UDON-YA SAN@ Pandan Indah Cheras – Quality and Affordable UDON Review

There are not many specialized UDON restaurant in Malaysia, the one that are around are mostly quite pricey for a bowl of it due to the expensive and quality of ingredients used especially in the making of the UDON and the KAKE soup based. Best Restaurant To Eat was invited to review UDON-YA SAN Restaurant located at 65, Jalan Pandan Indah 4/6a Pandan Indah, Cheras Kuala Lumpur.

UDON-YA SAN@ Pandan Indah Cheras opened recently in August 2014 and has a very minimalist Japanese setting. It exudes a simple family dining environment.

All the UDON at UDON-YA SAN are hand made daily by the chef – so you get the assurance of the freshest UDON possible.

The recipes used to prepare the UDON and all its broth have time tested and gone thru the mill for more than 20 years. The chef is very particular on the use of good quality key ingredients and condiments that are used to prepare and serve to its’ customers.

We started with the TSUKIMI UDON SOUP. To taste whether an UDON restaurant passes the most fundamental test in the preparation of UDON, is to really taste its KAKE broth. This UDON is using the KAKE soup base with added TENKATSU, TSUKIMI and a warm (half boiled) eggs with runny egg yolk.

The KAKE broth was very flavourful and at RM7.00, it is a steal.

MENTAIKO UDON –The MENTAIKO (cod fish roe) aroma pulled our noses down towards the bowl. Bowing our heads willingly, the UDON was chewy with a slight bounce.

With each mouthful of this UDON, which were coated with a generous portion of the super tasty and bouncy premium MENTAIKO was a delight to be eaten.

TSUKIMI UDON DRY is also called the Moon Viewing UDON  – there is no soup added into this UDON - Mix the semi cooked eggs and viola you get a strong egg flavoured UDON.

This is a dry version in which you can slurp your way into the delicious goodness of the UDON with the fragrant flavours of the TSUKIMI and topped with the white and yolk of the semi cooked egg, it makes the UDON silky smooth with an added crunch from the TENKATSU.

CARBONARA UDON – is a specially concocted gravy of Ooey-Gooey carbonara based infused with Fresh Cream, topped with succulent chunks of pancetta cured pork belly pieces, is enough to make you salivate.

Each pieces of the cured pork belly has a unique salty taste.

SALAD UDON – Cold Udon, Refreshing taste, this UDON is very popular in Japan. The strong texture of the UDON, have a distinct chewiness. It blended well with the sesame enhanced gravy and the freshly cut strip of salad green gives you a more balanced meal for those who are a little health conscious or want to be vegan for the day.

CURRY UDON – it have a distinct Japanese curry taste and flavour, although pale in comparison to a local Malaysian curry noodles. The curry is cooked using carrot and onion as its' base. The spiciness level is low, so anyone with a low tolerance of spicy level will find this curry to be acceptable.

KAKIAGE – mixed vegetable strip tempura. This is a nice starter that goes well with the KAKE based UDON. As when you dip it into the broth, you will find the KAKE soup infused into the tempura giving you a crunch of KAKE coated flavour.

ASSORTED VEGETABLE TEMPURA – The batter used to coat this vegetable tempura is not that thick, which we preferred. The assorted vegetable used was the ladies finger, brinjal, long beans and lotus roots. Comes with a ginger based tempura dipping.

The TONKATSU uses a special imported Japanese breadcrumb PANKO (fresh bread crumb type) and was lightly coated to the pork with a delicate texture. It has a special thin crispy tasty layer that was a delight to bite in. The accompany dipping was a mustard based sauce which have a smoky BBQ flavour.

CHICKEN KATSU – this KATSU uses dry bread crumb as compared to the TONKATSU. The difference is in the taste and the different texture of the fried chicken.

The chicken was fried to a deep golden brown and has a thicker and fluffy crusty feel.

CHICKEN KARAAGE – the Japanese Fried Chicken. Fried to perfection, not too dry ... smell good, taste good with the in-house marinated flavouring. The deeply flavoured skin crackle and crunch with the slightest touch of your teeth, and the meat is still moist, tender, and flavourful.

AJITAMA – served with a drop of special fragrant oil and top with a sprinkle of fresh spring onion leaves, it was sprung with a little creativeness to these authentic side dishes. As the size of the eggs was a little smaller, we were told that these were the free-range chicken eggs which explains the deep orange colour of the yolk.

SESAME SAUCE SALAD taste wise is quite similar to the coleslaw but this is infused with a strong sesame taste mayonnaise.

For drinks, UDON-YA SAN@ Pandan Indah Cheras, serves a few special in-house concocted drinks which are the Lemon Grass with Lemon, Cucumber with Lime, and Passion Fruit with Lime.

Overall, UDON-YA SAN@ Pandan Indah Cheras which emphasise on serving good quality UDON at a reasonably price will make UDON lovers or someone who loves to try out UDON, the opportunity to try it out.

Life Café @Taman Segar, Cheras - Little Tea House that serves Soupy And Noodles Delights

There are not many Tea House restaurants around town these days but at Life Café, they have revolutionized and integrate with a combination of Taiwanese fare with a local twist. We were invited for a food review at Life Café located at 55, Jalan Manis 4, Taman Segar, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, a stone throw from the Cheras Leisure Mall.

Life Café @ Taman Segar, Cheras has its origin from Kuching Sarawak which has more than 18 years history. Its’ décor is reminiscent to the simple classic Chinese tea house setting of yesteryear i.e. wooden stools, bamboo walls and wooden tables. It is also decorated with Chinese painting, Chinese verses and tea pots.

When it started, the Life Café promotes the Chinese tea drinking culture and you can order special Brew of Chinese tea like the Superior Pu’er,  Tie Kuan Yin, Jasmine, Lung Ching or the Mulberry Leaf brew to enjoy.

To start off the night, we ordered the Flower Tea (single). This tea is not only nice to see as you can see it blossom in the tea jug. It is more of a floral fragrant and flowery taste. The strong fragrant of the flowers were very evident in the drink.

Next, we had the Ginseng Chrysanthemum Tea, the strong aroma and taste of the Ginseng in this case have overpowered the floral fragrant of the Chrysanthemum in this drinks.

Soups offer a unique comfort food to most people. It is heart warming especially on cold rainy season. We started the healthy herbal soup offering of Life Café@Taman Segar, Cheras with the Ginseng Chicken Soup With Red Dates. The strong flavours of the Ginseng was very evident in this soup. The quantity of Ginseng was the right balance as it is neither too overwhelming or too bland. One of the most important benefits of Ginseng is that is improves blood circulation.

Next, we had the Ten Treasure Chicken Herbal Soup, which uses the Black Chicken. The Black Chicken takes a bit of challenge to some as not many people like to eat the black chicken. Nevertheless, the meat was tougher than the normal chicken which have a rougher texture. It is claimed this soup relieves the body heat and neutralizes toxin. You could taste the herbal goodness in the broth.

Next, we had the Stew Mutton With Yand and Medlar Herbs. This soup has a strong gamy flavour of the Mutton. This can be very challenging for non-mutton fan. The herbs flavour was strong and the mixture of the gamy mutton taste blended well to make the broth very delicious and heart warming. The mutton meat was boiled until it was very soft and tender.

It is recommended to order white rice to accompany these nutritious herbal soup.

At Life Café, there are many single dishes which you can order like

Lamb Special

Curry Chicken

Pineapple Chicken

Fish Fillet

Spicy wanton 

  

All the above dishes can be ordered with al dente noodles listed as below to go with these dishes like the Shanghai Noodle,

The Spicy Noodle – the soup based is made from a blend of traditional and local spices from Borneo – all freshly and naturally prepared.

The Vermicelli or just plain rice.

For the side orders, you can opt to order the

Traditional Homemade Spring roll – it is minced chicken meat rolled in the bean curd skin and fried – much like the Penang Loh Bak.

For desserts, we had the Black Sesame toast. This dessert with a strong black sesame flavours jam will tickle your sweet-tooth with every mouthful. The toast was toasted to the right crunch too.