Ticklish Ribs & 'Wiches @ Seapark PJ

After our earlier late brunch (at Morningwood), further lunch (at Fatbaby) and more munch (at Second Sunday)...and walking off what we ate (in a new but deserted mall).....believe it or not....we realised we could still 'stomach' some dinner (as we didn't go overboard with our orders at our earlier venues)!

 

Ticklish Ribs & 'Wiches @ Seapark PJ tickled our fancy when a member of the group suggested the place.  So, off we went to our fourth...and yes....*before you roll your eyes*...our final stop for the day (although we did lose a member of our team as she had to rush off for another engagement).

 

Ticklish Ribs has just been opened for slightly over two months and the evening we were there, they were running a very full house.  From the restaurant's name, you can very much gather that they basically offer two main items here....and that's their signature BBQ ribs and sandwiches (with one rice and noodle dish each)...and oh, there's beer, of course!

This is a self-service place, you queue up and order from the menu board (or you can get menus from the front of the queue).  Once you've paid, your printed receipt will bear a number, wait for the number to appear and collect your food from the designated collection area.

 

This is the sandwich assembly counter.  Looking at the Sandwiches menu, choosing the sandwich of your choice is as easy as 1-2-3...and nothing as complicated as NKOTB's "Step By Step" :D...Step 1: Choose the meat, Step 2: Choose the bread and Step 3: Choose any add-ons.

 

For your meat, your choices are....Lazy Bones (boneless pork ribs), You Braise Me Up (braised pork belly), Chewbakkwa (bakwa meat), Pull Your Leg (pulled pork), Once You Go Black (sweet and salty lean pork), Ssshock Sendiri (battered lean pork chops) and Hoi Lam Ting (Hainanese pork chops).  Your bread choices are a little easier to decide...either wholemeal, charcoal or white.  The add-ons @ RM2 each include a fried egg, cheese or caramelised onions.

 

I went with 'Once You Go Black' on charcoal bread with add-on 'Cry Me An Onion' @ RM17.  The charcoal bread was layered with simple vegetables of cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce, a lean slice of pork chop, caramelised onions and their house-made sweet and salty sauce.  This was how it was served, fully wrapped and cut into three, as I mentioned that there were three of us sharing.  I'm not sure why it was served all wrapped up since we were eating in.

 

The lean pork chop didn't look anything like the pic nor its description of big and black...well, the lean pork was somewhat big or thick (ok, I'll give it that) but it was certainly not black (nothing like a well caramelised piece of pork).  The lean pork was rather dry and chewy.

 

And the caramelised onions, they weren't really caramelised as it didn't have the sweetness nor the depth of flavour, they looked like they were just sautéed and cooked down till soften.  Proper browning is a slow process as it takes a long time for the sugars in the onions to caramelise for the flavours to develop.  Let's just say that I wasn't loving the sandwich...maybe I didn't choose the right meat....or maybe being wrapped up contributed to its sogginess! :( 

 

Of course, we had to go for 'The Ultimate Tickle' aka their signature BBQ ribs...after all, you can't come to a rib joint and not order ribs, right?  They offer Half and Full racks here and they're available in Spicy and Not Really. 

We went with Half Rack @ RM20 with 3 ribs (Full Rack @ RM38) of 'Not Really' (which means not spicy).

This was another Half Rack @ RM20 and, this time, we chose Spicy which turned out to be 'Not Really' spicy either.  In fact, there was very little (in terms of flavour) to separate between the Spicy and the Not Really.

The ribs were marinated in their house made special sauce before being fired to perfection.  The ribs were served piping hot (a sign that it was just taken off the grill only moments earlier) and the meat was 'falling off the bone' tender.  I don't think I've eaten ribs so tender before (I wonder if the ribs have been braised first before finishing them on the grill)....even your grandma with no teeth would approve! XD  The sauce that was slathered on the ribs were sticky sweet...but, personally, I would have preferred a tad less sauce to allow the true flavour of the ribs to shine. 

Just look lovingly at this....it was indeed (ultimately) a tender, succulent and well caramelised piece of oink-oink barbecued to perfection...especially juicy when you bite into the small bits of fatty parts in the ribs.

For every order of ribs, you can add on a 'Koochi Koo' @ RM8 which will get you a side of freaky fries + a bottomless soft drink.  Pay an additional RM2 to turn it into sloppy fries that come with a pork mince sauce with cheese.

I found the fries to be acceptable but would have preferred them to have a bit more of a crisp on the outside (you can see from the pic that the fries haven't quite develop that nice golden brown colour and crisp edges).  I can understand that, when you dunk meat sauce onto fries, it'll end up softer but this was a lot more mushier than I expected...probably because there was too much gravy in the meat sauce (I did like the taste of the meat sauce though).  I've seen crispier fries with a drier meat sauce in other blogs though.

 

My Personal Opinion

 

I would have liked to have had a bit more of that smoky flavour through the ribs and (as absurd as it may sound) for it to be a tad less tender (if there is such a thing of wanting meat to be less tender...haha)!  I'd want it to be tender but not so tender like I'm eating pulled pork, if that makes any sense).  But, having said that, the ribs were satisfying and oinkilicious good...meaty and juicy with fall-off-the-bone tenderness + they were served piping hot (always a plus point with me).

The ribs did tickle my fancy.....but not the sandwiches!  I felt that the sandwiches were just thrown together with run-of-the-mill garnishes and a slab of pork...it just needed something more, in my opinion.  If I do come back, it'll definitely be for the ribs...and only the ribs! ;)
 

Ticklish Ribs & 'Wiches Restaurant
No 5 Ground Floor
Jalan 21/11A Seapark
46300 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 03-7865 9126