Restaurant Review - Serai @ Paradigm

Restaurant Review

Serai at Paradigm Mall.

Location:

Lot 07, Level 1 Boulevard, Paradigm Mall,
No.1, Jalan SS7/26A, Kelana Jaya,
47301 Petaling Jaya.

Contact Details:

Email: info@seraigroup.com.my

Phone number:  +603-7887-3707

The restaurant that was reviewed is Serai Restaurant. The restaurant has many branches, which are located in Shah Alam, Empire Shopping Gallery, Cyberjaya and Paradigm Mall. The branch that was visited and reviewed was the Serai Restaurant in Paradigm Mall. This restaurant is famous with its Asian and Western Fusion in their menu. Furthermore, the products and the way the restaurant represents itself does reflect the Malaysian Food Heritage.

Serai Restaurant plays an important role in preserving the Malaysian Food Heritage. When coming up with the name of the restaurant, the owner came up with the name “Serai” as she often use serai or known as lemon grass in her cookings. Despite being famous for serving high quality western dishes that ranges from starter’s dishes to deserts, the restaurant is also famous for serving high quality Malaysian dishes.

This restaurant is a part of the Malaysian Food Heritage because the restaurant serves a lot of local foods. That reason itself is what makes it more astonishing when comparing with other restaurants. The local foods that are served symbolise many cultures in Malaysia as these foods show the characteristics and the cultures of where the foods originated from. Based on the observation made based on the menu, most of the Malaysian foods that are served in this restaurant are from Kelantan state because the restaurant emphasizes on serving Nasi kerabu and the Nasi Ulam as the special dishes. These foods are well known across Malaysia and it is also served in other restaurants as well as the homes of many too.

In addition, the restaurant has also created and maintained the suitable environment to attract the local customers into eating at the restaurant. The restaurant has attained the “Halal” certificate from the authorities. The attainment is important as it is needed to verify whether the place can be eaten by people from the Malay Culture, as most of them are Muslims, and also from other cultures too. As a result, many of the local customers have dined in the restaurants as there are enough assurances that the foods are “Halal”. Other than that, the restaurant also provides sinks for the customers to wash their hands. It focuses on preserving the Malaysian culture too as many people from the Malaysian culture prefers to use hands instead of fork and spoon to eat their meals.

Furthermore, the fact that the restaurant is located in Paradigm Mall, it shows that the restaurant has other motives as to connect the taste of foods from the rural area to be eaten by the customers from the urban area. In a way, the uniqueness of the foods create a sense of belonging towards the customers whom are busy with their work and not being able to go back to their hometown a taste of home.

During the visit to Serai, there were several dishes that we ordered which are nasi kerabu, nasi ambang, and satay. All of dishes that we ordered were a part of the Malaysian Food Heritage. According to the owner of Serai Group restaurants, Rina, she highly recommended the Nasi Kerabu that includes blue-tinted rice served with ayam percik (grilled chicken), salted egg, ulam (traditional salad), fish crackers, serunding (grated coconut), sambal chilli and spicy and creamy gravy.

This dish is originated from Kelantan with its rice having a uniquely blue in colour, where it is being soaked and cooked with the extract of the purplish blue bunga telang (blue pea flower) instead of using food colouring as they want to be as authentic as possible. In terms of definition, Nasi is rice and kerabu is a salad of any vegetable or edible leaves such as daun kesum (Vietnamese mint), bean sprout, long beans, cucumber and daun kadok (betel leaf). Occasionally, nasi kerabu is served with salted fish or fried chicken but in Serai, they chose to serve it with ayam percik, which is also a Malay cuisine that somehow fits the overall taste of the dish. Nevertheless, nasi kerabu in Serai is a unique Malaysian food heritage that is a must try for everyone and tourists.

The next specialty dish that we ordered was nasi ambang. This dish is definitely a popular Javanese cuisine especially in Javanese-Malay communities in Malaysian states of Selangor and Johor. The usual authentic nasi ambang or nasi ambeng consists of seven different types of toppings. The toppings are serunding (coconut floss), acar (cucumber pickle), sambal goreng, gareng asam, potato cutlet, beancurd and fermented soya bean as well as a choice of mutton, chicken or beef rendang. However, Serai’s presentation on their nasi ambang was a bit different as they added prawn sambal. This was an additional topping to the dish as the main topping is beef rending tok. In addition, nasi ambeng is usually served during the festives season and served in a tray while enjoyed eating together in a tray by four to five people. However, this style of serving somehow does not suit the restaurant as the portion of food is mainly for one to two people only.  Serai serves the nasi ambang in a plate with portions of prawn sambal, beef rending tok, ikan kering, fried noodles, and mixed vegetables.

Another dish that we tasted at Serai was satay. Satay is by far the most famous and unique Malaysian food heritage. However, satay did not originated from Malaysia but it was from Indonesia. From Indonesia, satay spread through the Malay Archipelago and, as a consequence, numerous variations of the dish have been developed and exist. Malay Archipelago is situated between the Indian and Pacific Oceans that includes Indonesia, Phillipines, Brunei and East Malaysia. Because of this, Satay has become a typical Malaysian food which is enjoyed by all ethnic groups in this multiracial country, as it has been assimilated into the local customs and eating habits of all races. The balanced combination of these spices brings out the irresistible flavor of satay while grilling on the open fire with charcoal.For satay, the most essential ingredients for marination are turmeric, galangal, fennel, cumin and lemongrass. The satay in serai is served with peanut sauce, cucumber, onions and nasi impit. There was not so much different about the presentation and it was the more or less the same as any other satay sold in the market.

This blog was made only for the purpose of Group Assignment that was assigned by Taylor's University. A group of six were formed to complete the assignment task which are Namirah, Syahira, Sabrina, Ameera, Faidhi and Hilman.