Chinese "Fondue", Lok Lok, Chinatown, Jalan Sultan, Kuala Lumpur

One thing Malaysians love is their "Lok Lok" or what I call the Chinese Fondue. Selections of everything imaginable is served. Pick up a skewer and dip it into the bowling pot of water, cook it just the way you like it and eat it with the sauce given. Your choice, your style, your preference. Satay sauce, chilli sauce or sweet sauce. Nowadays, they even have a grill section or Yakitori style. Looks like competition is stiff.

If you happen to be in Chinatown, head over to Jalan Sultan and try this stall. (right in front of KK Mart)

Huge tiger prawns to be grilled to your liking.

Lok Lok is not cheap anymore, and just a few skewers could set you back by RM20 these days but hell..where else in the world are you going to get this stuff?

Crystal Jade Kitchen @ Gardens, Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur

Crystal Jade is actually a huge chain of Shanghainese themed restaurants that have outlets all over South East Asia and China. They started off with the first restaurant in Kuala Lumpur years back out of Lot 10 and has since grown to a few around the Klang Valley. I happened to be in the Gardens on Sunday and was looking around for food. Walked past the so-called fast food outlet of Crystal Jade called Crystal Jade Kitchen and the set lunch menu kinda looked good.


I reckon for the set lunch menu, I will do a photo by photo analysis. (Easier to read right?)

3 Combination BBQ Meat rice. Chicken, Char Siew and BBQ Sausages. Check out the amounts given. Just 2 pieces of chicken, another couple of pieces of the other meat. Damn! Plus a salted duck's egg. If you're really hungry, I really don't know where this things will be in my stomach. Not good value! 

Is this Char Siew? More like red colored meat. Look at the coloring! Char Siew needs to be a little fatty and not entirely lean in order for it to have that Char Siew taste. This does not even look BBQ-ed! BAD! OUT!! 

BBQ Sausages - The way they cut this..amateurs! Who the hell cuts their sausages in angles like that. Not only does it not taste good, it looks terrible. OUT!

Shanghainese Siao Loong Pao. Two tiny pao's in one big bamboo steamer case. Presentation!! Fail! The dumplings are not too bad. Only thing is that the skin is too thick.

Now this is the only thing that is worth mentioning. Their soup that came together with the set. Great soup, a bit like the one mum does (minus the MSG lol). Peanuts, pork ribs and I think I saw some chicken feet. Good Soup.

Waterchestnut dessert. (Ma Tai Lou) It is meant to be a cold dessert but not cold enough. Almost room temperature and in this heat, we all prefer it to be colder. Not too sweet but have tasted better.

Szechuan Hot and Sour Soup. Bloody hell!! For 10 freaking bucks a bowl, can't these buggers not spill some on the side. Are the cooks blind? Please at least wipe the damn bowl before serving it. Presentation again!!! Tasted like those pre-pack ones you get at the super markets. OUT!

This place actually looks like a fast food corner. Only has about 8-9 tables. I wonder how are they going to cope and survive. They are not a fast food restaurant and I do not see anyone taking out. 


Food - Mediocre. You would expect an international food chain to have better quality but nope..Not here.


Service - Average. At least the bill and food came pretty fast.


Price - Not cheap. The set is not too bad for price considering you get four small dishes. 


Would I go again? Don't think so. 

Room Eighteen - Mid Valley Megamall

Lunch time in Mid Valley is always madness. If you work there, you should eat at 12 noon and try to avoid the 1pm crowd. I have never really had much to say about the Tai Thong Group ever since their main restaurant in Jalan Imbi closed down. These days the group has moved on to do more Hong Kong style restaurants and also some western fusion restaurants which have failed miserably.

I was pretty lazy today and chose the nearest restaurant. Room Eighteen is one of Tai Thong's projects and has been revamped twice if I remember correctly.(used to be called Chopstick Noodle House) I have been to this place a few times and each time I have left the place fuming as the service is really hopeless.

Went through the menu and the usual stuff is still there. Very Hongkee inclined menu with dim sum extras in it. (Will talk about their dim sum selection next time) They stopped their lunch set menu but are not promoting a couple of their new dishes. Hot pot this and hot pot that. Nothing that really fancies me.

As usual I ordered their Double Combination rice, which you can choose two type of their roasted meat. (duck, chicken, roasted pork, char siew) I chose the roasted duck and pork. My lunch partner ordered the new menu selection of Hot Pot Spicy Fried Rice. (Bei Foong Tong, I will try to type chinese next time)

Color combination of the fried rice was pretty good. It did taste pretty good. Fried rice has to be done in a way that the rice does not stick together and it cannot be too oily. (Mum always says,"Use overnight cooked rice!) I must admit that this was not too bad. The only thing is that it does not live up to its name - Hot Pot Spicy Fried Rice. It didn't come sizzling hot although it was served in this Korean looking Bee Beem Bap bowl. As it is called "Bei Foong Tong", it has to be spicy. This was not at all the spicy fried rice I had in mind. There was not much ingredients in it other than a lot of vegetables that made it look colorful. No chicken, no pork..you mean NO MEAT? Some slices of egg..and that was about it. For 12 bucks, I better go the mamak for their fried rice. There at least I cannot complain as you would not expect anything.

Points - 1

Next came my double combination roasted meat rice. As you can see above, the servings pretty small. Just a few slices of each meat. The steamed white rice was cold (maybe due to their overzealous air conditioning), actually the whole dish was cold. They even "stinged" on the cucumbers. Cooking 101 - Don't ever cut your cucumbers this way. They don't look good and it makes you look bad. 

The roast duck was ok. Not much taste to it though as I reckon they expect you to dip it in their plum sauce and maybe a little chilli oil. (The plum sauce was terrible. Not much taste to it and you would expect this sauce to be thick and sweet) I have nothing much to say about the roasted pork as it just tasted like any ordinary roast pork you get at the coffee shops. For RM12.90, this is pricey and not satisfying.

Points - 1

Finally, I was impressed today with the service which was rather quick and efficient. The food came out in about 10 minutes and the bill came in a jiffy. I recommend this place if you have no other place in mind for lunch. The food is just OK, nothing to shout about. The air condition in there is freezing and the service can be atrocious.

Curry Noodles, Jln Sultan Brunei, Pudu

One thing about this place is the consistency of their quality. They surprisingly have maintained their quality of their curry although business is good. 

The aroma of their curry is just fantastic. One sniff and it sure gets you salivating! The combination of the curry spices and coconut milk is absolutely perfect. It is not too thick but rich enough. The curry is not too spicy as if it's too spicy, it kills off your taste buds and you cannot taste anything else. 

You can order any combination of add ons. Mine came with the works. Chicken, cockels, taufu pok and bean sprouts.

I must say that each time I come here, I am impressed. The quality has remained the same. This aunty takes pride in her products!

The "white" chicken is done to perfection. Smooth and juicy. One way to determine this is to order breast meat. I took one bite and it was fabulous. Dip the chicken together with the sambal, it's just does not get better than this. The raw cockels (si ham) goes really well with the hot curry as cooked ones will just get too dry. Raw ones will gradually get cooked in the soup and the taste of the fresh cockels together with the curry is just perfect.

For those who have never tried good curry noodles, this place is a must. Cheap, good and satisfying.

The stall is located just under the big tree on Jln Sultan Brunei, off Jalan Pudu.

Points = 3