Getting here:

For those unfamiliar with Damansara Uptown, it is best to be armed with your GPS as getting here can be a tad bit tricky. This is as there are many roads and roundabouts along the way and a step into the wrong road can lead to a long U- Turn.

Aside from the roads, a huge plus about the Restaurant is the many parking lots available. Finding parking is a breeze despite the many unique restaurants around such as Wondermilk and the recently opened "Royal Satay Celup". The parking lots are directly opposite the restaurants as well thus walking distance is minimized haha. This is brownie points for the crouch potatoes out there who detest long walks to their favourite restaurant

Exterior and Interior: Cute Welcome Sign on the front of the Restaurant greeted us as we approach inside. The exterior and interior of Fat Spoon both tug my heartstrings and I instantly fell in love with the design of the restaurant. It is a unique combination of vintage yet remain chic and funky at the same time. It is evident as well that much thought has been put into the overall decoration of the restaurant judging by the intricate details of the layout. For example the old woven baskets with variety of design and type hanging on the walls. The old woven chairs is reminiscience of the rattan chairs back in grandparents home. It truly gives a nostalgia feeling. Menu: The menu grabs the most attention. It was the first time I've seen a Peter and Jane Ladybirds book turn into a menu haha. The pages were torn a bit on the edges and the books is a bit old as well and this give rise to suspicioun that its the restaurant owner actual books. The idea is also very cost efficient as well as compared to more expensive menu printed on expensive paper with thick binders. I absolutely loved it as these books really bring old childhood memories and kindergarden days and guess what, the books themselves are much older than me! I ABSOLUTELY LOVED how creative they make these into a menu!!! HEHEHE Pardon the constant ravings haha

Food: Hot Chocolate - The hot chocalate is rich and taste a bit like the one I had back in Melbourne in a popular drinks hangout called "Max Brenner". Aroma was thick as well and I am just simply glad it does not taste like "Milo" as usual restaurants "hot chocalate" drinks was Milo. The leaf design was cute as well but I would prefer them to come out with cuter designs such as the a flower, smiley etc. These designs has been all the rage in various drinks outlets and Fat Spoon should keep it up too Claypot "Loh Shu Fan" - This was supposed to be their signature dish and it was okay. The lou shu fan was tender and a bit burned on the sides. The dish was saucy with various ingredients. However the sauce was a bit too salty and makes me very thirsty after the meal. The egg was a fabulous add to the dish as it balances out the salty taste of it. Parsley and spring onions add a refreshing taste to it as well. Prawn Fritters- This is absolutely delicious. The fritters was fried just perfectly and it was both cripsy on the outside but prawn meat was juicy and tender on the inside. The prawans used were the small type not the big prawns type. The flour used was also the right portion as it is not too thick nor too thin. One complain was perhaps the portion could be BIGGER! haha. Greedy me. As it leaves me craving for more. Ulam Fried Rice - One of the signature dishes and the one which most people called! The fried rice itself has a little elements of lemongrass bits which makes the whole dish smell and taste unique. It comes with fried chicken, acar and papadam! It was totally worth it and a must- try. Banana Fritters with Vanilla Ice Cream - After the delicious prawn fritters leave us craving for more, we ordered another plate of Banana Fritters haha. It was again, absolutely delicious and mouth watering. The Banana fritters is crispy yet moist and juicy on the inside. It instantly melts in your mouth with a lingering taste. The Ice cream complements the meals as it is cold while the Banana fritters is serve hot. The vanilla ice cream serve was okay and taste like those out of the ice cream box however. I absolutely love the sweet chocalatey sauce dripping over the banana fritters as well. Overall a very delicious meal and a big thumbs up to the chef.

Service:

Service was good overall. Waiters were attentive and quick to meet our needs. The waiters were also very polite and speaks reasonable amount of English. That is not bad for a foreigner haha. And we are sometimes being served by the owner herself! Who turns out to be a very young looking trendy girl haha.

All n all, this is the worthy dining experience. All dishes we had called were abolutely top notch and the ambience itself really brough us back to the good old days - childhood day. HIGHLY RECOMMEND everyone to check this place out if they are on their way to 1U, The curve, Ikano or just the Kota Damansara area.

As far as my memory goes, Blackball Restaurant was one of a laundry list of taiwanese desserts shop to be open during the "Snowflakes" craze a year or 2 back then. It was however, a totally different scenario now as taiwanese desserts shop located near housing or commercial areas (not parked under major shopping centres) are eerily empty.

Having said that, cravings for taiwanese desserts has just come up on me recently and to satisfy it, I went down hunting for desserts and visit one of my favourite places - Blackball Desserts!

I personally prefer Blackball over Snowflakes due to it having bigger portion of ingredient serving and less ice. I once had a bowl of coconut icebowl in Snowflakes and it left me heavily dissapointed. The bowl consist of 95% ice (I am not exaggerating) that was not shaved properly and was hard to eat on. The ingredients (beans, barley, yam ball/taroball ) was a small depressing portion and was not fresh at all. I swear off that particular Snowflakes store since then.

But however do note that its personal opinion and the opinion varies from person to person.
Anyhow back to Blackball Desserts!

Environment

Blackball store was empty with only 1 small table of customers. No complains on my part though as these means I have the full attention of fellow waiters haha. Decor was inviting and a lot of bright colours (hint: green). The premise was clean and although not many customers, it was brightly lit. Many drinks and desserts are display on the board and poster adorned the wall. Also noted that the waiters are local people (mostly students looking for part time job) and thus able to converse in local languages.

Food

Mini UFOS here will beep signalling the desserts are ready. Mini UFOS refer to small dish like eletronic device that blinks neon colours when desserts are served. That day, I ordered The BlackBall's Signature Dish. It was grass jelly at the bottom with yamball/taroball, mocha balls, pearls, red beans on the top. The ingredients was fresh and chewy and they are not selfish with their ingredients since there is a generous portion of it. The grass jelly was smooth and was standard fare. The bowl was big as well and totally fills up the stomach.

In addition, it was also similiar to the SnowFlakes Best Seller. Only in my opinion, better haha. Rather than just taro balls, they also added the raw yam slices into the mix, giving a distinct look of the overall presentation and taste! Utterly yummy. Same as its rivals, it comes with milk to make the dessert sweeter. Totally make myself (and my stomach) happy for the day

Pricing

Pricing was the same as other Taiwanese desserts shop at RM 5.90 per bowl. I personally think the price is so much better value for money than other desserts. For example Chatime milk teas with almost the same price tag but its only a bottle of drink. It doesnt fill the stomach that much anyhow and theres only a single ingredient eg pearls, nata de coco.

It is also better value than "Tong Pak Fu" where shaved ice is RM 8.90 (albeit its a bigger portion). The shaved ice does not have that much ingredients and is just plain flavoured. It usually come only in 1 flavour type (green tea, sesame etc) and just lacks much flavour. Personally, I prefer Blackball over it.

All in all, in my personal opinion, Blackball win hands down in taiwanese desserts shop category. So come on, do go over Blackball for a try!

Tom, Dick & Harry has further strenthen the notion that Pub do not generally serve good food. It is a pub located along TTDI that also serves various western and asian cuisines.

Although the ambience and waiter service is on par, the food is just plain terrible.

Lo and Behold, Fish and Chips!
This is supposely their "signature" dishes but its just plain awful! They use too much flour in the frying the fish thus the fish pieces that look larger are just plain misleading. Also the fish meat was not fresh and tough. Heck, even cold storage packaged fillet taste much better.

In addition, the green beans is just bland. It is just served straight out of the tin and no further improvements is made on the taste. Also fries is a bit too much and too oily and its taste straight out of instant fries found in hypermarket.

Overall the food us plain dissapointing and at a price of RM25 it is a bit exorbitant.

I would NEVER step food onto this horrible place for a meal anymore.

Desperately looking for good food, we went all around to search for a decently good Hokkien Mee stalls. Instead, we had found this place! It's located at the side shop at the heart of Damansara Uptown. The hawker sign wrotes "New Johor Bahru Hokkien Mee". Judging by quite a number of customers at the tables, this naturally piqued our interest.

EnvironmentThe environment of this place is so reminiscent of typical stall look... Based on our findings, the Hokkien Mee stall only opens during the evening time, while morning side the Dim Sum business takes over (e.g. we look at the Dim Sum menu posters all over)... During the evening, it seems lots of people gathered to crave the specialties: Hokkien Mee, Lam Mee, Kong Fu Chau, Yee Mee, etc...

Service:
Being a hawker stall, service quality is naturally negligible. The waiter was some dude from myanmar/vietnam and was speaking in smaterring cantonese/chinese. I was having a bit difficult understanding his questions and him toward mine. But anyhow, it was not big of an issue.

Cleanlinesss:
It again being a hawker fare, that aspect is not being factored in. The chef do soak their vegetables in small bucket of water at the front of the counter. Noted also was the neatly peeled prawns in a transparent bucket. Thus, the overall clealines of the place is commendable. However, our tables are a bit dirty and sticky as the waiter didnt wipe the tables properly.

Here were the food that we had: -Mun Yee Mee[/bb]
It was really just so-so. Although since its char-grilled, the charcoal-ish flavour is inherent. Some people mite really enjoy it though. The fried pork lard was in okay portion. However the chicken meat is tough! grrr and I pur a special request for more vegetables however what serves on the plate was medicore pieces of veggie. Also the portion was small and its not that filling to the stomach.

 

Hokkien Mee
Though lack of pork lard (Zhu Yao Zhar), I found the food seems rather okay-ish and surprise surprise, I called the larger portion and it costs RM10!!! We were stunned that this was the two-person portion... But from the looks of it, even a large-sized person can finished it up alone!!! Yuck! Not worth it!

Price:
As mentioned early, the price was EXPENSIVE!! RM7 for a small plate (that doesnt fill the stomach that well) and RM10 for an average plate (which could easily be get at almost half the price at other hawker fares).
For this such price, we rather go for the better hawker stalls that serve bigger Hokkien Mee / Mun Yee Mee at relatively cheap price!!! A big NO NO for this place! Avoid at all cost!

Brought my sister to Umaiya, her favourite restaurant as an occasional treat today! We went down to 101 boulevard branch but therein lies one problem: Parking. It was really a hassle to find empty parking spots as the area around it is just jam 24/7. In the end, we parked at a further spot near the banks.

Environment: Umaiya overall environment is similiar to all the usual japanese sushi chains such as sushi king, sakae sushi etc. There is the usual conveyor belt with tables around it and other independent seats. Chef was making sushi and showing off his mad seafood-cutting skills just as usual in front of the belt. However, since its a weekday night, they dim certain areas where there is no customers.

Cleanliness:
No complains on my side.

Service: Waiters were very helpful and polite. They smiled and say thank you a lot, which was a pleasant experience. Although being foreigners, they english skills were not that good. Such as they didnt get my request for desserts to be brought out first etc. But that is not such huge of an issue anyhow.

Price: Umaiya errs on being on the more expensive side. Their noodles and sushis is priced around RM20++ range. Quite spicy considering that other japanese restaurants chain charge only RM10++ for this 2 items.

Food: Sushi Roll wrapped with Unagi and Avocado (RM 25)
It was GOOD. Unaqi was wrapped neatly outside and the avocado taste just blends well with it. The unagi was good, soft, juicy and tender. Beneath the layers was crabmeat and this crispy thing which i could not guess. Sauce was just right as well, not too littlee and not too much till covering the taste of other ingredients. Overall the flavour of the sushi is textured and really delicious. Chicken Floss Sushi (RM 6)
While it doesnt look appetising on the front, this was actually a really good sushi as well. The chicken floss on the exterior actualy blends well with the ingredients (eg cucumber, egg pieces) inside. I initially thought it would just taste plain weird but its not at all haha. Kudos to the highly skilled chef for a good dish though. Red bean dessert (RM7)
This was just ordered on impulse due to cravings for red bean haha. The dessert was thick and there are 2 "tang yuan" / glutinious ball inside. Inside the ball, to my delight, is oozing out sesame paste which was just plain delicious. My only complain would be that there is too little tang yuan haha. They should have at least 4 of em!

Overall, Umaiya was a good experience and the hefty price tag in my opinion was justifiable