Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Ore9i

The name of this place is rather cumbersome to pronounce - Ore9i - ore nine i. What a name for a restaurant. Unique, no doubt. But imagine - "Where shall we go for dinner tonight?". "Ore nine i." So for convenience, most people apparently substitute a "g" for the "9" and call the place "Oregi". The restaurant serves western and arabic cuisines.



The place is located on No 44, Jalan SS15/4B in Subang Jaya. It caters to a young crowd. When I was there, I felt a bit out of place, even with my family beside me, for the people surrounding us were all so young. A lot of them were apparently from the nearby universities and colleges.



A lot of the students go there to smoke the shisha. This place apparently offers shishas at cheap prices. I don't know if that is a good thing for our young people. When we were there I noticed a young girl sitting alone with a laptop nonchalantly smoking away, in a world of her own. 



This restaurant is very simply furnish. No attempt was made to decorate the place. No pretence to sophistication or exclusiveness. Just simple table and chairs. In this way, they manage to keep their food prices to very reason levels. I guess they succeed in meeting the requirement of budget-minded students and young adults.



Crystal, representative of the generation who frequent this place, did the meal orders. The first to arrive on our table was this arabic style mixed grill. In the plate were pieces of heavily marinated beef and chicken tenders, and lamb kebab - all charcoal grilled. They were served with pita breads, some salad and a garlic dip. The meats were delicious. The garlic dip was also very good. The spices made the meat tender and absolutely aromatic. My only complaint was that it was not quite enough. I wished they had served a bigger portion.



Crystal was gaga about this fahsah arabic lamb stew before she brought us to the restaurant. However it did not turn out to be so great. Perhaps it was my expectation arising from her gaganess. I had expected chunks of mutton. It turned out to be shredded meat. But the flavour was very good. Again it was all in the spices. The stew was served in a clay pot (they have clay pot in the arab world?); which I felt was not quite suitable as the heat from the pot eventually made the stew rather dry. Again, it was served with pita bread.



For my non mutton-eating wife, Crystal ordered this dory fish in herbed oil and tomato coulis. It was a rather unusual dish. The dory was pan fried. The herbed oil was plentiful and aromatic. However I didn't like the tomato coulis. 



Finally, this ordinary carbonara spaghetti with some mundane strips of grilled chicken breast. Ordinary, but the flavour was really not bad. The carbonara sauce was well done. But the chicken stripa... hey, can you be a little more innovative?



Crystal, an ardent mint hater, ordered this Oregi signature special drink for me. It was a lemon juice heavily flavoured with fresh mint leaves. It tasted rather weird at first sip, but I eventually began to like it. Some people may not like its strong sourish flavour.



My verdict of the place.... Good worthwhile food at very reasonable prices. The mix grill was RM15.90; the lamb stew was RM11.70; the dory was RM13.00; and the pasta was RM14.00. All at student-affordable prices. Maybe I am of a different generation. But they really shouldn't offer the shishas. 


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