Mun and Uee intro-ed this new place for our New Year's day gathering and boy did we all face a tough time figuring out where this place was! Google didn't work be it using their Chinese name 市外桃园 or English name Paradise Restaurant.
It's hard to miss this bright purple-adorned establishment and stepping into the restaurant indeed brought a sense of serenity as the name itself indicates that this is the ideal escapade away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
The main entrance
The restaurant is made up of lower and upper floor comprising of the same theme:-
Table setting and the huge menu
The menu offers a variety of Taiwanese and Fusion Japanese dishes. We sampled some main dishes and side orders for adult and children alike.
Chicken in sesame oil and ginger with vermicelli
This was my dish and it was served hot. I love how the vermicelli is separated from the chicken stew so we are free to blend the amount we desire. The Chicken pieces were well infused with the sesame oil and ginger; with the vermicelli texture was just rightly soft. Hubby and I agreed this was not bad.
Hubby ordered this uniquely named Taiwanese dish called 蚂蚁上树, which is a spicy stir-fried glass noodle dish with minced pork. After sampling it, he complimented how tasty it was hence Denise and Uee followed suit so this easily became the most popular dish of the night :) The glass noodles were soft yet springy, and was well stir-fried with spices and minced pork. It was not overly spicy which can suit most palates.
Mun had Stewed Minced Pork Rice (
鲁肉饭) which we were specifically informed that this was going to be in a tiny portion (we kinda figured this one out looking at its price compared to the other dishes)
This was not bad though I reckon we could not really tell since it was in such a 'generous' portion.
A showdown of the side dishes/snacks indicated that they were not too bad afterall.
Fragrant Deep Fried Chicken
Though a normal side dish, it was tasty with crispy yet not overly thick batter.
Taiwan Crispy Chicken Nuggets (盐酥鸡)
Being one of Taiwan's most popular snack, Paradise's version did not disappoint. The salty and crunchy skin of the chicken nuggets were then topped with chilli powder.
Fried mini shrimps
The shrimps were super crunchy and this was undoubtedly a very addictive snack indeed.
One thing to note is, the food was generally on the salty side, maybe owing to the fact that these were Taiwanese dishes so it might not suit people who prefer more neutral flavors.
Food aside, all of us felt that there were definitely rooms for improvement given how new this restaurant was. For a starter, Uee who was the first to order waited way too long for her food to arrive, only to be informed after few follow-ups that they have run out of this dish. This was very poor indeed, given the fact that her daughter was waiting for the food. The staff did not show a sense of apologetic and was not able to handle the situation well. A few of us had green tea which was refillable but we had to keep requesting for refills which we expected to be automatic.
Having said that, not everything was bad. The supervisor brought 2 egg tarts to Uee as an apologetic gesture for not informing her on the unavailability of her ordered dish. And the fact that the staff had insisted to refund our paid bill for a dish which they forgot to remove off the bill indicated that they tried their best to deliver to customer needs. We were also thanked and bid goodbye as we were leaving too.
This is a place worth giving a second chance.
市外桃园 Paradise Restaurant
33, Madras Lane 10400 Penang
Contact : +604-2266777
Went KL during the recent Raya/Merdeka holidays and hubby brought me to Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant, located on the 3rd floor of The Gardens, Mid Valley city.
Because it was the very first day of such a rare 3-day-long holiday, the place was basically packed with people and we took a number to wait for a table. We were, however, pretty surprised as the staff brought over a tray filled with small shots of refreshing beverage for the patrons who are waiting with numbers - nice touch!
You basically write down your orders using the stationery provided and the staff will come over to verify them once you are ready.
Hubby & I! :) Check out the massive number of people waiting for their tables! O_o
Banana Milk (RM 7.30)
The blend was relatively smooth but I was still able to find tiny bits of banana so we know it's made with real banana instead of banana essence. It was not too thick, overall not bad.
Fried Rice with White Wine (RM 12.80) 红糟炒饭
The portion was pretty big and both hubby and I find difficulty finishing it. But I can tell you that we thoroughly enjoyed this fried rice. It was very aromatic mainly because of the stir-fried onions within, and you can almost taste that each rice was covered with the flavor. Ample of prawns and chicken slices uncovered within too. What a good fried rice this was!
Next was my 3 Varity Supreme Diced Chicken (RM 19.80) 三杯鸡套餐
As this was a set dish, it comes with 3 dishes as well as a soup.
Normally what I observe with the side dishes from these so-called sets are that they are dishes which are very common and served in very tiny portions; and I reckon they are better off not serving them.
But all the 3 side dishes were unique, tasty, and came in reasonable portions. 
The rice that came with this set was a default 鲁肉饭 - stewed minced pork rice. The stewed minced pork was flavored just right and complemented the white rice perfectly. Eventhough the rice was just a 'side' in this chicken set, it was not done hastily.
The main highlight of this set would definitely be the chicken - 三杯鸡. The portion was generous, the thigh chicken pieces were well-marinated, the sauce was wonderful, and I've always liked the Basil leaves added in this dish.
Just when we thought the goodness stops at the highlight, the soup proved not to disappoint as well. It was a boiled chicken with winter melon soup. The soup was sweet and I think I finished most of the soup.
Hubby was curious to try out the Taiwan Style Oyster with Egg (RM 13.80), which is something very popular in Penang - Fried Oyster.
But we were not fancy of this particular style :) The oysters were very fresh and huge, but there was actually cabbage (I think) that went into this dish as well. The sweet chilli sauce that went on top was weird too. We were fond of our very own Penang version more :)
In all, I would come back to sample more of what Fong Lye has to offer, as they definitely left good impression and way more superior compared to a similar chain - Xian Ding Wei. 
Oh, one thing to note : this place runs on Cash Terms only. I wonder how big parties foot their bill then.
Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant
Lot T208, 3rd Floor,
The Gardens, Mid Valley City
Kuala Lumpur
Tel No: 03- 2282 8699
As an outcome from my fellow co-workers' good 'training', I've now grown very accustomed to indulging in 'better' lunches on working Public Holidays :)
On a recent PH, we chanced upon the opening of the much awaited Xian Ding Wei at Queensbay Mall and we checked it out!
Xian Ding Wei is yet another Taiwanese cuisine chain restaurant and this is the first one that landed in Penang.
The interior deco reminds me a lot of Canton-i, except that they have a lot more varieties in terms of table arrangements, and I felt cosy too:-
One thing Sha observed was that the folks working in the open kitchen was not wearing any mask covering their mouth, and some not even wearing hygiene hats:-
After flipping through the menu for quite some time, we all settled down with set meals (which was fairly pricey and did not come with drinks either)
I ordered a special drink called Vanilla with Longan and Sea Coconut (RM 6.90)
It was super rich and creamy.... which was how I liked it, BUT! Too bad that as soon as I hit the sea coconut, it immediately became waaaay too sweet as the sea coconut itself already came with syrup :( I could not finish this in the end
Michael ordered the Original Pearl Milk Tea (RM 4.90) which did not appear even after all our food were served, and it took many rounds of reminding before it finally arrived (-.-)"'
The rest of them had chinese tea (which was in fact Taiwanese tea actually according to Ann)
Moving on to our set lunch which comprises of:-
A soup of the day
a main course, 3 side dishes
and a choice of either white rice or braised pork rice:-
One plus point we observed was that each of the main dishes came with individual food warmers.
Sha had 3 Cup Chicken set (RM 18.90)
This tasted awesome with the gravy thick, fragrant and flavourful! Goes well with white rice too although all of us opted for the braised pork rice. Sha liked it as well :)
Ann ordered Fish with Tomato and Egg Set (RM 18.90)
This is a pretty appetizing combination as it resembles baked beans with egg in tomato sauce - nonetheless, I felt that the gravy was a bit too thick and sweet
Next up - Lye and Michael's Sweet & Sour Pork Set came (RM 17.90)
This is the least tasty of all according to them (and myself) - the pork was too hard, not flavourful enough, and the gravy could barely be seen too.
Last but not least, my Dry Shrimp Set (RM 19.90) :-
The presentation alone already caught many curious stares from neighbouring tables, some even from afar, I personally was impressed too! :D
Check out the standing prawns! Yep - it doesn't take a math genius to figure out that's 2 prawns in total
The prawns were kinda like tempuras - deep-fried to perfection, and the sauce that complemented it was slightly sweet and spicy - made up of minced meat, chilli, mushroom, etc. Goes well with rice definitely.
There was one thing we all agreed was that the braised pork rice was really good - it looked simple and plain but it was very fragrant and definitely a must-try!
While standing around waiting for our bill which never came, we saw all these fire extinguishers lying around... Sha commented that they purposely placed them there as a way of camouflage
Well, we spotted them anyway :P
All in all, service could definitely use a lot of improvement. Still worth a try (maybe a few months later)
It's been a while since I caught up with PChoon, and we opted to have dinner at this area for fear of traffic jam. It was my first time visiting this place and honestly, I never heard of it before when it's just a few shoplots away from Sumida (which I heard of and been to before)
Anyways, by the looks of this restaurant, I didn't have much expectation as far as the food quality is concerned but I walked out of this place with satisfaction in the end :)
As the name suggests, Taipei Food Avenue mainly serves none other than Taiwanese delights!
Our drinks:-
Honeydew Juice (RM 5.80)
Bubble Milk Tea - Original Flavour (RM 3.50)
PChoon ordered her all-time-favourite:- Beef Steamboat
A slight mistake was made as Prawn Steamboat was served to PChoon:-
But after we highlighted this to them, they took the set back and served the correct Beef Steamboat (RM 14.80) in the end:-
The personal steamboat set came with a full load of fresh ingredients, namely:-
1. Golden needle mushroom
2. Tofu
3. Variety of green vegetables
4. Eggs
5. Vermicilli
5. Beef soup base with generous amounts of beef balls
Most importantly, the raw beef slices were sliced very thinly and were well marinated - which makes cooking and eating a sheer pleasure
I had Zhar Jiang Noodle (RM 8.80) which is the signature Taiwanese food:-
It was chock full of ingredients - minced meat, greens, cubed 'taukua' (fried tofu), carrot, etc, and it wasn't dry too. Not bad
We also tried out their Mini Dumpling - Xiao Long Bao (RM 9.00 for 6) (which is another favourite of mine) - though this is not really aTaiwanese delight, nevertheless it was on the menu so we ordered it to share:-
The appearance don't look appetizing at all huh? :( wrinkled skin, wet surface and all. But don't judge a book by its cover - coz both of us liked it! Simply because the meat stuffing was juicy (though there wasn't a lot of 'soup' within), well-portioned and tasted good!
No complaints about the food here and I find the personal Beef Steamboat set a value for money.
Location : No.l 86-G-41, Prima Tanjung
Tel : 04-8900 993
