KEN HUNTS FOOD: J.A.M Cafe @ Sungai Dua, Penang.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

J.A.M Cafe @ Sungai Dua, Penang.

J.A.M café is a humble new café opened at Sungai Dua, the predecessor of the Café was Jeff & Wind Western Food. Operating in quite a similar way, J.A.M Café offers a wide variety of both Local and Western Cuisines to the diners, targeting primarily to the students in USM. One thing surprises me- their prices. It’s not quite easy to find such delicate dishes with such economical price elsewhere, even in Penang. Service might be a bit slow during peak hours due to lack of manpower but otherwise, their foods are worth the wait. I would not recommend all of their dishes but some of them did impress me. J.A.M. Café is facing the bustling road of Sungai Dua (Tesco Extra Sungai Dua, Penang), the place where the usual night market (on Saturday) will be held.

The meal kick started off with their J.A.M Summer Salad (Rm 7.90) which uses Berries as their main salad dressing. It consists of some Romaine Lettuce, sliced Tomatoes, Mangoes, Oranges and some Walnuts. They were supposed to serve with some Avocadoes but they were not available and they had them swapped with unripen Mangoes. It worked to my liking especially the extra sourness, very refreshing indeed. The dressing was okay but I would personally prefer the Olive Oil with Balsamic Vinegar combination instead.

As for main course, I had this Tomato Pasta (which in this case, Angel Hair Pasta) with Chicken Meat Balls (Rm 8.90). It comes with a toasted Garlic Bread and some Deep Fried Meat Balls. As much as I adore the flavors of the Pasta but I had to disagree with the Deep Fried Chicken Meat Balls. I would definitely prefer cooked Meat Balls, or at least something similar to Meat Balls Marinara instead of Pop Corn Chicken-like Meat Balls. The Chicken cubes were thickly battered unfortunately. The Pasta, on the other hand, was cooked al-dente and full of the Garlicky flavor. This was slightly above par as compared to their Aglio Olio which I previously had.

Tom Yum Maggi was okay which the Tom Yum flavor was too mild to my liking, other than that, nothing much to shout over. It was just another ordinary Stir Fried Instant Noodles to me.

XO Fried Rice (Rm 9.90) comes in a huge portion. It has some Prawn Crackers as garnish but they were too careless to have added some XO sauce on the Prawn Crackers which the Prawn Crackers ended up soggy. Their Fried Egg was perfectly done, maintaining the “runny” texture for the yolk. Fried Rice was decent but it lacked of some extra kick, a scoop or two of Chili Flakes could have earned more marks from us.

We also had this Komtar Burger for Rm 12.60 where diners can choose 2 out of 3 types of meat patties (beef, pork and chicken). The set comes with some fries and salad as well. Overall, I find the burger tasted okay only as the patties lacked of the bite and flavors. Not too bad if comparing the size for the value, worth of trying though.

The high note was on the dessert, I was impressed by their home made Cheese Cake (Rm 7.90) which comes with a scoop of their home-made Vanilla Ice Cream, topped with Warm Berry Compote. The Cheese Cake was smooth, rich and full of flavors while their Vanilla Ice Cream was equally savory as well; it works perfectly with the Cheese Cake which was not too sweet to my liking. Some improvements needed on their Berry Compote (it did not stand out) but overall, it was still very good. Recommended. J.A.M Café serves a wide variety of hearty home-made desserts too, do check them out if you are dessert lover.