Shobana's Kerala Kitchen, PJ: Banana Leaf Rice

Earlier last month, the BLR gang gathered at Shobana's Kerala Kitchen in PJ for our monthly banana leaf rice outing. Shobana's used to house May and Mike's and one of our founding members had dined there once before and approved of their food.

Shobana's still serve authentic Malayalee cuisine and the signature dishes from the previous establishment and apparently the cook never left, so the taste of the food should still be the same.

As soon as you're seated, the servers will place banana leaves in front of you. You can choose between white rice, Indian rice or chapati and the rest of the dishes are on display at the side of the restaurant as well as written on the blackboard. We had three banana leaf rice sets (RM8 each), which comes with three types of vegetables, mango chutney, rice and a choice from two curries (chicken or fish) or dhal. If you want the pickled fried chilli, you will need to request for it. Papadam is chargeable at RM1 per basket, which I found rather unusual as other BLR places give it for free as part of the BLR meal. In comparison to other BLR places, the variety for the set meal seem a little meagre for the price.

The vegetable of the day were spinach, brinjal and cucumber raita, which were thankfully delicious and refillable. The curry sauces were well-spiced and spicier than a lot of other BLR places we've tried.

The kids had the chapati only (RM2.50), which wasn't very enjoyable as it is not made to order, so it was slightly cold and hard.

For sides, we ordered the fish puttu (one of their signatures and must-try dishes - a traditional Keralan dish) (RM7.50), fried chicken (RM7.50) and mutton varuval (RM10.50). I haven't tried fish puttu before.. and I really liked it! At Shobana's, they use mackarel in lieu of shark's meat, which is shredded and mixed with spices, chilli and freshly grated coconut. The kids enjoyed the boneless fried chicken and the mutton varuval were very tasty too, with generous chunks of tender meat.

We were asked to post our experience on FB or Instagram, and our friend did, and we got complimentary masala tea. :)

The restaurant is air-conditioned and the crowd wasn't too overwhelming during our visit, so it's a  pretty nice place to enjoy a leisurely lunch.



Opening times: 11am to 3.30pm. Closed on Mondays.

Price: Total bill RM66.

Location: Shobana's Kerala Kitchen, 357C Jalan 5/57, Petaling Garden, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. (Street parking available)

Tel: 03-7773 0409


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