Restaurant Shin (레스토랑신)

This is a post dated back to June 2008. We were shopping around in Bukit Bintang area. When dinner time, we decided to visit the top floor of Sungei Wang since there are quite a lot of eateries located on that floor.


Since we were craving for Korean food, we decided to visit the only restaurant which serves Korean cuisine. The restaurant is located on the sixth floor, where Green Box Karaoke, Gasoline and Sushi Station are located in.


The restaurant was small but clean and it has an open concept kitchen.


It is decorated with many posters with Korean artists and countless colourful notes written by the customers.


We were served with a bowl of soup and three types of side dishes shortly after placing our orders.


I ordered a cheese kimbab (치즈김밥) without hesitation as this is one of my favourite food in Korean cuisine. Priced at RM10.50, this Korean style sushi roll with cheese, egg, pickled radish, spinach and carrot sprinkled with sesame seeds tasted simple, healthy and crunchy. It would have been perfect had they added more cheese to it.


We ordered a kimchi jigage (김치찌개) as we usually will when we dine in Korean restaurant. Priced at RM13.90, the kimchi stew with pork tasted quite good and appetising, spicy and slightly sour.


Overall, the food was quite good in this restaurant. The staffs were nice and friendly too. But if you’re craving for good Korean food, it is still advisable that you explore Korean restaurants in Desa Sri Hartamas area since there are more choices and more side dishes served in those restaurants.


Restaurant Information
6F-6(A-C), Sungei Wang Plaza,
SWP Box No. 009,
Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Tel: 03 - 2145 6717

Prezzo

After a hearty and filling lunch at Happy Gathering, we continue to bring kw to visit Cardiff. Since our friend was interested to visit Cardiff Castle, we all went in for a visit.


Even though we have been staying in Cardiff for quite some time, we have not enter the Castle before, the reason being that the admission fees were a little pricey. The essential ticket was priced at £8.95 for adults and £7.50 for students while the premium tour ticket was priced at £11.95 for adults and £9.95 for students. The photo above is the Clock Tower of Cardiff Castle.


The Norman Keep was set upon an artificial hill built by the Norman invaders during about 1081. The building was not roofed and we can view sceneries of Cardiff from the top.


A photo taken from the Norman Keep.


The House is located next to the Clock Tower. The residential block was between 1423 and 1439 by Richard Beauchamp, the Earl of Warwick.


The interior of The House. The banqueting hall is the largest room in the castle and it is the oldest part of the building. All the surface decoration, ceiling and floors are Victorian.


The library was located in the oldest part of The House and it still contains the original William Burges bookcases and tables.


This is the small dining room which was used as a dining room for members of the Bute family when there were few or no guests. Overall, we think that the trip to Cardiff Castle was educational and quite worth the price paid. More information about the Castle can be found here.


For dinner, we visited Prezzo for Italian cuisine. The reason for our visit was because we had a voucher offering 2 for 1 on main meals, which means we would get a free main meal by getting one main meal. We have not heard about studentbeans.com until Christine told us about it, thanks a lot for the information!


The interior of the restaurant was nice, warm and cozy, lively with lots of people dining in during dinner time. The traditional stone oven can be seen in this photo.


Since there were 3 of us, we ordered 3 main courses to share. Kw ordered a risotto mediterraneo for £9.75. In this classic Italian rice dish, tiger prawns and rice were cooked in creamy saffron sauce. The sauce was light and creamy, the prawns were fresh and crunchy too. However, we find the rice a little too hard to our liking.


Ys chose a vesuvio pizza topped with double pepperoni sausage, red chili, mozzarella and tomato. Priced at £8.75, we find this freshly baked pizza in traditional oven really good. We love taste of the crispy thin base of the pizza which is slightly burnt. The cheese was tasty and not too overwhelming, simply delicious!


The il carltoni calzone stuffed with pepperoni sausage, seasoned chicken, pancetta bacon, roasted peppers, pomodoro sauce and cheese tasted fantastic too! Priced at £9.25, this folded pizza which was also baked in their traditional oven was served with pomodoro sauce and side salad. The bread was dense and nice, the fillings were juicy and cheesy and the sour pomodoro sauce enhanced the taste of it. Every bite was sensational. A highly recommended order!


Since we still have rooms in our stomachs to spare, we decided to have a dessert to share. We had a sticky toffee pudding for £4.50. The traditional sponge pudding was served with hot butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice-cream. Though the sponge pudding was sweet, the vanilla ice-cream toned down the sweetness of it. The meeting of the warmth of the pudding and the iciness of the ice-cream was delicious, love it.


We had a scrumptious dinner in Prezzo. Though there were limited number of staffs in the restaurant, service was good and speedy. For more information, do click on their official website here. We would definitely be going back for more delicious stone-baked food!


Restaurant Information
106 St Mary Street
Cardiff CF10 1DX,
United Kingdom.
Tel: 02920227785

Happy Gathering (好相逢)

Two days after Chris and Christine’s visit to Cardiff, our friend, kw, came all the way from Leeds to visit us in Cardiff. So here we go again, this time being more skilled and experienced in guiding friends around Cardiff.


A souvenir shop which is located across the Cardiff Castle.


Since our friend was craving for Chinese food, we decided to visit Happy Gathering as many friends have recommended this restaurant to us. We read from their website that the restaurant was voted as Britain’s number one Chinese restaurant in year 2007 by The Times. The restaurant is located in Cowbridge Road, it takes about 15 minutes walk from the Cardiff Castle.


A photo of a statue taken at the entrance of the restaurant.


The interior of the restaurant was clean, pleasant and comfortable. A piano can be seen from the left corner of the photo. The restaurant has 250 seating capacity, as seen from their website.


Our turnip cake (XO酱萝卜糕) arrived shortly we placed our order. Priced at £2.50, we find this fried carrot cake rather delicious. The outer layer is nice and crispy and it was pillow soft on the inside. The turnip cake would have been perfect if it is less oily.


We hardly have dim sum without having pork dumplings (鱼子蒸烧卖). Priced at £2.50, we find this shaomai rather delicious, it was large and generously filled with sweet and juicy pork meat. A highly recommended dish!


Priced at £3, the har gao aka prawn dumplings (相逢虾饺皇) were as good as the pork dumplings. The fillings were dense and rich in fresh and crunchy prawns, it was juicy and succulent. The skin a little too thick to our liking but nevertheless tasted delicious overall.


The rice noodle roll filled with pork (蜜汁叉烧肠粉) was quite good too. Priced at £3.30, the Hong Kong style chee cheong fun was generously stuffed with delicious char siu. Having the same problem as the har gao, we found the skin of the rice noodle roll a tad too thick.


We also had steamed glutinous rice in lotus leaf wrap (糯米鸡). It tasted rather decent, filled with Chinese sausage, chicken, pork and etc. But then again, it was on the oily side.


Kw had a braised beef noodles (牛腩汤面) for £6.50. We were quite surprise to see the serving of this noodle this large. Though kw had a great appetite, he couldn’t manage to finish it. Large chunks of beef slices were served and our friend claimed that the main course tasted nice and authentic.


The serving of the char siu rice (叉烧饭) which ys had was also enormous. The roasted pork was moist and flavourful and it went well with the rice. Priced at £6.50, we think that it was a good order.


The fried yee mee noodles (干烧伊面) which was priced at £6.50 was value for money. The large serving of noodles was soft and full of flavour and the shredded mushrooms complemented the noodles very well. We were too full to finish the noodles and the proprietor of the restaurant was really nice and friendly and gave us a box to pack the leftovers home for supper.


Overall, food was very good in the restaurant. It is hard to find authentic Chinese restaurants in the UK and we’re really grateful that we have found one in Cardiff. Service was extremely good and the staffs were nice and polite. We would definitely go back for more!


Restaurant Information
233 Cowbridge Road East
Cardiff CF11 9AL,
United Kingdom.
Tel: 02920397531

Restoran Chongqing Chicken Hot Pot (重庆鸡公煲)

This post is dated back to November 2007 when there were lots of restaurants mushrooming in Kuchai Lama area. We decided to give this place a try after knowing that Ho Chak introduced this restaurant.


Chongqing Chicken Hot Pot is a chain restaurant founded in China. It has many outlets all over China and new branches are also found in the Philippines, Singapore, Canada, Hong Kong and Malaysia. As far as we know, there are 3 branches located in Malaysia – Kuchai Lama, Kepong and Johor.


The interior of the restaurant was nice and simple. But bear in mind that it could be a little warm during the day as I have experienced it with Ai Wei quite some time ago.


There are several types of meat to choose for the hot pot, namely chicken, pork, beef, fish and prawns. Small hot pots are priced at RM18.80, medium at RM25.80 and large at RM34.80. You can also tailor the level of spiciness to your own preference. We had a small chicken hot pot (鸡公煲) with medium level of spiciness. Unlike normal hot pots, this restaurant serves hot pot without soup and little gravy. Served piping hot, the chicken was rather spicy, soft and springy, it was garnished with celery, onions, parsley and carrots. It was very nice when eaten with plain white rice.


Next, we had an extremely spicy pork ribs hot pot (恐龙骨煲). Dried chilies are visible in the pot and the pork ribs were spicy, it was delicious! Meat wise, we would prefer chicken to pork because of the softness and the bounciness of the chicken meat. As for the level of spiciness, the spicier the better!


The staff poured the soup into the hot pot when we’re almost done eating the meat and vegetables. The flaming soup was very spicy and flavourful, especially after cooking the ingredients for a long time. Other than that, customers are free to choose additional ingredients such as fish balls, bean curd and other vegetables to add into their hot pot. Prices ranged from RM1 to RM4.


Overall, it was a delightful meal, it suits people like us who craved for spicy food at all times. Remember to bring along a box of tissue with you when you decided to challenge the fiery meal! For more information, please visit the Chinese official website here.


Restaurant Information
21, Jalan Kuchai Maju 8,
Off Jalan Kuchai Lama,
Taman Entrepreneurs Park,
58200 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Tel: 03-79806008

Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK)

Since it was the last day before the voucher for GBK expires, we made a decision to visit this restaurant for lunch. Again, the voucher was printed out from Studentbeans and we are grateful to learn this from Christine, really saved us a great deal!


There are two GBK outlets located in Cardiff, one in Cardiff Bay and another in Cardiff Library. The newly opened central library is located in Mill Lane, near the Marriott Hotel. We have visited the library once. It was a quiet and tranquil place where one can study, borrow a variety of different books, CDs, DVDs, Welsh language items etc.


GBK is located in Cardiff Library, right beside Wagamama, a Japanese noodle bar.


The interior of the restaurant was rather modern and interesting, with sandals and surfboards attached to the wall.



A container containing ketchup which mimics a real tomato.


The view from the restaurant.


In GBK, customers have to order their food from the counter and pay before the foods are served. Our burgers were served shortly after we placed our order. Priced at £7.35, the chicken satay burger was delicious. Fresh breast of chicken, satay sauce, mayonnaise and relish formed a great combination. The satay sauce, though slightly different from the Malaysian version, was rich and creamy, with a loads of crunchy peanuts and a tinge of spiciness. The chicken breast was tender and juicy and we also enjoy the slightly burnt edge of the bread. However, we would prefer the cranberry relish to be less sweet.


The Greek lamb burger was just as good as the chicken satay burger. In fact, ys claimed that the Greek lamb was tastier. Priced at £7.75, the burger was made by fresh lamb, houmous, cucumber raita, fresh chilli sauce and salad. The burger was rather photogenic, as described by the Metro, GBK is “a Rolls Royce of a Burger”. The combination of houmous, cucumber raita and chilli sauce form a spicy, sweet and sour taste which boosted our appetites. If you’re one who worries about the gamy flavour of the lamb, fear not because the delicious sauce overpowered the lamb, leaving only the juiciness and tenderness of the lamb to be tasted.


With the voucher we only paid £7.75 in total, purchasing 2 burgers at the price of 1. It was not a heavy meal but if you would like to have something else, GBK also offers chips and a variety of salads. For beef lovers, this might be the right place for you as GBK is known for its burgers from Aberdeen-Angus Scotch beef. If you’re looking for something different, they also serve buffalo, organic wild boar and organic pork burgers. Check out more from their website here.


Restaurant Information
Unit 2, Library Building,
Mill Lane,
Cardiff, CF10 2EZ,
United Kingdom.
Te: 02920668379