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