Dine-in Date: 14th June 2015

The concept of ecology and idea of trying to save & "rescue" more natural resources is getting stronger these days. Not only that some of the places practice the concept of no plastic bag day at Saturday, restaurants or places that focus on promoting a green environment and concept are increasing. As the trend and name imply, Green House by Muir is one obvious place that goes with the greeny concepts.

Suggested by my sister who interested in these type of special idea instead of just plain and ordinary method for an early father's day celebration, my family and I had chosen Green House by Muir as our ideal celebration place for this year's father day.

About Green House by Muir

Many sources suggested that "Green House by Muir" named after the late John Muir, who is a Scottish-American naturalist, author environmental philosopher and a person who inspire and act to preserve some of the national park and forests in that time. I couldn't confirm on the idea that the concept of Green House comes from Muir because Muir could be their founder or designer name, or they can just name it "Green House by John Muir" instead.

As you walk right into the place, you'll see a florist corner on your left and a cafe section on your right. Walk further as you pass by the cafe section, you will see the route map of the place on your right. The creativity part of this place is that it combine multiple different element into different parts. Unlike most of the conventional restaurant that they only have one counter and whatever you need to order, it's all at that one counter. In Green House, the sashimi section, hot section, and bakery rely on one counter. Not sure about the florist, but the cafe counter is different from other section.

Sometimes, it good because the queue is divided to different counter, so the queue won't be too long. The troublesome thing is you need to take out your wallet many times when you purchase different things from different section.

As all of the sections have some gap between them, it feels like you are visiting a new place as you move between each different section. This is basically the seating place for everyone in the inside. It basically kind of like primary school canteen where everyone sit together like a big family annual dinner. It's quite noisy as people talk and the gap between each seat is quite near. You can also choose to sit at the outside. I think the environment is much better out there but it will be bad when the weather is hot out there.

Kuroshio Market - Sashimi Section

Going straight into the restaurant as you passed by the florist and café section, you will see the seating place on your left and the sashimi section on your right.

Sashimi section is divided into sashimi and sushi. The staff will prepare the sashimi for you immediately as you request.

I’m not sure if the seafood above is just for display only or this the amount of stocks they have. I think the display is not really attractive. If only they would place it a little nicer in terms of the position and angle, and try not to make it looks like each seafood so isolated and covered in too much of ice, that would be better.

I don’t plan to try their sashimi for now, and I think the price is a little too over.

The other side of the sashimi contain of well-prepared sushi in plastic box. There is also sashimi in plastic box. If you don’t want to wait for the sashimi and don’t mind about the freshness, you can also grab it from here.
The sushi choices are quite ordinary, and I don’t really see any special type of sushi here. You probably don't really see anything in this Duck Salad. While beneath the bunch of veggie, there aren't really a lot of duck slices. I probably should not complain too much since we have 5 person sharing one thing, but each of us only manage to taste one slice of duck meat, and the rest is veggie. The veggie just taste alright, not too fresh as it look. But good thing is they don't add sauce or anything, so the taste is quite original.

Kuroshio Market - Hot Section

The hot section is just few steps away from the sashimi section and it's just the opposite of the payment counter. This is where you able to get some rice, warm and fried foods to fill up your stomach.

First, you gotta get into the queue and you are free to get some rice and miso soup into the paper box, and then grab some fried food from the available option.

And again, there isn't really any fried foods that attract me. The fried foods are just ordinary type of fried stuff that you can get in any type of Japanese restaurant.

There is nothing I really want to try... so I just grab some foods for the sake of filling up our empty stomach. My apologize for the almost-half-gone Chicken Terriyaki (RM10+ for one fillet), my dad grab huge part of it before I manage to capture a good pic of it.

But well, I don't really have much to comment about this Chicken Terriyaki. The chicken meat is nothing great, not too tough and not too soft, contain a bit of taste because of the sauce but a little dry because it should have more sauce. The needs of sauce is just so that the chicken is not too dry, the sauce itself is nothing great. The portion should be alright if it's for one person. This croquette (RM1+ for each) has thin layer of frying flour on the outer skin, and it filling is quite a lot. Still, it's too ordinary in terms of taste and you can get it from Aeon Big or any other places. The only reason that I would recall this croquette is because it cost RM1 for one tiny piece. Shishamo (RM2+ each) is quite tasty thou. Can taste a bit of salt over it but not too much. And it's quite crunchy from the inside-out. But overall, the price is quite over.... I'm getting 5 pieces of shishamo for 5 person and that costs me RM10+ already.

Evendough Bakery

At the very corner of the restaurant, located behind a small section of selling variety of products behind the cash counter, here is where the Evendough Bakery located. If you didn't look carefully or did not read the route map properly, you might totally miss this section.

Compare to other section, Evendough Bakery is quite small but placement of all the breads are quite well done. All the breads are placed in a wooden box covered with plastic lid. The overall design give a simple and classic feel in a small village bakery shop.

Other than the display look and feel, the bakery has wide range of unique and special bread choices. Upon grabbing the breads you want, the staff will help you to slice the breads into bite size if you choose to eat here. The next thing you need to do before you enjoy your food is to pay at the counter located right after you out from Evendough Bakery.

They actually mix the bread into a plastic box after slicing into bite sizes. And the way they slice it into the average size for each bread pieces is quite well done.

Although it's a little costly compare to the bread out there, but their bread also taste quite soft and delicious. The fruit danish looks tastier than it looks. Topped with some fresh and sweet fruits with some cream in the middle layer of the bread give a nice chewing feeling and taste. Just that the bread crunch is a little too tough.

Evendough Cafe

Apart of sashimi and hot food session, you get to choose breads or cakes and coffee/tea as your snack or dessert. Evendough Cafe is one good option to fill your food craving in case you don't get enough from the main meals and breads, although I don't think you wouldn't feel enough after you consume the main meals and bread.

Comparing with other section, Evendough Cafe is the one that attracting me the most and gave me better impression. Not only because I'm a person who enjoy cafe with nice dessert and good coffee/tea, Evendough Cafe have the standard tools and equipment for coffee and tea making, and they also have their cake and dessert placed at the right place and right way to attract people eyes and seduce the appetite of those who look at their desserts.

Evendough cafe focus more on healthy tea and there is very limited amount of coffee on their menu. The range of tea is pretty attractive as there are many stuff that you couldn't find out there. You can always ask for the staff recommendation if you not sure what to order. Below the name of the drinks, there are short description of what made up the drinks anyway, so you don't need to worry too much.

Due to the cough, I think it's safer for me to go for some green tea drinks. This Mimacha (RM12) is basically matcha with frothed milk. But I can only taste the milk. And it's quite sweet for me. I was expecting some green tea but sadly, there is none of it in terms of flavor and aroma. It's more like a milky cup of drinks. The Cappuccino is pretty plain. Can't say it's good but not that bad. However, I think this Cappuccino is quite failed as it lack of the taste of espresso and milk, the aroma, and the texture that a Cappuccino suppose to have.

Putting All Together

In overall, my suggestion is, if you are going for main meal, either hot food or sashimi, choose either the Evendough Bakery or Cafe as your side, don't take both of them. Otherwise, take only Evendough Bakery and Cafe. Taking both breads and the cafe after main meal could be overkill for your stomach.

Green House...?

I'm just an ordinary citizen who learn the idea of ecology through the public views so I don't know too much about ecology. I might be lacking of the knowledge in this but I actually don't see too much of ecology or greeny idea in this place.

I notice the following that doesn't relate Green House to greeny environment or to be more specific, natural resources friendly, in their practice and place:

1. Paper box for rice, soup, bread, and others. Paper is definitely one of the important natural resources that the people trying to save. The use of paper box for food and soup could be handy for recycle. Although I'm not sure if it's a good idea to recycle paper box (if they are going to recycle it later) that had been used for food and meal purpose, but creating large amount of paper box definitely consume more papers in the long run. Unless they done some good research to prove that using paper box in the long run save more natural resources compare to the conventional method of using silverware.
   
   
2. Wooden spoon & fork. Similar to above. I have no clue on their idea of using wooden spoon & fork for meal. My perception is that silverware is easier to clean with water and water is much more easier to recycle, and in many ways.
   
   
3. Air-con is too cold. Air-con should not be a problem since its really hot out there. But if we are talking about eco-green, air-con contribute into the increase environmental heats which contribute to the higher rises of global warming. To avoid further into the scientific topic, I'm feeling cold from the moment I got to the seating place, and almost got frozen when I'm about to leave. If we are talking about go green, the use of air-con should be controlled. It's hot out there, so it's reasonable that they need to make sure their customers are comfortable in this environment. But it go against the idea of going green with such air-con environment.
   
   
4. Plastic box for sushi. Same concept as Jusco/Aeon that store their sushi and salad in the sashimi section. Since sushi and salad is easier to clean, are they going to recycle it after use? From the surface, this does not seems to be an appropriate go green method.

In summary, I really don't see much green thing in this place other than the table and some of the furniture plus decorations, which seems to be produced using recycle stuff. Talking about places to with go green theme, I would expect a place that able to raise the awareness of people and understand the importance of ecology even more. But unfortunately, Green House by Muir just look like any ordinary restaurant with a name that sounds "green".

Contact & Location

Open Daily:

Kuroshio Market: 11am - 10pm
Evendough Bakery: 11am - 10pm
Evendough Cafe: 10am - 10pm

1, Jalan Nipah, Kampung Berembang
55000 Kuala Lumpur
Green House by Muir's Website: Click Here
Phone Number: 03-2630 6728

Rating

Quality

Kuroshio Sashimi & Hot Section - Average. It's really plain and nothing special. I am, honestly, finding it hard to comment about their foods because everything is just too ordinary in terms of selection and taste.

Evendough Bakery - Good. Some of the breads are quite unique and tasty. For those who are bored of ordinary bread, here could be a good choice to try out new things.

Evendough Cafe - Good. The desserts are really appealing and looks good. What's more, the taste is actually quite good too. Some of the desserts are quite special which make me want to try again. But I guess they need to improve on their coffee.

Portion

Kuroshio Market Sashimi & Hot Section - Average. For the hot section, the portion of rice with some meat, and a miso soup can fill up your stomach but if you intended to try out other sections, you need to eat much lesser on this section, best without the rice and miso soup.

Evendough Bakery - Good. Not the ordinary tiny piece of bread like out there, most of the breads are quite big with nice filling. Much recommended to take it for breakfast or tea time. As taking it after some heavy meal will be quite over.

Evendough Cafe - Good. Again, if it's for sweet delights or light meal, the portion will be good. But taking it after main meal is quite over as the desserts are quite sweet, and the coffee & tea is quite full and sweet as well. Dessert and the drinks is more than enough to make you feel stuffy. So you really have to know when you suppose to enjoy this sweet delights and when not.

Cost

Kuroshio Market Sashimi & Hot Section - Not Worthy. Most of the food is quite over priced especially the sushi and some fried stuff while the quality is not meeting the cost expectation. Many other places have better taste than the fried foods while the prices are lower.

Evendough Bakery - Worthy. Although most of the breads are quite costly but looking at the perspective of portion and specialty, you may consider it a special treats once in awhile.

Evendough Cafe - Worthy. For desserts in overall, prices are consider average, Same goes for the drinks. It's the average type of cafe that you can expect.

Environment

Average. It will be great if the environment match their name, but expecting something out from their name and then visiting the place to experience how the place really is kind of bringing down lots of expectations. That said, name of the business and how it convey the invisible message to the customers has a strong impact to how well people feel about the business.

Back to the layout of the place, having multiple sections in one place is kind of new but it still boil down to variety of problems: customers need to go to different places to put their order and pay at different places. It won't be a problem if you don't mind walking to different direction at one time to take the food, pay at the designated counter, walk back to your seats to put down your food, and repeat it for another section. Furthermore, the location of the seats kind of forcing you to go different directions instead of getting your main meal, bread, dessert & drinks at one go. This type of layout can be really creative but doesn't seems to cater for several issues for the comfort of the customers.

As for the seats, it's either you sit down together with a large group of people in the air-con place, or sit together with few of your friends out there in a hot or not-so-cooling environment. How bout a little bit of own space for couple in a slightly comfortable and cooling place? Nope, there isn't any.

Service

Average. There isn't much staffs around other than staffs at the payment counter and cleaning staff. The staffs at the payment counter is quite polite. Just that they need some improvement on English speaking. The cleaning staffs only do their work when they see people done with their food. Other than that, I only see them walking around and looks pretty bored.

By the way, I was away from the table for awhile and when I'm back, my mom said that the cleaning staffs cleaned our finished food including my hafl-finished Mimacha.... that's pretty bad.

Next Visit?

Distance is a huge issue, plus I don't really have much business around Ampang area. Anyhow, the only thing that giving me the reason to go back is their desserts and teas. I might think about it when I have convenient time and transport for that.