Brunei Restaurant Review: Phongmun Restaurant

It’s amazing that Phongmun Restaurant is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary this year. I remember vivid memories of having dim sum here with my family as a little kid as I used to live in Kampung Ayer.

 

Besides dim sum during the weekends, I’ve also attended countless wedding celebrations here. Notice that this place is pretty child friendly as they got quite a number of baby chairs in this picture.

 

I would say Phongmun is a family restaurant, catering to weekends for the common tradition of a Chinese family having dim sum together and having quality family time together.

 

I guess because a lot of us grew up coming to this restaurant, we did not stop to appreciate some of the carvings and décor in the restaurant, which otherwise – we would marvel in awe if we were in a new restaurant or in another country. Have you ever stop to marvel at these dragon sculptures?

 

They also have a VIP room and these other traditional Chinese structures. Perhaps the younger generation need to drag themselves out of bed to have early Dim Sum, they didn’t really appreciate the ambience.

 

My camera doesn’t do justice for this beautiful sculpture in their VIP room. It’s quite a majestic sight!

 

Now Phongmum restaurant is not just about the Dim Sum ~ they do offer plenty of options when it comes to Chinese food. For starters, they have  Lunch Specials for every Tuesday: Chicken Rice and every Thursday: Suckling Pig w/ rice. While they also serve Charsiew/ Roasted Pork/ Roasted Duck/ Roasted Chicken from Monday till Friday. They are pretty popular during lunch, as there’s quite a big working population around Bandar Town area.

 

One thing you might not know is that they serve pretty good Chinese Fine Dining at Phongmun restaurant, or some might call these – Kung Fu Cuisine! For this post, I will highlight and show you some of their delicious, time consuming dishes that require real Kung Fu/Cooking Techniques. They usually require you to make advance orders for these dishes – usually one or two days in advance! Check out this huge Lobster Salad!

 

If it’s a special occasion where you want to celebrate – or a big client you want to impress – you won’t go wrong with this exquisite lobster salad. Confirm very ‘got face’. Beautifully decorated and bound to catch anyone’s attention.

 

Lobster meat ~~ oooh yes please!

 

This is the Double Boiled Chicken Ginseng soup – using carefully selected Kampung Chicken cooked with Chinese herbs and Ginseng. A very hearty soup with tons of health benefits!

 

Double Flavour Chicken or Bai Hua Xuang Wei Chi is a combination of two dishes: Buttermilk chicken cubes & Fish Paste topped with Crispy Chicken Skin.

 

The chicken skin is carefully taken out and turned into this crispy top for the fish paste. Yum! The headchef really showcases the technique of Chinese cooking in this dish that looked so simple.

 

Phongmun Signature Beancurd – The Phongmum’s version of home made seafood beancurd served in a thick gravy – unlike typical ones which is usually served with mayonnaise.

 

Braised Abalone, Winter Mushroom & Sea Cucumber served in Phongmun Signature sauce. This can be served on individual plates equally divided for your guests. Look at that delicious abalone! I bet you would love to take a picture with that now and instagram it!

 

#abalone #huatah #likealousai #finedining #foodadventures

 

Mei Ting and Poh Chuan enjoying their posh Chinese fine dining experience ~~

 

One of my favourite Chinese dishes - Braised Pork Knuckle with handmade Mantou – *slurps*

 

One simply does not say no to these gelatinous fatty pork – after longs hours of braising to absorb the flavours of the sauce and softened to a jelly like texture! Hubba hubba!

 

They are even better – served with your choice of steamed or deep fried mantous (all homemade by the dimsum chefs of Phongmun restaurant)

 

That awesome moment when you use the fried mantou to *kiap* (sandwich) the pork fatty part with meaty part with the oozing gravy ~~~~~~ OMG! HOW CAN YOU RESIST THIS! NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM!!! ATTACK!!!

 

Another Kung Fu dish for the night is this Steamed Chinese Pomfret, Qiling-style, with crispy fried fish bones.

 

The bones had been removed – fish sliced and arranged perfectly with ham, carrots and mushroom and served with sauce.

 

A beautiful dish that requires a lot of knife skills and preparation. Another great dish to impress your guests or to treat your loved ones.

 

The crispy deep fried fish bones are deep fried till cracker like texture and dipped with sauce for a good crunchy snack to accompany the fish – I have to admit I really enjoyed this dish. A dish that can put a smile on your face.

 

I’ve heard good things about their Yangzhou Fried Rice and I’m not disappointed. It’s pretty good and served as a good accompaniment tonight to the fine dishes we have.

 

We end our fine dining experience at Phongmun with a delicacy you often see in Chinese Wedding banquets – Sesame balls with lotus paste. I know a lot of friends who really loved these! ~~ bon appetit!

 

Phongmun restaurant does have other common Chinese dishes in their menu if you wish – but that’s for another blog post. This post mostly highlights the availability of Chinese Fine Dining dishes suitable for special occasions and weddings – or just a foodie culinary journey.

Good news:

Phongmun 30th Anniversary Promotion (1- 31 Mar)

15% discount off total bill for orders above BND$100 if you dine in during dinner time from 7pm – 10pm daily during the 1st till 31st of March!

 

Phongmum Restaurant

Opening hours: 7am to 10pm daily

Address: 2nd Floor, Teck Guan Plaza, Jln Sultan

Tel: (673) 2229591/ 2229562

Brunei Restaurant Review: Padi Mas Korean Restaurant

Padi-Mas has been around for some time now. It’s a Korean restaurant that serves pork in their dishes – and it’s their main highlight – fancy having some good Korean BBQ – sliced pork belly with some spicy paste wrapped with lettuce and kimchi ~~ *drools*

 

When I visited them last year – I wasn’t very impressed or awed by their food. This year – after many recommendations and good reviews from friends – I decided to pay them a visit again.

 

The place has obviously gone through some renovations – and I agreed – it makes the place more welcoming – it adds a better element of privacy as well as buttons to press to signal attention from the staff

 

It’s way better than the plain old kopi tiam style décor when I first visited here – a thumbs up on the new look ~ now let’s check out the food ~

 

Nor surprisingly – I opted for the pork belly ~~ who can resist? The meat is obviously marinated and put into the freezer as I can still see some traces of ice ~~ can’t wait to grill them though ~

 

The other dish – garlic pork belly ~~~ hubba hubba ~~

 

Grill your slab of pork belly on medium to low heat ~~ *sizzles*

 

Then use the scissors they provided to cut them into smaller slices ~~

 

There’s the usual side dishes that come with Korean restaurants and for you to wrap your grilled meats with ~~

 

They have Korean Rice Puff crackers as a yummy crunchy snack as well as that a good salty spicy dip for your meat. Dip your meat on the sauce – add it to lettuce and other side dishes and wrap ~~ yes – delicious Korean BBQ Wraps ~~ healthy healthy ~~

 

I also ordered their Jjajangmyeon – dark sauce noodles – which I find was a bit bland and asked for more sauce – they proceeded to give me extra sauce (without extra charge). It’s alright but nothing to wow about – order only if you got cravings for this.

 

Their Kimchi Jigae (Kimchi Stew) is pretty good – my girlfriend who studied 6 months in Korea regarded this as the closest thing to what she usually eat in Korea. Thumbs up for this dish ~~ it wasn’t overly spicy or sour – just the right amount for me.

 

The best part is they served red rice – I think it’s a mixture of Korean black sweet rice and plain rice but it does add flavour and gives it a nice purplish colour to enjoy with the Kim Chi Stew. The black sweet rice called heukmi chapssal.

 

Overall – I would come back here again just so I can have pork for my Korean BBQ. The pricing isn’t that expensive compared to typical Korean restaurants within Asia – $20 for a 3 person portion of pork belly is reasonable ~~ their Kimchi Stew $8 is good enough for two. I look forward to coming back again to sample other dishes in their menu – still so much to try! I will update this page soon!

The only problem is of course the lack of those tubes that suck the smoke from grilling – you will definitely walk out smelling like BBQ if you eat here! I would also worry about their speed of service if it’s actually packed as they do take time to come out – but won’t be a problem if you’re having a nice time with family and friends – not when you’re in a rush – like dinner before movie etc.

May the Pork be with you --- Running Man ~~~~

Location:

Padi Mas Korean Cuisine

Opens 8am till 10pm daily (except Friday 12pm – 2 pm)

Tel no: 2457644

Unit 6&7, Block C, Warisan Mata-Mata Complex, Simpang 322, Jalan Gadong, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Brunei Restaurant Review: Best Laksa (Curry Mee) In Brunei

After a good food trip from the town that gave you the iconic assam laksa and curry mee (which to me is curry laksa), I wondered where one can find good curry mee in Brunei. There are various types of laksa – the Assam Laksa of Penang, The Curry Mee (Curry Laksa) of Penang, The Kuching Curry Laksa and The Singapore style Curry Laksa.

In this blog post, we’re not going to talk about Assam Laksa. Instead we’re going to check out my favourite version of Laksa, which is loaded with spicy laksa paste and santan: the iconic Curry Laksa or Curry Me. I had quite a few curry mees in Penang – the famous Lorong Seratus Tahun Curry Mee and the Hot Bowl White Curry Mee

The Lorong Seratus Tahun Curry mee has fresh cockles, prawns, squid, tofu pok and a generous serving of coagulated pigs blood, a love it or hate it – tofu like texture blood.

The famous Hot Bowl White Curry Mee in my opinion has better tasting pigs blood (better texture) and you can adjust how much curry paste you wish to add. It’s pretty good. In my opinion, is the better tasting of the two Curry Mees – or Curry Laksa. One then ponders – do we get good quality Curry Laksa in Brunei – the answer is yes – and you’ll be surprised to hear that I actually preferred the one in Brunei ~~ where is this delicious place you ask? Read on to find out!

Step forward Restaurant Soon Lai (Aliran Maju) – home of the delicious Curry Mee. This restaurant is located in Menglait, just opposite the recently burned down spare parts shop in Gadong (near the shell station). Another landmark is that it’s below restaurant Kimball restaurant (formerly known as Big Thumb restaurant).

One look at the cockles and you can see it’s pretty raw! The laksa is pretty much piping hot, so if you don’t like your cockles raw, just mix it all in to slightly cook it. This in my opinion is better than the two famous curry mees in Penang. Don’t believe me? Give this a try!

They also serve Hokkien Mee (Prawn noodles) which are pretty good but not up to Penang’s standards yet. A great dish with good prawn soupy flavours nevertheless if you are looking for a lower calorie version while dining with friends in this restaurant.

Jun and Ying enjoyed their Curry Laksas ~~ do check out this place! Please take note that this restaurant is a non halal restaurant.

In my next post, I will reveal another place for good Claypot Singapore Laksa!