Arisu, Kota Damansara

Lots of birthday eats recently...
Getting really remorseful with the additional food but still with the lack of exercise :p
And yes, this is one of those BD post, a belated one in fact.

I thought Arisu would be fitting, since she's a hallyu fanatic :D, she'll take korean overdose anytime. And we got korean food, korean setting, korean MTV and korean staff serving us. Happy happy joy joy for SL. hehe.

We had some marinated beef ribs BBQ (RM48)

Sizzling rolled up ribs...

Unroll it and we got juicy slabs of ribs with nice fat marbling..Well marinated beef ribs, each piece was scrumptious, especially eaten tightly wrapped with fresh lettuce, garlic slice, spicy beanpaste..delish!
The banchan (side dishes) were sufficient, but nothing too interesting that pique my interest..

The stir fry pork with kimchi (RM25)

This was an interesting dish. The pork was piping hot and salty with the kimchi, but paired with the cold, compact taufoo, the combo was excellent. The pork portion was too much, by the time we were done with the taufoo, there was still plenty of pork..which was too salty to eat it on it's own.

And here's the Nam Meon (cold noodles, RM20)

I always liked korean cold noodles and this was no exception. The noodles had a wonderful springy yet slightly chewy texture, which went well with the very spicy sauce. Served with a few slices of beef, sliced vege and boiled egg. Simple yet satisfying.

We had a good time of OD-ing on korean at Arisu, will be back again, soon.

Arisu is located at 32/3, Jalan 5/16, Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara, 47810 PJ. The restaurant is located at the second floor, corner shoplot.

Seo Gung Korean BBQ, SS2

Alicia was craving for korean food some time ago and I got her to choose the venue.

Somewhere nearby and we ended up at Seo Gung.

Although this place seems to boast delicious BBQ, we were not in the mood for grilling meat hence we opted for ala carte meals instead.

Like any other korean restaurants, Seo Gung serves us banchan (side dishes)..in this case, we had 9 banchan. I liked the fried pumpkin and kimchi here. The rest were just ok.

Seo Gung had some interesting ala carte dishes and I asked for the 'Hangover soup with bones'. Most unfortunately, they didnt have that . Ok, what about spicy pork bone soup? No either? :(

Third choice, they must have this right? Ginseng chicken soup? Yes? yes...

The soup was mild, with light ginseng flavour that gave lovely bitter aftertaste which I liked about ginseng. The chicken was slightly over cook, the breast part was rather hard and chewy. Was a decent dish to warm an empty stomach.

Alicia got what she craved for..Bulgogi..

Good portion of sliced beef and lots of onions, carrots, mushrooms. Slightly rougher cuts, not very dainty. Alicia seems happy munching it down though.

Seo Gung Korean BBQ is located at 21M-23M (Mezzanine Floor), Jalan SS 2/67, Petaling Jaya 47300, Selangor.

Sam Sam Korean Food, The Gardens

When I told Diha about cheap korean food at LG floor at The Gardens, she insisted that it's not as nice compared to the korean stall located at the Food Gardens upstairs.

It totally slipped my mind, until I walked past the food court during dinner time recently and realised I've not tried the korean stall.. :p

Sam Sam Korean Food is located very near the entrance, you wont miss it.

Even if you did, you wont miss the 'an nyong ha sye yo' greetings by the owners- a cheerful husband and wife team.

The food selection was very simple- just a few dishes to choose from- ranging from bibimbap, grilled meats and soupy concoction.

They recommended the Dolsat Bibimbap (RM13.90) and Bulgogi Set(RM15)..and so our orders were set..

My Beef bibimbap was served with a fried egg, the yolk still runny...

Mix it all up, and I get a good range of vegetables, rice and meat with every spoonful. The hot stone bowl kept my rice hot and flavourful, it was really enjoyable eating the bibimbap. Very nice indeed.

Amy's Bulgogi came boiling hot...

Slightly soupy looking compared to the rest of the bulgogi I've seen, this was a real wholesome, satisfying dish. The gravy was thick but was excellent with white rice, the beef pieces were tender and gamey (which I like :P) and there were generous amount of glass noodles and vegetables.

Sam Sam Korean Food is located at Stall No 12, Food Gardens, The Gardens, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Kimchi Korean Restaurant, Tropicana City

An unexpected visit to Tropicana City led us to Kimchi Restaurant, it was still brunch time and I was not too sure I was up for korean for brunch time.

Nonetheless we stepped in; being the first customer has it's perks I guess. The service was pretty good.

some drinks while waiting for our food..

The Korean Plum tea.

I didnt like it; reminds me of the cough medicine I had when I was young. BQ liked it though..

There were 4 types of side dishes. A lil less compared to other restaurants..Boring selection too.

Complimentary pan fried dumplings..

Juicy, moist center and crisp skin. Pretty good.

The beef bibimbap

Somehow, this felt like fast food korean. The ingredients looked unrefined and prepared haphazardly, i could even see 2 of the side dishes served earlier also served in my bibimbap. :(. Taste wise, it's average.

The sizzling chicken ..

BQ enjoyed it; the chicken was tender and the sauce gets spicier with every bite. I felt it was more chinese- aka chinese hot plate spicy chicken.

Overall an average experience that does not render a revisit from me.

Kimchi Korean Restaurant, L1-57, First Floor, Tropicana City Mall, PJ.

Or-Ju Korean Restaurant, Kepong

It was a joint birthday celebration for WF and LH, and we were figuring where to have their celebration dinner. The birthday boy decided to take charge, he'll decide on where to eat.

Hence, that's how we ended at Or-Ju..

Or-Ju is a 2 storey restaurant; ground floor serves the buffet spread while we went up stairs for ala carte..

We took sometime ordering; the menu was predominantly korean, while a number of japanese dishes too.

Once ordering was done, the complimentary side dishes was served almost immediately..

There were about 5-6 side dishes, I cant really recall. Not that many :p

I liked the clams and their salad (with vinegared dressing); the rest were forgettable.

Jeremy had ordered his own main as he was not too well to take spicy/ grilled food..

His Dori Katsudon had a generous serving of eggs, onions, fried pork chop and over-generous amount of sauce. The taste was fine, but jeremy finds his rice bowl too "wet'..the sauce was over soaking the rice; felt like porridge at the bottom of the rice bowl.

We ordered some grilled pork belly (RM48.90 for 2 person set, this was one serve)..

It was quite nice; having it with lettuce, garlic and the korean spicy beanpaste sauce. But most of the grilled pork belly was very oily (some were dripping with it); which was rather unappetising after a while. Oh, and it's grilled in the kitchen, so you dont get to have all the grilling 'action' live at the table.

The grilled black pork was better (RM52.90 for 2 person set, this was one of the serve)..

The meat was nicely charred and very juicy. The marination was on the sweet side, reminded me of charsiew actually.

We had some spicy kimchi soup..

I didnt really enjoy this as I find the soup too thick and sour for me. And the red was a tad shocking.

Something from the japanese menu, fried soft shell crabs (RM18.90)

It was crunchy to the bite, but the batter was very thick and oily. Could not really taste the soft shell crab flavour.

I wanted some Bibimbap, LH decided to order that with grilled pork (RM13.90). Yes, my friends just love pork... :p

This was a tasty bowl of rice, but I wont say it bibimbap-ish..Sure, the bowl was hot and gave the rice a nice burnt flavour, but the sauce was more teriyaki sweet than spicy. The amount of grilled pork chunks were generous and all were well marinated.

Or-Ju pancake(RM16.90)

Their pancake was quite a favourite as the flour base was quite thin but loaded with ingredients. The pancake was nicely browned and crisp on the exterior; a nice contrast to the fluffy ingredients.

Lastly, we had the Octopus noodles (RM25)

Cold noodles served with chopped octopus, vegetables in sweet spicy sauce. Mixed it well and oh my, it was very tasty indeed! The noodles were ultra smooth, we could slurp it down so quickly (and rather loudly by some of the guys too). It gets spicier with every mouthful, but as it was also highly addictive, we didnt stop eating this.

Overall, I find most of the food have been slightly localised (although the restaurant was run by koreans), which at some point of time, I thought I was eating chinese food.

Total bill was RM221.45

Or-Ju Korean Restaurant is located at 68, Jalan Metro Perdana Barat 3, Taman Usahawan Kepong, 52100, Kepong Utara, KL.

Dae Jang Gum, Petaling Jaya

I've been to Dae Jang Gum a few times but I always forgotten to bring along my camera. This time, I finally did...hence, the overload of pictures from DJG..haha

I first went to Dae Jan Gum restaurant when the popularity of the Dae Jang Gum series was at it's peak. Suckers that we are, we promptly tried the food in DJG..

Some hits and some misses, nonetheless, we do come back now and then..

Main thing about korean food would be the huge array of side dishes..DJG did serve us with quite a number of refillable side dishes, allowing us to try different types of kimchis and other korean side dishes. Some turned out realy tasty, while others...was not very welcomed by my tastebuds..guess it's personal preference in the end..

There were 4 of us, we decided to order some grilled meat. I've always like grilled ox tongue ( So Hyo), so that was my immediate order..I do find the cuts a tad too thin that day, nonetheless, the ox tongues still tasted good. The meat was springy and slightly crispy; wrap it real quickly with fresh lettuce and pop it into your mouth..the feeling was oh so satisfying..Coolness and sweetness from the veg mingling with the crispiness and saltiness of the meat and sauce makes this a once pop you cant stop snack..

We also order sliced pork belly (Sam Gyoub Sal) The pork was wonderful that day; the marbled meat was delicious, the fat was cooked till crispy and a tad charred, giving the meat a beautiful flavour. As we chose fresh cuts( ie, unmarinated meat), the pork was very sweet and there was bad porky smell at all..

A must order for me at DJG would be their Dol Sot Bibim Bab

Generous portion of sliced vegetables, some mince meat and raw egg was served on rice. Served in a very hot stone bowl, you need to mix everything together with their sauce. Really tasty rice dish as I find DJG's mix of flavours just right, not too sweet nor too salty.

We also ordered Kimchi Chigae, which was kimchi soup set, served with side dishes. I must admit, I am not a big fan of kimchi as I do find kimchi flavour too harsh for my liking. Surprisingly, the soup was pretty good, very appetising soup actually. Loads of ingredients too. :)

The korean pancake (Pah Jeon) was a little too thick for my liking. And the fact that the vegetables was roughly chopped (taking small bites was near impossible..) obviously did not get extra points from me. How can I eat like a lady then? hehe

The waiter suddenly came over with 2 more dishes..

On the house, he said..

Oh okay...

There was the steamed eggs in hot bowl..Texture was slightly coarse, the jap and chinese steamed version fared better.

Next was some fusion thingy of corn with chopped crabsticks and sausages; smothered with mayonaise and egg sauce served on a hot plate. The flavours work pretty together, especially when the base gets a bit charred. Crispy at the bottom, creamy in the centre and juicness from the sweet corn does wonders to the taste buds. Not too much of this though, you would get a bit jelak after a few bites.

We also had 2 plates of fresh lettuces tossed with vinegar and some spicy sauce which I really like (sorry, didnt take a picture), sliced watermelon and some iced barley dessert on the house. Total bill was RM127 as we got an additional 10% off on the bbq dishes. Quite worth it since we didnt even ask for any discounts. :)

Dae Jang Gum is located at 20B-2 & 20B-3, Jalan 14/20, 46100 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Tel: 03-79572613. This area is more known as Jaya Spermarket, DJG is located at a corner, first floor (ground floor is a kopitiam)

Bonjuk, KL

I think most floggers wrote about Bonjuk already. Heck, even the papers did a write up recently on Bonjuk. Nonetheless, I had these photos of Bonjuk porridge sitting in my folder for a couple of months already, it's high time I have it cleared..hehe

One chilly evening, just after a heavy downpour, we thought hot, porridge would be the ultimate comfort food, hence Bonjuk comes to mind...

SF wanted something spicier, and her being a fan of kimchi, ordering was rather easy for her... Octopus and Kimchi porridge..Nicely tinged with the colour and flavour of kimchi, the porridge was generously laden with chopped octopus. Slightly on the spicier side, tasty nonetheless..

SL had the Seafood combo porridge..It was a decent porridge with chopped seafood; squids, prawns..Rather sweet too, from all the chopped vegetables, I presumed boiled for a couple of hours as it was soft and mushy..

I had the ginseng chicken porridge.. Again, the same vegetables porridge was used as the base porridge..My order was generously filled with shredded chicken and a ginseng was placed in the center. The porridge had a very strong chicken flavour, so strong that it almost covered the taste of the ginseng. I was a tad disappointed as I loved the slight bitter taste if ginseng. Would have tasted better (well, at least for me ;p) if this had a stronger ginseng flavour.

Bollywood Queen had the Mushroom and Oyster porridge.. Would you just look at that? Lovely aint it? So much mushrooms and fresh oysters..dang! I should have ordered this instead. I took a spoonful of this porridge and it's so very delicious..The oysters were very fresh, springy to the bite and no fishy smell at all. The mushrooms, sliced thick, enhances the porridge with it's subtle woody flavour.. I will definitely order this the next time I come..

All orders are also served with side dishes. Which you can request for refills..BQ likes the shredded beef, which tasted very much like beef jerky, albeit, a more tender version. The chilli was tasty too..mix it with the porridge, you'll get another flavour from the porridge altogether..Our total bill was RM57.80.

Some may find Bonjuk too plain for their liking, but I personally find this tasty; in a simple, back to basics sort of way..:)

Bonjuk is located at 18, Ground floor, Jalan 25/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas, 50480 KL. Tel: 03-23002302. No pork served. In the midst of getting halal certification (that was a few months back, might be halal by now..)