myELEPHANT Thai restaurant, Section 17 PJ

We are taking the bold step of reviewing our usual go- to eating place, myElephant, in Section 17. Some might agree that we do not have to review this restaurant because regardless of the outcome we will still eat here, hence making this a redundant entry. But in the true spirit of fake journalism and fake professional review blogging, we will still document this experience. 

By the way, we are trying to cut down on words in our review based on a reader’s verbal comment that it is too wordy and she wanted more pictures. Ok, we’ll sure try to condense our food-ventures into 300 words or less. Or she could just follow us on our non- existent Instagram account. We’d prefer the latter.

For this restaurant’s review, we have enlisted the help of our freelance foodies reviewers, namely Mr.Z, Egg and La Bonito. If they do their jobs well we might make them permanent members of review team. Don’t forget to post your feedback at the end of this post ya! By the way, J opted to sit this review out as he was having writer’s block.

We had mixed feelings regarding the ambience, with scores ranging from 6 to 8. R said it was too crowded, while others who scored the place higher liked it for the air- conditioning with no weird perfume-y smell (please refer to our previous entry). The interior was clean with those industrial designs young people seem to favour nowadays. Like R mentioned, the place was packed with tables crammed into such a small place. Their refusal to increase the number of tables for their lunch service shows their confidence in their patrons’ loyalty because hey, only people who really like their food would be dumb enough to queue outside in the hot blazing sun to wait for an an available table, right? Another downer is the forever lack of parking space. It is located in a crowded residential flat area which is next to a school. The influx of the hipster cafes setting up shop there is certainly not helping with the parking situation.

We were more uniformed with the service rating, with mostly 7s and 8s out of 10. The servers were quick and efficient in taking our orders and delivering our food despite the packed lunch crowds.

Here is the lunch set menu to help with non- Siamese speaking customers to order. Or you could just point to the food that you want. All lunch sets come with pandan basil drink. Which is basil- less nowadays. We know because as we keep pointing out, we come here a lot. That being said, we do not know how do their normal menu looks like because we prefer our food cheap.

The pandan drink, now basil seed- less. Disappointing, especially in this blazing hot afternoon sun.

This is what Mr.Z had, the Gai Phad Grapow. It is not a gay fat anything. It is  brown rice served with roughly chopped chicken pan fried with holy basil. How does a normal sinful basil transforms into a holy one will not be explained in this review. The sunny side up egg adds a nice taste to the food. Mr.Z rated his food as 8/10. Since he could not express how good the food tasted because he was so overwhelmed enjoying it, we will have to try to explain it on his behalf. The brown rice was nicely cooked and gave a nice texture that is refreshing compared to the more common white rice. The chicken was seasoned well and tasted nice, especially combined with the fried egg. A refreshing piece of watermelon completed Mr. Z’s experience. However, he still feels the restaurant was going cheap on him by serving the drink basil- less. 

La Bonito and Egg both had the Markeer Yao, pictured above, which was brown rice served with pan- fried eggplant with minced chicken and mango salad. Being a crowd favourite, we were shocked by their independent ratings of 6/10. Since neither suffers from self inflicted peer pressure, they were adamant in their review as they felt the portion was getting smaller and saltier. Subsequent reviews confirmed their findings. La Bonito added that the drink was watered down. Seriously, you serve us pandan drink that you probably just took from somebody’s home garden without the basil seeds and that also needs to be watered down? Man, times are bad.

R, N and S all had the Gai Yaeng, consisting of brown rice served with 2 pieces of BBQ chicken wings and mango salad. They unanimously rated the food 8/10, with the star being the well- marinated chicken wings which was succulent and juicy. The rice, though not as fragrant as its white counterpart, was well suited to the slightly spicy yet sweet tender chicken. The mango salad was crisp and had balanced flavours of sweet, sour, salty and spicy. The cleansing watermelon topped off their dining experience.

Overall, the affordable price offered by myElephant is an absolute plus point for us, despite their skimping efforts. Who knows, we might change our opinion if the now basil- less pandan drink turns into tap water or 2 chicken wings are reduced to 1. 

Here is the restaurant’s address : Block C-G4, Happy Mansion, Jalan 17/13, Section 17, 46400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. (Really, Happy Mansion? Being optimistic, were we?)

Opening Hours : Monday to Sunday; Lunch (12:00pm - 2:00pm) and Dinner (6:00pm - 10:00pm)

PS: This entry went just above 900 words. Deal with it- Honest Foodies Review Team