Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant @ Sri Petaling

My wife is already in her Week 39 and she is asking to have something special for the dinner to celebrate the smoothness of the baby development so far. Have to do it now or else she wouldn't be able to savour these kind of food for a month after she give birth, so off we go. It's been forever since we ate Korean food and with our favourite restaurant opening up in Sri Petaling, there is no reason to find other shops to kill our craving. Our all-time favourite, the Daorae Korean BBQ.

Daorae Korean BBQ have been actively expanding since last few years ago and till to-date, they have 11 branches all around Malaysia, including Penang, Melaka, and Ipoh. I've tried out the Mont Kiara and Puchong Bandar Puteri branch, and hope they will manage to keep up the good quality in these expansion.


The Daorae Korean BBQ occupying the first floor of three shoplot just right above the Toyota Showroom in Bandar Baru Sri Petaling.


We are a little late that day reaching the restaurant by 7.30pm and it's already packed! Look at the people that swarming the front area, but fortunately they are all seated very quickly. Lots of space.


However, as she will have difficulty to sit on the floor, so we waited at the waiting area for a proper table. It's a long 30minutes wait, I think. She pick up some magazine and I snapped away.


Individual room available if you prefer some privacy, but it's always full, mind you.


Nice green decoration at the front of the entrance, green and flow of water, good Feng Shui?


The usual messy slipper area for Korean BBQ restaurant. Some slippers belong to the waitress, so don't count.


After a long wait, finally we got our table. Clean and simple table with the all famous Korean style top smoke suction vent. The waitress sweep the table with anti-bacterial solution, that's good. But bad point is he sweep the remaining to the floor, like hawker stall.


On the menu, there are lots of choices, but it's almost the same category. Grilled meat (beef, pork, chicken, lamb), soup based, pancake, noodles and rice. That's all. If you fancy a full fledged korean dining experience, then you must order minimum 2 grilled meat as then they will serve the charcoal to grilled the meat and also free flow of korean side dishes including kimchi. That's minimum order for a pot of charcoal. If you have more diners, then no problem. But if you are just like us, two persons, follow our suggestion then.


As when we are seated, two empty cups with a bottle of tea is provided. Hey, that's a good idea, not wasting time in asking the waitress to refill the tea. The tea served is all good and there is a little rice taste in it, not sure if it's just me. We walloped the entire bottle.


The top smoke suction vent on every table. I'm not sure what's the blue handle for as you can actually push and pull the suction head by itself, maybe counterweight? Hmm...


A pot of charcoal they will be putting into the center area for cooking. Healthy way of cooking, and the smell and warmness from the pot is very nice.


3 types of sauce that's provided for the grilled meat and also a small plate of garlic. You will see as I walloped every plate. Fromt bottom to top, sweet soy sauce, ssamjang (fermented bean paste & pepper) sauce, and gireumjang (sesame oil & salt) sauce.


We ordered 2 grilled meat and the side dishes is served first. A total of 8 type of side dishes but I think there are more varieties, I just don't know how many more is available. Side dishes and kimchi is part of the Korean BBQ experience, and if you don't order the 2 grilled meat, you will be missing all these, kind of dumb if you ask me. So for two persons or small diner group, this is a must order to get all the side dishes. Just call the waitress for refill when you finish it. Our experience is a little bad as the waitress responded a little slow, mainly because the place is full and they are busy. We got what we wanted anyway.


Then come our order choice of soup. They normally serve you their daily soup but it's not good in my opinion, so we order the Dweng-Jang-Jjigae priced at RM19.00. It's a miso based seafood pot that's served with rice. We asked for less spicy and it's just nice for both of us. You will get flower-crab, tofu, potato, cucumber and some flavour ingredients with it. Best eaten hot, so don't wait. The idea of Korean food is to keep yourself busy with all the variety of foods on the table. Point of note that we pick-up in Korea is that never lift the rice bowl off the table, as they said that's how beggar eat. Leave the rice bowl on the table and pick it up with your chopstick. It's all part of the experience.


Then come our first choice of grilled meat, the Pork Special priced at RM35.00. It's chosen pork part and some of the meat is crazily fat, heavenly sinful. The pork special is basically plain pork with marinate, to taste the actual taste of the pork.


An usual sight in Daorae that they have plenty of waitress / chef to help you cook the grilled meat. They will help you to control the charcoal fire, flip the meat, and serve it when it's ready. Sometimes I love it half-cooked, so I eat also before he finish cooking. A little disturbance, but it's always nice to have your food to be cook in front of your eyes.


Pork Special that's almost done, nice texture and smell.


Once it's fully cooked, the waitress will then serve it on a plate and move on to our next order. The pork is good and the fatty part is crazy delicious. The meat is also very tender and the raw meat is so tasty in my opinion.


Make sure you get a plate of these super fresh lettuce, it's essential food for grilled meat. The lettuce are free-flow, so don't save on it. Just give a call to the waitress for refill.


How to eat? Dip the grilled meat into the sesame oil & salt sauce and place on top of the lettuce. Add on the sweet soy sauce and fermented bean paste & pepper onto the grilled meat. Adjust the quantity of the sauce according to your liking.

Then wrapped it like this. Then throw the whole thing into your mouth, it's very delicious. Good taste, healthy food with lots of green, incredible. For someone like me that don't love vegetables, it's incredible how they manage to make me pick up the lettuce pieces non-stop. You will tend to get your hands a little wet don't worry, it's just water, if you know how to wrap properly.


They also serve the grilled spring onion, a good add-on ingredients to the grilled meat wrapping experience. It's a little sour, not sure what they added though, but it's nice. Just that a little too much might kill off the taste of the grilled meat.


Next to come is the Gal-Bi-Sal priced at RM58.00. It's prime beef piece marinated with Daorae special sauce. If you are trying it, make sure you get them to serve the non-marinated first, or else it will be a little tasteless. This prime beef is super delicious and if you love medium cooked steak, then you must tell the waitress to stop cooking once it's medium done. The taste is incredible delicious, very very nice. To taste the beef taste alone, eat it without any wrapping, it's crazily nice as well.


Another wrap of prime grilled beef with spring onion. It's so nice that I couldn't help to snap another photo.


My wife looking all satisfy on her craving of Korean Food over her pregnancy. It's part of our celebration to have our 1st baby to develop properly throughout the 39 weeks. Can't wait to have him join the family soon. Sometimes I wonder if it's because the food my wife eating is too delicious, so he dont want to come out? Just a thought =P


Finally, a free piece of watermelon and a free glass of lemon barley as dessert. If you are not getting it, make sure you ask for it. The watermelon is very sweet and the lemon barley is very nice. They might be sometimes just too busy to forget, but remind them. It's worth it to close up your dinner.

The whole dinner cost us a sum of RM123.20 including 10% service charge. I'm a little surprise that such a big restaurant is not subject to government tax. Anyway definitely a plus point for my wallet and I strongly recommend this place for anyone that's craving for Korean Cuisine. It's by far the best korean restaurant that I've eaten so far and I've been their loyal follower since then. The price justify the food easily and it's brainless to write anything else, just try it out and tell me.

Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant
21, 1st Floor
Jalan Radin Anum
Bandar Baru Sri Petaling
57000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-9057 3617
Location Coordinate: N3 04.187 E101 41.438

Present you a list of the branches around Malaysia, counted 11 by 24th July 2011.

Breakfast at Kum Heong Restaurant @ PJ New Town

Beautiful Sunday morning and my best friend travelled down from Ipoh to KL so we arranged for a meet-up. Manage to grab our another best friend for a good breakfast in PJ New Town. My friend decided for a meet up with good food din Kum Heong restaurant and the variety of food here is plenty! Let's take a look.


Morning buzz, and if you are late waker, you don't know what you are missing out there. Swarmed by people in the early hour and must be food a good reason.


A good cup of tea, my favourite, however a little disappointed with the quality though. Nothing beat a good tea / coffee in Ipoh, but this will be alright to fill the morning.


A good place for roti bakar and it's very good as they are using charcoal! Who else use charcoal nowadays?


The toast is crazy delciious but eat it up quick, it's not that nice when it's cold though.


A small plate of Roasted Pork in the morning, not for the weak hearted! Crunchy skins & salty meat, all good.


Good portion of Popiah, fresh ingredients, a good plate.


Char Kuey Teow, somehow it taste so much better when it's shared! Love every bit of it, only hoping for the prawn to be a little bigger =)


Super big plate of Wan Tan Mee and the mee is super long as well. The owner should have cut the meet to ease up the consumers, kind of good experience. Just that the plate is too big, we couldn't finish it!


Highlight of the morning, Fish & Clams Porridge, very nice pot. Seriously, order this if you are around, very nice porridge in my opinion.


With all those foods above, my friend is crazy enough to get a box of these! Hey, it's a light morning breakfast! A little too much, and he got to bring it all back to Ipoh for his own pleasure...


Now that's my best friend, Aun Heng with his lovely wife. That's his usual face expression when he eat too much, never fail to amaze me.


He just got hold of his new toy, the Sony NEX-5 with 18-50mm lens. Played with it a while, and the quality of photos is incredibly good! I'm going to get him to give me some nice photos to share here, very good quality pro-compact. Nice to have him picking up photography as well, he definitely has very creative eyes & ideas.


This is my another best friend, Chee Wai. He is currently obsessed with his car, CTR. Crazy driver, and he just recorded 3 mins in Sepang Track in his 1st attempt.

A good morning breakie with two of my best friends, chatting life away. That's life in my opinion, loving it.

Fresh Unique Seafood 23 Restaurant @ PJ

This is long overdue post and it's dated back to Chinese New Year 2011, yea, almost 6 months ago. A good friend of mine came back from his long work in Dubai and our group of friends manage to get hold of him to treat us a good dinner since he got good USD allowance! He is always so good and generous and we picked Fresh Unique Seafood 23 in PJ for the food feast!


The main entrance of the Fresh Unique Seafood 23 Restaurant located in Petaling Jaya. If you want to opt for jockey parking, just stop by the entrance and the jockey will take over. It's only RM5 but if you want to save some money, there is a large underground parking that will cost you RM2 with direct access to the restaurant.

The usual seafood restaurant set-up, a good display of their live seafood available for the day. It's just not decorative in my opinion as you can actually choose which one you fancy to eat that night. Similar arrangement in other seafood restaurant but variety is a little lacking comparing to the other newer opening.


Of course we are eyeing all around for lobster ...


Geoduck ... the funniest looking seafood in my opinion. Why it looks like that?


and Alaska Spider Crab!


A snapshot of the dining area that's a little run down, been so many years anyhow, still comfortable though.


Since the dinner falls near to the Chinese New Year, it's just a tradition for us to order the Yu Sheng or Malaysian called them Lou Shang. It's the same but Yu Sheng is the correct terms which is direct translation from Chinese, meaning Increase in Abudance. While Lou Shang means Prosperity Toss. It's common now that people use raw salmon in Yu Sheng like above.


This is how a plate of Yu Sheng looks like, I'm sure all Malaysians are familiar but for the rest, it's a sign of prosperity and good luck for Chinese to eat this during Chinese New Years. Every year, I can easily have 5-7 times of this dish, just because I eat with other friends and it's a must have every table. It's quite nice, but not deliciously tasty though. Keeping up with tradition, why not. You will notice people hunting for the salmon because it's small and limited! Haha...


While waiting for food, posing for camera shooting.


First to come is the Boiled Prawn also known as Pak Cheok Har. As long as they serve boiled prawn, there is normally no problem with it. As it's not seasoned for you to taste exactly how the prawn should taste. Importantly the prawn must be fresh, which it is. Easy way to identify that is to see if the prawn meat will stick to the shell or not. If it's sticky and hard to remove the shell, then it's not fresh. The prawn meat will also tend to be a little softer as well. QC check down then dip it into chili sauce and put it into your mouth, very nice ...


Some greens on the table, believe me or not, I never touch anything on this plate! Not it looks or taste funny, but for those that know me, I'm not really into vegetables. Maybe because there are just too much food on the table for me to ignore it completely! =)


We have the Clam (Lala) in Superior Soup. It's one of my favourite as somehow the soup always manage to capture the lala taste very nicely, so I walloped three bowls here. The clam is also fresh and the size is also just nice, not too small.


We have this Scallop with Chinese Vermicelli and Garlic. It's a little weird combination, but just put everything together and put it into your mouth. The taste is enriching and the scallop is just so delicious. I love this dish, only complain is each of us only get one. I want more, but shy to ask =P


Eating in seafood restaurant, of course we couldn't miss the Crab, and we ordered the Salted Egg Crab. Basically it's cooked with Salted Duck Egg, a chinese delicacy. The taste is delicious but only downside it's not that healthy I think. The crab is fresh as it's alive before cook, and the size is just in good portion for a good savour of the crab meat taste.


Too much seafood is a little crazy, so added up some red meat for my craving. We have the Deer Meat in Ginger and Spring Onion. No funny taste and soft tasty deer meat is very good. It's not overly cooked or overly seasoned, just nice.


Finally a fish to complete the meal. Planning to eat a little healthy and a little different variety, we got ourselves the Grilled Fish. Not very sure what fish is it, but the meat is all good with a little salty taste. Having it with the chili sauce provided is delicious.


After we are clearing off the food on the table fast and suddenly my colleague asked, like not enough eh? All of us shouted Alaska Spider Crab and this is what we get! Many thanks to James & Ely!! The size is a little crazy, but we still manage to finish everything! Cows...


As the Alaska Spider Crab is too big, so we decided to split it for two type of cooking style. First to come is the Alaska Spider Crab in Superior Stocks. The superior stocks sauce is good, but a little overkill in my opinion. The crab meat taste has overcome by the sauce and with the sauce simmered into the crab meat, it taste a little fun. The Alaska Spider Crab meat is all good, and it doesn't taste like crab anymore, more like lobster meat.


Next to come is the Alaska Spider Crab in Salt & Pepper. The cooking is a little too dry and again it killed the meat crab taste again. The meat crab is still good but without the taste, I'm a little disappoiinted. However, I think salt & pepper is better than the superior stocks. At least there is no funny taste on the mixture of the superior stocks sauce with the crab meat. I'm putting high expectations here, and the plate serving is good by all means, but I'm just expecting more from Alaska Spider Crab!


The toilet is quite clean and I can't help to bring my camera and take a snap. My friends said I'm crazy, but I'm doing all these for my blog reader, which is you. I'm sure you want to know how the toilet looks like, no?


Here is the cows gang and with all the food above, there are only six of us! From left, Pang, James, Ely, Karen, and Leong. All still can smile after those foods, I'm crazily filled and couldn't walk properly.

The dinner is generously paid by James & Ely, many thanks for the food. Such an enjoyable moments to feast and chat together again, just like old times. Concluding the dining place, it's a good seafood restaurant and I'm sure it's marvellous ten years ago. It's a little run down now but no doubt it still serves very good seafood at a price though. If you are looking for cheaper or better experience, then there are always options out there. Just for a quick bite with colleagues and friends because you don't want to think of where else to eat, it's always a good place to drop by. At least you know the tables are always available for you, that's a big plus point in my opinion. Who in the mind think that you should stand and wait for a table when you paying for the dinner??

Fresh Unique Seafood 23 Restaurant
Lot 9B-3, Jalan Kemajuan, Section 13,
46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Tel: +603. 7960 2088
Mobile: +6016. 210 4266
Opening Time: 11.45am to 2.30pm / 6pm to 10.30pm
Location Coordinate: N3 06.865 E101 38.552
Website: http://www.unique-seafood.com.my/