Being relatively stuck in PJ, I have never actually ventured to Balakong. Well, in my old university days, I remembered Balakong as the place for Jusco where I usually watch movies at the cinema. This time round, I came here and realized that there are so many cafes here and one of them is Restaurant Red Gold Steamboat that looks like a kopitiam. There is one a/c room inside. This place has been opened for 13 years so being still there in the F&B industry means that their food should be good. I thought that this is a new cafe, when I first arrived. It is a 'no-nonsense' place. When I arrived at 2.30 pm, the place was still teeming with the Sunday late lunch crowd as the relative of the young boss, Mr Steven Tan, has been operating the Yong Tau Foo business for over 30 years elsewhere in the vicinity. Later on, they operates in the day time at this place because the "Dai Chao" is only opened at 4.30 pm onwards. Even so, the opening hours is quite special for it is opened at 4.30-11.30 pm every day whereas the Yong Tau Foo with noodles opens at 7.30am-4.30 pm every day. The afternoon shift sells Da Chao and also steamboat. The steamboat costs RM 17.80 for a set for 1 pax. 98% of the steamboat ingredients are homemade because Steven is also a seafood supplier. 

The first dish are giant Prawn Mantis with 'Pei Fong Tong', a famous Hong Kong cooking stye. This I can tell you, is my top favourite here. It is not everywhere that we can find prawn mantis. They are so fresh, succulent, juicy, fat and delicious. They have also cooked it in a very unique way, that is, with a lot of deep fried chai poh, spread all over, thereby contributing to the aroma of the dish. The Prawn Mantis costs RM 15 for each piece and there is a minimum order of 2 pieces. If you ever come here, never forget to order this and I guarantee you will leave satisfied! But make sure you master the technique of opening the prawn mantis from the tail. Eating this today, has brought about reminisce of my childhood prying open the small prawn mantis at home. The Fish Head Claypot is cooked with spring onions and ginger, resulting in a wonderful aroma that covers the smell of fish. Thankfully, most places would have cooked this with a lot of salt but not the chef here. I love this fish and wanted to eat more but could not because had to keep for the others. Though the fish looks simple, do not be deceived because it is actually from the giant Dragon Garoupa, a sea water fish, swimming alive in the aquarium. This costs more than RM 30 whereby every 100 g costs RM 10. The price is determined by the weight of fish. The boss showed me the real fish later and I was so shocked by the sheer size! Hong Kong Style Steamed Clams with Octopus (S: RM 30, M: RM 50, L: RM 70) were quite big. The clams are also alive, in the aquarium. The clams are cooked with a lot of ginger and chillies so much so that they are enough to rid of the fishy taste. The octopus is so fresh and delicious. There is no taste of sand or mud inside the clams. I also credit the chef for not making this dish salty and muddy as per tasted elsewhere. The Crab Claypot with Deep Fried Pork Fat is another signature dish here. If you are a big fan of deep fried pork fat, you would go gaga over this dish. The crabs here are so fantastic, fresh, hard. The shell is also so hard. One can almost feel the freshness with every bite. Do come here if you like crabs a lot. It costs RM 72 per kg and definitely worth every penny. The Fried Rice (RM 15) is simple and fragrant, with a yellowish colour that makes it look like pineapple rice. There are a few tiny prawns. I also like the fact that the fried rice is not too oily. The Pork Intestine (S: RM 15, M: RM 25, L: RM 35) are the best I have ever had in my life because they used a very special cooking style that managed to cover the smell of intestine. It is cooked with garlic using Hong Kong style and a bit of chillis and dried shrimp. The intestine parts are made a little crispy, small and tasty, It is cooked with cili padi and the result is simply amazing in terms of taste and smell. If you like organs of pig, you should order this. The next dish is Dragon Leaves (S: RM 15, M: RM 25, L: RM 35) with 3 types of mushrooms that are shimeji, jade mushroom and fresh mushroom. The dish has a little too much oil perhaps because they wanted to make it look tasty and shiny in the photo. This is my other favourite vegetable dish due to the combination of my favourites. After that, we had another star dish, the Salted Egg Crab (RM 80) whereby the lightly fried crabs are covered thoroughly with creamy non-oily salted egg sauce. The crab taste permeates my entire soul and I felt like I were in crab heaven. The crab legs are so fresh and hard. The sauce goes very well with the lightly fried and non-oily mantou which has pockets that deep enough to withstand the thick sauce. If a person who dislikes salted egg like me, say this is delicious, then you can be 100% sure of the taste that manages to satisfy me who is very fussy when it comes to anything with salted egg. The Prawn Sauce Fried Pork (S: RM 18, L: RM 36) has crispy edges and the middle is retained. It goes well with their accompanying sauce that is slightly sweet and not overly sweet. The Deep Fried Fish Cake that is made in a round shape is the BEST one I have ever had. It sounds cliche, but come on, I am again someone who dislikes fish cakes so believe me when I say this is tasty. The skin is very thin and though deep fried, it retains the soft insides as springy and not too hard. They used true blue 100% Ikan Parang. The fish cake is best eaten with their non-oily sambal which makes me happy. I am from Penang so I can never take it whenever KL kopitiam and restaurants serve me the oily version of sambal. There are seafood promotions all the time. The current promotion is for oysters whereby if we buy 1 dozen of raw oysters for RM 9 each, we can get 6 free oysters which bring the cost to RM 6 per oyster. The oysters are fresh, big and soft and all imported from California. The owner said that Malaysian oysters are not fresh, too small and may contain toxic from the factories. They serve the oysters with big bottles of tabasco. Check out my video on oysters today : 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUjFZPjL3Ac&feature=youtu.be

(more photos in my facebook) 

Cubs and Cups is a community cafe that is very unique as it is catered for those with dogs. Not many cafes and restaurants allow dogs to be brought in. There are many house rules on the wall, such as owners need to pick up after their pets and are not allowed to bring in aggressive pets and that if dogs are unleashed, they need to be guarded by the owners.
There are two big husky dogs, Nachos and Mocha that are owned by the Korean owners. They roam around as the cafe is their playground and home. One of them wear a diaper, to prevent them from pooing everywhere. They roam on the upper ground and mingle with all customers who are definitely dog lovers. The darker fur husky that is older has less energy and lies in the middle of the place.
I like playing with the puppies and dogs here. I especially like the puppies belonging to other customers such as terriers, pomeranians, spaniels and shih tzu. They all roam around freely but some are a bit shy because they do not know who are the customers.
The other good part about this place is the tasty food at affordable prices. When it comes to taste, we can be rest assured if we have a team of Koreans at the kitchen and as barrista. The Hazelnut Latte (RM 13) was quite delicious with hazelnut taste inside. The heart on the foam is slightly not that perfect. There was a special offer of a free pink lemonade with any LIKE on their Facebook page and order of any drinks.
We love the Churro Waffles (RM 20) that are coated in sugar and served with little caramel and chocolate sauce. The waffles are sweet, crispy and delicious to be eaten like finger food.
The Avocado Pizza (RM 28) is also quite special. Since to me, avocado is tasteless, I requested for them to add in pepperoni at RM 3 which made it more filling. The pizza is very thin and crispy and was still tasty even after it was cold. It was done like classic Italian pizza.
I am definitely coming back here as it is a fantastic place to make friends and to get rid of loneliness.

My friend have always liked the food here. This cafe is opened by China owners. 

There were not many people here despite it being 7.30 pm on a Saturday night. 

It seems like all Sichuan food here are served in mini works.

Fried Mushrooms in Mini Wok (RM 26) has a wonderful mix of 2 types of mushrooms that are the wood mushrooms that come in strands and also white abalone type mushrooms that are cooked together with chili oil, onion, spring onions and sliced garlic. I love this dish the most. 

Stir Fried Wok China Duck (RM 36) is also served in a wok. The duck are a bit too hard for my liking. It is cooked with a lot of red and green chillies and also chilli oil and onions and strips of radish. 

We ordered the Sichuan Spicy Fish (RM 43) that is not as spicy as expected by my friend who ate here before. Previously, it was so spicy to the extent that it burns the lips. The fish pieces are inside in a sea of soup. I felt the fish was ok but I guess my friend had higher expectation due to previous eating experience there. The price is also much more expensive that the Sichuan restaurant in SS14. 

The Pig Stomach in Mini Wok (RM 30) is one that we had never ordered in the first place but the waitress forgot and still served it to us. Luckily 2 of my friends like to eat pig stomach hence they did not feel the smelly smell of the organ. For me, I like pig stomach cooked in Bak Kut Teh but not this as the horrible smell still lingers. 

Our dessert was Deep Fried Yam cooked with Maple Syrup (RM 17.60). The deep fried yam are dipped into iced water to melt the hardened maple syrup so that it tastes better in the mouth. This is the other dish that I liked as the chef has a specific way of making this.

Sichuan food should not be consumed every day due to the load of chilli oil used in the cooking which makes it less healthy.  

FINALLY I got the chance to dine at Tomoe. My university roomate once told me about how great the sushi in Tomoe is. Suddenly, today, my friend decided to bring me there.

Tomoe has genuine Japanese food as the chef is Japanese. Hence, many Japanese guests come due to this originality. Due to Japanese culture whereby they can smoke everywhere so it was a little disturbing for my nose when there were people smoking inside an exclusive restaurant.

My friend ordered the Awayuki Sashimi (RM 60) that contains Jyo Akami (Special Tuna), Kanpachi (Amber Jack), Salmon and Tako (Octopus). The sashimi slices are very thick, fresh and air-flown from Japan. In fact, Amber Jack melts in my mouth very easily. 

After that, we ordered the California Maki (RM 15) - the only cheapest maki in the menu as it only has vegetables and avocado. I felt there is not much to shout about for this dish. 

My personal favourite is the Double Boiled Soup (RM 25) which was served in a small antique traditional teapot together with 2 small teacups. Inside the soup, there are shitake mushroom, shimeji, chicken, 1 big prawn. This is very sweet and natural from the chicken being cooked for a long time. 

The only downside is that the portions here are a tad too little. I felt that Yuzu has a wider range of food with huge portions for the set meals and is sold at almost only RM 45+++. 

We also ordered the Kimuchi Itame (beef) (RM 25)  that is sliced very thinly and stir fried together with onions, cabbage, carrot, mini xiao pak choy. It would have been better if they gave us more sauce as per shown in the photo. We ordered white rice (Gohan) for a whopping RM 6! 

The Hirame Karaage (RM 15) is actually deep fried flounders' fish which has a lot of bones.  Moreover, my friend even choked after eating this due to too many small bones. The fish flesh is very tender and soft and fresh. The fish is covered with salt. One has to be very careful when eating this. This is actually seasonal and is written with hand on their whiteboard menu. 

The Mixed Ice-cream of matcha and also black sesame (goma) is sold at RM 18. The black sesame is very intense and has a strong flavour. This is served with a little red bean paste. This is the best combo of Japanese ice-cream as it combines two of the most famous Japanese flavours that are Goma and Matcha. It is considered a match made in heaven. 

I just discovered the Olive Garden Restaurant in Mid Valley mall. I was drawn inside by the waiter who informed us that any main dish can get free unlimited soup or House Salad. Everything is served together with grated cheese. 

I ordered the Five Cheese Ziti Pasta (RM 29.90) which is very cheesy with tiny minced meat sprinkled on top with grated cheese. The pasta is simple yet quite good. 

With this al dente pasta, we could get a free soup that comes together with soft bread. The bread is even better than the one at Dominos and Pizza Hut. The best part is also the bread is not oily. 

We could have a choice of 3 soups but of course me being the food reviewer, I tried all of them that are Pasta e Fagioli, Alfredo Chicken and Gnocchi and also Minestrone. If not for this promotion, each soup would have cost RM 11.80 per soup. The Pasta e Fagioli is a tad too salty for me with beans, onions, beef, tomato and pasta. 

Alfredo Chicken and Gnocchi soup is just normal with a bit too much cream. There are pieces of chicken and carrot inside with cream. 

The Minestrone is so delicious with no cream. There are shell type pasta inside together with capsicum, carrot, carrot. The soup is not as salty as the first one. 

I thought that every Italian place has great coffee so I ordered the Cappuccino (RM 8.90) but it turned out to be terrible that I could not even finish it. There was simply too much foam and bubbles inside and not taste of coffee at all. 

The other main dish I ordered is the Shrimp Aglio Olio (RM 28.90) which was done al dente and not even oily. There are cooked it together with capcicum cubes and has 4 big prawns. 

With this main dish, we could order the unlimited House Salad which comes served in enormous glass bowl. The salad contains fresh green salad vegetables and croutons, shredded carrots and purple cabbage. 

The Hot Chocolate looks tasty but I was not sure about the taste because I have no chance to try it. The Lipton Iced Tea (RM 9.90) was too sweet.