Coré, Tropicana Avenue: Korean Cuisine

Coré is a modern Korean restaurant located in Tropicana Avenue. The restaurant has a chic, relaxed vibe, thanks to the understated, minimalist interior.

Taking centrestage on the menu is jijimi, which is essentially Korean pancake with different fillings. Jijimi is made by pan-frying a mixture of seafood, meat and vegetables in oil with a thick batter made from flour and eggs.

Here at Coré, you will find jijimi such as haemul pajeon (spring onion and seafood), kimchi jijimi (kimchi, spring onion, seafood), dongtae jijimi (pollock fish), saewoo jijimi (prawn), dubu jijimi (organic tofu), gogi wanja jijimi (pork, chive, carrot, onion), phogo gogi wanja (shitake mushroom, pork) and nockdu jijimi (mung bean, beansprout, pork). We recommend the Jijimi Modum (RM88 for large, RM48 for small), a platter featuring an assortment of jijimi, for a taste of all the different jijimi on offer. According to Coré's Korean owner, Ben, jijimi is eaten during the festive season and the perfect accompaniment to jijimi is a cold glass of makgeolli. Geonbae 건배!

On the menu, you will also find salads and grilled meats as well as Korean rice bowls, noodles and stews.

If you love Korean fried chicken, the chances are you'll probably love the Maewoon pork galbi (RM45) too! The pork ribs is marinated with a Korean spicy marinade, then braised until tender, and finally shallow fried before serving with crispy rice cake (tteokbokki).

We're big fans of Korean BBQ (especially grilled pork!), so Baby D absolutely loved the Gang Daenjang samyup ssam (RM38) here at Coré. To enjoy, simply place the grilled crispy pork belly with bean paste (doenjang), crispy garlic, chilli and rice on the lettuce leaf. So yummy!

We also tried two of the rice bowls, the Bulgogi dupbab (RM28) and Jangjorim butter dupbab (RM28). For the bulgogi dupbab, the rice is topped with beef bulgogi, thinly sliced sauteed marinated sirloin beef as well as julienned carrots and fresh lettuce. The Jangjorim butter dupbab was something new to us  - rice is topped with scrambled egg, French butter and braised beef in soy sauce. The rice bowls come with a serving of hot soup.

Book your table online here:

Opening hours: Lunch 12pm - 3pm; Dinner 5.30pm - 10pm. Closed on Mondays.

Location: Coré, P-G-10 Tropicana Avenue, 12 Persiaran Tropicana, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. (Parking RM1 for first 3 hours).

Tel: 03-7494 3801


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Ara Vietnamese Noodles, Damansara Jaya

Recently, we were in the Damansara Uptown area, and when dinner time arrived, we were craving for a hot bowl of noodles, so we decided to visit Ara Vietnamese Noodles. Despite the restaurant being very busy, the service was fast.

On the menu here, you will find authentic homecooked Vietnamese dishes at affordable prices, including noodles and rice dishes.

We ordered two bowls of Pho Bo (RM9), Vietnamese beef noodles topped with tender slices of beef. The soup was flavorful, a very enjoyable bowl of noodles. Price is very reasonable too! We also added-on beef balls (6 pieces) (RM6.50) for the kids.

Hubby had the Braised pork and egg with coconut water served with rice (RM10), also known as com thit kho nuoc dua. The pork was tender and delicious. If you would like to make this at home, you can check out my recipe here.

We also shared the Fresh spring rolls with prawns (RM6) / goi cuon - nice and fresh!

Vietnamese drip coffee (hot) (RM5)

Menu at Ara Vietnamese Noodles

Opening hours: 10am - 3pm; 5.30pm - 9pm. Closed on Mondays.

Price: Total bill RM53.50 (including 3 drinks).


Location: Ara Vietnamese Noodles, 45, Jalan SS 22/11, Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia (Street parking available).


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Amaseena Dubai: Pop-Up Restaurant at The Westin Langkawi Resort

From 17 June until 31 August 2019, Tide Restaurant at The Westin Langkawi Resort & Spa will be transformed into a pop-up restaurant for one of Dubai's top restaurants, Amaseena. Guests will be taken on a gastronomic journey with flavors and scents of the Middle East with the Amaseena food promotion, The Scents of Arabian Nights.

The creative team from the acclaimed Amaseena from The Ritz Carlton, Dubai will be showcasing century old, authentic Arabic favorites for the first time in Langkawi. Amaseena means ‘by night’ and is currently on TripAdvisor's Top 10 out of over nine thousand restaurants in the Middle East.

The menu for this promotion will reflect the rich culture, flavors and cooking methods of Arabic, Irianian/Persian, Israeli, Assyrian, Kurdish, Cypriot and Turkish cuisines with its unique ingredients and spices.

We had the pleasure of experiencing Amaseena's cuisine during our stay at The Westin Langkawi. The flavours were incredible, we loved everything from start to finish. Chef Zaid Waleed from Amaseena was our host for the evening, explaining all the dishes as they are whizzed out of the kitchen and onto our table.

To start, we were presented with an assortment of salads and mezze. The vibrant colours of the appetizers were wonderfully enticing and each dish had its distinctive flavour and texture. For the salads, we had the Itch Armenian salad (traditional Armenian tabbouleh with grilled gems, chilli and pomegranate) and fattoush (fresh vegetable and herbs salad with pomegranate dressing and crispy pita bread).

The mezze platter was my favourite (see above pic), with baba ghanoush, hummus, eggplant moutabal, muhamarah and beetroot moutabal, savoured with the warm pita bread. Super tasty, perfect for whetting our appetites.

The pide was right up BabySumoKids alley. Pillowy soft Turkish flat bread is topped with three kinds of cheese - Turkish, Arabic and local (Dubai) cheese.

The highlight of our meal was the Amaseena Signature 1 meter grill, an impressive meat and seafood platter - a feast fit for a king. You will get half a lobster, charmoula tiger prawns, lamb chops, lamb kofta, chicken shish tawok (in their special garlic sauce) and grilled vegetables. Everything was delicious; we especially loved the lamb chops which is simply marinated with nutmeg, olive oil and salt and cooked on the grill, until the meat is melt-in-the-mouth tender.

Other worthwhile main courses here are the Cherry kebab (Aleppo Lamb kufta cooked with cherry sauce) and Beef Kufta Tabrizi (Persian kufta cooked with stuffed dried fruits and nuts, tamarind, turmeric and saffron served with cherry rice).

For dessert, we had the Cream kunafa (with cardamom syrup and pistachio ice cream) and Pistachio mafroki (roasted pistachio puree stuffed with cream, served with rose water milk sauce). A sweet end to a fantastic meal!

To top it all off, we also caught a beautiful sunset from the restaurant.

The Scents of Arabian Nights promotion at Tide Restaurant is available nightly from 7pm to 11pm, from June 17 to August 31, 2019. For reservations, call +604 960 8888 or email dining.langkawi@westin.com.


Price: from RM40 onwards.

Location: The Westin Langkawi Resort & Spa, Jalan Pantai, Jalan Dato Syed Omar, 07000 Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia.

Tel: 04-960 8888



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Unicorn Cafe, Melaka - Authentic Nyonya Food

My girl loves all things unicorn, so when I came across a restaurant in Melaka called "Unicorn Cafe", my interest was piqued. Turns out this restaurant, which is located in Taman Melaka Raya serves Nyonya food so we headed there for lunch after checking out from our hotel.

It must have been our lucky day as we scored a parking space right in front of the restaurant, which is on a rather busy street. There was only one other table when we arrived, so service was fast but the place filled up rather quickly after 12.30pm. Talk about good timing!

The menu at Unicorn Cafe consists of Peranakan favourites such as satay Nyonya, babi asam, chili garam ikan, babi pongteh, otak-otak and more. We ordered a few dishes to share and it turned out to be a great meal!

Our favorite Nyonya appetizer - pai tee (RM5 for 5 pieces) served in a cute metal tray. Prepared to order, so the shells were wonderfully crisp and warm, filled with a moist and flavorful filling of thinly sliced vegetables and omelette, with a spicy chilli served on the side. Really tasty!

Nyonya popiah (RM4) was excellent too, a thin crepe filled with jicama, diced beancurd and assorted vegetables.

Other must-try dishes here are the Nyonya laksa (RM6.50) and Mee siam (RM6.50). The mee siam in particular was really popular with the other diners.

The Nyonya Laksa was very good!

For the kids, we ordered the Ayam pongteh (RM9.50) as it is a non-spicy dish. This comes with rice and vege of the day. This chicken stew was flavorful, with lots of gravy made using taucheo, potatoes and Chinese mushroom.

For dessert, we highly recommend the Cendol Melaka (RM4.50), which I feel is the best cendol we've ever tried in Melaka. What makes this really special (and delicious) is the thick coconut cream poured over the finely shaved ice, which gives it a really creamy and rich flavour. It also comes with thick gula melaka sauce, more coconut milk, cendol strands and red beans. So so good!

We also had the Unicorn affogato (RM4.50), made using aromatic local coffee and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Operating hours: 9.30am to 4.30pm daily. Closed on Thursdays.

Service: Good.

Price: Total bill RM40.50

Location: Unicorn Cafe, 43 Jalan Melaka Raya 11, Taman Melaka Raya, Melaka (Street parking available).

Tel: 016-342 5365


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Bahn Mi Cafe, Bukit Jalil, KL: Vietnamese Food

I love Vietnamese food! When our favourite Viet place closed down, I was devastated and was determined to find another place that serves good banh mi. This fairly new Vietnamese restaurant in Bukit Jalil, Banh Mi Cafe, came onto our radar recently. They have two other outlets in Puchong.

The menu features Vietnamese street food favourites such as banh mi, pho, bun bo, bun cha, bo kho, Vietnamese coffee and more, at pocket-friendly prices.

This is what we came for - the Banh Mi Thit Heo (RM8.80) - banh mi filled with grilled pork, coriander, pickled carrots and radish, and cucumber. The baguette was great - nice and crusty on the outside and soft and airy on the inside. The bread dough is made from scratch every morning using traditional Vietnamese techniques and ingredients. They were also generous with the grilled pork, tender with a sweetish glaze. It would be more satisfying though if this banh mi also came with egg (they have an option to add on egg, so we will do that next time). Overall it was a good banh mi and I spy a lot of other variety on their menu.

We also had the Goi Cuon Tom (RM5.90), fresh spring rolls with prawn. A nice fresh appetizer, served with a creamy peanut sauce.

I also had the Pho Bo (RM12.90), Vietnamese beef noodles. The portion was huge, and comes with noodles, and two types of beef - beef sirloin and beef brisket. The beef sirloin was still slightly pink when served, so it was nice and tender when eaten. The soup was flavorful, though I still prefer the one I had here.

Caramel custard (RM3.90) dessert for Hubby - with Vietnamese coffee poured over.

We enjoyed our meal here, and would definitely return when the craving for banh mi hits again.

Opening times: 10.30am to 10pm.

Price: Total bill RM32.65.

Location: Banh Mi Cafe, 2, Jalan Jalil Jaya 1, Jalil Link, Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Limited paid street parking available)

Tel: 03-8999 2272


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