Pho Vietz Vietnamese Restaurant @ Sri Petaling Kuala Lumpur - Authentic Vietnamese Food

We, Malaysian especially those staying in the Klang Valley in particularly Kuala Lumpur are very lucky when it comes to food. We get restaurants serving a lot of different cuisines from all over the world.

+BestRestaurant ToEat was invited to taste out the new Vietnamese restaurant that serves everyday and popular dishes from Vietnam at Pho Vietz Vietnamese Restaurant located at No.2 Jalan Radin Bagus 7 Bandar Baru Sri Petaling 57000 Kuala Lumpur.

The design and decor is a rustic Vietnamese style which provides an easy dining environment without much fuss. Customers can choose either to dine indoor air-condition dining area or the al-fresco style at the side of the restaurant.

Our review started with a simple Vietnamese Prawn Salad (RM15.80). This salad comes with a special Vietnamese prawn cracker, gelatin like noodle strip, sesame seed with a lime infused dressings.

Next is a everyday food of the Vietnamese; which can be found almost everywhere in Vietnam is the Famous Vietnamese Baguette (RM10.50). The filling consist of an assortment of fresh vegetables that gives you a fresh crunch when you bite into it.

Followed by the Vietnamese Baguette With Pork Ball (RM9.90). The filling of minced pork meat together with vegetable gives you a meaty feel much like a burger but this baguette has lots of vegetable which is a healthy option as compared with the normal burgers.

We like this crispy Vietnamese Spring Roll (RM8.50). At first, we thought it was beancurd skin that was used to wrap the filling but it turn out to be the vietnamese rice roll that is used. Topped with crunchy peanut and a special sauce, we really like the taste of this spring roll.



Next on is another traditional Vietnamese dish which is the Fresh Prawn Roll (RM8.50). The fresh prawn which is wrapped in the rice paper roll with an enclosed chives gives you a fresh vegetable taste. Dipped with the accompanied sauce, the firm texture of the prawn has a delicious taste that give a nice bite.

One of the Vietnamese signature dish is the popular Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup (RM17.90). According to Chef Kenny, the broth are made with 14 different herbs and are brewed for more than 10 hours to give it that special beefy taste. We like the fine texture of the noodle which was custom made specially for the restaurant.

After that we had the next Pho(Noodle) which is the Vietnamese Pork Ribs Noodle Soup (RM17.90). We love the pork ribs soft texture. Apparently the pork ribs are from the softer side of the ribs which is more tender. The soup base was a clear chicken broth.

This next dish has a lot of Chinese influence. It resembles the Cantonese Fried Hor Fun. It is called the Stir Fried Tiger Prawn Hor Fun (RM21.90). The prawn are fried and served as a topping to the Hor Fun while the silky Hor Fun are cooked with broccoli, mushroom and lots of onion which makes the sauce very tasty. Unlike the Cantonese version, no eggs are added to the noodle.

After that comes the Braised Pork Belly in Coconut Juice With Rice (RM26.90). This is another one of the special dish which Vietnamese eat it during the New Year. Almost every household will make a big pot of these pork belly and eaten throughout the festival. According to the Chef, the sweetness of the broth is from the coconut juice as there are no other flavouring required to cook this dish.

Followed by the Vietnamese Sour Soup and Caramel Fish Combo With Rice (RM30.90). This soup is a case of either you like it or you don't; as it has a very unique sourish taste not like the Tom Yam sour taste or the assam taste. The presentation was very nice as it comes with the fire still burning from the pot and look very interesting. One of the best sellers at the restaurant.

Our last dish for this review is the Vietnamese Rice Steamed Rice Crepe Roll With Minced Pork (RM10.50). This is much like the "Chee Cheong Fun" which is wrapped with minced pork.

So, for fans of Vietnamese Cuisine, we find most of the food very tasty and gives us an experience  once again to savour the special dishes without having to travel all the way to Vietnam.

Good Hakka Restaurant @ Bandar Bukit Raja Meru Klang - A delectable home style Hakka dishes

Setting up a Hakka restaurant in Klang does not seem like a good proposition as Klang is predominantly a Hokkien enclave. Choosing not to follow the crowd, the owner of the restaurant would like to offer a variety of food option by introducing some of her grandmother recipe of the popular Hakka dishes for the Klang folks.

+BestRestaurant ToEat was invited to taste these Hakka dishes at Good Hakka Restaurant located at 20 Jalan Rodat 4, 11 Avenue, Bandar Bukit Raja, Meru, Klang.  Although opened for business for more than 7 months, the spanking clean environment and brightly lit shop does has a plus point. With a simple and no frill set up in a new business area along the way to the Meru town, it is not that difficult to discover this place.

According to the owner, the dishes that are served here is a little tone down compared to the authentic version which tends to be more flavourful and has a strong taste for the Hakka folks and foodie like us. This is because of the feedback from customer which frequent this restaurant which they enjoy the tone down version.

For this review, we will list down by the favourite dishes instead of chronologically basis as what we normally does. My personal best has to be the Fried Tau Foo Pok with Salted Eggs; although this dish is not really a Hakka dish. We loves the crusty and crunchy feel as the Tau Foo Pok is cooked with salted eggs, it was heavenly and we had to order a second dish to fully satisfy our craving.

Next on is the Sizzling Sambal Petai Sotong (RM20.00). The sambal paste are in-house made to the right spicy flavour. Paired with the bouncy white squid it was a delight to be eaten with white rice. Cooked with Petai and onion this dish was very tasty.

Moving on the next dish is the Assam Prawns (RM25.00). This dish is cooked with Assam paste that has a slight sourish taste. The prawns which are sourced from Rompin; has a nice texture and the sauce was fully embedded to the prawn.

This is then followed by the Rendang Pork (RM24.00). The paste that used to cooked the ribs was very aromatic and the meat was cook to the right texture without being too soft or too hard. We have to order another white rie to slurp up the rendang.

Next is the Red Wine Chicken (RM30.00). The Red Wine is in-house made and usually takes about 40 days to brew to this level. I like the wine chicken as the aroma of the wine was very strong. Cooked with the black fungus, black bean (to give it a sweeter taste) and plenty of julienne ginger, we really like this dish as all the ingredient combined to extracted out a superbly strong wine and gingerly flavour.

Followed by the Pork Vinegar Trotter (RM30.00) - compared to the Cantonese version, the Hakka version is usually more on a sweeter note and lack the stronger vinaigrette taste that I like for this dish. If you are used to the Hakka version, you should be right for you.

One of the main dishes as far as Hakka cuisine is the Hakka Braised Pork (RM24.00); it is a must for most Hakka family. I personally would have like the pork pieces to be a bigger piece and should braised to a softer texture with a more pungent taste from the fermented bean curd. According to the chef, the taste was tone down a little to cater to the taste of the locals.

Another one of the favourite Hakka dish is the Yam Abacus (RM22.00). The yam abacus is in-house made and have a dough have a bigger portion of yam as to the flour, this makes the abacus chewy and have a strong yam flavours as compared to some which have the flour taste. It is then stir fried with minced pork, chilli padi, black fungus, dry shrimp and topped with spring onions.

For the fish dishes, we had the Braised Fish Hakka Style (RM30.00-40.00 depends on type of fish). You can order your choice of fish to cook with this style. In fact, they are quite flexible in terms of flavours that you can also choose to cook your choice of fish. This style is very village type as the fish is first fried and it is then braised with slice ginger and Chinese cabbage.

Another very popular Hakka dish is the Yong Tau Foo (RM 9.00 for 6 pcs and RM18.00 for 12pcs). The chef uses the mackerel fish paste with minced pork flavoured with salted fish and onions. Here you can choose from a choice of different vegetable like Bitter Gourd, Tau Foo, Ladies Finger, Chillies and so forth. This dry version comes with a bean paste sauce.

You can also order the soup version for your Yong Tau Foo.

To conclude we would say that the spicy food served here are really good and match to our taste buds. Being a foodie at heart we will always be on the look out to taste the authentic version of Chinese cuisine, although the taste at Good Hakka Restaurant has been tailored specially to customer from this area.

Tao Authentic Asian Restaurant @Dataran Sunway, Sunway Giza Kota Damansara Selangor - Eat All You Can Japanese Buffet.

There are mainly 2 type of buffet in the market; one that have a spread out of all the dishes at the buffet counters whereas the other one is the ala-carte. Being a buffet junkie, where you want to taste everything, I personally prefer the ala carte buffet where you can order dish by dish. This way it is more relax and you really can taste out the dishes individually at your own pace.

With that +BestRestaurant ToEat was invited to taste the Japanese Buffet at Tao Authentic Asian Restaurant located at 2nd floor, No.2, Sunway Giza Mall, Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara 47810 Petaling Jaya.

We like the atmosphere and the dining environment at Tao Authentic Asian Restaurant as it exudes a luxury feel while not burning a big hole in your pocket with their affordable pricing of the ala carte eat all you can buffet. Moreover there is a 4 hours time (lunch and dinner on week day) to enjoy this freshly prepared cuisine.

At Tao Authentic Asian Restaurant, not all the dishes are Japanese, there are a few bouts of Asian and Chinese dishes that are served although just a handful.

The young Chef Hew, recommended us to try some of the dishes from each section so that we can taste all the different cooking style and flavours. We started off with the MAKI section; which the first dish is the Crazy Roll - a combination of prawn tempura and salmon wrapped with sushi rice and topped with bonito flakes.

followed by the Green Dragon Roll - this roll is made up of deep fried prawn, cucumber, kani, avocado and mango. It has a very refreshing sweet mayo taste.

Next, we move to the NIGIRI /SASHIMI section where we were first served the Hokkigai which is an Arctic Surf Clam Sushi.

followed by the Unagi (Eel) Sushi

and the last sushi is the Ebi(Prawn) Sushi

We were then served the Moriawase Sashimi (Assorted Raw Fish). One of the most important test is to ensure that the fish was of good quality. For our meal, the combination raw fish was fresh and the texture was good.

Moving on to the next section is the ZENSAI, we tried the Awabi Ebiko (Abalone With Ebiko Sauce) we love the taste of this chilled abalone surimi.

and the GYOZA (Pan Fried Minced Chicken Dumpling). This dish came with a special sauce to accompany the gyoza.

The next section is the AGEMONO; we were served the Tempura Moriawase which is a platter of prawn tempura with a combination of vegetable like; brinjal, ladies fingers, sweet potatoes and so forth.

We also sample the KOROKKE which is the Japanese Croquette. The filling is made from sweet potatoes. We like the texture and the crisp feel when we take the first bite.

Under the TEPPANYAKI Section, we were served the Hot Plate Beef Bacon With Cream Cheese and Spring Onion. The texture of the beef bacon was just nice and with the cream cheese it gives a special flavour and served on a sizzling plates it exudes a nice aroma and flavour.

From here we moved to the next section which is the YAKIMONO; the first dish on the table was the IKA TERIYAKI which is Grilled Squid With Teriyaki Sauce. Although my preference for this dish is using Shio(salt) but the teriyaki sauce that was used was quite nice and blended well with the firm and bouncy white squid meat. Love this dish anytime.

This is then followed by the MOTOYAKI SCALLOP which is Baked Scallop With Spicy Mayo. With the spicy mayo there is a different twist of flavours for the scallop which I usually eat sashimi style.

Next on, is the KAKI HIROYAKI which is Baked Oyster With Cheese Mayo. The cream cheese blended well with the Baked Oyster. For those that loves a cheesy option with oyster, you would probably enjoyed it more than me.

And the final dish under this section is the AYU - Smelt Fish - This is a very small fish which is spread with salt and baked. To eat this ,we have to de-skin the fish and there is very little meat in it, but the excellent sweet taste of the fish was very worth the effort to dissect it.

Moving on the next section is the ITAMEMONO - we had the SAKE HAMAGURI - which is Stir Fried Clams With Japanese Rice Wine. According to chef, this is a very easy dish to prepare. You stir fried with garlic and butter and when it is almost cooked, you put in the SAKE to add the wine aroma and taste to this soupy dish. We finish all the soup till the last drop.

Our last section, is the KUSHIYAKI; we had the TEBASAKI - Chicken Wing yakitori. It is using salt to spread and sent to the griller. We like it as it is not too salty. Just nice with the crisp skin and succulent meat. Compared to the others Chicken wing yakitori that we had at other restaurant which usually only served 2 pieces of winglet on one skewers (authentic version), Here at Tao, it it the deboned drumet and winglet.

Next is the IDAKO - Baby Octopus.The marinated baby octopus are grilled to a nice charred while its juicy and bouncy texture of the octopus make it a delight to be eaten. If only we had more stomach, I will re-order this dish again.

Our final dish is the EBI which is grilled prawn. Grilled to a nice charred taste with the sweet and salty meat texture that was used to sprinkle on the prawn while grilling.

For this Christmas, Tao Chef have prepared a dish that will be served only on Christmas day which is Crispy Fried Chicken With 5 Flavour sauce. You only get to sample this dish on that day.

There are a few more section in the menu that we don't even have anymore stomach space to put into any more. Even each section that we tried, it was only one or 2 dishes only and mind you there are also some delicacies on the buffet counter, appetizers and desserts that we literally cannot even eat at all. For the price that you pay for this all you can eat ala carte buffet; you really get the best value possible.

RM59.16 nett (Monday to Friday 12.00 to 4.00 pm)
and
RM71.92 Nett
(Monday to Thursday Dinner 5.30 to 10.30)
(Friday Saturday, Sunday, Public Holiday 5.30 to 8.30pm , 8.30 -11.00)

For the month of December 2015 up to January 2016, Tao Authentic Asian Restaurant is offering a special group of for 20 pax (10% off), 30 pax (15% off) and 50 pax and above (20% off).