Bhai Jim Jum @ Aeon Maluri

In my restrictive way of eating, Thai cuisine is probably one I shouldn't partake in too often as we know Thai cooking is renowned for its tantalising blend of salty, spicy, sweet and sour flavours, especially the latter which would need sugar to balance out its tart flavours.

We've passed by this restaurant, Bhai Jim Jum @ Aeon Maluri, many times when I'm here grocery shopping looking for a place to eat and finally decided to walk-in to try since I haven't had Thai food for ages.

I chose the Steamed Tilapia Fish Fillet with Thai Chilli Lime Sauce Rice Set @ RM22.90 that came with sides of a fried egg, rice with braised minced chicken and a small salad.

I found the photo and description of the food in the menu a little bit misleading.  The sauce turned out to be more like a soup and it was also more broth-like in colour instead of the orangy colour depicted in the menu. Thankfully the Thai chilli lime sauce soup was quite appetising with a nice tangy flavour from the lime.

Not only that but the fish slices were protruding from the little wok (in the menu)...quite unlike what I got as the fish was submerged in a pool of soup and not very visible at all.  Let me dig out the fish pieces for you...luckily the steamed tilapia fish fillets were soft and very flaky without any fishy taste though I suspect they're probably frozen tilapia slices.

The main was supplemented by rice with braised minced chicken (that tasted decent enough) topped with some crispy rice that gave it a crunchy element, a fried egg and a salad comprising of finely shredded cucumber, carrot and onion with a dressing of Thai sweet chilli sauce.

My son's Green Curry Chicken Rice Set @ RM21.90 was served with a typical green curry chicken that Thai food is renowned for with the same sides of the earlier rice set of braised minced chicken with rice, fried egg and salad.

The green curry chicken with some softened pieces of eggplant was well executed, thick and tasty with a favourable coconut-forward creamy taste of green curry.

The Thai Mama Noodles with Honey Sriracha Chicken Wings that my nephew had was like one of those Thai Mama instant noodles type with the chicken wings served separately.

The bowl of Thai Mama instant noodles was garnished with onions, tomatoes, chopped spring onions and lime topped with a raw egg to go.  I'm not sure what flavour the instant noodles was but it was slightly spicy according to my nephew.  I've eaten this brand of instant noodles and have probably eaten this flavour before too.

The honey sriracha chicken wings was lightly spicy from the sriracha and sticky-sweet from the honey as described.  The taste of the fried chicken wings (3 pcs) obviously benefitted from the seasoned glaze.

Seeing that we enjoyed what we had, we returned for a second meal here a month later.  This time I had the Tom Yum Beef Noodles @ RM21.90 served with the typical Thai flat rice noodles with some straw mushrooms and green vegetables.

I thought this tom yum soup was on point with its appetising balance of spicy and sourish flavours.  I liked that it wasn't too spicy or overly sour like some can be.  It also seemed to have a much thicker consistency than the usual thinner and clearer tom yum soup bases we commonly encounter. 

But found the beef to be on chewy side....luckily they were thinly sliced to help negate the not quite as tender and juicy texture.

My son had the Seafood Tom Yum Rice Set @ RM18.90 that came served with seafood tom yum in a mini wok with the same accompaniments as the earlier rice sets.

The seafood tom yum had chunks of fish, squid, mussels and a sizeable prawn somewhere in there too cooked with some enoki mushrooms and tomatoes.  The tantalising flavours of the tom yum soup (just like my tom yum beef) with its moreish tanginess beckons you to slurp up more of the soup.

Drinks of Cala-Cooler (of calamansi juice & assam boi) @ RM6.90 each for them and my son's Thai Lemon Tea @ RM5.90 on our second visit.  Haiz, none for me (of course) other than iced mineral water...so very boring! :'(

My Personal Opinion

Sad to report that at the time of writing, this place has since closed.  I'm not sure why as I thought the food we had was decent enough...that was why there was a second visit.  I still decided to post this anyway as they have other branches elsewhere (in MyTown Shopping Centre, Wangsa Walk Mall in Wangsa Maju, IOI City Mall in Putrajaya & DPulze Shopping Centre in Cyberjaya) that you can try.

The place also offers Jim Jum (Thai Hot Pot) and dishes you can order to eat with rice besides their rice and noodle sets which are obviously more value for money.  Thai food (as we know) is never cheap and the prices for the single dishes you eat with rice coupled with its small portion size may have lent a hand in its demise at this location perhaps as the restaurants here mostly offer very affordably-priced food with good portions which Aeon shoppers are after.

I guess if I want eat this again, my nearest alternative will be the one in MyTown which incidentally happens to have a very good rating of 4.9, a testament that the food is of a respectable standard with reasonable prices.

Bhai Jim Jum

Level 2-S20 Aeon Maluri

Jalan Jejaka

Taman Maluri

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Mr Tuk Tuk @ Sunway Velocity

I've been reading about this place from someone who seems to love this place so much that she has uploaded three posts...Tuk Tuk, Solo Lunches @ Tuk Tuk and My Phad Thai Craving....all in a span of two months...hehe! ^_~

Since there's a Mr Tuk Tuk @ Sunway Velocity near me, it would be a travesty not to try after reading that.  If you don't already know what type of food they serve here, the tuk tuk parked right in front of the restaurant is a dead giveaway.

And let me just say that getting a pic of the tuk tuk (without passengers) wasn't the easiest thing to do...hahaha! :D  It's always swarmed with children wanting (or should I say forced by their parents!) to sit in it and take photos.  Ok-lah, children I can understand....but grown-ups too! :P

The place is always crowded, so finding a table inside the restaurant may prove difficult during peak meal times.  But there are extra seats set up in front of the restaurant (that's where we were seated).  I think its popularity lies in their very affordably-priced menu with the majority of single dishes costing in the region of RM10 (the most expensive ones cost RM13.80), four value sets with drinks (RM18.80) and two sharing platters (RM25.80).

My family isn't into Tom Yum as they don't really like sour stuff, so I went with the Tom Kha Seafood @ RM12.80, a light coconut milk soup that still had subtle hints of spicy and sour (just not as fiery or as sour as tom yum).  It had two good-sized prawns, a few pieces of squid and some small chunks of fish together with oyster mushrooms, tomatoes and onions.  Good eaten with rice. ^.^

The Fried (Tom Yum) Chicken Wings @ RM9.80, served with a fresh green chilli dip, were freshly fried and nicely crispy, just don't remember it having much tom yum flavour.  But it was satisfying enough with a bit of kick from the chilli dip.

We also ordered the Thai Special Platter (PR2) @ RM25.80 made up of Thai Satay, Thai Honey Chicken, Spring Rolls & Prawn Crackers and Thai Mango Salad.  A platter like this is ideal for sharing as it allows you to taste a few different types of appetisers in smaller portions.

The sticks of Thai Satay, I found them to be a little on the dry side, probably coz they were all lean meat.

The Thai Honey Chicken or "Kai Ping" was sufficiently tender and not too sweet but needed a bit more flavour and caramelisation.  It's not quite as satisfying as the pork version of "Moo Ping" would be though.

The Fried Spring Rolls & Prawn Crackers were as they should be...plain but crispy.

Finally, the Thai Mango Salad featuring slithers of young mango with sliced onions, fragrant dried cuttlefish pieces, crunchy roasted cashew nuts and a few hidden bird's eye chillies was a refreshing mouthful of taste and texture.  I usually don't enjoy mango salads very much as I find them too sour but this one wasn't tart at all.

Although some of the components of the Thai Special Platter didn't impress, the chilli dip was the standout besides the mango salad.  Even the plain prawn crackers dipped in the very pleasant, fresh tasting chilli sauce made it a favourite of mine.

We also tried one of the set meals, SM2 @ RM18.80 with pandan chicken, crispy fish fillet, Thai mango salad and fried rice.

I don't remember trying the Pandan Chicken, either that or it wasn't memorable.

The Thai Fish Fillet, more like nuggets of fish, drenched in a Thai chilli sauce, wasn't very enticing.

The Fried (Yellow) Rice was alright.

The Thai Mango Salad (the same one as before) I truly enjoyed.

As usual, there must be a vegetable dish in every meal.  How about Fried Kangkung @ RM10.80, a crispy version that is (one I've not encountered before).  This fried kangkung, much like tempura fried kangkung, was incredibly crispy....and utterly scrumptious!  Now why didn't we think of deep-frying our kangkung before! ;P

It was very addictive.  I couldn't stop eating.  The dish came with two chilli dips (I'm assuming the other orange-coloured dip is meant for this too).  The dip of fresh green chillies is similar to the one served with the chicken wings but the orange-coloured chilli dip was different.  It had bits of something in it for some textural contrast (I'm thinking some kind of minced seafood, like possibly prawns or fish, but I can't be certain).  Eat the fried kangkung with any one of these dips and it tastes even more amazing. ^o^

The Thai Iced Tea @ RM8.80 didn't quite get me on board with its taste.  It was just ok, slightly on the sweet side.  The Fresh Lime was the drink of the day with the set meal.  The drinks come in large sizes that can be easily shared.

My Personal Opinion

I think the place is well sought-after because of its friendly prices and ideal smaller portion sizes which are great for small families.  For bigger groups, you can have more variety by ordering more dishes to share since each one costs around RM10 only.

The food had its hits and misses.  One miss for me would be their meat dishes that are grilled or fried as they tend to be a tad on the dry side.

The thing that made the biggest impression were their salads (does fried kangkung qualify as a salad? *wink wink*) and chilli dips that were refreshing and delectable.  The chilli dips saved the meat for me and made some of the less impressive ones palatable.

Having said that, it was still more than decent based on the prices charged.  Perhaps, I'll stick to more soup or curry-based dishes the next time I'm here.  I'd also like to try their phad thai and fried rice on future visits.

Mr Tuk Tuk

4-01B Sunway Velocity Mall

Lingkaran SV

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Kompassion II (or K2) @ Taman Tun Dr Ismail

It was again my monthly gathering of sorts with friends and this time we wanted a bit of Thai, so we chose Kompassion II @ Taman Tun Dr Ismail for dinner.

On reaching the restaurant, I noticed that their previous signboard Kompassion II is now replaced with just K2 and moving from just Thai fusion to Asian fusion cuisine.  There are now other Asian influences on the menu like Vietnamese spring rolls, Indian tandoori chicken, Korean bulgogi beef and kimchi omelette and grilled fish fillet with miso paste just to name a few.

Ordering is super easy as they have photos of all the food on iPad to make your decision making easier.  Just ogle at whatever food that looks good to you or catches your fancy.

There were these small crackers for us to munch on and keep us occupied while we waited for the rest of our dining party to arrive.  They were also nice enough to give us more when they noticed my friend's 'lil one munching it up.

We began with a starter of Lemongrass Tandoori Chicken Satay (5 sticks)  @ RM17.90 served in a glass with the satay sauce at the bottom.  There was also a side condiment of julienned carrots and cucumber with another green chilli sambal (which tasted overly salty for some reason).

The chicken satay, with a distinctive lemongrass flavour, was good as it had 100% pure lean meat (but yet still tender and juicy) with none of those fillers of fat and skin though some may argue that a bit of fat is needed for added flavour.  Three other starters that might interest you are the Vietnamese Chicken Satay Spring Roll (RM17.90), Deep-Fried Green Curry Spring Roll (RM22.90) and Lobster Spring Roll (RM28).

The next dish of Green Curry Lobster @ RM50 was a Kompassion II special and listed as a must-try....so, what else, we must try! ;P  Chunks of lobster were mixed with cubes of avocado and other fruits (I think there were some thinly sliced grilled eggplant in there as well), topped with more avocado slices (yay!), alfalfa sprouts and tobiko, sitting on top a lovely green curry sauce with green peas.

Overall, I have to say the combo worked as I loved the combination of the subtle green curry sauce which didn't overpower the delicate and distinctive taste of the sweet lobster meat. ^o^

Another dish we ordered for sharing was the Panang Grilled Beef @ RM50 featuring grilled beef with tropical fruits in a light Thai-inspired Panang curry.  I certainly enjoyed the tender grilled beef slices and the freshness of a tropical paradise provided by the cubed fruits of pineapple, orange, avocado and watermelon.

The panang curry, on the other hand, was both salty and sweet at the same time (more salty than sweet and, unfortunately, a bit too salty that evening).  Best to eat the robustly flavoured curry with some rice.

For our must-have vegetable dish, we went with the Avocado Beansprout Salad @ RM15.90 which contained fresh vegetables of beansprout, carrot, white and purple cabbage, sweet corn, alfalfa sprouts, avocado cubes and pomegranate seeds.

Tossed in a very light dressing, there was no denying the freshness and crunchiness of all the vegetables and fruits in the mix.  It was a very refreshing salad to eat.  Two other salads for your choosing are the Pucuk Paku Salad with Young Coconut (RM20) and Mixed Mushroom Salad (RM15.90).

For a more sustaining dinner, we had to have some carbs, of course.  The first was the K2 Nasi Campur Special @ RM18.90, a dish showcasing the best of Kompassion on a plate! ;)

This platter had green and panang (or red) chicken curry with long beans and peas, some fried fare, a green mango salad, a bowl of tom yum, sambal, white and brown rice topped with a fried egg.  Now that's a fully loaded platter built for one very-hungry-eater that's great value for money indeed.

Our carb-loaded feast continued with the Thai Omelette Rice @ RM15.90, something non-spicy for the kids to share.

It may look like a simple omelette sitting on top a mixture of brown and white rice but the omelette was well prepared and flavoursome, very enjoyable.

The final carb dish (also for the children's sharing) of Prawn Fried Rice @ RM20.90 surprised me with its beautiful presentation with specks of red (watermelon), yellow (pineapple), orange (tobiko), green (wedge of lime), lychee and alfalfa sprouts.  These colourful garnishes made the dish pop! ^.^

Besides its visual presentation, it scored in the taste department as well.  Served with a side salad and curry sauce, the fluffy rice grains were well fried (with a bit of wok hei going on) and tasty.

And taking the crowning glory were those large and expertly fried prawns...not one but three utterly crispy and fresh prawns!  Did I mention large already? ^_*

We also ordered an additional bowl of rice @ RM3.50 to mop up all that curry.  You have a choice of white or brown or get a mixture of both (like we did).  I don't usually like brown rice but I liked the brown rice here.

After having our fill with rice and curries, it was time for a sweet ending to our meal...and we were eager to attack the desserts! ^_~

Besides the iPad enticing you with pics of food, there's also a screen on the wall showing the same food photos. My friend pointed to one and, when I turned around, I saw the pic of the Lime Mango Cheesecake @ RM10 and ordered that (only to realise later that my friend actually pointed to the Coconut Cendol Cheesecake, also RM10) :P

Filled with cubes of fresh and sweet mango and a drizzle of mango puree, the cheesecake was a very light rendition (that even I can eat).  If there was supposed to be some lime in the mix, other than the two decorative slices on top, I didn't taste any though.

The other dessert of my choosing was the Mango Sticky Rice @ RM18 served with Pandan Gelato.  I just can't leave a Thai restaurant without ordering this speciality of theirs.  Most of the time, anyway :)

And the one here was executed so well...and different too where the brown sticky rice was served warm.  The contrast of hot sticky rice with the cold pandan gelato was a welcome delight.  The Lime Mango Cheesecake was alright but this one takes the cake....so good! ^o^  Coconut or Pandan Gelato (both RM10) rounds up the rest of the desserts on offer here.

As my friend and I were the first ones to arrive, we ordered our drinks and waited for the rest of the gang to arrive.  She had the Salted Plum & Pineapple Mocktail @ RM8.50.

And I had a mix fruit juice of Green Mango & Passion Fruit @ RM15.  For someone who loves a sour tang in her food and drinks, even this proved a tad too tangy for me.  What was I thinking?  It says green mango and passion fruit, both sour by nature.  Of course, you can counter this by just adding more sugar (but I didn't want to).

All the Individual Meals of rice or noodles (we ordered three) come with a side salad and drink.  You can have Lemongrass Green Tea (hot or cold and refillable too) or Thai Iced Lemon Tea.  I guess it pays to be early for once as my three other friends (who were late) got these drinks instead...kekeke! :D

My Personal Opinion

Everything I tried, I did like, some more than others (except some things that were over salted for some reason that evening).  

If you don't order any of K2's Asian fusion specials (which cost RM50 and above), the prices here are quite manageable really + there are many choices of individual value meals (with side salad and drink) for under RM20 that can easily satisfy one with a good appetite.

A more than decent place for some Thai or Asian fusion if you're into this type of cuisine.

Kompassion II (or K2)
No 15A Lorong Datuk Sulaiman 7
Taman Tun Dr Ismail
60000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-7731 7016