Review: Good Old Days Restaurant

Updated 6 June 2009: Good Old Days Restaurant has closed.


**Non-Halal**



Last week, a group of us went to Restaurant Good Old Days (Kao Zhen Zi) for a gathering. Yozora recommended this place since AhJoy's sister took her there once. She said Good Old Days is part of Pantai/Unique Seafood chain. When I reached there, I couldm't help but noticed the 3 gigantic wheels spinning away. They actually made up to form a water fountain.

On the ground, you'll notice some decor... ermmm a bit haphazardly but nevertheless it's rather interesting to find an animal pen with pigs and cow inside; ponies; olden days stove and wok; pots of wine; and a very old colour TV (don't really jive here hehe but who cares cos we were reminiscing).



Once you walked in the setting looked like the olden days Chinese eating house, you can't help but notice the wait staff costume... it's like we've seen on Chinese dramas albeit the people who wore them are mostly foreigners. Short of calling them "siew yee" hahaha... plus we have to drink our tea from a porcelain bowl. However, the cutleries, bowls and side plates were all plastics?!? Hmm the entire thing reminded me of Sui Woo Chuen (Water Margin) aeons ago at Life Centre. The chairs and benches were extraordinary heavy!!! If it isn't too noisy, you can hear birds chirping away on the "trees"!!!

We made Yozora to do all the ordering. All one need to do is browse thru the menu sheet and tick your order accordingly. Easy peasy eh but trust me, it's not as easy as it seems for bananas at least cos it's hard to comprehend the translation of Chinese dishes in English hahaha but there's always help on hand.

We started off with some appetizers of a deep fried sotong (one size at RM10). We loved this as the squid is really crispy and the caramelised sauce stick to them is sweetish peppered with hot chilli padi! A must order and this would be a great snack to go with beer.



Next came the deep fried brinjals (one size at RM10) with dried shrimps and red chillis. The brinjal is sliced thinly before dipping into a batter and deep fried. It's not oily and turned out to be like munching on chips! Topped with pounded dried shrimps fried with red chillis and spring onions, Casper the ghost, mentioned that this topping is very fragrant.



Next came our dishes, all in small portion, so that we get to try a whole lot more of dishes. As Yozora was ticking away, Bulldog kept reminding that our resident Alam Flora, Dutch Baby, is not coming to help us clear the dishes :p Yozora kept reassuring the Bulldog that their portion is kinda small.

Stir fried baby choy sum with garlic (RM8)... simple, something that can't go wrong.



We have a second green vege dish, stir-fried kangkung belacan (RM8). Nothing spectacular here cos I've eaten better ones else where, this one slightly lack of "wok hei".



Yozora and I liked this stir-fried roast pork (siu yuk) with leek (RM15). Funny that these days we can still get Chinese leeks during non-Chinese New Year period.



Since we have liked Pantai Seafood's claypot pork ribs with yam (RM15), we ordered the same thing here. They tasted the same and it's very good this time. The ribs were super tender and the gravy thickened with yam bits. I dug till the very last bit.



The kung bao kai ting (stir-fried chicken with dried chillis RM15) here is not too bad... I like the look of a very dark chicken bits and it's fun cos it's a bit like treasure hunt cos you'll need to find the chicken and cashew nuts from heaps of dried chillies.



This is claypot kampung chicken in rice wine (RM15) where the chicken is kinda too tough. No wonder the staff asked if this is ok with us. They should have braised it longer and add more rice wine :p for errrr more kick. Cook your own with the recipe here.



The braised threadfin (ma yau) with salted vegetables (harm choy) and pork strips (RM18) came last. The while fish is deep fried before braising. The harm choy gave the gravy the salty sourish taste, nice!



Oh yeah, by the way, we actually started with these cupcakes... hahaha instead of having them for dessert.



Yozora's friend made them. The cupcakes were of sponge cake and topped with lemon flavoured butter cream. The fluffy sponge cake went well with the sweet cream. Thank you to Yozora's friend and Yozora to share this lovely treat with us.

The 6 of us have all those dishes, Chinese tea (RM1.50 each), 5 bowls of rice (RM1.30 each), 2 rounds of peanuts and towels which the final tally came up to RM143.96 inclusive of 5% Government tax and 3% service charge. Not too bad eh???

Thank you Yozora, Bulldog, AhJoy, Casper and Gummy Bear (all nicknames are real one leh hahaha no kidding!!!) for the belated birthday treat.


Restaurant Good Old Days
Lot 13571 Jalan Cempaka PJU 6A
Kampung Sungai Kayu Ara
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Tel: 603-7722 3606
Click for the map here.


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