BananaBro @ Cheras Leisure Mall

This chain of banana leaf rice (BLR) restaurant has been around for many years and is well-known for their all-you-can-eat BLR (and yes, they serve it on real banana leaves...lol).

With over 30 branches all over Klang Valley, I'm sure you won't have much difficulty finding one near you...and we have five near us! ;)  We chose to come to BananaBro @ Cheras Leisure Mall to indulge in a carb-loaded meal one evening.

You start with the all-you-can-eat Craving Set @ RM11.90 (almost everyone will order this) which gives you unlimited servings and refills of all items which include rice, 4 types of curries, 3 types of vegetables, rasam (a lightly tangy and spicy Indian soup) and papadum (a type of Indian crispy cracker).  And yes, it's served on a real banana leaf (none of those banana leaf look-alike crap that's fake!)...lol.

So, after you're seated and have put in your orders, a real banana leaf gets laid in front of you.  To have an awesome BLR experience, rice is at the centre of it all.....it's a must and it's the first thing that's scooped onto your banana leaf.

Next comes the vegetables and there are three types....two that's standard and one that will rotate and change.  The standard ones are the fried snake gourd and cucumber yogurt (or raita).  The third veggie for the day was stir-fried cabbage (with carrot, chillies and curry leaves).  We got this same veggie on our second visit as well.

I enjoy all three veggies but the fried snakegourd is my favourite...thinly fried snake gourd slices dipped in seasoned batter and fried to a crisp texture.  I've eaten this before but had always thought of them to be bitter gourd but turns out I was wrong...and now I've a newfound veggie that I really like.  This snake gourd slices even have a light sweetness to them.  The (diced) cucumber raita is crunchy and refreshing on the palate while the stir-fried cabbage is standard fare.

With the vegetables all in place, it's time for the rice to be flooded with curries...and you have four choices...chicken, fish, dhal and/or crab curry.  Who says you can't have all four....to banjir your rice!  So, don't ask me which curry is better...I wouldn't know after they're all mixed together...lol.  So good with the crisp papadum (which I asked for seconds).

If you're a vegetarian, you can make a meal out of just the craving set alone and be fully satiated and satisfied with as much refills as you want of rice, vegetables, papadum, rasam and curries although you may be limited to only the dhal curry which is meatless.

If the craving set alone is not enough to satisfy your cravings, you can also add-on side dishes like fried tenggiri, fried squid, chicken 65, gobi (cauliflower) 65, mutton varuval, masala prawns, butter chicken and sambal petai.  I picked the Fried Tenggiri (Fried Mackerel) @ RM11.90.

The fish (quite a big piece), flaky and fresh, was well seasoned and fried till crispy perfection.  I would recommend that you have it with a squeeze of lime which made it so much better as fried tenggiri is usually a bit on the dry side.

My son likes to add on Chicken 65 @ RM5.90 to his 1-Pax Single Set @ RM15.90 (for a total RM21.80 inclusive of a drink, lemon tea).  If you're wondering why it's called Chicken 65, apparently that was the year it was first made.

The Chicken 65 are marinated pieces of boneless chicken that's lightly crispy and spicy (with a spice level that even a kid can take).  Vegetarians can go for Gobi 65 which is essentially the same thing but made with cauliflower instead.

The Fried Squid Rings, probably with the same marination as the earlier Chicken 65, was also decent, lightly crispy and not too chewy.

Drinks of Lemon Tea (Cold) and my Teh Tarik Lawa (Cold) @ RM7.90.  Not sure what's the difference with this teh tarik lawa and the usual teh tarik as it tasted the same to me.

There's also the 2-Pax Family Combo @ RM49.90  where you'd get 2 x Craving Set, 1 Chicken 65, 1 Fried Squid Rings and 2 x Lemon Tea.  For bigger families, there's the option of a 4-Pax Family Combo (RM99.90).

My Personal Opinion

I think this BananaBro is probably one of the most economical meals you can have in a comfortable environment based on their basic craving set which cost only RM11.90 (but do note that the same set can cost RM13.90 at some other outlets).  The price difference depends on whether it's a mall outlet or a shoplot according to their FB (I think the rental plays a part since Cheras Leisure Mall is a mall after all...lol).

Either one, it's still a value-for-money meal/deal as you can fill to your heart's (or should I say stomach's) content with unlimited refills of rice, veggies, curries and papadum.  This makes for a great vegetarian meal and for those (like me) who love to eat vegetables more than proteins.

BananaBro

Unit L1-60A Level 1

Cheras Leisure Mall

8 Jalan Manis 2

Taman Segar Cheras

56100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 012-205 4237

Don Dwae Ji Sam Gyeob Sal @ Sri Petaling

With a name like Don Dwae Ji Sam Gyeob Sal @ Sri Petaling (that one can hardly pronounce), it sounds like an authentic Korean BBQ already (I'm assuming it is since it's run by Koreans).

Although I really enjoy eating any type of BBQ (be it western, Japanese or Korean), I don't enjoy the heat associated with a BBQ experience.  That's because when we have Korean BBQ, most of us would choose a BBQ over hot coals to gas or electric for a better charred flavour imparted by charcoal.  The intense heat from the coals can really get to me even when the place is air-conditioned.

So, for once, we decided to try a Korean BBQ that uses an electric grill pan hoping for a more comfortable dining experience (without a free sauna...kekeke!).  Moreover, 3 things attracted us....the words "unlimited" and "refillable" (on their signboard) and the "attractive price" of RM29.90+ per pax (drinks not included).  We had Iced Korean Green Tea @ RM1.50 each (other choices include other flavoured teas, orange juice, soft drink, Korean beers and liquors like soju & rice wine).

Not long after we were seated (be early at dinner time if you want to secure a table immediately as there's usually a long queue during weekends), the banchan arrived.  I certainly wasn't expecting a variety of 10 types of banchan.  The quantity of each banchan given is based on the number of pax (it was just the two of us for dinner this time).  It may seem little here but know they're all refillable (refills are done by the servers).

Stir-Fried Potatoes (soft & tasty)

Seasoned Cucumber (well seasoned & crunchy)

Peanuts with Sweet Sauce (this was good, fresh, fragrant & sweetish...my son's favourite)

Soft Tofu with Korean Soy Sauce (very refreshing, nice tasting soy)

Stir-Fried Sausage (this is the same sausage in the meat platter except this one is coated in sauce)

Stir-Fried Green (or Long) Beans

Seasoned Radish (nice crunchy bite)

Korean-Style Hard-Boiled Egg (I've always enjoyed soy-marinated eggs)

Pickled Radish (this was excellent...not tart, not sweet, just very juicy and so thinly sliced...my favourite)

And, of course, Homemade Kimchi (ah, I finally found a palatable kimchi!)

There were also side dishes given.

Kimchi Pancake (this I didn't like)

Vegetable Basket of Green Coral (or Lettuce), Onions, Garlic & Green Chillies

Then came the meats.  You basically get 3 types of non-marinated meats of Pork Belly (sam gyeob sal), Pork Shoulder Loin (mok sal) and Sausages (so sae ji) and 2 types of marinated meats.

Marinated Pork (yang nyeom dwae ji go gi)

Spicy Marinated Chicken (dak gal bi)

For the non-marinated meats, you cook them on the cast iron grill.  Note that the meats come frozen, so it takes a bit more time to cook them.

As they defrost and cook, water seeps out from the meats, so make sure you scrape away the water (and discard it into the openings you find on the grill pan), otherwise your meats will boil/steam and you won't get a nice charring.

After we realised that, the meats achieved a better charring.  The pork shoulder loin is lean, so expect it to be a little on the dry side and chewy.  The pork belly (as usual) turned out the best (coz fat is flavour!) with a fragrant, smoky, charred finish and taste.  The so sae ji (so cute lah this pronunciation by Koreans) taste like any commercialised hotdogs.

And don't forget to grill the condiments of onions, garlic and chillies too.  The onions were especially good after grilling...soft, charred and sweet....and the addition of grilled garlic and chillies further perked up the taste of the grilled meats.

As for the marinated meats, you're supposed to put them on a piece of waxed, non-stick brown paper provided on a section of the grill pan.  This is to ensure that the marinade doesn't stick on the pan and blacken the whole grill pan.

When I first saw this method of cooking, I thought the marinated pork won't achieve the desired grilled marks seeing that they weren't in direct contact with the grill/heat but I was sadly mistaken.  As you can see from the photo, the grill marks were evidently achievable.

The same applied to the spicy marinated chicken.  They were well marinated and tasty but note that they use chicken breast.  I suppose breast meat is much easier to prep without the arduous task of removing the bones if other parts of the chicken were used.

This All-You-Can-Eat Korean BBQ also comes with unlimited ramyeon (Korean spicy instant noodles).  I really enjoyed this piping hot noodles and, not to worry, it isn't spicy.  I could see that this was a favourite with the patrons as many tables ordered refills (even a couple next to us ordered a second helping).  We were tempted too but didn't want to stuff ourselves with the noodles.

Of all the meats, we enjoyed the pork belly the most.  It tasted extremely good especially when wrapped in lettuce with a slice of pickled radish with the lettuce providing the freshness and the radish the juiciness.  I'm actually not fond of wrapping stuff in lettuce (like how some would eat sang choy bow, jiu hu char and arrowhead with pork belly in red fermented beancurd paste) and I've never eaten Korean BBQ this way (though I see it commonly done by most patrons).  I was already feeling full towards the end and there was still some meat left, so I finally experimented eating it this way and found it to be really good.  I think the extremely juicy pickled radish was the reason why I loved it as it took away the meatiness of the pork belly. It was so refreshing it opened up my appetite and I found myself able to eat a bit more than my usual quota!

Unlike other Korean BBQs, there's only one dip offered here...a bean paste chilli-type dip to go with your meats.  I don't really like nor need any dip unless it's my favourite sesame oil + salt dip.

The pickled radish was so good I thought they should bottle it and sell....and indeed they do (RM10 a bottle) along with their peanuts with sweet sauce (RM13) for those who can't get enough of these.  I think their homemade kimchi and seasoned cucumber are also for sale.  I was very tempted to get a bottle of pickled radish to take home but decided against it in the end since anything pickled means there'd be sugar to balance out the tartness.

Dining time is limited to 2 hours which is more than sufficient for a fulfilling meal.  You won't believe it when I tell you that we could probably be the only diners who didn't ask for any refills of anything! :O  When the price charged is so reasonable, we don't need to stuff ourselves silly just to get our money's worth...and that allows us to eat in moderation which is good! ^_~

My Personal Opinion

This is one Korean BBQ we know we'll be returning to for its decent taste, super reasonable price (when other places easily cost twice as much) and pretty comfortable dining experience.

Of course, because of the lower price point of around RM30 per person, the meat choices are limited and the quality isn't the greatest but judge it based on what they offer for that price and I believe it's excellent value for money with unlimited refills of everything from delicious ramyeon to pretty decent meats to 10 types of tasty banchan (but no to the kimchi pancake).  I don't think one can ask for anything more for that price! ^_~

On the way home, we were already making plans for our next visit.....and I already know what I want to focus on (or refilled...there'll be second helpings for sure when my husband comes along!)...the pork belly, pickled radish, ramyeon, vegetable basket (more lettuce for wraps and grill more onions, garlic & chillies) and some of the other banchan too (tofu, hard-boiled eggs and sugar-coated peanuts). ^o^

Don Dwae Ji Sam Gyeob Sal

No 91 77 Jalan Radin Tengah

Bandar Baru Sri Petaling

57000 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-9056 2573

Bucked Out Seafood Buffet @ Gobo Chit-Chat, Traders Hotel

I've heard great things about the Bucked Out Seafood Buffet (Festive Edition) @ Gobo Chit-Chat, Traders Hotel from the many bloggers' reviews I've read and had always wanted to try.  So, here I was with some friends in December.  I didn't plan to write a review of the buffet experience I had here but felt compelled to do so after my experience as I found out something I just had to share (hopefully it might be of some knowledge/benefit to some of my readers).

This bucked out seafood buffet I think started sometime in mid-2018 and I even read that people would start to line up at the entrance to get in even before the buffet is due to open.  I mentioned that to my friends though I wasn't convinced myself that there would be such a scenario seeing that the buffet has been around for quite some time now.  Nevertheless, we got there about 10 minutes after 6.30 pm (the official starting time)...and guess what?  There was indeed a queue...still! O_o  And yours truly was naive enough to walk right up to the counter and asked if we could go in first since we made reservations...and was politely told that everyone that's currently in queue had made prior reservations too...oops! >_<

By the time we finally got in (luckily the queue moved pretty quickly, so it was just about a 10-minute wait), I could see people making a beeline for the live mud crabs and attacking the seafood like there's no tomorrow (albeit in an orderly, not chaotic, fashion).  The mud crabs (being the most popular) disappeared really fast and they had to be replenished by the time we got to them! :O

So I grabbed two quickly and put them into a bucket....hence the name bucked out seafood.  You just grab whatever raw seafood you like and put it into a bucket together with your order number (that you'll find waiting for you at your table) and hand it over to be cooked (there's an assigned staff to handle the orders). You don't have to choose the sauce as the crabs are cooked in one way only.

Then we went on to fill another bucket with the rest of the seafood available and choose the sauce we want. You can have your pick of salted egg sauce, tom yum sauce, Sichuan chilli sauce, curry cheese sauce and Thai coriander lime garlic sauce (the choices for the day are found at the order counter, most of which happens to be spicy in nature)! :(  Besides mud crabs, the variety of seafood available includes:

Flower Crabs & Bamboo Clams

Slipper Lobsters, Freshwater Prawns & Tiger Prawns

Scallops, Black & Green Mussels

Yabbies

Clams

Also available was the seafood on ice for your immediate enjoyment while waiting for your seafood to be cooked and delivered to your table. 

Freshly Shucked Oysters

Steamed Baby Lobsters

Lightly steamed Flower Crabs & Prawns

Alaskan King Crab Legs (of course nothing like the size of the Alaskan king crabs you see in the series, Deadliest Catch...kekeke!).

I ended up enjoying the ready-to-eat seafood on ice the most (read on to find out why).  The oysters, prawns and king crab legs were fresh but not the baby lobsters as the meat turned out very mushy (I left that uneaten).  I liked the king crab legs enough to have a second helping.

Finally, our cooked-to-order live mud crabs arrived...and it's done only one way...as Chilli Crabs!  Although we took two crabs, I think we got back only one (!) as we found only two claws.  Even the "spaceship" (aka the top shell) of the crab was missing.  Not sure if it was deliberate (to give us less than what we ordered) or the orders got mixed up. >.<

The chilli crabs, served with fried mantou buns, were fresh (they're live crabs after all) and the sauce rather spicy...too spicy (if you ask me) until I can't really taste the crab.  The sauce felt a little thick and gooey as if the crabs had been coated in flour (and fried) giving the sauce its thick consistency.  You'll be given a pair of plastic gloves but no other tools to help with the messy eating of the crabs.  There's no crab mallet to hammer away at the claws, no seafood cracker to crack the shells nor seafood pick to scoop out the meat. You just have to pick apart the already cracked shells with your gloved hands...and, by the way, the low-quality plastic gloves are so thin, they crumple and puncture easily rendering them practically useless.  It's good for a one-time use only (maybe it won't even last one course of eating), so don't hope you can put them on again.  You'd be better off just using your hands. :>(  We ended up having only one plate of crabs (no seconds) coz 1) it was messy to eat and the gloves didn't help, 2) it was time consuming since we didn't have the proper utensils and 3) it didn't taste all that impressive anyway.

For our next bucket of all other seafood, we chose to have them cooked in Thai Coriander Lime Garlic Sauce which turned out to be my favourite of the three sauces we tried.  This sauce hits you with its fresh, tangy and slightly garlicky taste which went well with seafood but it also came with spicy (but tolerable) undertones.

As for the rest of the seafood, the prawns (both the freshwater and tiger prawns) were the freshest of the lot and the bamboo clams were nice.  The yabbies (meat was slightly mushy) and clams weren't all that fresh (almost all the clam meat were detached from their shells after cooking which is an indication of just how not fresh they were) but the scallops were the worst.

I went back to the seafood counters to collect another bucket of shellfish to be cooked another way.  And that was how I came to find out what I found out.

Well, the story goes like this....after I collected another round of seafood I had to wait for the assigned staff to take down my order number and choice of sauce (I was second in line).  But, lo and behold, he left the counter to take cooked seafood to waiting diners coz they were understaffed.  Actually, the queue wasn't very long, there were just four of us but he went away for so long (attending to customers, I'm assuming) that we were made to stand there for more than 10 minutes...for something that should have taken only a minute or two (the fourth person in queue left when he could wait no more).   So, while I was standing around waiting with nothing to do (while kinda fuming inside), my eyes were drawn to some cooking action behind the seafood counters.  It was then that I saw staff throwing buckets of seafood into pots of boiling water.  The blanched seafood is then fished out from the water and what seemed like the staff scooping sauce into the bucket which contains the parboiled seafood.  I think that was what I saw (I'm 100% sure I saw the seafood being boiled though I can't say I'm 100% sure it was the sauce that got ladled into the buckets).  By then, my turn came up and I left hurriedly to get back to my friends.  I didn't see how or where the chilli crabs were cooked though.

What really got me was the 'cooked to order' concept here which I clearly misunderstood.  Their 'cooked to order' simply meant seafood being blanched in hot water before tossing in sauce (and not cooked in a wok proper at a live cooking station).  No wonder the seafood tasted bland coz how much flavour can you infuse into them through blanching without tossing in sauce! >.<  I wish the reviews had been more specific on how the seafood was cooked.

Anyway, this was our second platter of Mixed Shellfish that contained mostly prawns (both freshwater and tiger prawns) and razor clams for obvious reasons.  We decided to leave out the scallops, yabbies and slipper lobsters and omitted the mussels too since most of us aren't fans of mussels.

We went with Salted Egg Sauce for this cook.  I could smell the salted egg when the platter arrived at the table, so that was a good sign.  The salted egg sauce tasted alright but I feel there was just not enough of it to coat the shellfish thoroughly and lusciously.  They didn't even trim the feelers which looked rather unsightly.

Now you know why I said (earlier) that I enjoyed the cold shellfish the most especially the king crab legs, prawns and oyster.  But before you overdose on seafood, there's also Roast Turkey which is a must-have in the tradition of Christmas...and there were three awaiting diners to sink their teeth in.

Don't like roast turkey?  How about Roast Beef then?  Two big slabs of roast beef sitting on a bed of roasted vegetables of asparagus, carrots and zucchini.

The roast beef was served with a delectable mushroom sauce and it turned out to be the other food item (besides the seafood on ice) that I had seconds as it was really tender and delicious.

Of course, like any buffet, there's a spread of other hot food available too (spanning Chinese, Malay and western cooking styles) for which I had no time for (coz devouring shellfish took a lot of time!) and few photos of.  I can't even remember what were there but I did see sushi, sashimi, tempura, grilled salmon head, salads, antipasto, noodle stations, pasta, steamed and baked whole fish, cheese board...and a lot more I didn't pay attention to (nor took photos of).

Some of the cakes, pastries and desserts on display...they were plentiful which my friends did attack....not me though, I didn't have nor want any.

Any more grouses?  Yeah, sure...I have a couple more.  The table-of-four we got (behind some glass partition), the seats were against the wall/partition so getting in and out was cumbersome (the one sitting on the outside needs to vacate her seat when the one on the inside needs to get out...haiz).  The table space was also too narrow and with the large metal tray (meant for the seafood) occupying most of the table space, there was hardly any space left to put a proper plate.  No plates were provided to hold the shells either (not that the table space had room for more plates), so we used the plates from the buffet but their smallish size couldn't contain the massive amount of shells.  In the end, we dumped them in the huge metal tray that the cooked seafood was poured onto.  Service was also slow in clearing plates as they were clearly understaffed to handle the massive crowd (you even have to squeeze pass tables on the way to the washroom).  The seafood counters smelled fishy mid-way through the buffet when I walked past which clearly indicated that not all the shellfish were fresh.  And when we left, we were shocked by the flat-rate parking of RM17 (don't park at Traders Hotel!).

After dinner, my friends wanted to adjourn somewhere for drinks, so we took the lift all the way to the 33rd floor of Traders Hotel's...but no, we didn't linger as I found the place too noisy for my liking + all the good seats were already taken.  If you've gotten one of the cabanas with full height windows, this would have been the stunning view that awaits you from their Rooftop Skybar (where this shot was taken).

We then walked all the way to KLCC to look for another place to drink and chat....and took some photos along the way.  P/S: This was the tree that was in my earlier trivia...hehe! ^_~

We realised most of the F&B outlets in KLCC were already closed by 11-ish or, if not, were on the verge of closing.  We did find one still open, Delirium, but were told that they'll be closing soon too...in half an hour, so we left as it made no sense to spend money to only sit for just half an hour.

All the night time photos you see here were taken by my friend....with her phone camera, of course...which was obviously much more canggih than mine! ;D

My Personal Opinion

If you're someone who can eat a crazy shitload of seafood and won't be overly critical of the taste or if the seafood isn't utterly fresh, then the price of RM159 for all-you-can-eat will certainly appeal to you.

But, if you're like me who eats a gentle amount and values flavour and freshness above all else, then this might not quite fit the bill.  Ultimately, the seafood tasted bland coz most of the flavour was probably lost in the poaching liquid.

In the end, the seafood buffet was underwhelming for me in many aspects but most of all for the lack of taste in the seafood itself.  I prefer to eat seafood that's really fresh, properly cooked (and flash-fried in a hot wok) together with its sauce to infuse flavour into the seafood and one that comes with the proper utensils for getting at them...and that means preferably from restaurants who are seafood specialists of some sort.

Well, we met....and we ate...but we did more chit-chatting at Gobo Chit-Chat Meet & Eat (what an appropriate name!) than eating...which is a good thing (I think!) as the promise of super fresh and tasty seafood from reviews didn't materialise.  Sometimes I wonder if the food we eat is of the same standard as those provided to food bloggers at invited reviews just to entice us.  In retrospect, I wish the reviews (that I relied upon) had been more forthcoming too with a better description of the cook-to-order concept.  It wasn't quite what I expected.  So, once was quite enough for me, thank you! >_<

Gobo Chit-Chat on Level 5
Traders Hotel Kuala Lumpur
Persiaran KLCC
Kuala Lumpur City Centre
50088 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2332 9888