There are not many restaurants or café that serves a wide array of Malaysian all-time popular street food in one restaurant. Best Restaurant To Eat was invited for a food review session at Onde Onde Citta Mall Ara Damansara located at G-49, Ground Floor, CITTA MALL, No.1 Jalan PJU 1A/48 Jalan PJU 1, Ara Damansara 47301 Petaling Jaya Selangor Malaysia.
Onde Onde Citta Mall has a modern and casual setup where you can lepak around with your friends and family over a cup of tea tarik or kopi santan and enjoy some kuih muih or have a traditional Malaysian breakfast of Nasi Lemak and end supper with some fried Kuey Teow with Duck Egg.
We started the review with some favourite appetizer, namely the first of which is the Pandan Chicken. This pandan chicken is very different from the one that we eat at the Thai Restaurant which had chicken pieces. The chicken meat here are minced with a recipe of spices and then wrapped with the Pandan leave and fry to a slight crisp. It is best eaten with some chilli sauce.
followed by the Penang favourite Chicken Lobak Platter – The chef used the chicken as the filling for the lobak, it taste great eaten on its own, in the platter there were also the fried taufoo and century eggs as another must have for a local favourites.
and the last appetizer was the Johor favourite which is Otak-Otak. The otak-otak serves here are a triangle in shape as compared to those that are thinly spread in the traditional daun nipah. Eating this otak-otak gives you a sense of a much meaty piece as you are able to taste the combination of the spices with the fish meat.
We then move to the noodles session, where we ordered 2 noodles the first of which is the Duck Egg Char Kuey Teow. I was a little surprised when it was served as I find that the Fried Kuey Teow was very evenly fried and the aroma of the duck eggs was very fragrant.
The only setback for this dish was there are no cockles in it although there was a generous amount of chicken meat and bean sprouts and some prawns to top it up with.
Next , we ordered the Signature Assam Laksa. I am a strong fan of Assam Laksa and I find this broth a little subtle to my taste as I am fond of the type where the broth is very strong and flavourful of the ikan kembung.
After that we moved on to the Rice dishes, where we had the Belacan Fried Rice. I find this dish to be quite nice as the balance use of the ingredient and belacan was just right i.e. not too overwhelming that kills or overpowered the taste.
The next rice dish is the Nasi Lemak Istimewa Supreme which comes with the signature Ayam Berempah, Sambal Prawns and Otak-Otak and keropok. I find the rice to be aromatic and was cooked to be very grainy with just the right touch of santan.
While the Ayam Berempah was fried to a gentle crisp on the skin and the meat was still succulent and tender on the inside. The mildly spicy fresh prawn sambal was a perfect match to the Nasi lemak without being too overpowering.
Lastly, for desserts, we had the first one which is the Cendol. The cendol was silky smooth and blended well with the concoction of the gula Melaka and the Red Beans. It is an ideal dessert to end our hearty meal.
This was then followed by the Signature Durian Dessert. This is a real surprised to me as the durian that was used as the topping was very aromatic and flavourful. Even before taking the first spoonful, we could smelt the strong durian aroma from the bowl. Eating together with the ice shaving it was just a perfect dessert for me who loves anything durian.
The last dish for the night was the Golden Banana Fritters with Ice Cream. Here the banana was cut in half and the batter does not have that much of the crisp which would make it ideal to eat with the ice cream.
As for drink, we had the Pandan Cooler – it was a very refreshing and soothing drink that goes exceptionally well with the spicy food that we had.
Lastly, we had the Kopi Santan, which instead of using milk, they use santan to flavour the roasted coffee. For me, which loves thick and strong coffee, this version is just a tad too mild to my liking although I find the santan to be a good mix and something different for a change.
At Onde Onde Citta Mall Ara Damansara, you will be able to get to taste all the different flavours of Malaysian Street food in one place without the hassle of going to too many different shop or states to taste it.
