Ayam Bakar Mas Mono,
17, Jalan Plumbum P7/P,
Commercial Centre Section 7,
40000 Shah Alam, Selangor.
Email: info@ayambakar.my
Business hours: 11.00am to 11.00pm
HEADS up, Indonesian food lovers! A new ayam bakar restaurant is now open in Shah Alam.
Ayam Bakar Mas Mono has finally arrived on Malaysian shores after opening close to 40 outlets in Indonesia.
It started operations in November last year and has built up a long list of loyal customers, both families and students, thanks to its prominent location in the commercial centre of Section 7.
As the name suggests, the menu largely consists of grilled and fried chicken dishes, although fish and vegetable dishes are also available.
Additional dish: Order a side dish of Terung Belado (bottom) and Cah Kangkung (top) for a balanced meal.
The restaurant is well known for its authentic Indonesian dishes, which are homemade recipes.
Among the local favourites are the traditional grilled chicken with kremes. Kremes, which is made from butter and eggs, is fried and sprinkled on top of the chicken.
What sets Ayam Bakar Mas Mono apart from the other Indonesian restaurants in the area is that spring chicken is used, which is more tender and able to absorb the marinade better.
The grilled chicken is a perfect mix of sweet and salty with a hint of the top-secret marinade.
Also, other Indonesian restaurants usually serving ayam penyet (smashed chicken), making the grilled chicken at this restaurant a rare treat.
Its operations manager, Alia Burhanuddin, said the restaurant made its own Bumbu marinade and sambal, which had taken more than 20 years to perfect.
With most Indonesian restaurants, the most important part of a meal is the sambal.
The chicken comes with two choices of sambal – sambal petir, which is spicy and tangy, and sambal bajak, which has a sweet and spicy flavour.
Those who are not used to spicy food are advised to proceed with caution.
Owner Mohd Lutfi Mohd Johari said he got the idea of bringing the restaurant to Malaysia during a visit to Jakarta a few years ago.
“We wanted to bring a little taste of Indonesia back to Malaysia – a flavourful and hearty meal accompanied by the nostalgic feeling of enjoying a meal in a rustic shoplot along a street in Jakarta,” he said.
The meal would not be complete without a drink, and this is when the Jus Alpukat is recommended. It is ice-blended avocado with chocolate syrup, which leaves a bitter aftertaste – and in a good way.
To complete the meal, finish off either with Pisang Goreng Cokelat or Es Teler.
As the name suggests, Pisang Goreng Cokelat is fried banana topped with grated cheese and chocolate sprinklers and chocolate syrup, resulting in a creamy dessert.
Es Teler, meanwhile, consists of vanilla-flavoured snowflakes with jack fruit and avocado swimming in evaporated milk. The normally overpowering taste of jack fruit is toned down by the avocado.
Just as the spices, whic are mostly imported from Indonesia, the avocados used are also specially purchased at a market that imports Indonesian avocados in Jalan Bot, Kuala Lumpur. This is to maintain the taste and flavour of the dishes, similar to its restaurants in Indonesia.
This is the writer’s personal observation and is not an endorsement by StarMetro.