Bijan means sesame in the Malay language. Bijan is also a restaurant that serves traditional Malay food that is slightly up-market. When we say up-market, we mean the ambience, the place and the price of course.
If you're a tourist to Malaysia or simply would love to enjoy Malay food, Bijan would be a possible stop for you. Bijan is located at a place where old terrace houses around it are slowly being converted into trendy pubs and restaurants. Bijan is also near KLCC and Bukit Bintang area. Transportation to this place is via taxi.
It seems Bijan is quite popular with the expatriate community and foreign visitors. Rightly so since the place serves alcohol and is around Ceylon Hill. We're not sure if the place is halal (with alcohol being served freely) but we saw few Malays eating there. So, it should be ok.Service
Out of 5, we would rate service @ 2. We had to wait 10 minutes for the waiters to find us our seating spot and we have made prior reservations. We were also on time. The service was slow and some tables weren't event cleared for more than 30 minutes after patrons have left. Our food was slow. We had to wait for 30 minutes just to get our bill and we're sitting just next to the counter. The kitchen screwed up the order for the table next to us and only informed the table after 1 hour. One thing we noticed, the service (smiles and speed) tend to be better for foreigners.
Ambience
Bijan is a no frills place. It's decor is warm and inviting. It's a modern and posh Malay restaurant. You don't have candle lights, you get tea lights in a slim flower vase instead. There are two sitting areas. One is air-conditioned (non-smoking) and the other is a smoking non air-conditioned area. Bijan gives you a feeling of ease and warmth. Perfect to wind down a day if you've been moving around. It's quite a nice place to if you're on a casual date.
Food
How best to test if this restaurant serves good and authentic Malay food but by ordering curry and vegetables. And by no means are they the normal type of curry or vegetables. A word of caution: if you're allergic to seafood especially prawns, please ask the waiters for recommendations as most Malay dishes contain belacan aka shrimp paste.
Here's what we ordered and this is what we would recommend you to try out:
Kerabu Pucuk Paku
Kerabu pucuk paku is basically a traditional Malay vegetable dish or some would call it salad. It is known as ferntop salad in English. And yes, ferns are edible and this particular dish has fern as the main ingredient. The other ingredients are shallots, small onions, shaved/grated coconut, shelled prawns, shredded ginger flower and fresh chilly. This is one dish you should try. Our verdict for this was 4 out of 5. This dish contains prawns and shrimp paste.Ikan Masak Lemak Belimbing
This is a very milky fish curry cooked in turmeric and starfruit. Yes, starfruit. It tastes sweet (not sugar sweet), milky and thick. Usually, snapper or garoupa is used to cook this sort of curry. We enjoyed it and there were 4 huge pieces of fish meat. The fish weren't that fresh though and most likely frozen for a while before being used/cooked. This is also a must try for the quirky type of curry. You don't find this easily on the road side or at Malay stalls. We rate this 3 out of 5.Sotong Masak Kicap Manis
This is a squid fish and cooked in the ever popular soya sauce and thick sweet soya sauce. We particularly liked this dish as it is sweet and the onions were sauteed to the right texture and aroma. The squid were a little over cooked and was quite rubbery. However, it is also a recommended dish as it is simple and delicious. We rate this 3 out of 5 too.We actually ordered another dish, Asparagus Masak Sambal Belacan (Asparagus cooked in Shrimp Chilly paste). It wasn't a spectacular dish and we would recommend you to avoid this dish. The shrimp paste was over cooked and tasted bitter.
Price
All in all, there's only one serving size and one price for each dish. As a gauge, a typical dish can feed up to 4 persons comfortably. We feel the prices are reasonable given the ambience, the quality of food and the area. We're still sore about the service though. We spent RM150 for 4 dishes, two plates of rice, 2 fruits juices and one dessert. Also, if you'd like only plain water, do explicitly tell them you'd like plain water. if not, they'll serve you Sole instead.
Note:We did not receive any form of compensation for publishing this post. We paid for the meal and neither were we solicited to write this post by any party.
