Kafe Vietnam @ Bandar Puteri, Puchong

Can authentic be more authentic than this? And I thought I have tasted some of the truly authentic Vietnamese food in town. Boy, was I wrong. 

The food quality and authenticness was beyond my expectation. Kafe Vietnam, is the one that I would recommend to all my friends and family, should I'm asked to recommend good Vietnamese food. 

I frequented Bandar Puteri, due to the baking supply shop, BWY, and if anyone that knows BWY, supposedly its on your left, then Kafe Vietnam will be on the right. And frankly speaking, its not difficult to spot, as it occupies the corner shop lot. 

Entrance of Kafe Vietnam

Once I stepped in, I felt at ease. I love the many enticing food shots on the top area of the drink making area, and upon entering, one will see the many Vietnamese product that is brought in by the owners, Justin and Dona. 

My gut feel says that Kafe Vietnam is here to stay,with the main reason being, Justin makes an excellent host with vast hotel background in the past. Having posted in Vietnam, he has strong understanding of the food and history of Vietnam, and it is where, he met his lovely wife, Dona. Dona is the start of the reason on why Kafe Vietnam existed, as she could hardly find a good authentic Vietnamese restaurant as she lived in Malaysia. Being able to convince her relative to come to Malaysia as the chef, they all have found the right formula for success. Male boss backed by good social skills and vast knowledge, while the lady boss supports on ensuring quality and recipe of the food. Thumbs up. 

A place that you will find yourself dining in, a lot, in future.. :)

Range of Vietnamese product found in Kafe Vietnam

We could have spent 10 minutes looking through the menu, all because, there were just so many choices, and everything really looks so delicious. But being just 2 females, sigh, how much can our stomach take. 

The easy decision has to be drink. Hehe. The Ice dripped coffee is highly recommended. The coffee was first dripped, and upon cool, ice is added in, so that the pure coffee taste is preserved as best they can. I love the aroma of the Vietnam coffee. 

The soursop strawberry smoothie was a thumbs up too. It carried more flavor of strawberries, and true to the name of the drink, it is indeed very smooth. 

Ice Dripped Coffee. Price-RM7.90 & Sour Sop Strawberry Smoothie. Price-RM12.90

For food, we started with the best seller salad recommended by Justin. The jelly, prawn and pork salad. They surely place emphasize on presentation. The almost same sized crackers that formed as flower, surrounded the salad. 

This is the first time I tried jelly in food. The jelly is blanched in water, thus still maintain its slight 'jellyness' or rather crunchiness of the jelly. Together with the main items, pork and prawn, plus shreds of carrots, onion and parsley, they are all mixed together in their homemade sauce, made from Vietnamese fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar. A good way to 'open up' my appetite. Yay.

Jelly, Prawn & Pork Salad. Price-RM13.90 

Looks at the shreds of jelly.. Yumms.. 

For noodle, we tried the Bun Bo Hue. I liked how they separate the greens and bean sprout, to be added on, on our own. The greens as seen is actually kangkung stem. Interesting! The soup base is a broth of beef and pork bone, which explains the apparent sweetness, despite it carries some spiciness. 

The noodle was topped with pork knuckle, which is deboned, compressed and boiled, beef tenderloin, and homemade ham. Just by finding out these, my head came out with so many question marks, how could they managed this much of tedious work, and well, of course it then came the answer of, all for the sake of good tasting bowl of noodle. As for the good taste of the broth, thanks to the usage of lots of lemongrass and fresh lime juice.

Slice Beef, Ham In Spicy Soup. Price-RM14.90

A specialty of Kafe Vietnam is the Fermented beancurd duck in hot pot, however, its too bad we couldn't order this, due to the portion which I deemed is big. But not to be missed, is their Black Pepper Basa Fish. This was indeed my first encounter with Basa Fish. 'Apa itu', which literally means 'What is that' in Bahasa Malaysia. 

Rice with Black Pepper Basa Fish. Price-RM14.90

This is a freshwater fish, which comes from the family of 'Pating' fish. This fish is actually sourced through suppliers that import them from Vietnam. For easy understanding, it was explained that Basa is the cod fish of Asia. Shape of fish, is more rounded. At first bite, it almost doesn't taste like fish.. Hehe... It is just so creamy, and carried a slight chewiness which means its just so fresh. The fish is slowly simmered, using fish sauce, black pepper and a little chilli. Goes extremely well, with plain rice. Upon tasting this, I know why some customers regularly come to Kafe Vietnam just for this. And you should find out for yourself too.

Close up of the steamed Basa Fish

The special rice fried with Vietnam spices tasted just right for our taste. We slowly savor the fried chicken, as it is marinated for a min of 6 hours with 8 spices. I was trying to taste and differentiate the spices, which of course I couldn't..  @__@

The chicken is oil seared which gave it such a nice color and crunchiness to the skin. 

Again, note the presentation. Lovely. Done with much love and passion. 

Special Fried Rice with Oil Seared Chicken. Price-RM13.90

Not sure what is with me, but when I visit a Vietnam restaurant, my taste bud is somehow inclined to Vietnamese fresh spring rolls. 

We ordered the deep fried Gurame. And wow, was I impressed by the presentation. The fillet of fish, and the deboned fish was fried to perfection. Its not a norm for me to see fish, for spring rolls, and what makes the roll special is to have basil, starfruit and young banana within. The combination will just give you tingling of 'la-la-la' which denotes happy tongue and taste bud. 

Deep Fried Gurame W&R in Rice Paper. Price-RM21.90

I can't resist but to invite Justin and Dona for a photograph together, and which definitely deserved some thumbs up. 

The very friendly owners, Justin and Dona, with myself

The complimentary watermelon was cut in such a cute manner, that forms a holder at the skin part. Dip with the special powder, and you'd like your fruits even more. The powder is available for sale at Kafe Vietnam. 

One slice was missing. Hehe.. 

I thought it was the end of my meal, when I was again enticed by the Vietnamese coffee, and this time, the hot version. I just love to enjoy the moment, as I wait for each drip of the coffee to happen. 

Kafe Vietnam served their House Blend which its bean are made of 45% Highland from Dalat Mountain, 45% Low Land from Border of Cambodia and Vietnam, and 10% of Civet Cat from Dalat, which the latter is best known as Kopi Luwak. 

I simply loved the taste and thickness of Vietnam coffee, and truly, it is authentic tasting, that is only made possible by the combination of good beans. 

Vietnam coffee in the making 

Kafe Vietnam also sells a Deluxe Grade coffee that made up of the same as above, but combination of 35%, 35% and 30%. 

Expansion plan has commenced where they currently have an outlet in Times Square, while they are still looking out for the ideal location for the next one. I trust that I will see more of Kafe Vietnam outlets in the near future. Keep up the good work!

Because the food was so good, I had to include the below photo.. LOL.. 

Come eat, here at Kafe Vietnam

Kafe Vietnam 

1 Jalan Puteri 4/1, 

Bandar Puteri, 

47100 Puchong, Selangor

Tel : 012-301 5928

Business Hours : 930am - 930pm 

Closed on : every forthnight, 1st & 3rd week's Wed & Thu

FB link, here

O Banh Mi @ 1 Utama, New Wing

Inviting atmosphere

The process of making the baguette can be seen here

I passed by O Banh Mi during lunch time on a weekday the week prior, and saw that it was packed with customers. So attempted a visit during Sunday last week, when I saw a less busy crowd.

Their core product is as per name of the brand name where Banh Mi in Vietnamese means all kinds of bread.

The baguette is an absolute winner. Just as how Vietnamese makes baguette, the outer later carries a light crisp texture, while the inside was airy. This Vietnamese styled sandwich is a product of French colonialism in Indochina, combines ingredients from the French that is the baguette, and with native Vietnamese ingredients such as cilantro, pickled carrots and daikon (winter radish). We ordered the teriyaki chicken which also came with sunny side up egg. A total satisfaction to a wholesome meal.

O Teriaky. Price-RM11

I took the Dry Grilled Chicken Vietnamese Noodle. I must say that the portion is really big for the price I paid. Definitely enough for 2 share... The bowl of noodle is filled with teriyaki chicken, cucumber, spring roll, lots of mint and basil, bean sprout, lettuce, garnish with peanuts and fried onions, and their home made fish sauce. I love the texture of the vietnamese noodle, that tasted absolutely fresh. It has the right thickness of noodle that I absolutely enjoy.

Dry Grilled Chicken Noodle. Price-RM11

Details on what goes into their sandwich

This standee works, as many stopped to have a look

Also the must order is their refreshing lemon tea, that's priced at only RM5 each.

Total bill came up to RM33.90 for 2 person. Fulfilling and very much worth the price paid, in return for such satisfactory quality of food. 

O Banh Mi 
LG 328, 1Utama Shopping Mall

Their other outlet :
Uptown
No. 33 Jalan SS21/56b, Damansara Utama

Business Hours :
Mon-Sun, 9.30am-9.30pm

Their FB page :
https://www.facebook.com/obmMY

Absolute Viet @ Setia Walk, Puchong

How could it be possible that it was only my first time to Setia Walk last week... As much as I've heard so much about this place, it was a little out of place for me. However, I was glad that our meet up took place there last week. How serene and what a relaxing place this F&B are surrounded with.

Walking around, our eyes were busy checking out the F&B outlets... and having to decide what to eat, could be quite a task.

We walked passed Absolute Viet during dinner time, and it was packed with customers.

Inviting front

Upon all of us arriving, checked with all our appetite and we shortlisted to Korean, or Vietnam, and 3 of us opted to give this Vietnam food a shot. We like that this place is simple yet inviting enough.

The boss came to asked if we require any recommendation. And since we opted food for sharing, he suggested this Assorted Dishes (small size) that comes with pork, chicken, fish, popiah, vermicelli, shredded carrot, cucumber, bean sprout and basil leaves. It's either basil leave or mint leave that will usually give vietnam roll a boost to the taste.  The set comes with 5 pieces of rice paper, and additional rice paper comes at RM0.50 per piece.

When the Assorted Dishes was served, I was really impressed by the generous portion that comes with it. Real value for money and everything really tasted so good.

The boss was kind enough to offer to demonstrate to us 1 round on how to roll the rice paper vietnam roll.

Step 1. Mix the sauce that comes with peanut
Step 2. Dip the rice paper all around. Just dip, and its crucial to not be too wet. It was a mistake that I've done at home all this while, that we wet the rice paper totally, and this will eventually result in the rice paper being too soggy by the time the ingredients are placed onto the rice paper.
Step 3. Apply the sauce on top of the rice paper.
Step 4. Take a little of each ingredients, except for popiah. Little enough of each so that it doesn't "burst" the rice paper.
Step 5. Roll and wrap up the rice paper roll.

Assorted Dishes. Price-RM24.90

Yummy yummy Vietnam roll

The combination of all the ingredients.. a total thumbs up.

And the other dish recommended by the owner was the Tomato Noodle Soup. My first feedback, is it like 'tomato sauce' kind  of taste? He assured that it doesn't really has the tomato taste... in fact its a little sourish, and taste a little of tom yam..

One of the best tasting noodle.. Am I exaggerating? Ain't so..  The soup base tasted extremely good, and it carries a tinge of asam laksa taste (not spicy though, and a little sourish). Totally appetizing. It comes with chicken, and egg, and I just loved the noodle that is the thick vietnam noodle. As explained by the owner, in Vietnam, there isn't mee available, everything is made using rice, like rice noodle, vermicelli type, rice roll. All rice based.

Tomato Noodle Soup. Price-RM9.90

Simple seating

I love their logo - "Absolute Viet"

All 3 of us took the lemongrass tea. Nice.

The portion of the 2 food items ordered were sufficient for the 3 of us. Next, I hope to come with a bigger group, so that I can order more items to try. I can't wait to be back.


Absolute Viet
i-5-G, Block i, Setia Walk,
Persiaran Wawasan PBP,
47160 Puchong
Tel : 03-5879 0522 / 017-797 0522 (KC Foong) / 012-797 0522 (Effe Chan)


Closed on Wednesday, once in every 2 weeks (best to call to confirm which Wed as its subject to change)