Restoran Mahbub, Bangsar

I have to announce that this "review" might be totally biased because this is my fav restaurant and Nasi Briyani Ayam Madu is my favourite food, hands down. I was born and bred in Bangsar and through and through, I'm a Bangsar girl and I grew up eating this dish. My grandma's house was just a 3 minutes walk from the restaurant in Lucky Garden. 

So, kinda ate this once I could eat solid food when I was a toddler. And back then, it was really cheap for a plate!

The famous Nasi Briyani Ayam Madu, my favourite. The rice is very fragrant with an assortment of herbs like star anise, cinnamon sticks, fennel and etc. The chicken is basted in honey with a tad of spiciness and the meat is so soft, juicy and the marination goes all the way into the bones. 

I normally "banjir" (flood) my rice with dhal for a thick consistency and it makes the rice taste so much better! This dhal is especially for Nasi Briyani and it's thicker with big slices of carrots and potatoes. Super yummy!

This is The brother's favourite Cheese Naan. The Naan is crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, surrounding a delicious cheesy goo!  Very nice!

There's something about mamak ayam goreng (fried chicken) that is so damn delicious! It's spicy with herbs and marination, juicy meat and very, very yummy!

This is a thosai and it's an acquired taste because it has a somewhat, bitter after taste. Otherwise, it's fluffy, thin and crispy and very delicious with dhal or as a wrap!

I've never wrote about Mahbub because I eat here often that I take it for granted. They're been in business since 1970 and I was born 17 years after they started their business. 

We eat here all the time, sometimes, every weekend and it's my family's fav food. This place holds a special place in my heart as well because we found our long lost relatives (The Malay side) during one of our dinners here. 

All this while, I thought there was something "off" about me. We don't conform into the Chinese category and we speak better Malay than most Malays and yes, until it occurred to us that we're not pure Chinese. We're only Chinese on my Mom's side. 

So, that explained why my family is so muhibbah! They used to say that, "Nampak macam Cina, tapi petah berbahasa Melayu!" 

Anyways, if you're ever in Bangsar, the same row as TMC and right next to CIMB, pop in here for a aphrodisiac Nasi Briyani Ayam Madu.  

Milk & Butter, Jalan Telawi, Bangsar

This is gonna be short because on one hand, their food is absolutely delicious but on the other hand, I contracted Salmonellosis from this restaurant. I would assume that an upscale restaurant in Bangsar would take more pride in preparing their food but this place, I'M GUESSING, fed me with tainted Salmon. 

On a Saturday after work, me and Madrekins came here for dinner. She ordered Cajun Chicken and I ordered Salmon Crostini. We shared the food but Madrekins doesn't eat raw salmon so I happily finished it. Less than 3 hours later, I feel excruciating pain in my stomach and lots of wind inside. 

I went suffered all throughout Sunday by taking pain killers and sleeping the whole Sunday away. No, the pain killer didn't work at all and I couldn't sleep. The pain became more and more unbearable. On Monday, I had to go to work and beneath the smile and laughter, I experienced pain in my stomach. Every 5 or more minutes until I lost all color and glow on my face and my boss had to threaten to deduct my salary if I do not go home and see a doctor.  

This was really, really inconvenient as I had a whole day of meeting on Monday. But the pain, it's like someone twisting your stomach / gastrointestinal and releasing it and twisting it again! Imagine being in pain every 5 minutes of so!

I went to my doctor and he told me that I had tainted food for Saturday dinner. Which was Milk & Butter. I told him that I shared the food with my mom... until I remembered that my mom did not eat the salmon. 

For the next 2-3 weeks, I wasn't supposed to eat anything spicy, fried, oily, etc. I survived on Chinese soups and wraps daily. Doctor also said that raw salmon, if unfresh, would be tainted and will breed salmonella bacteria. 

I couldn't really hear him much after that because I felt like I was fainting and within a day, I was dangerously dehydrated. I had to drink 2.0-2.5 liters of water within 24 hours. 

The Fiance was extremely pleased with himself because he's a huge fan of cooking all foods and not eat raw food and he's been nagging me that the smoked, raw salmon will kill me one day. 

Well, he was very worried and once I got better, the nagging came and I'm prohibited from eating raw food anymore. 

All thanks to Milk & Butter. Also, it was partly my fault because it's not a sushi place where salmon moves very fast, this is a normal restaurant and God knows how long the salmon has been lying there. 

I don't think that their kitchen is tainted, rather, just the salmon. God also knows how pissed off I am!!

Till the next time. 

I'm not saying that you shouldn't eat here OK, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying that, DO NOT order the Salmon Crostini or anything with raw salmon if you're here. 

Little Wonton, Telawi, Bangsar

Let me start this post by saying that Little Wonton is not your quintessential cafe that you would expect to see in Jalan Telawi in Bangsar. In fact, it's nothing like those fancy upscale restaurants and cafe that are synonymous with Jalan Telawi or Bangsar.  

Little Wonton, is tucked snugly inbetween these upscale hangouts like NOSH and this is a relatively small establishment because it's half of a shoplot, making it really small, but, cosy. 

The theme is very much Shanghai pre-modern era with chairs and tables right out of a kung fu movie but surrounded by a bright, vibrant green wall! 

They even have "bar" seats where pictures that adorn the walls, look like those pictures out of old Chinese powder tins. It's small, cosy and the prices are really reasonable. The food? Read more below!

As I already had my dinner, I popped by because I heard that the chocolate banana wontons are worth dying for. My wontons were served in a really old tin filled to the brim with smoking hot, fresh out the fryer wontons!!! 

One bite into them, the crispy exterior provides a nice wrap to the sweet and warm banana and chocolate filling inside. The wontons were absolutely delicious and I never would've thought to combine wonton skin with bananas and chocolate! This wonton is highly recommended by me. 

Maybe, it's just a fail proof formula. BANANA+CHOCOLATE = SUCCESS!

It might be small, but it's really clean and spotless. I'm dying to try their charcoal noodles as well. Heard it was good. Will definitely come back for dinner/lunch. 

I will also experiment by trying to make my own versions! Wish me luck! Will definitely share the recipe once I'm successful! 

They have a wide assortment of wontons, from savoury to desserts and NO PORK!!! Yay! for my Muslim friends! 

If you do see me, do say hi!

Till the next restaurant!

Little Wonton,

9, Jalan Telawi 3,

Bangsar Baru.

The Tea Republic, BSC, Bangsar

For tea, we went a place where plants grow in a tea cup, little wooden deck tables and chairs dot the dainty little space and where tea comes in all forms possible! Can you guess where we are? No? Yes? 

We are at the one and only THE TEA REPUBLIC in bsc, Bangsar!!! It's like the indoor, Parisienne al fresco little cafe but we would call it a tea cafe!

I like my tea very flavourful and minty. So, we ordered a pot of Red Flower. It is really amazing, when they served the pot to us, the flower was all limp... 

After 5 minutes of brewing, the flower "blossomed" and it's sweet, florally, citrus-y and very minty! Just the way I like it! Beautiful show too. A pot of tea, refillable multiple times is about 16MYR.

The Sister loved their Banoffee Pie (6.90MYR) and she said that it was delicious!!! Well, it is but I'm not a fan or the slivered/sliced nuts all over it!

I wanted to have the rainbow cake but The Sister said that it wasn't very nice so, I settled for the Moist chocolate Cake (6.90MYR) and it wasn't MOIST at all. It was dry. And I didn't like it. Those chilled Silverbird Chocolate Pound Cake tastes soooo much better!!! Very disappointed.

Girls like us, can't always be drinking. Hence, we decided to be more classy and drink tea instead! That was why we had our little tea party!

The tea on the other hand, was seriously good. You can find a huge array of teas in all shapes and sizes and the teas here are really pretty. Even though the shop is a little quaint corner shop, I think that it is the perfect place for tea.

Come, and join us in our little tea party next time! Ciao. Oh, before I go, for more information, do check thetearepublic out. You'll love it!

Till the next time!

Antipodean Cafe, Telawi Bangsar

The first time I entered this cafe, I was overwhelmed by writing and prices on the wall and I soon found out that all those "writings" on the wall were in fact, the menu. The menu is scribbled all over the walls of the little cosy cafe. 

The interior of the cafe is small, cosy, rustic and minimalist. It's like those little, French cafes that are hidden gems with good food and cosy ambiance. I went there during tea so, the crowd hasn't come in yet but I heard that breakfast time, it's really busy!

Restaurants which gives free of less than 1MYR water always receives a plus from me. This who don't and forces people to buy their bottled water *ahem* NANDO'S *ahem* is just too kiam siap and I would boycott them real soon. Antipodean gives you water in this pretty "kicap" bottle. It's like a vintage novelty and I loved it. Another thing is the pretty little cup with freshly cut carnations that makes you feel like having breakfast in bed. I love little things like these. Bonus plus points! 

This was our Burmese Shredded Chicken Salad (15MYR) which doesn't taste like your average salads because they use cabbage and shredded chicken with basil leaves and little tomatoes... It's tart and acidic salad dressing is just unique. You have to try it and I loved it! 

This was the Thai Chicken Satay with Crushed Peanuts (can't remember the price) was really delicious!!! But I still prefer the normal satay peanut sauce. It would be the bomb! You see, we used to love Hj. Samuri and Restoran Malaysia for satay. But recently, the standard at Hj. Samuri dropped like the plummeting stock market and we were on the search for the next satay place. The chicken satay here is moist, juicy and flavourful on its own but I'm a typical Malaysia when it comes to malaysian food (a purist la!) and it would taste totally wonderful if it comes with the normal kuah kacang... mmm... *YUMMY*

You can try Antipodean out at:

Antipodean Cafe,

20, Jalan Telawi 2, 

Bangsar. 

Tel: 03-2282-0411

~La Undomestic Goddess

Mille Crepe, Humble Beginnings.

I won these 2 vouchers from ESQUIRE Malaysia to try the Mille Crepe from Humble Beginnings. They were oh-so-generous to give me 2 vouchers for 2 regular mille crepe cakes. Prior to the vouchers arriving, me and Madrekins debated about the vouchers. We thought they were going to give us a voucher for a slice of cake not 2 whole cakes! Really appreciated their kind gesture. 

I love the design and the packaging of the box and it's simple but from the design, you can see that much thought has been put into it. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the staff at the Telawi store. They didn't understand questions like "May I know who's on the line please?" and they replied us with sentences like "You better come now, we do not know when we'll close" and after that slamming the phone down. The staff were unknowledgeable, difficult to communicate with, rude and very rude. You see, before we went to collect the cake, we wanted to know if the cake was ready for collection. The first person that picked up the phone was relatively OK and was able to confirm that the cake was indeed ready for collection. When I enquired for his name, the passed the call to Person 2 who was female and she sounded upset and was very rude and told us to, "come soon because we can close anytime" If I'm running a business and I'm also in the service line, what will the customers think? you open and close the shop to your heart's fancy? Seriously. Extremely disappointed with the service aspect that we even considered "burning" the other voucher.  

The cake that we ordered was Nutella Banana and I'm a dessert person, I've tried mille crepes of all sorts and as a traveller, I've tried mille crepes in many parts of the world. You see, mille crepe is a fascination to me, I find it so delicate and the assembling of the cake requires much finesse and experience from the ingredients used to make the crepes (paper thin) and the layering. The ingredients has to be fresh and needless to say, Humble Beginnings has mastered the art of making mille crepes to perfection. It was moist, flavorful but not too sweet, decadent but not till the point that it overwhelms you. Indeed, it was THE BEST 20 layers of decadent, milky mille crepe that I've ever tasted in my life. I pretty much tasted lots of cakes but this has got to be the best! 

If you have yet to try a decent mille crepe, I would strongly suggest that you try the cakes from Humble Beginnings. It's the most delicious cake. I'm even considering a cake from Humble Beginnings for my birthday in October. A slice of the cake puts you in heaven. I even momentarily forgot about the bad customer service. 

~La Undomestic Goddess

Dip N Dip, Telawi, Bangsar

Since we already had dinner at Bangsar Village and random people were checking into Dip N Dip at Telawi, we thought we might as well try it out since we love chocolates.

We ordered this cookie crepe where a layer of cookie base is covered with a crepe and "drizzled" with white chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate. I knees go weak at the mere mention of chocolate!!! This shop, sells everything chocolate!

As a child, I loved mixing everything with chocolate, I mix Nutella with rice, cereals, fruits and yogurt. I'm a sucker for chocolate and that explains my weight! I consumed too much chocolates. What I loved about this franchise from Syria is that, you could have chocolate fountains ala Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory or Chocolate Pizza. 

You can have your milk, white or dark chocolate with fruits, wafles, crepes, cookies, pizzas, drinks, and even with a cinnamon pouch!!! The possibilities are endless.

Anyhow, I was really put off by the service. You see, it's a relatively small place with around 10 tables and the waiters were "huru hara" trying to accommodate the customers. When we finally got a table, the waiter accidentally spilled a whole hot choclate on the floor and some even splashed on my clothes but he didn't even apologize not did he clean the mess up.

All he did was cleared the broken glasses and left the mess there and we had to sit on the "clean" side of the table and one side was dirty. The mess was still there when we paid for the bill. We were just too tired to argue and make a fuss. 

We wanted to enjoy our dessert and go home. Another thing is, the service is so slow! We're not talking about a huge ass shop with 50 over tables, its just 10 tables and they can't even handle it with 5 staffs working that day. 

I guess, I'll only come back when I want death by chocolate. If not, Theobroma Chocolate Lounge will suffice for now... It's such a sad thing when you have such a great place, great menu but bad customer service. Such a waste. 

~La Undomestic Goddess

Dip N Dip,
Jalan Telawi 3.
Across Alliance Bank.