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.
More photos and snap shots of the café on flikr or facebook album here .
Thank the friendly and fun loving people in Open Rice for organizing this and giving me this great opportunity to experience this amazing café. Be it for the displays or the food, I would definitely return for more.
D’Dream Café is located at:
70 Jalan SS 2/60,
Ss 2, Petaling Jaya,
47300 Selangor
Phone: 03-7865 3073
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DDreamCafe2013
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Ahhh i wanna visit this place, no, not for the food but for the doraemon, so cute !!! *faints*
Are you a fan too?! I am…so this place is like a lala land to me!
Shame the sweet potato disappointed, they look so good.
Yes…. The pretty colour was really attractive. Shame indeed..
Waaahhhh…nice place! If Klang Valley would to open a Hello Kitty cafe….chamm….sure very crowded wan. :-p
oh…..that one also…. ya man.
I’m Doraemon fan too!
Lol! Ons,next time we can go together gether. And end of this year…doraemon’s event. I shall ajaks you! Hahahha.
Fuiyo! I know a couple of friends who super love doraemon! i bet they’ll love this place.
I know I went nuts. So ya, they should at least check this one out.
I think I would mind the lack of veges in my food.. plus too much salt! Maybe not for me eh? LOL
Hmm, ya..I thought it’s not so much about the food really. More like the collectibles. And yea, not so much veges here. I would like mine with more veges too.