D'Dream Cafe (Moved) New Location

Spending years collecting priceless collectibles from all over the world, a young man with lasting persistency to one day share his precious with fans and others who love and adore the work of late Japanese artist Fujiko Fujio begins his journey to fulfill both the love for Japanese anime ambassador, Doraemon and food, in particular the Taiwan food. I cannot be more exciting when Open Rice decided to host a review session at the D’ Dream café. A name that is pretty cliché for a café but nonetheless holds significant meaning to the owner himself. With his ever burning passion, Nicholas insisted on delivering the best and the finest possibly served to his customers as a token of gratitude in return for their support and love for his dishes. Believing in meeting his own expectations and being part of a place where he can share and exhibits his precious collections.Crafting the most significant dish ever to characterized the representative dishes of Taiwan cuisine, the menu is charming as itself to ease customers when it comes to picking their food. Before I get loose and out of control and side tracked myself to the collectibles in the café display itself, let’s focus on the spotlight here, their dishes. Like I’ve mentioned, typical Taiwan signature dishes as the outcome from the love of those dishes by Nicholas himself. Typical ones except the Oyster Mee suah which I thought would definitely be on the menu. Alas, no mee suah whatsoever and the closest you get to that is their Ramen. The Deep Fried Pork Ramen here sells at an affordable price of RM 7.50 and is superbly suitable for solo dinners.And don’t forget the Braised Beef Ramen (RM 9) whereby the soup was lovely and especially amazing on raining days. The café take pride in MSG free preparation and Nicholas manages everything right from scratch. The texture of the ramen wasn’t something we can shout about or highly recommend especially if you have tasted authentic ones in Taiwan itself. Subjected to personal preferences still, some prefer softer texture while others like it al dente. It was nothing close to my liking and it seriously reminds me of spaghetti.If you are typical type where rice is a must, then the Braised Pork Rice is a must. The braised pork bedding on the white rice was nicely cooked and had the texture that I really fancy. A well balanced of lean and fat as well as not over minced making it crucially blending so well with the texture of white rice. It was smooth like you almost can’t taste the chunks of fats but instead it was mildly prevailing in forms of moist. Not to mention it came with really cute processed fish cake with my favourite cartoon print on it. I thought the angry bird fish cake I had in Celup was impressive, until this one.If that haven’t got enough meat in your diet, there is the Three Cups Phoenix Rice which sells at RM 7.50. It was an impressive price but underwhelming when it comes to the taste of this dish. On first taste, chicken pongteh instantly came to mind and subsequent bites went numb from the overpowering brine when eating the chicken without white rice. But when having it with rice, it was close to amazing if you didn’t mind the lack of plants in your meal.Taiwan is popular for their street snack and while you are here and focusing a hundred percent on their food, then I highly recommend their bites. I do think that they score fairer than the main dishes. Starting with the Golden French Fries, which is definitely worth the price to pay for RM 5 would serve a good sharing portion which is irresistibly addictive. And did I mention food was served really slowly, hence making these bites essential if not admiring on the range of collections. Served hot and topped with generous sour plum powder which is honestly redundant if you asked me. The deep fried sweet potato strips were perfect on their own. Lightly coated with flour and deep fried for that promising finish of crunchiness on the outside and velvet smooth and soft texture of young sweet potato on the inside.While the sweet potato tantalizes the taste bud, the Golden QQ Ball did not meet up to expectations albeit the effort of the beautiful colour. It was a pleasant vision but disappointing palate. QQ in general speaks as chewy or bouncy but it was neither and slightly tough on the outside.Other interesting bites includes the savoury choices of Pop Corn Chicken and Stewed Bean Curd each selling at RM 6 and RM 5 respectively. Both absolutely ambrosial and perfect for sharing, and great as bud teasing appetisers. The chicken bites were lovely and crunchy with tasty spice powder and basil you can never have enough of this.The stewed bean curd appeared ordinary and somewhat bland in presentation but was obviously deceiving at a glance. Upon the first bite, feel the moist and sweetness oozing from inside the bean curd pieces while the gravy nicely compliments the mild flavour of soy bean of bean curd.Lastly the Herbal Jelly Milk with very refreshing grass jelly nicely swimming inside cold milk or their Fruit Tea which is one of the nice ones I’ve tried around this area. The fruit tea is something worth recommending since generous amount of ingredients and efforts were put into it. Once again, the pricing was reasonable at RM 4.90 and RM 6.50(hot)/RM 6.90(cold) respectively for a standard tall glass which could serve 2-3 people.This café is a must visit for all Doraemon fan. It is absolutely worth paying a visit where you get to admire and really appreciate many collectible pieces of which some are very limited editions collected from all over the world .Nicholas himself is a fan and have been collecting since he was 9 years old. I have not in my entire life meet anyone else as indulging as he is and I truly respect him for his passion and love to the robot cat. Since this place is managed by 2 staffs only, expect delay in between dishes which is why reservation is highly recommended so they can prepare prior to arrival whilst ensuring the best of quality in their food. continue reading

Doraemon is a very popular cartoon character from Japan. The proprietor of Restaurant D’Dream Café located at 70A, 1st Floor, Jalan SS2/60, Petaling Jaya (North), 47300 have decided to make Doraemon as its main theme. Although the theme is Japanese, this café serves authentic Taiwanese street food. There are more than 800 plus Doraemon collectibles item in the shop but the owner confesses to having more than 3,000 plus collectibles at his home and it has taken him more than 30 years to amaze such a collection from all over the world. He sees this as sharing his passion on this little cartoon character.If you are a fan of Doraemon, this little café is a must visit for you to feast your eyes and your tummy with some Taiwanese street food at the same time.The first dish we sampled that night was the Minced Pork Rice With Doraemon Surimi. According to the owner they used a mixture of special grain rice which tasted a little hard and a little salty but combined with the minced pork it was a nice starter for the night. The next dish served is the Three-cup Phoenix. It is actually a chicken dish cooked with ginger much like Ginger Chicken that a new mother would take during confinement. Of course that version, you would probably use sesame oil to cook it, which is much more flavourful. Normally this dish is served with white rice at this restaurant Our next course was the Red-Braised Beef with Ramen. Although not the best beef ramen that I have tasted I would give this a thumb up as the broth was very flavourful. It would have been better had the chef put in a little bit more meat to goes with the noodle.Snack foods are very popular street food. Popcorn chicken is the first snack food to be served to us. If you have been to Taiwan, then you would be familiar with the crispy fried chicken of Shilin (most popular place for street food). This tasted similar except it is flavoured with a dash of spice and pepper (reddish orange powder). The addition of the basil leaves adds to the fragrant chicken cubes. Nice bite size and easy to eat too.Bean Curd is a very challenging dish to cook. In Taiwan the popular bean curd is, the smelly bean curd “Chow Tau Foo” but unfortunately this is not the type serves here. The bean curd serves is the fried version and added on to it, is the meat topping with gravy. Tasty wise it was quite bland although the bean curd was still quite crisp.The star of the night had to be this dish i.e. the Sweet Potato Fries with Sour Plum Powder. It is a simple dish which was made out of fried sweet potato fries. It was crunchy and was sweet (the chef choosing the right type of sweet potato) and added the sour plum powder which is salty, this dish really raised up your taste bud. Once you start your first fries, it is difficult to stop. It is very addictive.For desert we had the pearl milk tea which is slightly different from those that you get from other tea shop. Here, the tea is very mild and the taste of milk very much stronger.And the last snack food for the night is the Bouncy Golden Sweet Potato Balls. This again is slightly different from other version in that, it is hollow inside i.e. no filling. The outer layer is fried to a hard gluey crust and when you bite, it tends to stick to your teeth – not a very nice feeling though. If you plan to throw a party for your kid on a Doraemon theme, this is the place to go.FC HongEditor of Best Restaurant To Eat – http://BestRestaurantToEat.blogspot.com continue reading

Sometimes, a food joint attracts patrons to their establishment by way of their theme.I would say D'Dream Cafe is one such place.From the exterior of the building that it's located at, it seems just like your normal, regular, business-as-usual place; but once you step inside the cafe, you'll immediately recognize the world that the owner transport you to.It's the fantasy world of Doraemon - the blue robotic cat from the future that has grown to more than just being an icon in Japan.As can be clearly seen around the whole cafe, the owner is a much avid fan of Doraemon ever since he was a child and has a very large collection of Doraemon items and memorabilia.The items displayed around the shop are just a small portion of his entire collection which the rest are in his home.Surrounded with Doraemon related things, we entered into a cozy room that feels like a bedroom atmosphere to savor the dishes in this place.Taiwanese food is what is served here and our first dish was the only dish that we ate that has something that goes along with the Doraemon theme:It's the Minced Pork Rice. On the dish where the minced pork is piled in the middle on top of the rice with vegetables making a circle around it also lies some Doraemon shaped Fish Cakes. The fish cakes may proved adorable to be decorated in the dish but in terms of taste provided zero influence. But then again, the main thing in this dish IS the minced pork since that is what it's named. It costs a mere RM5 for it.We then tried the "Three Cup Phoenix" minus the rice:No doubt, the chicken may be tender and nicely cooked, yet it still requires the dish to be consumed with rice. Else it will be too salty to be eaten on it's own. Of course, this is a portion of just the chicken for us to taste. It's usually served with rice or ramen in a dish with the price of RM7.50.The next thing that we tried is the Red-Braised Beef with Ramen: continue reading

Fruit Tea PunchInhouse made Fruit Tea Punch finally kicks in to round up the night’s feast. The drink is actually very refreshing indeed amidst the nice scent of the fruits. I really relish the citrusy aroma from this chilled drink. As inquisitiveness gets the better of me, I finally enquire about the ingredients of the beverage where the debonair chef later shares that the tea base used is of green tea from Taiwan, before adding in the tiny bites of assorted fruits that includes green apple and orange. I find it very salubrious as minimal flavoring is involved. This reminds me of the equally wholesome drink of Minty Lemongrass Punch from Zang Toi West 57th Street Café. continue reading

想走入Doreamon 世界吗？大家不妨到D Dream Cafe 来。店里摆放着整800 多种Doreamon 係列的玩偶、画像，等等应有尽有，让食客们眼前一亮为之惊叹。店主说店内的Doreamon 产品多共食客欣赏，绝不售卖。店主林少辉可是用了整30 年的心血四外寻觅收集才有如此大收获。店内食谱以台湾美食为主，如三杯鸡饭，滷肉饭，盐酥鸡饭，超大香鸡排，红烧牛肉拉面等等，当然也有台湾式奶茶，水果茶和果冻。价钱很大众化。 continue reading