Manjoe @ Aeon Maluri

I've not been to Aeon for grocery shopping for a while now and that's because I prefer to go to the wet market for fresh fish and chicken + there's also a pork outlet and a vegetable shop in my taman itself.

Since my last trip here, I noticed that some outlets have shrinked (in its occupied space) while a few have closed down.  But ManJoe @ Aeon Maluri, a specialist in Taiwanese dumplings which also offers Taiwan-style noodles and rice, is still around.

You can find ManJoe franchise restaurants everywhere like in The Gardens Mall, IPC Shopping Centre (Damansara), Pavilion Bukit Jalil, Aeon Kepong, Bandar Puteri Puchong, Tropicana Gardens Mall, Kota Kemuning (Shah Alam), Setia City Mall (Shah Alam), Bandar Bukit Tinggi (Klang) and Paradigm Mall (PJ) besides the one here in Aeon Maluri (but do take note that their Google review ratings can vary from between 3.5 - 4.7 depending on the branch).  So, choose your branch wisely with the high ratings coming from IPC Damansara and Pavilion Bukit Jalil to the lowest reviews from Kepong and Puchong.

I always see phonghongbakes enjoying her tomato-based soup noodles (in Rice & Pot Empire) but have never gave it a go myself (for fear that it'd be too sourish) but since I now enjoy tomato soup more than I used to, I finally decided to give it a try and ordered the Tomato Soup Chicken Meatball Noodle @ RM16.90.

What came was a gigantic bowl of tomato soup with noodles, 5 pcs of chicken meatballs and some bok choy with a sprinkling of chopped spring onions.  Chicken meatballs is also something I don't eat often enough...it's always either pork meatballs or fish balls.  I thought the texture of this chicken meatball was lovely and tasty enough (and the balls were huge too).  There's also an option for shrimp meatballs.

They were very generous with the tomato soup as it came filled to the brim in a rather big bowl.  The soup tasted very appetising with its lightly tangy-sweetish flavour and not too acidic as I was afraid it would be (that's why assam laksa is not among my favourite noodles to eat though I do eat it from time to time). Haiya, why did I wait so long before trying? I just kept drinking and drinking as it whetted my appetite further.

As for the noodles, you have an option to choose either thin, thick or hand-torn. I went with thin noodles (which is always my default and preference).  Again, I absolutely loved the texture of the noodles that were cooked just right.  I wasn't expecting to like this bowl of noodles that much.

My son had the Popcorn Chicken with Scallion Oil Dry Noodle Set @ RM20.90 and what came was a rather huge serving of food comprising of noodles, fried popcorn chicken, braised egg + tofu, soup and a chilli dip (that's obscured from view).

He chose thick noodles and I had a sample bite of the noodles once it was well tossed in scallion oil together with shredded carrot, cucumber and plenty of chopped spring onions.  The texture of the noodles was well flavoured and likeable which my son enjoyed.

The bite-sized pieces of popcorn chicken, coated in a flour and seasoning mixture and fried, were typical of any Taiwanese fried chicken in taste.  The main meal was also accompanied by a satisfactorily executed side dish of braised egg and tofu.  Certainly a value-for-money set.

You can't very well come to a place that specialises in Taiwanese dumplings (or potstickers) and not have any, right?  So, I ordered the Manjoes Pan-Fried Signature Dumplings @ RM14.90 to share.  

When it arrived, I was surprised to find them served looking more like Japanese gyoza with a super thin layer of batter on top (actually it's at the bottom-lah before it was flipped over).  It certainly did not look anything like the pic in the menu which I was expecting how Taiwanese dumplings would be served.

For the dumplings, you have a choice of signature, cabbage, chives, fresh prawn, spicy kimchi or sichuan mala for the filling and I obviously had to start with their signature.  The filling, which I believe was a filling of minced chicken (+ maybe a little prawn), was adequately tasty (though I still think a minced pork filling would have the upperhand).

The dried chilli/chilli oil lightly vinegary dip I found a bit too spicy and sharp.  I prefer to eat the dumplings on its own and I ended up eating most of it myself.  I was in top form that day...lol!  I think it was the appetising, tangy nature of the tomato soup that opened up my appetite to eat more.

On another trip there by myself, it was mid-morning (not quite breakfast or lunch), so I wanted something that wasn't quite like a main meal and this caught my eye as it looked rather inviting served in style in a boat-like shaped wooden platter.

So, I ordered the Manjoes Warship @ RM25.90 thinking I could taste every type of dumplings in one go though the serving plate didn't look as pretty as the menu pic and neither was the presentation of the dumplings themselves.

Featuring 5 types of different dumplings in flavours of original, teriyaki, mala, tartar and Thai sauce (3 pcs of each), this is a platter meant for sharing...lol!  15 pcs of dumplings might not look like a whole lot but, in the end, I couldn't finish and had to tapau some home (and cold dumplings are not enjoyable, I tell you).

Anyway, starting with the original (from the right, next to the chilli dip), this was quite similar to the earlier signature dumplings I had although the experience wasn't quite the same this time.  Next to it was the one with teriyaki sauce with a chopped spring onion topping (this combo didn't work for me).  Following that was the one with a Thai flavoured sauce with a pickled onion topping (this was the most appetising of the lost with its sweetish + sourish flavours).  The next dumpling was the one with tartar sauce topped with bonito flakes (this was the next best one in terms of taste).  Finally (on the most left) was the one with mala sauce with a thinly shredded cucumber topping (to relieve the spiciness).  This one was just spicy, not something I liked either.

The filling of the dumplings felt dry this time round.  Not only that but the skin was rather doughy too (you can notice signs of it not being completely cooked through).  If there's one thing I don't enjoy...it's thick and doughy skin.

My Personal Opinion

 

You can't come to Manjoe and not try its dumplings which is their speciality.  They're not quite the juicy, tasty dumplings I've had elsewhere (but I've to admit those were with a minced pork filling) but still satisfactory in my opinion.

What I've come to like here is their noodles in tomato soup which has me looking at tomato soup noodles in a different light coz I would usually not order such noodle soup.  This one turned out so appetising that I'm sure I'll have it again the next time I'm here.  There's also an option with golden pumpkin soup and wonder what that would taste like...maybe on my next visit, perhaps. ^_~

Manjoe (Taiwanese Dumplings)

Lot S21 Aeon Maluri

Jalan Jejaka 

Taman Maluri

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Mr Wu (Taiwanese Restaurant) @ Pandan Jaya

I can't remember what I was googling but it must have been something on Taiwanese food when I chanced upon Mr Wu (Taiwanese Restaurant) @ Pandan Jaya.  What?!...I don't even know there's a Mr Wu in my area.

So, I checked their Facebook and lo and behold...Mr Wu indeed has a branch near me (in Pandan Jaya) besides other branches in Damansara Uptown, Puchong, Setapak, Segambut, Old Klang Road, Kajang, Klang, Bukit Tinggi and Shah Alam (as well as one in Ipoh and Penang).  Then I remotely remembered that phonghongbakes may have eaten here (well, having a branch in Uptown was an obvious clue), so I checked her posts and noted that she not only enjoyed the food...she later even had a threesome there...lol!  P/S: At the time of writing, I just found out that the Uptown branch has since closed.

This Pandan Jaya branch isn't located in the most conducive of surroundings (in my opinion) as the road where it's located is a bit unkept and not brightly lit.  The surrounding shoplots are also a bit dark and dodgy with a few of them being vehicle repair shops. What's worse is the fact that there's a pasar malam in the area on Saturdays (a time when most people want to dine out) which made access to the place and parking more cumbersome.  When you arrive at the outlet itself, the place is the most brightly lit one on the entire road. Inside however, the place has a clean, bright and comfortable ambience but smallish (with just about 10 tables).

I ordered the Soul-Satisfying Spicy Minced Meat Noodles Set + Salted Crispy Chicken @ RM25.90 (now who wouldn't want something that can satisfy the soul, right?).  The main dish is complemented with side dishes of pickled vegetables and soup.

The bowl of noodles came with a mixture of tender braised (fatty) minced pork belly and (leaner) minced pork with crunchy shredded cucumber, finely shredded egg bits and Taiwanese sausage.

Give the noodles (they're much softer, certainly not al dente texture) a good toss to mix in all those flavours and you're ready to eat.  There was quite a spicy kick to the noodles even when I omitted eating the sliced chillies in the bowl.  Those who appreciate spicy flavours will appreciate the resulting taste of this.

I thought the nuggets of crispy fried chicken (shaped like popcorn chicken) were well seasoned with a not-too-dominant five-spice powder flavour.  The chunks of chicken (from the thigh portion, I think) came freshly fried and piping hot with a nice crispy texture but, more importantly, the meat was tender and moist, not dry.

They were very generous with the fried chicken chunks (there were at least 13 fairly huge pieces).  As I was struggling to finish the large portion of noodles given, I only managed to eat about 4 - 5 pieces in the end (and the rest went into my trusted container).

The refreshing bite of the tangy, crunchy pickled vegetables (of cabbage and carrot) provided much relief in between each mouthful as it was needed to cut through all that meaty grub.  I don't do so well with a too-meaty dish (unless it's a steak!) and found myself going for the pickled vegetables with each bite and wishing there were more.

The soup is not the usual clear ones (it has a milky look) but tasted alright.  While digging in, I found some tremendously soft chunks of radish that was a pleasure to eat.

The other set was the Salted Pepper Pork Chop Bento @ RM23.90 which featured a rice bowl that's typical of any lu rou fan (except for the minced pork in place of a fattier minced pork belly), fried pork chop and a side dish of 3 snacks...fish cake, pickled vegetables (that was mentioned as kimchi in their menu?) and crispy golden pumpkin ball.

His rice bowl came with minced pork, slices of Taiwanese sausage, a piece of fried/braised tofu and half a braised hard-boiled egg.  Although the minced pork had good flavours, he would have preferred the more fatty minced pork belly (that was in my bowl) if he had a choice (so I picked out some of my fatty bits and gave that to him)...lol.  Also, the rice was a little too mushy for his liking.

The fried pork chop that arrived was again a huge piece.  It was nicely executed with a light crisp on the outside and the meat was pleasantly tender as well.

If I were to compare the two, I'd probably say the chicken was a tad juicier and, because they were in little nuggets, you'll also get a bit more crispiness overall.  Both I'll say are pleasurable to eat but isn't something that will get me all eager and enthusiastic about on the other hand.

The side dishes included a few thick slices of fish cake (that's studded with fake crabmeat and some greens), kimchi (which was actually pickled cabbage & carrot) and a crispy golden pumpkin ball (that popular street snack somewhat similar to those hollow, crisp and super airy golden sweet potato balls with a little filling on the inside).

The accompanying chilli dip is a salted bean paste chilli dip that's both spicy and salty which you can dip your fried chicken/pork chop in or add that into the noodles to spice it up even further (the noodles were spicy enough for me).

For drinks, there was the refreshing Cold Lemon Green Tea @ RM9.90.....and the portion was really generous as it was served in a huge beer-like mug.

A startling surprise was this rather unique drink of Cold Lemon Bitter Gourd Tea @ RM12.90 which was also served in the same big mug.  I say unique coz I've not seen or had a drink which contains bitter gourd.  I've only had bitter gourd in soups or as a vegetable stir-fry.  You know what, the drink turned out surprisingly good...but only for those who like to eat bitter melons as you can certainly taste the bitterness in the drink.

I thought the overall drink had a nice balance of sweet, sour and bitter flavours.  The bitter flavour was obviously from the bitter gourd while the sour flavour came from a combination of assam boi (sour plum), lemon and lime slices.  Knowing that bitter gourd featured in the drink, I stopped short of asking for the drink to be less sweet (thankfully for that) as it definitely needed some sweetness to balance out the bitterness in the bitter gourd.

My Personal Opinion

First and foremost, the food here comes in very generous portions that even a big-eater will be fully satiated by the set meal (it can even be shared by two not-too-hungry people).  Perhaps I better just stick to ordering snacks (for a smaller portion meal) and they have quite a few that attracted my attention like oyster pancake, scallion pancake, stir-fried clams, fried sweet potato and crispy king oyster mushrooms.

The soul-satisfying noodle set on the other hand was satisfying no doubt...but perhaps not to the extent of being so-satisfying lah! ;)  Overall, the food, offering familiar flavours of Taiwanese food, is decent in taste but maybe a bit too much meat for me.  Sometimes, it's not that the food tastes different to us (as in differing views on how good it is) unless it's really bad (of course) but because of what we prefer (or love) to eat.  Obviously those who love meat will find this more suited to their tastebuds.

Not sure if I'll be back....not because of the taste of the food (or my preference)...but because of the location of the outlet in not so conducive surroundings. >_<  If there's one thing that will pull me back to the place, it would be the very, very refreshing bitter gourd drink which I've not drank elsewhere. ^_~

Mr Wu (Taiwanese Restaurant)

6 Jalan Pandan 3/7

Pandan Jaya

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 011-1282 6947

DayOne DayOne Noodles @ Sunway Velocity

DayOne is known as a Taiwanese and Japanese fusion restaurant (that also offers some Asian and local dishes to cater to the tastes of Malaysians) but they're best known for their own-made Chew-Chew Noodle with free-range eggs and high-gluten flour with no preservatives and processed ingredients from day one (no pun intended).

Founded during the pandemic, the restaurant seems to have grown from strength to strength judging by the perpetual crowd at many of outlets.  From their menu (and website), there are 12 branches thus far starting with their first outlet in Mont Kiara, Solaris with more branches thereafter in Sri Petaling, Petaling Street, SS2, Cheras Traders Square, Setapak, Puchong, KLIA2, Pavilion KL, Sunway Velocity Mall, Taipan USJ and Sunway Pyramid.  I'm sure even more outlets will open in future (I believe this business opportunity can be franchised).

I've known about the place since a fellow blogger blogged about it as far back as in 2020 but never thought of visiting until my son gestured me to.  So, we found ourselves visiting DayOne DayOne Noodles @ Sunway Velocity for the first time one weekend evening.

The first thing I noticed when the menu was brought to us was that everything (other than the name of the dish) is written in Chinese.  If you're one who neither reads nor speaks Chinese, it can be a little trying coz only the dish has an English translation but not the more detailed description of the dish (so we basically relied on what we see in the pictures).  Even the servers converse in Mandarin, so it's a bit more challenging for people (like us) who don't speak the language to order (luckily, you can order through their app).

This, being a Taiwanese place, braised pork rice (or lu rou fan) will certainly be at the forefront, so my son went with their Signature Braised Pork Chew-Chew Noodles @ RM18.90.  This one had a chef's hat (as in it's a chef recommended dish), a thumbs-up sign (I take that the dish is good) and a little piggy (to mean there's pork involved) followed by more words in Chinese (I gather that would be the detailed description of the food and what comes with it).

This signature braised minced pork handmade noodle was served with boiled eggs with a custardy yolk, pickled cucumber, soup and a chilli paste + chilli oil dip.  They offer you a second bowl of noodles if you're up for it (as in if you're still hungry).  The noodles top up is free and can be ordered upfront or later (my son's extra bowl of noodles was ordered upfront).

Actually, the portion of top up noodles isn't much, you can finish it in 2 - 3 bites, so it wouldn't be too much for the average-sized eater.  The noodles are cooked al dente with a good, chewy texture (hence the name chew-chew, I suppose...lol) that's a pleasure to eat.  I would say the portion of noodles is on the smaller side that even I could probably finish an additional free portion (which I didn't request upfront not knowing what the portion size would be).  Foreseeing that I'd probably have communication difficulties in ordering extra noodles, I decided not to.

There was plenty of tender braised minced pork although there were more fatty cubes of minced pork than lean meat.  Once mixed thoroughly into the noodles with a bit of that chilli dip (a must), the overall flavours were quite robust.  They also nailed the boiled eggs with a softer yolk (for this bowl) though the cook of the eggs can be a bit inconsistent.

I ordered the Taiwanese Pork Chop Chew-Chew Noodles @ RM28.90 which came served with the same condiments (boiled eggs, pickled cucumber, soup and chilli dip) as in the earlier braised pork chew-chew noodles.

The pork chop was fairly tender but there was none of that expected fragrant and crisp outside layer (from it being deep-fried) as it came almost braised-like in texture sitting in a pool of sauce at the bottom that tasted only of soy sauce and it was a tad salty (for me).

If I were to compare this to another popular Taiwanese place, I'd say Din Tai Fung's pork chop tastes loads better.  For me, it's more fragrant and better seasoned with a more crisp feel since it's served like a fried pork chop (and not braised like the one here).

The chew-chew noodles on its own tasted quite flavourful already as they came tossed in a sauce (maybe due to customers' feedback previously that it was bland tasting like the one choiyen.com had which had no sauce).  Even the shape of the noodles looked different now from the one she had.  The noodles did come topped with some braised minced pork and half a boiled egg (that had a different consistency from the previous bowl).

Anyway, if it's still not up to mark, then the addition of the housemade chilli dip (this one is rather fiery, so add little by little if you can't take something that's too spicy) will further perk up its flavours.  This chilli oil was far more spicier than the one I had at HoLiao Noodles, so those who like a real spicy kick will certainly enjoy this one.

The chew-chew noodle set was served with condiments of pickled cucumber....and this side dish I found myself enjoying the most with its fresh, tangy, crunchy texture.

The soup was robust in flavour and tasted exactly like a herbal soup (again I see it's a different soup from what choiyen.com had).  Such a strong tasting soup is not something I expected to go with the noodles.  Just like there are customers who don't like a too herbally bak kut teh, there'll be customers who don't like herbal soups.  Even though I do drink herbal soups, I'd much prefer a subtle, cleaner tasting soup to balance out the robust flavours in the noodles.

Our side dish for sharing of Golden Fried Tofu @ RM12.90 was a dish of tofu cubes that have been deep-fried to an airy, golden crisp and dusted with that chilli powder that's become a signature of Taiwanese food (which they dust on almost all of their fried food like chicken, pork, mushrooms, sweet potato fries, etc).

When I say airy, I really mean it coz somehow the insides of the tofu were very hollow, so you end up eating more air than tofu...hah..hah...and the amount they give (for the price) is rather shocking (the portion looks like one block of tofu...and one block of tofu is very cheap!).  There were more crispy rice noodles (which lined the plate as decoration) than there were tofu cubes.  The sambal accompanying the tofu was also not outstanding as it tasted like something out of a can (a canned ikan bilis sambal comes to mind). >_<

For drinks, I went with one of their cold brewed Taiwan teas, the Osmanthus Oolong Tea @ RM9.90 that's also available hot in a cup or pot.  Other teas include a green tea, a rose tea and a black tea.

My Personal Opinion

DayOne DayOne has garnered high ratings on Google and continue to pack in the crowds at some of their outlets.  With these many outlets (some are franchised outlets I believe), there's always the tendency that some outlets will do better in terms of taste, consistency and service.

From what I've tasted so far, it's average at best (so I'm not sure what the hype is about) but I will definitely say they nailed the texture of their chew-chew noodles which is a pleasure to eat...that I've got to give it to them.  If I were to compare DayOne DayOne's Taiwanese cuisine to Din Tai Fung's (from the small sampling of their menu I had), I would go with the latter (who is still going strong to this day).

That said, I'm not sure if I'll be back...though there's still a lot more to try from their vast menu like beef noodles, 3-cup chicken, crispy chicken chop and oyster vermicelli that forms an integral part of Taiwanese food that may change my mind yet.  But two things that won't excite me to explore though is the Japanese (can their Japanese food be any better than Japanese specialist restaurants?) or Asian/local section of their menu (who can do better siu yuk than our locals, even Hong Kong-type restaurants here can't compare...#I'm not biased....lol).  If I do return....it won't be anytime soon. ^_~

DayOne DayOne Noodles

B44 & B45 Sunway Velocity Mall

Lingkaran SV Sunway Velocity

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 012-517 1511