Fireman The Restaurant, Bandar Puteri, Puchong

I usually keep my entries of food that I've eaten for some time as I have a long list of pending posts that will be post up. I've made an exception this time as I've eaten good yet super reasonable food, and the said promotion is only for a limited time till tomorrow (Sunday, 21st November 2010). For only RM20, you are entitled to eat all you can for an unlimited time with worth mentioned ingredients like fresh good quality beef slices, fishes, prawns, different marinated chickens and good chicken wing. I heard from the waitress that after Sunday, the price will revert to RM29.90, but with additional seafood like crab and free flow of drinks.

Well, I didn't know the existence of this restaurant, me and the girlfriend actually bumped into this restaurant by chance while hunting for dinner spot. Was actually quite shocked when I saw the restaurant by the name of Fireman, as I recalled enjoying some good steamboat/BBQ sessions back at the same restaurant name located at Jaya One. A small check on the name card revealed that it's the same restaurant by the same management! Great, went in and found out there's the RM20 promotion, double great! We opt for the buffet straight away.

The outlet here remains the concept of half bbq, half steamboat ala BBQ Plaza. The main difference is that instead of electric stove or gas, the outlet here actually uses charcoal! I love any food that is slow cooked by charcoal; slower but really brings out the flavor. Chicken skin is placed on top of the stove as oil substitution for barbecuing. Be prepared though, to dine in sweat as the heat generated around is much more compared to conventional methods! Another main difference is the environment here is more to no frills dining, with less building exterior and food decorations.

Different sauces also are prepared for dipping. Clockwise from bottom left: Tamarind sauce, Pineapple sauce, Seafood sauce and BBQ sauce. We experimented a bit and found that the garlic + chili mixed with BBQ sauce was the best suited for us.

The Fried Chicken Wings was well marinated and crispy. We had like a dozen of this while waiting for our food to cook in between.

They also serve some barbequed items from the kitchen. Barbecued charcoal beef. This was so-so, as it was overcooked = not medium rare texture. The black pepper marinate was also too strong and I also firmly believe beef should not be marinated.

Barbecued Lamb. This was much better, the texture was good with 90% lean meat.

Barbecued Cockles. The dipping sauce was very good with just nice timing as the flesh wasn't dried up.

The star of the whole dining period would be the beef slices! With just nice thickness and fresh enough, most of the beef slices was juicy enough if cooked properly. The fat - lean proportion was also just nice. I have my own set of rules for barbecuing:

• Cook the slices only one piece per one
  
• Cook one side for around 7 second, flip till no redness is found; and reflip. Done.
• The slices must not stick to the stove, and should flip easily. Add oil - chicken skin in this case.

Perfectly medium rare barbecued, all simmered in it's own released sauce. I like the addition of the barbecue stove as you can opt to either dip to cook in soup or barbecue it. Dipping in soup maintains the really beefy flavor and sweeter; while barbecuing it brings out the flavor and made it really aromatic. I think I had like 6 -7 plates, lol.

The cutting machine to provide freshly sliced beef.

Beautiful sexy meat in cooking process. What a sight, just like art!

Us, with a very satisfied meal.

All in all, I felt that Fireman is really good for that kind of price and variety. Although there are much places with more varieties, but I felt the quality here is really worth the money. Not to mention, the staff's service here is really good and one of the best customer service that I had experienced. They even opt to help us barbecue our meat, but I personally declined as I prefer to do it myself for the experience. Would definitely return, even without the promotion just for the good quality food. Fireman is opened from 6pm to 3am; with buffets running from 6pm - 11pm, and ala cartes from 11pm onwards. I spotted beers too, Hoegaarden for RM17+, but I'm not sure of the size though.


Fireman The Restaurant
Address : 28, Jalan Puteri 1/4, Bandar Puteri, 47100, Puchong
(Located opposite of Maybank)
Phone : 03-80510889
Website:
Price: RM 29.90. Promotion Price till 21/11/2010 - RM20.

Kedai Makan Teow Chew (Fish Ball Noodle), Damansara Jaya

The girlfriend brought me; along with her sisters and mother to their family favorite shop at Damansara Jaya. At first, I was a little bit skeptical seeing the shop's location and the exterior.

It was virtually empty; with an old styled kopitiam feel with the illusion of just one hawker stall. Not to mention, there was none customer, but most probably it was way past lunch time. Nevertheless, from the menu which was conveniently 'posted' on the wall, I realized the reason why it remained the family's favored restaurant.

The wordings even came off due to time, but judging from the extensive choices of 'liu' or ingredients, no wonder this very special hidden shop has it's own fanbase. A Google search shows quite a lot of positive reviews from different bloggers, which is pretty impressive! The different type of fishes to customize here ranges from pomfret and kurau. You can even go fancy and make it grand by adding more 'premium' ingredients like abalones, prawns or oyster!

The girlfriend and the sisters had the Noodles in Soup with Oysters and Fishball (RM 12). Note that this shop only offers clear soup either in soup itself or the dry version. The soup was well boiled, pretty sweet in a lighter way. The fishball itself was really bouncy; and really suspecting it's self made with 'Sai Tou' / Wolf-herring meat. The oyster on the other hand, is really fresh and average in size. However, due to preferences matter, I preferred my oysters to be raw like sashimi; or semi raw in Oh Chiens for that texture. Nevertheless, I still give it credit for being fresh to my liking.

I ordered the dry version with just fish ball, as I recalled myself not feeling that well on that particular day. The dry version (RM 4.50) was good too, with the smoother hor fun variant noodle being used instead of the larger kuey teow. Fried shallots are also sprinkled!

I felt this place is rather worth a visit for a change from our heavily Malaysian styled meal. Teowchew or not Teowchew, the fishballs noodles are heartily light and healthy. Do not judge a book by it's cover; so they say, lol. Do try out their fried fish cake which I heard is pretty good, too.

Kedai Makan Teow Chew
Address : Jalan SS22/21, Damansara Jaya, Petaling Jaya, Selangor
(Located beside Atria, just beside the narrow one way street)
Phone :
Website:
Price: RM 4.50++

Sushi Zanmai, The Gardens, Kuala Lumpur

Sushi Zanmai hits the top spot in my list of favorite Japanese food place, and it's one of those "must visit place" each time we visit shopping malls for the girlfriend. Well, no complains here as I enjoyed Sushi Zanmai as much as she do. One of the main reasons that I really adore this place would be it's consistency. As half of their ingredients are seafood and raw fish, freshness is of course the first and most important criteria, which also means being consistently able to keep quality control the freshness totally wins my vote. Magically, yet no doubt that each visit never failed my expectancy.

The girlfriend is a very picky eater, and never wants to get sushi from the conveyor belt as she wants it as fresh as possible by ordering on the spot.

Our array of mixed sushi as starters. Clockwise from bottom left: Salmon (RM3.80), my favourite Inari (RM1.80), Chuka Chinmi - Seasoned Scallop Wings(RM3.80) and Inari Ebikko (RM3.80). As always, the Salmon was really good, being very juicy and slightly bouncy from the firm meat. The Chuka Chinmi was good too and packs a good bite together with the seaweed.

We ordered a small bowl of Unadon (RM15.80) to be shared among. There's also a larger version of it with a price tag of RM26.80. Honestly, for females or smaller eaters I think a small size would suffice, as it comes with a large bowl of rice. The unagi was really really good, as the flesh would literally melt in your mouth. I really like the excess sauce that drips all over the top of the Japanese rice (the rice type being shorter and fatter, and also being used in Sushi) that makes it so addictive to be eaten.

Soft Shell Crab Okonimiyaki (RM12.80). First time trying this, and I felt this was just average. The soft shell crab was ok, nothing to complain about; bout the dough was a tad too thick too my liking, making it rather hard to be eaten. Reason being is because I felt with such thick dough base, it feels more like eating two separate items, the soft shell crab, and the other being the dough; and not both as an item which they are trying to display.

Our desert, Itachoco Monaka (RM8)! To be frank, I'm not really a big fan of after meal deserts, but this particular desert here caught my attention with a chocolate slice sandwiched right exactly in the middle of an ice cream waffle. I also like how attentive their staff are as they would 'spot check' on your desert and eating period to serve you your desert only when you have finished your main. Note to Kim Gary: Please, please, please at least learn basic customer's dining attitude...

Crunchy chocolate all wrapped up between soft icy cold vanilla ice cream. Eat it while it's COLD!


A total of RM60.05, ouch, but that's the price for really good and fresh food! Would gladly pay it. Also, spot the ":After Meal" note that they included in the receipt, sometimes, it's the trivial stuffs that actually made dining enjoyable.

We also sampled some few other items during other visits, but I couldn't really remember the price tag of these as they are rather casual visits. Nevertheless, they are all still pretty recommended and the price tags are within RM 15 +/- if I'm not mistaken.

Mixed Sashimi Salad with Sesame Seed Dressing. The dressing is pretty much recommended; very nutty and goes well with the vege and fish combination. Refreshing!

Cold Soba. This has became one of our must have food during each visit, shifting from the smaller portion to the large portion, as we just couldn't get enough of it, lol! The soba here is of good quality and the chef has really really good timing skills, the soba are cooked just al dente, very bouncy! Not just through once or twice coincidence, but it was consistent!

Salmon Teriyaki. I thought this was so-so, as grilled fish wasn't really my choice. I preferred the raw salmon sashimi.

Sushi Zanmai, The Gardens
Address : T-217, Third Floor, The Gardens, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 KL
Phone : 03 - 2282 1160
Website: SuperSushi Sdn. Bhd.
Price: RM 15++