Monday 20 March 2017

#MakanReview : Baan Kanom Jeen [Empire Damansara]

Me and my mom both were very excited to try out this place, especially since they offer my favourite Thai delicacies, the Kanom Jeen (rice noodle).

My mom, being a true Thai is always excited to try food from her motherland. So far, not many restaurants are up to her standard, I would say. Tough critic, my mother.

So we drove to Empire Damansara on a weekday during lunch hour to get our traditional Thai 'kampung dish' as they put it. 

First thing, the place was quite hard to find. Maybe because it was our first time there but there was no maps or any indication to help us find the premise. 20 minutes later we found it. On their FB it says that the restaurant is located on G11. Naturally we thought it's on the ground floor, lot number 11. Noooooo. It's on the second floor,  somewhere above the Boat Noodle.

Baan Kanom Jeen.

Baan - House / home
Kanom Jeen - Thai rice noodle


Inside the place, there's not much table available. I think they can accommodate around 30 people at once and the space is quite small but hey, that's okay. The food is all that matters.

Menu - Food

Menu - Drinks and Dessert
We ordered the Kanom Jeen set, Red Ruby, coconut ice cream and the tea. Initially we wanted to order the Sangkaya bread dip but cancelled because they only have tea flavored dip. Say whatttt? Sangkaya dip should be the pandan dip, no?

I can already see my mom getting dissatisfied there. 

A while later, our order came. 


It really looks appetizing!

Here's my review;

Kanom Jeen Set (RM39.90)
Basket of 12 rice noodle balls, fried anchovies, 4 boiled eggs, fresh vegetables, fried chicken skin and a selection of 4 sauces. You eat them just like 'laksa'.

i. Green curry 
Y'all should know by now that I love green curry. It's not as good as I thought it would be. A bit too oily. And for the price I paid, I expect a lot more chicken chunks in it.
Rate : 6/10

ii. Red Namya
This was truly an abomination. Namya is a type of curry that my mom sometimes cook at home. Namya curry or fish curry should look like kuah laksa Johor like this;


Instead, we got this.

This soupy SARDINE curry. Macam sardin dalam tin. Correct me if I'm wrong. My mom were already enraged by now
Rating : 2/10

iii. Namprik Sauce and Southern Namya
To cut things short, we were disappointed. My mom, especially.
Rating : 4/10

The 12 noodle balls are not enough, obviously. And we ordered 6 extra. That's also still not enough. Hahaha It cost RM1.90 a pop which is a lot of money for a single bite of rice noodle. 
But hey, some other businesses also use the same pricing strategy and we Malaysian seems okay with that.

Red Ruby (Tub Tim Krob) RM7.90

Pic by Eat Drink KL
The actual flour covered chestnut tasted okay (the yellow and green colored thingy). However, the strips of jackfruit was slightly sour which makes me wonder about the freshness of em and they use instant coconut cream (santan kotak) . Such a shame. It has the potential.
Rating : 6/10

Coconut Ice Cream 

The only good thing here is the glutinous rice in my opinion. The ice cream itself tasted okay.
Rating : 6/10

So guys, that's my honest review. Being someone who knew what  authentic Thai food tasted like, this place is a total fail for me,

Would not come here again.
Will not recommend it to anyone.

But if you like it, hey. No one is stopping you. You do you.

Overall Rating (by my mom) : 2/10
My Rating : 4/10


*authenticity sentiment is a hard one to decode. You may go to Kelantan and cuba makan nasi kerabu. Everyone has their own version though all of them mengaku asli. Tapi janganlah lari sangat dari resipi turun temurun. As long as it tasted good, you are good to go. 

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