Saturday, August 30, 2014

The Ganga Cafe @ Bangsar – North South Indian Vegetarian Cuisine – A Vegan Paradise Review By Best Restaurant


For a meat lover like me, vegetarian meals does not really excite me much, after all, how much, can vegetables be cooked in any way that will satisfy my craving for a truly satisfying meals. How wrong can I be? We were invited by the owners of the newly taken over café i.e. The Ganga Café @ Bangsar which is located at 19. Lorong Kurau, Off Jalan Riong, Bangsar Pertama, 59100 Kuala Lumpur


This no-frills café is located at a very quiet corner of bustling Bangsar, which is a stone throw away from NSTP office. In fact, to reach it, you drive past NSTP office and turn left at the traffic junction and go all the way straight until you reach a row of shop house or click on the location below.


Helm by Madam Meeta, she has brought her home kitchen to the The Ganga, you will be pleasantly surprised on how ingredients and spices when fallen into the right hands can transform simple food like potatoes, chick peas and tomatoes into sumptuous, delicious and nutritious vegetarian dishes.


To start off the night, The Ganga Café @Bangsar offers 4 specialty drinks which were unique, special and pure. The drinks are
Ganga Tea Crush -A concoction of mint, lemon and lime in ice tea
 Pranic Juice -A concoction of mixed herbs, spices and mint leaves- a detox formula
  Mango Lassi - very creamy and thick Lassi.
Lemonade - Lemon Lime with a tinge of Soda.


For starter, we had the Stuffed Fried Chilli – To make this, potatoes are cooked with spices and then smashed and stuffed and wrapped into and around the green chilli. This is followed by a coating of chick pea powder and deep fried. This Stuffed Fried Chilli is then topped up with a spread of in-house made yoghurt and some sprinkle of coriander chutney and garnish with coriander leaves.


The next item we had sounded like “Hello Kitty” which in actual fact is called Allo Tikki – this is quite similar to the begedil in which it is also potatoes based but without any meats.


The deep frying at high heat of the breadcrumbs makes the crust crispy while the potatoes filling with coriander leaves, chilli padi was smooth and soft and spicy if you get to the chilli padi.


Another starters that we had was the Masala Papadam. It looks like a thin crust vegetarian pizza, but the base, instead of a dough based, it is a home-made papadam, which was pan fried till crisp and garnish with vegetables topping like onion, capsicum and tomatoes cubes.


Next, we had the Vada Pav. Pav stands for bread in Indian which happens to sounds like Pau for Chinese too. So, it is not too difficult to remember this. This is a dish that looks like a mushroom or hamburger with a thick layer of patties but this patties is 100% vegetable based which has potatoes as the based and cooked with spices, chat massala and deep fried.


The bread is butter roasted on both sides, with the bottom section spread with red chilli chutney and the top with a green coloured coriander chutney. So, the next time you like to have a burger but not the fats, you ought to try this for a change.


Next, we had the Bhathura Set, which was the deep fried until the Bhathura becomes inflated. To eat it, you poke a hole and you will be able to see the steam escaping from the Bhathura. This Bhathura set comes with Chick Peas cooked with Masala Chat and secret spices.


The Chick Peas was soft and blended well with the sauce. To eat it, you spread a little yoghurt on to the Bhathura and add in a spoonful of chick peas and a small slice of onions. It is just a perfect combination to savour this dish. Best eaten with your hands.


Thirdly, we had the Pav Bhajhi. Bhajhi stands for mixed vegetables, which means this dish is called Mixed Vegetables Bread. The serving comes with the yoghurt and mixed vegetables of which are the potatoes, cauliflower, capsicum, green peas and tomatoes.


The last set we had was the Radish Paratha. The process to make this paratha is very tedious and time consuming. The raddish are first cut into thinly strip and squeezes dried and cooked with coriander seeds and leaves. It is then put in between the paratha dough before the dough is being pan fried. It is served with a potato spread and yoghurt as the accompaniment.


If you are ones of those health freaks, you might want to try the Ayurvedic Chapatti. The dough is a mixture of 6 super healthy grains which is Wheat, Oats, Maize, Ragi, Chana Dhall and Barley. Best eaten with Dhall.


As, it was a Friday and a vegetarian day for the Indian, The Ganga Café do offer a complimentary desserts i.e. Payasam for each diners. The Payasam was indeed a perfect close to our hearty meal as it was very light, not too sweet, as some which I have tried before at other restaurant.


On every Sunday, The Ganga Café @ Bangsar offers a Special Sunday Buffet which has around 18 dishes for the price of RM16 per pax. To catch the latest offering, I was told that you can visit their facebook page which will have an update on what will be served at their Sunday buffet by Thursday. This gives you the opportunity to try out all the special dishes all at one go. Heed this, it is usually jam packed with people, so you probably have to get up early on a Sunday to devour at the Buffet.


For lunch and dinner, you can have the Rice set, which you have a choice of either to choose Brown Rice, Tomato Rice or the Briyani Rice. It is offered in Big Thali, Thali or G-Light portion. For most the Thali (normal) portion should be sufficient.

So, the next time, you do yearn for some healthy, nutritious, wholesome, delicious Indian Vegetarian meal, head over to The Ganga Café @Bangsar.

Watch Our Video Review at YouTube below



For Other Related Food Review By Best Restaurant To Eat, please click on the link below;

Friday, August 29, 2014

Yakiniku Ishiya @ Kota Damansara Strand Encorp Mall Japanese BBQ Best Yakiniku Review


BBQ has always been one of my favourite meal as this dish is simple and with the right marinade will blossom up the full flavours of the meat. We were invited to try out a Yakiniku (Japanese BBQ meat) Restaurant outlet which is Yakiniku Ishiya @ Kota Damansara located at 58G & 60G, Jalan PJU 5/22, Encorp Strand Pusat Dagangan  Kota Damansara, Kota Damansara PJU 5, 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan.


Yakiniku Ishiya started in Dec 2013 and is one of the household name when it comes to BBQ in Japan, we understand that there are 10 such outlets in Japan which started its roots from Kyoto Japan (which serves nothing but BBQ only).


The décor of Yakiniku Ishiya is very Japanese and even the table was specially imported from Japan and this includes the BBQ roaster set. These table and roaster set provide a smokeless BBQ and you can dine in the comfort of an air-conditioned cosy indoor area.


We understand that there are very stringent in the quality of the serving and the entire operation in that their Japanese counter parts pays them a monthly visit to ensure that there is consistency in the entire operation of Yakiniku Ishiya @ Kota Damansara.


One of the most important criteria about BBQ is in the Yakiniku recipe, Yakiniku sauce and of course the fresh quality meat and seafood which are marinated with the secret marinade recipe and the special concoction of tare (dipping sauce) which enriches the naturally flavour of the meat.


At Yakiniku Ishiya, it offers a wide variety of meats, seafoods and vegetables that are suitable for grilling, which you can order either ala-carte or as a set (which they are running a promotion). The pieces of meat are cut to precise thickness so that it will be easily cooked in the BBQ roaster without over burning it during this fun process of roasting your meat (minus the prespiration). There are specially prepared tongs for you to use for the grilling process too.


Awesome Smoked Duck – Perfect for grilling out the fats.  


Fresh New Zealand Beef – just the right size, watch it turn from RED to PINK and it is ready to be eaten straight from the roaster.


No Musky Lamb Taste - New Zealand Lamb  - We were surprised that the lamb does not have the usual musky smell and taste which we later found out that the chef was able to clear off the musky taste of the lamb, which is superb for those that does not really like that taste and yet like to eat grill lamb shoulder.


Juicy Tender Chicken Meat – the meat was very tender and upon roasting you can really taste the juicy meat and flavours of the marinade that goes well with the dipping sauce.


Springy Squid – As the squid was very fresh, upon roasting you can see them curl up right before your eyes and are able to taste the sweet, chewy and bouncy squid meat.


Perfect roast full of BBQ food.


Currently Yakiniku Ishiya @ Kota Damansara is having a limited promotion for you to try out the Yakiniku i.e. for RM48.00 you get to choose either three out of five meats which can be eaten by 2 person. So, head over to try out this Yakiniku.


Besides serving Yakiniku, they also serves out some other ala-carte Japanese dishes like Sushi, Ramen, Teppanyaki, Tempura and etc.


We get to sample 2 of the new specialty dishes which is the Cheese Stick- Deep fried spring roll with cheddar cheese – best eaten straight away – it is a cleverly combination of the cheese rolled into the popiah skin and deep-fried – very crispy and cheesy taste.


Golden Dragon Maki – Deep Fried Tempura Prawn and Flying Fish Roe is a very unique dish which is a Prawn maki make to resemble a dragon. It is first roll up and then deep fried with a coat of tempura batter till crisp and cut into pieces and assemble as a dragon. I gotten to eat the dragon head which the prawn head was still crispy and retains the full flavour of the prawns roe and the vinegar of the sushi rice.


We also had the Wagyu Don – which is wagyu sliced beef with special sauce. The beef was cooked to medium done and you can really taste the tender meat with the special sauce and served with the white rice.


We also tried out the Chicken Teppanyaki  – it was well marinated and pan fried,  the taste was flavourful and best eaten with rice.


Mixed Tempura Moriawase – The batter was crisp and the dipping sauce went well with the prawn and vegetable tempura.


For more desserts, we had the in-house made Green Tea Ice Cream With Red Beans Topping.


and Black Sesame Ice-Cream 


At Yakiniku Ishiya Kota Damansara, you get to taste all the different Japanese cuisine in one restaurant. So, the next time when you are around the Kota Damansara area and yearn for some good quality Japanese dishes, then you know where the place to go.

Watch Our Full Review of Yakiniku Ishiya Kota Damansara on YouTube


Thursday, August 14, 2014

Durian Moon Cake Snow Skin By Royal Gourmet Hotel Premiere Klang


What makes a delicious Durian Moon Cake? That is the question that begets my mind when we were invited to do a review of the Durian Moon Cake by Royal Gourmet located at Hotel Premiere, Bandar Bukit Tinggi, 1/KS6, Jalan Langat, Klang


During the past one month, we had sampled a few durian infused food i.e. from Bijan Durian Cheese Cake to Heritage Village – Durian Cendol which were superbly done and tasted very delicious and now we had the opportunity to review the Durian Moon Cake from Royal Gourmet. After all, we are now in the Durian season, what better way to savour the King of Fruits.


I have been eating Durian Moon Cake over the years and frankly speaking, I didn’t really get the kick out of it, due to the fact that the durian taste and flavours are not really there.


Usually the Durian paste are added into lotus paste and then cooked, moulded and baked just like any other Lotus Paste Moon Cake. The taste to me, is quite awkward as somehow it compromises the flavours of the Durian and Lotus Paste i.e. somewhere in between (you know what I mean). So, I never got around yearning to eat it.


So, as I take my first bite of this Snow Skin Durian Moon Cake from Royal Gourmet with a hesitant feeling as I personally is also not a real fan of Snow Skin Moon Cake. That first little bite change the perspective of Durian Moon Cake.


As per all snow skin moon cake, it was best served chilled and the Durian filling in this moon cake was intense. Before you bite, you could smell the strong aroma of the D24 Durian filling, then while chewing, you could taste the rich Durian taste and lastly the snow skin was so thin layered, that it virtually blended well with the filling all in one. To me this must be one of the best Durian Moon Cake that I have eaten.


Later, Royal Gourmet Chef had offered to demonstrate to us how this wonderful Snow Skin Durian Moon Cake was made. We were told that there are no preservatives used in the moon cake, as it is made as fresh as it can be, i.e. on demand basis and that it should be consume within 3 to 4 days to ensure that you really get to enjoy this moon cake.


After having this Moon Cake little making process tour, it was a very enlightening experience.


 To extend to readers of our blog, Royal Gourmet @Hotel Premiere is offering a 15% on all moon cakes, please read the instruction as below. If you can only eat one piece of moon cake you have to try this one.



Let us know what you feel after trying it in the comment section.

Our Video Review



Our other review of Royal Gourmet @ Hotel Premiere Klang