I WAS looking forward to Taiwanese beef noodles at Ko Restaurant & Bar in TTDI, and they turned up to expectations.

The noodles were al dente and springy, the soup dark and robust with spice and chilli bean paste flavours, with slices of beef cooked in the broth, and vegetables on them.

I liked the texture of the wrinkly noodles that tasted homemade in this signature beef noodle. They tasted so good in the flavourful soup.

For that reason, we chose plain noodles instead of rice with three cup chicken in the lunch set.

This popular and recognisable Taiwanese dish gets its name from a cup each of soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil, and of course, ginger, garlic, dried chilli and Thai basil leaves.

I got a tinge of vinegar in the sweet sauce for the chicken pieces. However, we thought a little more basil would give more fragrance to this three cup chicken.

We had the classic Taiwanese appetisers of beef wrap scallion pancake, and dumplings in chilli oil.

The dumplings with minced chicken filling were tasty and had bite in the chilli oil and vinegar.

The beef wrap scallion pancakes were delicious. The flaky wrap tasted like paratha, wrapped round beef slices, cucumber strips and beansprouts.

The combination of moist and tender sweet beef and vegetables in the pan-fried dense wrap made good bites.

The fried tofu with pickled cabbage which came with a chilli dip was disappointing.

The pickled cabbage was tasteless, like the pickling sauce hadn’t touched it, and they should have been more finely cut.

Our third lunch set to share was the XXL chicken. Apparently, it’s a popular street food in Taiwanese night markets.

For me, it was just deep-fried chicken in batter, crispy on the outside but the meat was a bit dry, being breast meat. I was grateful for the soup in the set!

I have had the Aiyu jelly many times in the past in a popular Taiwanese restaurant in Petaling Jaya and it was usually yellow and tangy with lemon juice. The jelly is derived from seeds in the ayu fruit.

The Aiyu jelly at Ko was more like konyaku, white and transparent and served sweet with canned lychee and pineapple.

What grabs your attention at Ko is the warm, unusual and pretty décor. There’s even a noodle light hanging over the table, a mahjong table at one corner, and a round artwork of fans on a wall.

The signature beef noodles were RM28 and the lunch sets were RM24 for the XXL chicken, RM23 for three cup chicken. Dumplings in chilli oil were RM16, and beef wrap scallion pancake RM13.

Ko Restaurant & Bar is at 10a, Jalan Datuk Sulaiman, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Tel: 011 6123 0648. It is pork free. – May 11, 2024.

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.