even had special seats for the kiddies (if I could have sat there without looking like a total doofus or breaking the chairs, I would have!)

Yogur Berry’s ‘hot seller’ would be the frozen yogurt…basically pay per what you order, per serving of topping. We ordered a double scoop of the Frozen Yogurt Ice Cream (RM12.00) with Mango (RM1.05), Peach (RM1.05) and Fruit Cocktail (RM1.05). There’s also Snow Yogurt available, which I didn’t try but it’s more expensive than their original frozen yogurt.

While waiting for our order, I noticed there were quite a lot of games lying around. Turns out that you can actually play with them while you’re having your ice cream…quite a cute concept, no? They had the usual Uno cards and Games Compendiums and this…

I dunno about you, but I used to call this Jenga…

This was what our order looked like…so nice. To be frank, the frozen yogurt tasted like…Vitagen? The white bottle one…hmmm…but it was super yummy at any rate.

Glutton me…so greedy I had to have two goes at once!

When I went there, they were having a promotion where every order above RM10 gets a try at this cute dart game, which allows you to win something for free. The items on the board range from a slice of pumpkin cake to a frozen single yogurt with three toppings (valued at approximately RM10 or so). Best part is, you can either redeem it then and there, or on your next visit – great if you don’t go there often (like me!)

We got a Mini Frozen Yogurt (RM4.90) free! *goes mad over all the frozen yogurt…brain freeze*

How about the actual taste of the ice cream? Quality? Well, the picture above should tell you all you need to know…scooped CLEAN!

I’d definitely go back there, just for the ice cream…it’s super yummy…think frozen Vitagen with fresh fruit…mmmm…the prices are a little bit on the steep side for ice cream especially when the toppings are separately charged, but it’s not half bad for what they’re offering.

Yogur Berry is located at LG2-135 in Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall. You can check their website for more locations.

Rating: 4 / 5
Value: $$

It’s been a while since I’ve ventured into Bangsar Village…seems like each time I go there, the shops have all changed! This time around, it was the restaurant on the lower ground level (I think it used to be some Vietnamese place before)…which is now The Daily Grind.

This place claims to be a specialist in making its own burgers. At first look, the place retains a lot of old western charm with a lot of red bricks and timber…definitely very cosy, where you can opt to dine inside the restaurant, or outside on the patio.

They even make their own tomato and chilli sauce – although the tomato sauce tastes more like spaghetti sauce to me…very full bodied, and a perfect complement to the dishes on the menu. Their sauces don’t contain any additives or preservatives, so don’t complain if the sauces are served cold to your table…you wouldn’t want them room temperature and have food poisoning, right?

Their Vanilla milkshake with homemade ice cream (RM14) is what my friend deemed “Happy Food”. It’s super rich, and you can really taste the cream in it – NOT recommended if you’re on a diet!!

I had a Monin & Soda, which is flavoured syrups in soda water. The Blood Orange variant (RM12) was certainly intriguing…I’d liken the taste to a mix between grapefruit and tangerine, with a tart undertone. Very refreshing…

Soup of the day, which happened to be corn (RM8.00). No Campbell’s soup stock to be found here, but note that the soup does tend to be rather watery. I prefer my cream soup to have a bit of bite, so this was a little disappointing.

Spiced Potato Wedges with homemade Nacho Sauce (RM11). My friend was raving about this one before we even reached the restaurant, and his tastebuds are usually spot on so you can imagine…usually there are usually one or two pieces left on the plate, but this time the plate was TOTALLY CLEANED OUT (including the sauce!)…this is a MUST HAVE on the menu…*heaven*

Now on to the main course – you’d have to be a bit mad to have something other than burgers seeing as it’s their specialty, and there’s everything from chicken and beef to salmon (no pork though, such a pity) with alternatives for vegans. Their meat is freshly ground on the premises, which is supposed to make the meat very tender and succulent. We tried one burger from the chicken and beef selections, and were quite pleasantly surprised.

Chicken Double Cheese Burger (RM27). Two thick slices of cheddar cheese, one under & one on top of a juicy grilled chicken patty served with ketchup, mustard and pickles. This was alright, although I’d rather have eaten just the chicken patty on its own. The giant onion slices however were a turnoff since I like my raw onions FINELY sliced (too thick and the smell goes up your nose), but if you like giant slices of pickles and raw onions, by all means this is a pretty good burger on the whole.

Down on the Farm Burger (RM32). A barbecue basted & smoky grilled beef patty stacked with crisp onion rings & corn cake. The patty was HUGE…the onion rings were EXCELLENT (similar to TGIF’s), and the entire combination was a gastronomical adventure. If I had to change only one thing, it would be the corn cake…it’s nice enough alone, but after eating the beef patty and onion rings, it’s rather tasteless in comparison. Maybe they should consider serving it as a side dish on its own instead of with the burgers.

Otherwise, I was really impressed by the food – when you order, the server notifies you that their burgers are always cooked to medium doneness unless specified. I was a bit apprehensive at first seeing as it’s really hard to get the doneness done just right and the meat ends up over- or undercooked (usually the latter). Since the server was quite persuasive citing the golden rule – “If it’s undercooked I can always cook it more, I just can’t uncook it if it’s overcooked”, I acquiesced and sat back to see the results.

Now take note – this is a sight to behold…medium doneness, cooked to perfection. The outside is nicely seared to lock in the juices, while the centre is JUST cooked with a hint of pinkness. Suffice to say, the server gets ‘two thumbs up’ for knowing his stuff…and I went home feeling like a stuffed (but extremely happy) turkey.

The house specialties are supposed to be the Foie Gras Burger (RM55) that comes with a diced foie gras-filled beef patty with onion cranberry jam and balsamic palm sugar glaze, and the Stinky Blue Burger (RM40) with blue cheese sauce, toasted walnuts and sweet sour apple compote. I haven’t tried these yet, but Shortcake says they’re good and she hasn’t steered me wrong yet.

Portions are definitely more than generous for your average person, so if you’re planning to order appetizers and dessert, you might want to think about sharing the entrée. Their music selection (for those of you who deem this an important feature) is also superb for easy listening. I think I’m in love with that place…

The Daily Grind
LG8, Lower Ground Floor,
Bangsar Village, 1 Jalan Telawi,
1, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2287 6708

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Value: $$

For those of you looking for some decent Japanese food this weekend, head on over to Damansara Jaya to this little establishment called Omitsu Koshi.

This is one eatery where looks can be deceiving. From the outside, it may seem as if the place is rather suspect, but once you get inside, it’s really quite decent…warning though, it can get quite cramped in there, especially at full capacity since the walkways are quite narrow.

We started off with some appetizers first…where else can you get these kind of prices?

Edamame – RM6 (picture not accurate representation of portion as we dug in before remembering to take a photo!)

Sashimi Take – RM35 (blue fin, butter fish, nor salmon, octopus, jelly fish, shell hen clam and sweet prawn…personally I don’t like the clams and prawns, so we usually request for it to be replaced with octopus…mmm…tako!) Their raw seafood is delivered a couple of times a week, which can be seen in the succulence and taste of the slices. Some places freeze their raw fish to make it last longer, but after a couple of days, the fish starts to lose its texture and goes limp when you pick it up, not to mention it’ll have a really strong fishy smell…not good.

For my main course, I had the Sushi Bento set @ RM26, and requested for the sushi (raw fish with rice) to be substituted for sashimi (only raw fish) instead. The staff here are quite accommodating with special requests, which is really good. The set comes with what you see in the picture (tempura, grilled fish, tofu and sashimi), rice, chawan mushi, miso soup and fruit (typically watermelon or honeydew). The portions are quite generous, I could have just the set alone and still be stuffed afterwards!

Their chawan mushi (steamed egg custard) is one of the better ones I’ve come across (if you want to order it separately, I believe it’s about RM5). The steamed egg is smooth and delicately seasoned…I usually eat chawan mushi on its own (without adding any soy sauce) in order to get the full flavor, and this one is just right. Note: If you see me having to add soy sauce to my chawan mushi, that’s a really bad sign…

Miso soup is a staple of any Japanese meal, and the soup served here in particular is quite hearty – they put in quite large pieces of seaweed (which I love!). The only thing you have to beware of with this is that sometimes the chef gets a bit overzealous with the miso paste and doesn’t completely dissolve it, so you get a grainy aftertaste.

All in all for Japanese, this place has a decent price and quality to match. With raw foodstuff, any place that’s selling cheap stuff should be avoided like the plague. As my dad likes to say – “You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” Want to eat that RM1.00 heaped plate of salmon sashimi? I’d advise you to have your doctor on standby before you do…raw food has to come at a certain premium due to the preparation and transportation costs, but as far as this restaurant goes, they’ve managed to keep their margin to a manageable level without compromising on the quality. Have a go and check it out…

Omitsu Koshi
No 17 & 19, Jalan SS 22/23
Damansara Jaya
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Tel: 03-7722 2779

Rating: 4 / 5
Value: $$$

The Lemon Garden Café @ Shangri-La KL

I usually don’t patronize a lot of hotels for food on a normal basis, simply because my job requires me to attend various events which usually come with hotel catering (after a while, you really do get sick of it!), but to make use of some vouchers I’d gotten I went to Shang for lunch with a colleague…the hotel itself holds some pretty unique memories for us, so what better way to ‘celebrate’ than at the Lemon Garden Café. They do have a decent spread of buffet selections, which should appease any finicky palate.

Salad station – plenty of healthy and not-so-healthy choices to get your greens…

Chinese cuisine at its ‘Hong Kong’ style best…they even have ‘dim sum’…

The sushi bar, where I spent most of my time…salmon, tuna, octopus, oysters…what’s your eating style? With lemon, wasabi, soy sauce or a dash of Tabasco?

This is the pinnacle of my judgment at any establishment…DESSERTS!

Any outlet that has an entire section dedicated to chocolate can’t be all that bad…can it?

They also have counters where you can have Chinese noodles made to order, Indian curries and roti canai, and roast beef with duck confit and appetizers. Having been there a couple of times, these are the ‘must-try’ items in my book…

Cooked prawn with cream cheese on a braised mushroom appetizer

Spaghetti made to order (try a mix of tomato and cream sauce) and chicken porridge – both are exceptionally good

My favourite part – the desserts…in clockwise order from top, mango lassi with sago, crème brulee, meringue tart, mandarin raspberry blueberry custard tartlet, raspberry mousse-cream with berry reduction on top garnished with white and milk chocolate shapes.

Their crème brulee is good when it’s thoroughly chilled and the sugar topping flambé-d just before you take it, so do ask for a fresh one if necessary. Mango lassi with sago…mixed decision – I liked it while my colleague said it was too tart, so it’s up to your individual taste.

If you want the very basics, this is something new at the café – chocolate ‘lollipops’ anyone? They’re swirled in white and milk chocolate, so be warned that it’s SUPER SWEET. The lollipops are stuck in a vase full of swirled white and milk chocolate chips as well, so if you want a serious sugar-endorphin-chocolate high, go for it!

For the price, it’s not too bad but most of the foods are delicacies that can be prepared elsewhere, so the ambience and presentation is what you’re really paying for. Of course, if you happen to be able to eat your weight in sushi, roast beef and oysters, then there’s nothing stopping you from going there the next time you’re in town.

Lunch at Lemon Garden Café @ Shangri-La is RM72.00++ per head and is available on weekdays only from 12.00-2.30pm.

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Value: $ (if they took away the sushi bar though, you would have to eat a LOT more to get your money’s worth)

In Subang Jaya’s SS14 area, there’s this small shoplot tucked away behind a big tree that sells really good bak kut teh. Let’s just say if it wasn’t up to par, I wouldn’t have been patronizing it for the past 10 years (and yes, it’s been that long)

Yu Kee BKT Restaurant is one of the more popular BKT outlets in Subang, thanks to its prime cuts of meat and generous portions. It’s not unheard of to order conservatively, and still end up with too much food…*grins*

My personal #1 reason for coming back here? Every pot is delivered piping hot to the table, and better yet, they’re not stingy with the ‘golden needle’ mushrooms (also known as straw mushrooms or ‘kum jum koo’) – if you ask me, BKT doesn’t taste the same without it! The soup’s also not too herby, resulting in countless requests of extra soup (which is free, btw)

They also do a mean assam veg (it’s similar to ‘chap choy’) with plenty of chicken feet and tua chai to sink your teeth into. The day’s supply is pre-made, so you may have to ask them to warm it up if it’s not hot enough.

And how could you possibly have BKT without ‘oil fried ghost’ (yao char kway)?!? Heehee…

Other dishes to try – the lou chee yuk (pork stew), sang choy and chee keok (pig’s trotter).

** Expect to pay about RM10-15 per head at this restaurant. I paid RM29.50 for 2 people, which included everything you see in this post plus drinks.

Yu Kee Bak Kut Teh Restaurant
54A, Jalan SS14/2,
47500 Subang Jaya

Opening Hours: 8.00am – 11.00pm
Cash Terms only

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Value: $$$