PIGGIN OUT @ RESTORAN SOON HUAT, PORT DICKSON

This place is nothing short of amazing! Everytime we’re down in Port Dickson (PD), this is THE seafood restaurant that we go to for ALL our dinners!

Nestled in the deepest part of PD where you would have to go through small kampong road and located at by the river bank of a fishing village, this place offers both the luxury of a sunset view coupled with docked boats from a days hard work and good and fresh seafood at a very, very reasonable price. Some of the must orders here are their pucuk paku sambal and their mantis prawn. The mantis prawn served here is chunky unlike the other seafood places in PD that serves famine, malnourished mantis prawn.

Take my word for it and I am pretty sure you’re not going to regret.

Location:

Kampung Kuala Lukut,

71010 Lukut,

Negeri Sembilan

N2.561796, E101.800145

Contact: 012-979 7073

Located a short distance from Grand Lexis

PIGGIN OUT @ ORIENTAL BANQUET, PETALING JAYA

For RM39++ per pax, this place was definitely a love at first taste when we first visited it during a friends full moon party. However, it’s been hard to revisit the lunch buffet as it’s held only during Sunday lunch which clashes with our church on Sunday and going for buffet over church will definitely incur the wrath of God and diarrhea would probably follow suit. They also have it during public holidays but do call for a reservation first as the buffet would not happen if they have a reserved event on that day.

The long and short of it all, we finally manage to re-visit our favorite Chinese buffet spot on Wesak day while everyone else was busy performing prayers, we were busy eating. Apart from the very reasonable price of RM39++, we love the extensive choice of dishes that is served. From the usual hot dishes, to fresh salmons, to delicious Chinese herbal soups, ice mussels, chukka idakos, Peking duck, roasted pig and even rojak and an array of really good nyonya kuih. The RM39++ buffet also comes with 1 servinf of sharks fin soup which you would need to request. It’s no wonder this place is always pack during hteir buffet promotion.

If you still have any doubt about how good this place it, allow the pictures to summarized the rest.

Location:

16, Jalan 19/1, Section 19,

46200 Petaling Jaya,

Kuala Lumpur.

GPS: N3.115984, E101.627972

PIGGIN OUT @ iL LIDO, YAP KWAN SENG

I nearly lost RM200. Partially due to iL Lido and for most part due to my forgetfulness. I specifically bought the vouchers off Groupon in March for my wife’s birthday in May after hearing about the place. Come May, I totally forgot about this place and made reservations for Le Meridien and if I had not decided to just check if I had any unutilized Groupon vouchers, I would have lost RM200 spend on this.

Thankfully we managed to get a reservation and off we set leaving our kids with both our parents for a well deserved fine dining on my wife’s birthday.

For a start, it’s quite a shame that iL Lido is located in Mayang where the carparks are really tight and the elevators are crampy and upon reaching the 1^st floor, you’re at a lost as to where to go if not for the voice of the waiters shouting “Ahoy there”… actually it was more like “Welcome”.

But upon stepping in, the ambience albeit it being simple was cosy, welcoming and really relaxing. Just by sitting at our table, we felt absolutely at ease. That was really not easy to achieve as I had my office staring back at me the whole night.

We decided to opt for the degustation menu (RM198 per pax) to have a better selection of what they had to offer.

While waiting for our meal of two, water and bread.

Water was bland and tasteless as it should have been.

  

Bread was really nice and warm inside but a little bit too crusty on the outside.

1^st up on the menu was Amuse Bouche which translated in French means “mouth amuser” (don’t ask me why Italian restaurant, French wordings) which was really a slice of raw tuna on a slice of eggplant. The tuna was fresh but I wasn’t quite sure if the eggplant complemented it perfectly.

Next up on the menu was Hokkaido scallops with truffle.

Next came the foie gras with duck bacon and lentils. The lentils and shaved pears definitely complemented the fattiness of the goose liver although I thought the liver was a little tad fattier which gave you the muak feeling thereafter.

This next dish was a little bit of a disappointment. Chitarrugi (some sort of noodles) with lobster. Noodles tasted like yellow mee and that alone puts you off.

The main for the menu was Wagyu Beef Cheek. In all honesty, there wasn’t really much to shout about this dish. It was ok, but the meat felt piecey and the sauce dominated over the taste of the beef.

For desserts, Molten Lava Chocolate with Vanilla Ice Cream. This – was good. Warm tasting chocolate would overflow when you cut through the cake and of course, nothing complements it better than berries and ice cream.

Overall, it was a good meal but above it all, the ambience of the place was something really that I love.

Location:

183, Jalan Mayang (Off Jalan Yap Kwan Seng)

50450 Kuala Lumpur

Directly opposite the Australian Embassy and AmBank.

PIGGIN OUT @ KAMPACHI, EQUATORIAL BANGI

We once craved to try the much talked about Japanese weekend buffet at Equatorial Hotel. But always got distracted through the years but finally, a couple of months back, we finally manage to find the time to visit Kampachi at Equatorial Bangi (as Equatorial KL is now close for renovation).

 

We were looking forward to dine here after hearing so much about the place and how it’s always fully booked months in advance so I was really surprise when I tried my luck making the reservation 2 days before, I actually got it.

 

When we arrive, was firstly disappointed at how small the dining area was with limited tables (no wonder fully book all the time). Walked around to check out the buffet  spread and sad to say, it wasn’t very appetizing. The spread was sad. 6-7 dishes of pre-cooked food, a small section of cook-on-the-spot which cooked small portions at a very slow speed, a sashimi counter (which did serve fresh sashimi), and a dessert section (with a not too bad spread). The other sad thing about this place was their sukiyaki counter. They had this huge pot of soup boiling with sukiyaki stuff and when you request for a bowl, they just scoped out a little bit of each (which is fine) but it’s just that the ingredients in it is continually being boiled and if you reach here later, it’ll probably be porridge sukiyaki by then.

 

So much for high expectation. The restaurant beside Kampachi looked so much more appetizing.

 

 

 

 

PIGGIN OUT @ TOM, DICK & HARRY’S, TTDI

So breakfast/brunch seems to be the new in thing in town… I mean it’s been a while but it’s only now that I am catching up… What?!!? I’m not slow k… I just enjoy my thosai, roti canai, the tarik at my regular mamak at 10am k…

A couple of weeks back, a group of my friends decided to meet up at Tom, Dick and Harry’s instead of our yearly CNY meetup at a Chinese restaurant. We met at about 12:30pm… yes… it’s lunch… but we ordered their breakfast menu so it’s BREAKFAST.

Overall, the experience here was pretty much so-so. Nothing spectacular or nerve shocking.

First up was the “The American Breakfast”  (RM23) – a breakfast set with 2 sunny side up, hash brown, pork sausage, mushroom, bacon, baked beans and 1 slice of regular bread (cut into a triangle). I love freshly baked bread for breakfast so the sight of the 2 pieces of triangle bread with baked beans and sunny side up eggs just made me feel I was camping or in some cheap hotel which serves breakfast and that thought just drowned all the other food. Also, instead of serving you freshly brewed coffee you get free flow coffee from a tank which tasted pretty much like water.

The “Spinach Wrap” (RM20) was badly presented and there’s nothing much to shout about how it tasted. My Sikh restaurant at Bangsar does a much better spinach dish and cost a lot less.

A friend ordered “Egg Benedick’s” (RM20) which looked a lot more appetizing. Didn’t get to taste it so can’t comment much.

Overall this will not be my first choice for breakfast/brunch but would definitely be back to try their much talk about pork knuckle. However, one really annoying thing here is that they allow pets to be brought into the restaurant. I personally love dogs, but bringing a dog into a restaurant is a whole different thing. I wouldn’t mind if you wrap your dog up in cling wrap and bring him/her in but you can’t and your dogs fur would probably be flying around into people’s food. That’s just disgusting. Period.

Location:
18, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14,
TTDI,
60000 Kuala Lumpur

GPS: N3.154730, E101.623124