Pappa Rich Dining, Nexus, Bangsar South- average taste, pricey meals

Honestly, we were planning to try the ‘off- peak’ app (we even used up our phone data just to download it) at Mango Chilli which was located in the same building but it was not opened yet so we decided to have an early lunch in Pappa Rich Dining, located at the ground floor of Nexus. We think Nexus is an office building because if it were a shopping mall, it will become the most boring mall on earth. Besides offering the usual Pappa Rich fares like nasi lemak, chicken chop and paratha, this eatery also offers side dishes that are not available in other branches, making it a unique dining experience.

But alas, the price kind of put us off. Sure,the food is palatable but we felt that we could have eaten this type of food for a cheaper price elsewhere. the ambience was nice and comfortable, with indoor air- conditioning provided to ease ourselves from the humid midday weather. Hence, we rated the environment a 8/10. Service was prompt too, with the waiter providing the menu immediately on sitting us down at the table and taking our order soon after. 8/10 for you there, sir.

R, still reeling from the disappointment of not being able to use his newly- downloaded app at the aforementioned restaurant, decided to have the Pappa cendol, priced at RM 6.13. He rated it a 5/10, an average fare with hard- as- rock shaved ice with the usual chendol condiments.

J tried the Dry Curry Mee with Steamed Chicken (RM 12.74). He also rated his food as 5/10. with nothing special to add to the review. He could probably eat the same food at half the price. He drank hot coffee (RM 3.68) and as you guessed it, was rated at 5/10 too.

N had the staple Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken (RM 13.11) and Stevia white coffee (RM 8.02). Man, the longer we eat together the more we think alike. Scary. He felt his meal was okay with good portion but rated his food a 5/10.

The iced Stevia white coffee and hot coffee

S tried the koay teow beef with ginger and spring onion, priced at RM 18.40. Quite expensive for a hawker meal but the portion is super huge. Like abusing the tummy huge. But, S finished it as expected. She rated hers at 6/10 because it tasted nice with a tender strips of beef in smooth silky egg sauce and served in a huge dish-bowl but the price is a major drawback. The iced fresh lemon honey drink (RM 5.57) was refreshing and nice. 

Iced fresh lemon honey

Overall, the food here was okay but as we repeatedly observed, too expensive for a hawker fare. Our bill totalled to RM 78.90, including a RM 11.24 service charge with GST. Maybe if we were stuck in, let’s say London (we wish) and craved for Malaysian food then we will probably go to Pappa Rich but we will probably think twice about coming here to have a plate of char koay teow at the price they are selling.

From ain’t rich Pappas,

Honest Foodies Review Team.

Z-CUB3 Cafe & Gallery, PJ New Town

Laziness does pay off. Just look at us, we were too lazy to walk farther from our parking place to our intended original destination and stopped at the first decent- looking restaurant that crossed our path. We saw their value lunch meal deals menu displayed outside. They got us at ‘value’.

Once inside, we were pleasantly surprised by the nice decoration which resembled a pricey hipster cafe with air conditioning, wooden rustic tables, menu written on the chalkboard and those Ikea- like lighting chains. But in fact, the food are priced affordably and they actually looked and tasted good. So that was a major plus point for us and it was a unanimous 7/10 for ambience. The perplexing thing is that it is called a cafe and a gallery. The cafe part we get. But we could not figure out which part of this establishment was meant to become a gallery.Tables? Chairs? Food? Just curious.

The waiter was quick to get our order with no smartphone apps or tablets involved. The waiting time for the food was reasonable, maybe 5 to 10 minutes, we kind of lost count as we surfed through the free Wifi provided in the cafe. Service was good with N & S giving a 7/10 while R rated it an 8/10. The value lunch meals came with drinks and started at RM 10.95.

N had the teriyaki chicken rice set, priced at RM 13. The chicken chicken cutlets were tender and succulent cooked with capsicum and topped with grated carrots and cabbage. The accompanying sauce had the right balance of heat, sweet and salty flavours. The white rice was lightly sprinkled with crispy  fried onions and freshly chopped spring onion. The peppery aromatic soup was an added bonus as well as the crunchy crackers. N rated his food a 7/10.

R had the butter cream chicken rice set, priced at RM 10.95, which was similar to N’s set except for the chicken cutlets deep fried in crispy batter garnished with shredded carrots and cabbage and served with a creamy rich butter sauce, salty and added with just the right level of spice. As the sauce was served separately from the chicken cutlets, the cutlets managed to keep its crisp flavour without becoming too soggy by the wetness of the cream sauce. R also rated his food a 7/10.

S had the lemon chicken rice set, also reasonably priced at RM 10.95 (really, can’t they just round it up to RM 11?). The lemon sauce tasted okay, but she still preferred R’s creamy sauce. The lemon sauce probably lacked more lemon juice. The generous portion of the deep fried chicken certainly helped with her review, though. She rated her set a 7 out of 10.

The iced lemon tea all of us had tasted nice. Not bad. I mean, how different can an iced lemon tea be?

Overall, a good eating experience in our continuing gastronomical journey of PJ New Town. We hope we can make further discoveries in this quaint (but insanely difficult to find parking) part of town and make our mentor Francis Light proud.

Here is the address should you feel excited to try this place out:

No 31, Jalan 52/8 PJ New Town. ( It is just besides the multi- level parking building. Yeah, N & S also did not notice this old, dingy multi- level parking building existed before until today.)

Until the next food- tastic review,

Honest Foodies Review Team.

Thai by Thai, New Town Petaling Jaya

It was quite by chance we stumbled across this restaurant. We were scouring New Town for affordable lunch meals when our paths crossed with this quaint place. It looked kind of new so we decided to give it a try. 

The ambience was nice. Of course R liked it because we were the only people in the air- conditioned eatery. The decor went well with the Thai theme with large paintings of elephants. J and S concurred with R’s opinion, rating it a 7/10.

The service was quite efficient too. Probably because, again, we were the only people there. They promptly served us our drinks after taking our order. So, that would probably be a 7/10.

The food and drinks were a different story though. In the menu’s introduction, the restaurant’s delicacies are based on the owner’s Thai wife who hails from Chiang Mai region (hence Thai by Thai). Maybe they have different palates in Chiang Mai? We dunno…but none of us particularly enjoyed our food. We love our Thai food and therefore we hold it to a certain high standard in our food circle.

S had the beef kuey teow soup (RM 5.90) and the iced Thai milk tea (RM4.90). She feels that the greatest Thai export after tom yum and lady boys would be the milk tea. Therefore, she was let down by the weird taste of her tea. She at first attributed the peculiar taste to the different region this restaurant’s food is claiming to be from but the more she thought about it, she just felt that it was plain awful. The tea was too sweet as they put sugar on top of the milk in the tea. She could not even finish her glass. And others pointed out that it must be so bad that S was eating the ice inside of the drink instead of drinking it. Yah, she felt slightly dizzy after drinking that uber sweet concoction. 

The beef kuey teow soup was pretty generic. In their defence, the beef was tender and thinly sliced. However, the soup base was tasteless. I mean, she gets it that customers can add salt and other condiments according to their personal preference but the soup really lacked any depth of flavour. It was just like plain water mixed with noodles and beef instead of being infused with aromatic herbs or beef stock. So she gave the soup a 5/10 for being meh and the milk tea 0/10 for even existing.

J ordered the pineapple fried rice (RM 15.90) with hot Thai coffee (RM 4.90). Do you remember a while back when he ordered the pineapple fried rice from Streat Thai in Jaya One? Now he is giving the fried rice a second chance at redemption. And he was not disappointed. Much. The fried rice was served in a pineapple (yay!) and had 3 pieces of prawns on top of it. And you could definitely see the pieces of chicken in the fried rice. The taste however was slightly disappointing as it was sorely lacking seasoning. The coffee tasted as awful as the tea as they added sugar to the already sweet milk coffee. We love our food and drinks but we do not wish to die from them, okay. Overall, he rated his eating experience a 5/10 there.

R also tried the pineapple fried rice and had similar comments regarding it as J. Instead of ordering a drink, he chose to try the iced dessert (RM 7.90), which looked totally different from the picture they showed in the menu. Overall, he also felt the food and drink deserved 5/10.

Overall our meal cost us RM 60.95 including a 10% service charge. We shall not bring up our best and most affordable Thai restaurant so far as it seems unfair (coughs, MyElephant).

Here is the address lest you are interested:

No 10, Jalan 52/18, Lapangan Merdeka, 46200 Petaling Jaya

Until the next review,

Honest Foodies Review Team

UMAC House, Petaling Jaya

Ever in a rush for lunch but you cannot just eat another dish at your workplace’s overpriced food court? Fret no more, UMAC House is just around the corner. We know it seems as if we do not have to work judging by our long lunch entries, but we do need to rush our lunch most of the time due to work or family commitments.

So here we are, eating banana leaf rice to satisfy our hunger at a reasonable price and with a fairly quick service.

The ambience? Though seated outside, S quite liked it as they managed to put an awning to shade patrons from the searing KL heat. The last time she went there it was quite hot and humid. R wished it was air- conditioned. In fact, we begin to suspect that R wishes there was such a thing as an outdoor air conditioning everywhere. There is one, R. It is called Antartica. So our ambience rating fared between 6 and 7 out of 10.

Service was pretty efficient,with the banana leaves rolled out the moment we sat by our table, rated as 7 to 8. The basic banana leaf rice cost RM 6 per person with an assortment of refillable vegetable dishes, poppadom. As for the rice selection, we had to choose between the normal white rice or Indian rice. We do not know whether the guy made the Indian rice thing up but basically the grain is longer like Basmati rice but thicker than that. Ponni rice? Maybe, who knows. We don’t. Anyway, the meal was accompanied by a complimentary rasam which does wonders for your sinuses and the plain water was bottomless. 

The food itself was pretty basic but tasty. The vegetable dishes were laden with spices and authentic. Authentic Malaysian Indian mind you… we do not know how authentic Indian Indian food tastes like because we have never been there. The vegetable dishes are refillable but none of us did ask for seconds because we were quite full. R did add extra rice (for free, of course) as he needed to neutralise the heat. He has lower heat endurance so colour us (not) surprised, shall we?

S ordered the chicken varuval (RM 5) and fried pavaka (RM 3) while J had a slice of the fried mackerel (RM 7). The chicken packed a punch of heat and required several downings of water in order to finish the whole serving. J liked the crispy mackerel fried with a light batter of aromatic spices. The fried bitter gourd was a bit of a let down as they were not crispy at all and were decidedly soggy. All in all we rated the food 6 to 8 out of 10, depending on how spicy you like your food to be. A nice quick affordable lunch with refillable vegetables, poppadom, rice and water is a winning formula in our books on any day, we say.

Partially hidden in a row of abandoned houses, the place is located opposite MAHSA University College in Jalan Universiti. Here is the address for your reference: No 1, Jalan 12/5, 46200 Petaling Jaya.