Janet, the Operations Manager of the newly opened Toast Box café 土司工坊 in Taman Johor Jaya invited me for a visit.
The large corner outlet in Johor Jaya stood out in the busy neighbourhood which is a JB makan hotspot. The outlet is easy to spot as it looks so attractive and inviting. Janet told me that this is the largest Toast Box 土司工坊 outlet in Southeast Asia. (When a big overseas F and B player comes in in such a big way, it's another sign of the thriving JB food scene.)
Inside, the interior décor has an elegant dreamy white theme which is very pleasing to the eye. It reminds me of those trendy wedding studios and there are a few famous ones here in Johor Jaya LOL. I feel light hearted and cheerful just by stepping into the outlet.
Everything is clean, neat and well thought through. Make your order at the counter or at your table from the extensive menu and all your orders will be served to you. This is Toast Box's first full service outlet in the world (imagine that) :D
Traditional Nanyang Kopi RM2.30
First things, first. When in Toast Box, one must of course drink their Nanyang style kopi. I like the medium body and mild flavours of Toast Box's old style kopi.
When I am in Singapore, Toast Box's kopi is one of my preferred options as it is widely available and is consistent in body, taste and flavour across it's outlets. The young staff are well trained.
The coffee beans are roasted right here at the Johor Jaya café with this machine. Only the Johor Jaya café has this roaster - none of the other Toast Box outlets has this, not even in Singapore.
Traditional kaya and butter toast at RM2.30 a set, pairs well with good old kopi.
Toast Box uses the famous Xiao Mei otak otak from Muar for their otah baguette.
The popular otah baguette was a tad dry for my taste. A little moistness would make it perfect for me :D
We tried Toast Box's Chicken Curry with rice (RM7.50). The curry was rich with coconut milk and was mildly spicy. The chicken and potato chunks were nicely tender. I am glad that Janet insists on going the extra mile, using only chilled instead of frozen chicken for this dish - it's just like mum's cooking.
This is like home cooked rice eaten with the chicken curry. We can also choose toasted baguette for dipping in the curry.
Janet was eager for us to try the Singapore style laksa, one of Toast Box's signatures. The laksa gravy is heavy with coconut milk, spices, chili and hae bee hiam (spicy dried shrimps).
Each bowl of laksa comes with two of these large fresh prawns. The shelled prawns really got me sitting up :D
Janet let us try the laksa with popular mee tai mak 老鼠粉. The mee tai mak is slightly chewy and bouncy, and appeals to many people. Call me old fashioned but personally, old school bee hoon still works better with me. Shall ask for bee hoon next time :P
This good laksa at RM7 with two large prawns is such good value, especially in the nice, cosy environment. This laksa at Toast Box, I think is hard to beat.
Toast Box Johor Jaya is a good place to hang out for tête-à-tête with friends. The variety of food and drinks is extensive, competitively priced and the environment is clean and beautiful. Needless to say, there is free wifi LOL
Restaurant name: Toast Box 土司工坊 Johor Jaya Address: No. 2 & 4 Jalan Dedap 13, Taman Johor Jaya, Johor Bahru Map: http://goo.gl/maps/zgJ59 GPS: 1.543071,103.801231 Hours: Monday to Friday from 8:00am to 7:00pm. Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays from 7:30am to 7:00pm. No pork, no lard, no Halal cert
Date visited: 12 Nov 2013
Janet, the Operations Manager of the newly opened Toast Box café 土司工坊 in Taman Johor Jaya invited me for a visit.
The large corner outlet in Johor Jaya stood out in the busy neighbourhood which is a JB makan hotspot. The outlet is easy to spot as it looks so attractive and inviting. Janet told me that this is the largest Toast Box 土司工坊 outlet in Southeast Asia. (When a big overseas F and B player comes in in such a big way, it's another sign of the thriving JB food scene.)
Inside, the interior décor has an elegant dreamy white theme which is very pleasing to the eye. It reminds me of those trendy wedding studios and there are a few famous ones here in Johor Jaya LOL. I feel light hearted and cheerful just by stepping into the outlet.
Everything is clean, neat and well thought through. Make your order at the counter or at your table from the extensive menu and all your orders will be served to you. This is Toast Box's first full service outlet in the world (imagine that) :D
Traditional Nanyang Kopi RM2.30
First things, first. When in Toast Box, one must of course drink their Nanyang style kopi. I like the medium body and mild flavours of Toast Box's old style kopi.
When I am in Singapore, Toast Box's kopi is one of my preferred options as it is widely available and is consistent in body, taste and flavour across it's outlets. The young staff are well trained.
The coffee beans are roasted right here at the Johor Jaya café with this machine. Only the Johor Jaya café has this roaster - none of the other Toast Box outlets has this, not even in Singapore.
Traditional kaya and butter toast at RM2.30 a set, pairs well with good old kopi.
Toast Box uses the famous Xiao Mei otak otak from Muar for their otah baguette.
The popular otah baguette was a tad dry for my taste. A little moistness would make it perfect for me :D
We tried Toast Box's Chicken Curry with rice (RM7.50). The curry was rich with coconut milk and was mildly spicy. The chicken and potato chunks were nicely tender. I am glad that Janet insists on going the extra mile, using only chilled instead of frozen chicken for this dish - it's just like mum's cooking.
This is like home cooked rice eaten with the chicken curry. We can also choose toasted baguette for dipping in the curry.
Janet was eager for us to try the Singapore style laksa, one of Toast Box's signatures. The laksa gravy is heavy with coconut milk, spices, chili and hae bee hiam (spicy dried shrimps).
Each bowl of laksa comes with two of these large fresh prawns. The shelled prawns really got me sitting up :D
Janet let us try the laksa with popular mee tai mak 老鼠粉. The mee tai mak is slightly chewy and bouncy, and appeals to many people. Call me old fashioned but personally, old school bee hoon still works better with me. Shall ask for bee hoon next time :P
This good laksa at RM7 with two large prawns is such good value, especially in the nice, cosy environment. This laksa at Toast Box, I think is hard to beat.
Toast Box Johor Jaya is a good place to hang out for tête-à-tête with friends. The variety of food and drinks is extensive, competitively priced and the environment is clean and beautiful. Needless to say, there is free wifi LOL
Restaurant name: Toast Box 土司工坊 Johor Jaya Address: No. 2 & 4 Jalan Dedap 13, Taman Johor Jaya, Johor Bahru Map: http://goo.gl/maps/zgJ59 GPS: 1.543071,103.801231 Hours: Monday to Friday from 8:00am to 7:00pm. Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays from 7:30am to 7:00pm. No pork, no lard, no Halal cert
My friend Sally Wong suggested in Johor Yummy group that I try the dim sum at Hao Yu in Taman Johor Jaya. "You will not regret it" she said. Actually, Sally didn't say Hao Yu, she only said "Bakawali 91".
Anyway, I went to Jalan Bakawali 91 in Taman Johor Jaya, confident that my food hunting instincts will take me to the right dim sum joint. Well, it wasn't hard at all as Hao You was overflowing with customers on a Thursday morning.
Hao Yu has been serving dim sum for 23 years now, and the second generation MR Cheng is running the shop with the founder in support, in the background.
The staff were friendly and cheerful even though the pace was frenetic.
We picked a nice table along the side walk where I can get good natural light for photo taking and randomly ordered some dim sum for tasting. A rotund Indonesian lady came to take our orders. I stumbled and sputtered with my mangled Mandarin while kak rattled off the Mandarin names of a dozen dim sum in rapid fire. I surrendered and told kak that I will go to the front and order by the most primitive and fool proof method, by pointing :P
So here were what we pointed to :P
This humble tau sah pau was outstanding. When we tear apart the bouncy soft skin, the molten red bean paste glistened in the morning rays, and then the aroma of melted red beans infiltrated the brain's pleasure centres through the nasal cavities. Ignore, the pretentious poetic description, this tau sah pau is shiok lah.
Nice char siew pau. Well marinated and juicy char siew wrapped in soft and fluffy pillow-like skin.
I love Hao Yu's braised fried chicken feet. The feet were tender and has good mouth feel while the braising sauce was savoury with just the right balance of sweetness and saltiness. Average chicken feet tend to be overly salty but not at Hao Yu. The braising sauce was so good, I actually drank it :) I love this.
Minced chicken wrapped in fried tofu skin and then steamed together with braising sauce. By now, I realised that one of the "secrets" of Hao Yu's tasty dim sum is in their savoury braising sauce :)
Chili stuffed with fish cake but it was almost all fish cake. This looked like someone wearing an undersized red top. I prefer my chili pepper full sized :P
Shrimp dumpling, not exquisite but certainly good enough. Shrimp was fresh and skin had just the right bite.
Seeing how popular Hao Yu's congee was among the customers at the kopitiam, we ordered a pork and century egg congee to try. It was good though not much different from other good dim sum places.
It was really funny. In the middle of enjoying our dim sum, a lady and her mum walked up to us and asked "Are you Tony?" It was Sally! LOL that was our first meeting as we have never met before other than on Facebook. Well Sally, I was a pleasure to meet you and I sure didn't regret coming to Bakawali 91 on a Thursday morning. In fact, I need to say a big thank you to you for suggesting to me another good food find :)
Restaurant name: Kedai Makanan Hao Yu Address: Corner kopitiam at the junction of Jalan Bakawali 91 and Bakawali 76 Map: http://goo.gl/maps/lnxrB GPS: 1.539644,103.796424 Hours: 6:00am to 4:00pm (Closed on Sunday) Non Halal
Date visited: 29 Nov 2012
My friend Sally Wong suggested in Johor Yummy group that I try the dim sum at Hao Yu in Taman Johor Jaya. "You will not regret it" she said. Actually, Sally didn't say Hao Yu, she only said "Bakawali 91".
Anyway, I went to Jalan Bakawali 91 in Taman Johor Jaya, confident that my food hunting instincts will take me to the right dim sum joint. Well, it wasn't hard at all as Hao You was overflowing with customers on a Thursday morning.
Hao Yu has been serving dim sum for 23 years now, and the second generation MR Cheng is running the shop with the founder in support, in the background.
The staff were friendly and cheerful even though the pace was frenetic.
We picked a nice table along the side walk where I can get good natural light for photo taking and randomly ordered some dim sum for tasting. A rotund Indonesian lady came to take our orders. I stumbled and sputtered with my mangled Mandarin while kak rattled off the Mandarin names of a dozen dim sum in rapid fire. I surrendered and told kak that I will go to the front and order by the most primitive and fool proof method, by pointing :P
So here were what we pointed to :P
This humble tau sah pau was outstanding. When we tear apart the bouncy soft skin, the molten red bean paste glistened in the morning rays, and then the aroma of melted red beans infiltrated the brain's pleasure centres through the nasal cavities. Ignore, the pretentious poetic description, this tau sah pau is shiok lah.
Nice char siew pau. Well marinated and juicy char siew wrapped in soft and fluffy pillow-like skin.
I love Hao Yu's braised fried chicken feet. The feet were tender and has good mouth feel while the braising sauce was savoury with just the right balance of sweetness and saltiness. Average chicken feet tend to be overly salty but not at Hao Yu. The braising sauce was so good, I actually drank it :) I love this.
Minced chicken wrapped in fried tofu skin and then steamed together with braising sauce. By now, I realised that one of the "secrets" of Hao Yu's tasty dim sum is in their savoury braising sauce :)
Chili stuffed with fish cake but it was almost all fish cake. This looked like someone wearing an undersized red top. I prefer my chili pepper full sized :P
Shrimp dumpling, not exquisite but certainly good enough. Shrimp was fresh and skin had just the right bite.
Seeing how popular Hao Yu's congee was among the customers at the kopitiam, we ordered a pork and century egg congee to try. It was good though not much different from other good dim sum places.
It was really funny. In the middle of enjoying our dim sum, a lady and her mum walked up to us and asked "Are you Tony?" It was Sally! LOL that was our first meeting as we have never met before other than on Facebook. Well Sally, I was a pleasure to meet you and I sure didn't regret coming to Bakawali 91 on a Thursday morning. In fact, I need to say a big thank you to you for suggesting to me another good food find :)
Restaurant name: Kedai Makanan Hao Yu Address: Corner kopitiam at the junction of Jalan Bakawali 91 and Bakawali 76 Map: http://goo.gl/maps/lnxrB GPS: 1.539644,103.796424 Hours: 6:00am to 4:00pm (Closed on Sunday) Non Halal
This roti canai at Restoran Selera Selatan in the Rosmerah area of Taman Johor Jaya was recommended by my friend Sally Wong on Johor Yummy Facebook group. This is the most balanced roti canai stall that I have come across, so far. Frequently, roti canai stalls either have good roti or good curry. Seldom are both the roti and curry equally good. Some of my favourites have great roti but would have been perfect, if their curry was just as good.
Selera Selatan is one of the rare roti canai shops where the great roti is matched with an equally great curry.
The roti was crispy outside and inside it still retained a slight stretchy softness.
Selera Selatan serves a fragrant curry made with lots of vegetables and spices. I have not seen another stall putting so much ingredients in their curry.
The sambal was tasty too with robust anchovy flavour which I liked.
Enche Loy had been making roti canai for over 20 years. Selera Selatan has many regulars of all communities. Many regulars were more like friends of Enche Loy.
The two of us had 3 pieces of kosong which I feel is the best way to taste test a roti :) This was excellent as the charred marks on the skin and the soft insides attest. There was also very little oil on or in the roti.
Look how big Enche Loy spreaded that dough. You can imagine how crispy and fluffy that roti will be when the dough is folded and fried.
We added this "plaster" which was roti kosong topped with a fried egg.
This was nice too - the egg yolk and white gave the roti a nice eggy note. But, I wish they had given this tasty version of roti canai a more attractive name. I just can't associate the word "plaster" with delicious food :)
This is the roti with egg and bawang (chopped onions) which is a popular choice at Selera Selatan besides the kosong.
Selera Selatan opens at 7:00am and closes at 3:00pm but the roti canai is usually sold out by 10:30am, and sometimes as early as 9:00am. The rest of the day, Selera Selatan sells nasi campur.
Restaurant name: Restoran Selera Selatan Address: Jalan Rosmerah 2/13 (opposite Ang's Laksa), Taman Johor Jaya, Johor Bahru Map: http://goo.gl/maps/aAN31 GPS: 1.534345,103.795089 Hours: 7:00am to sold out (usually about 10:30am but sometimes by 9:00am). Closed on Sunday. Halal
This roti canai at Restoran Selera Selatan in the Rosmerah area of Taman Johor Jaya was recommended by my friend Sally Wong on Johor Yummy Facebook group. This is the most balanced roti canai stall that I have come across, so far. Frequently, roti canai stalls either have good roti or good curry. Seldom are both the roti and curry equally good. Some of my favourites have great roti but would have been perfect, if their curry was just as good.
Selera Selatan is one of the rare roti canai shops where the great roti is matched with an equally great curry.
The roti was crispy outside and inside it still retained a slight stretchy softness.
Selera Selatan serves a fragrant curry made with lots of vegetables and spices. I have not seen another stall putting so much ingredients in their curry.
The sambal was tasty too with robust anchovy flavour which I liked.
Enche Loy had been making roti canai for over 20 years. Selera Selatan has many regulars of all communities. Many regulars were more like friends of Enche Loy.
The two of us had 3 pieces of kosong which I feel is the best way to taste test a roti :) This was excellent as the charred marks on the skin and the soft insides attest. There was also very little oil on or in the roti.
Look how big Enche Loy spreaded that dough. You can imagine how crispy and fluffy that roti will be when the dough is folded and fried.
We added this "plaster" which was roti kosong topped with a fried egg.
This was nice too - the egg yolk and white gave the roti a nice eggy note. But, I wish they had given this tasty version of roti canai a more attractive name. I just can't associate the word "plaster" with delicious food :)
This is the roti with egg and bawang (chopped onions) which is a popular choice at Selera Selatan besides the kosong.
Selera Selatan opens at 7:00am and closes at 3:00pm but the roti canai is usually sold out by 10:30am, and sometimes as early as 9:00am. The rest of the day, Selera Selatan sells nasi campur.
Restaurant name: Restoran Selera Selatan Address: Jalan Rosmerah 2/13 (opposite Ang's Laksa), Taman Johor Jaya, Johor Bahru Map: http://goo.gl/maps/aAN31 GPS: 1.534345,103.795089 Hours: 7:00am to sold out (usually about 10:30am but sometimes by 9:00am). Closed on Sunday. Halal
I always like lots of greens with my meals and so when I heard about Spinach Noodle House 菠菜面专卖店 which blends spinach into their noodles, I immediately decided that I must try this.
We were expecting a buzzing restaurant as Spinach Noodle House is, after all, located in Taman Johor Jaya - one of Johor Bahru's eating hot spots. So we were pretty surprised to see a rather quiet restaurant at about 9:00am on a Wednesday. Spinach Noodle House seemed to have had its heydays and business looked decidedly slow.
Nevertheless, we did not let that dampen our enthusiasm and decided to still give Spinach Noodle House a try.
I requested for a spinach mee hoon kueh. These were roughly hand torn pieces of flat sheets of flour dough with real spinach blended into the flour. Spinach mee hoon kueh had that pretty slight greenish tone, which looked invitingly delicious to me.
The broth was clear and loaded with fish balls, pork balls, fish cake slices, fried ikan bilis and shallot crackles.
The spinach mee hoon kueh was good. It was floppy yetel dente. The clear broth was not oily and it was savoury, being helped along by the fried ikan bilis and shallot crackles.
Spinach Noodle House also serves yong tau foo to complement the mee hoon kueh or noodles. We, however, opted for a bowl of spinach in soup.
The spinach soup turned out to the highlight for me. I loved the taste of fresh spinach, plain simple, nice and healthy.
The light broth and shallot crackles brought out the spinach's fresh flavours really well.
The food at Spinach Noodle House was pretty tasty but somehow, it was not pulling in the crowds. I could only speculate that perhaps, spinach noodles and spinach mee hoon kueh are not as appealing nowadays, and are pretty much niche items.
Well, I'll continue to support Spinach Noodle House as I like the food here and spinach is good for me :)
Click on the photo to view the video feature on Spinach Noodle House by Fatbook Production.
Restaurant name: Spinach Noodle House 菠菜面专卖店 Address: 51, Jalan Dedap 7, Taman Johor Jaya, Johor bahru Map: http://goo.gl/maps/ayDBg GPS: 1.541205,103.804793 Hours: 07:00am to 6:30pm (Closed on Monday) Non Halal
Date visited: 26 Sep 2012
I always like lots of greens with my meals and so when I heard about Spinach Noodle House 菠菜面专卖店 which blends spinach into their noodles, I immediately decided that I must try this.
We were expecting a buzzing restaurant as Spinach Noodle House is, after all, located in Taman Johor Jaya - one of Johor Bahru's eating hot spots. So we were pretty surprised to see a rather quiet restaurant at about 9:00am on a Wednesday. Spinach Noodle House seemed to have had its heydays and business looked decidedly slow.
Nevertheless, we did not let that dampen our enthusiasm and decided to still give Spinach Noodle House a try.
I requested for a spinach mee hoon kueh. These were roughly hand torn pieces of flat sheets of flour dough with real spinach blended into the flour. Spinach mee hoon kueh had that pretty slight greenish tone, which looked invitingly delicious to me.
The broth was clear and loaded with fish balls, pork balls, fish cake slices, fried ikan bilis and shallot crackles.
The spinach mee hoon kueh was good. It was floppy yetel dente. The clear broth was not oily and it was savoury, being helped along by the fried ikan bilis and shallot crackles.
Spinach Noodle House also serves yong tau foo to complement the mee hoon kueh or noodles. We, however, opted for a bowl of spinach in soup.
The spinach soup turned out to the highlight for me. I loved the taste of fresh spinach, plain simple, nice and healthy.
The light broth and shallot crackles brought out the spinach's fresh flavours really well.
The food at Spinach Noodle House was pretty tasty but somehow, it was not pulling in the crowds. I could only speculate that perhaps, spinach noodles and spinach mee hoon kueh are not as appealing nowadays, and are pretty much niche items.
Well, I'll continue to support Spinach Noodle House as I like the food here and spinach is good for me :)
Click on the photo to view the video feature on Spinach Noodle House by Fatbook Production.
Restaurant name: Spinach Noodle House 菠菜面专卖店 Address: 51, Jalan Dedap 7, Taman Johor Jaya, Johor bahru Map: http://goo.gl/maps/ayDBg GPS: 1.541205,103.804793 Hours: 07:00am to 6:30pm (Closed on Monday) Non Halal
