Monday, October 12, 2009

Premium Pork @ Sanbanto, SS2, Petaling Jaya


comforting pork bolognese with home made pappardelle (RM17)

After a long stressful week, winding down with a little porky goodness seems to be the best way to recharge the batteries. This relatively new place located in the heartland of SS2 seems to have garnered quite a few fans already, judging from the crowd hanging out at the small place and the number of references once you Google search it. Don't expect much in terms of decor, as the place doubles up as a shop to sell the meat in the front and a large open kitchen takes up almost half of the space. The whole set up is relatively simple with mirrors on one side, to give an illusion of a bigger space. Tables and chairs are also quite limited, hence I can imagine looking for a place during peak times will be quite trying. The lack of any soft furnishings and mirrors does no wonders for the acoustics, as it can get terrible noisy especially if there's a loud crowd hanging here.


1. pork bolognese, 2. mr. piggy, 3. pork belly salad (RM13)

If your aim is just some pork to cheer you up, then you're in the right place. The menu is relatively small - appetizers, pastas, mains and desserts. They have handy indicators next to some items to help you order their specialties. Spotted pork ears on the menu (I wonder if that will be too chewy?), pate, pork burger and etc. Since we couldn't eat the whole menu, we just settled on a few items.


delectable BBQ ribs (RM38)

The pork bolognese arrived first, looking a little lost in the large white plate. A quick taste of it revealed pretty good home made pasta - not too soft but still with a slight bite to it. The pork bolognese that coated the thick pappardelle strands was strangely reminscent of a home cooked meal - comforting and familiar. Well hidden within the minced meat, you will find bits of deep fried lard that is a little soggy from the sauce. I guess it would have been better to sprinkle the pasta with the deep fried goodies on top, to give a slight textural difference. Nevertheless, we both thoroughly enjoyed the pasta and decided we don't mind trying it again.


very soft pistachio pannacotta (RM9) served with dragonfruit on the side

The sinful sounding pork belly salad felt a little ordinary though and probably due to the moisture from the salad, the deep fried pork belly slices weren't as crispy as we preferred. It still made a good and less sinful accompaniement to the meal with the healthy greens dipped in a tangy honey mustard sauce on the side. What we truly loved was the BBQ rib - one long rib slathered with a smoky BBQ sauce. Dig into the rib and discover fork tender meat topped with a fatty portion that melted in your mouth - simply sublime stuff especially for those who love their pork fat! The sides of mash potatoes was a little too gluey but I quite liked the sweet tasting grilled corn in the cobs.

Dessert was less exciting - a wobbly and very soft pannacotta that didn't have much taste of pistachio at all. Dragonfruit was served on the side that didn't seem to complement the flavours of the dessert at all. I reckon this place justifies a few more visits as I'm dying to go try out their pork burger, which the lady kept recommending.

On another note, the pork is from this farm located in Endau-Rompin that is ISO 22000 (Certification for Food Safety) certified by
Moodys International. The meat is from pigs that are reared without any growth hormones. These pigs are fed a special type of bacillus using a Japanese technology. More pictures can be found in my Flickr set.

Sanbanto
32, Jalan SS2/63
Petaling Jaya
Selangor

Tel: 03-7876 1728

(Non Halal. Open for lunch and dinner. Shop is the same row as KTZ, Maybank, Rocket United Cafe and A Little Dim Sum Place.)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. This review is time sensitive; changes may occur to the place later on that can affect this opinion. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from this place for writing the review.

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38 comments:

wmw said...

Wanted to try but the place was full when I was there. Hmmm....will try going again at non-peak hours.

rokh said...

i saw this place before but did not try it and had took mental note of it. now you reminded me hehe..

Jean said...

nice.. will give it a try when I'm around that area.^^

Sean said...

am dying to go back too, to try their burger as well as their pork knuckle! should be delicious, considering the quality of their other dishes :D

boo_licious said...

wmw - not many tables here so I can expect it to be jam packed!

rokh - the food is pretty good I think, love the rib and the pasta.

Hi Jean, hope you will like it!

Sean - ooooh, pork knuckle sounds good. They seemed to be pushing their pork burger a lot!

J said...

Mmmmmm, more porky temptations!
(So much for my diet... Haha...)

sc said...

heard of this place but have yet to drop by. the pork belly salad looks good, but too bad it's just average..the ribs looks excellent!

boo_licious said...

J - are u back? Can't wait to hear yr tales of Europe!

sc - I set my crispy pork belly slices std quite high and this one was just so so as not crispy enough. The rib was very good. Give it a try.

Unknown said...

Mashed potatos are of the poedered ty[e.....disappointing. Owner commented that they used to do the real thing, but gave up. Why bother then!

boo_licious said...

Yeah Leonard, if they were fluffy, that would have made the pork rib taste even better!

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

when ss2 bcomes a dead cowboy town with loads of parking, i may consider coming hahaha..

boo_licious said...

Joe - that is when hell freezes over rite? hahaha.

Precious Pea said...

Porkyyyliciouss!! WMW!! Wait for me!!

foodbin said...

most important the pigs reared are doing the environment a favor (no smell from it's manure)-i think meat from these type of pigs should be savored-boiled/poached-sliced - dip/eat in Soy sauce to enjoy it's full textures and flavors.

thule a.k.a leo said...

beta-agonist free babi??? Now that's ethic :) which also explains their slightly higher price porks compared right??

I'd been drooling ever since I read Sean's blog... now you tempted me further with the to-die-for pork ribs. Since I can't eat beef and don't eat lamb... pork is the best thing that happens to me.. hahaha! That's why I can't miss out on this place

Unknown said...

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Paranoid Android said...

Ha ha... Missed this one. Passed by Sanbuto one sleepy afternoon, meeting up for dim sum with friends for brunch. The sign at the door put me off, and we decided not to go in. "WE SELL FRESH AND HYGIENE PORK NOW".

Will hit this joint soon, but will try to ignore that sign.

J said...

Aww, thanks. :) Yes - Arrived back in KL last week, and have just posted something on some French pastries I ate.
(Nothing fancy, was just from a simple patisserie near my hotel there)

Bangsar-bAbE said...

The pork ribs looks darn delish! Haven't been to SS2 in quite a while already...time to check this place out!

Lingzie said...

a few of my friends have been raving about this place. they love the pork belly salad and the burgers. looks like its a must try! :)

qwazymonkey said...

Salad + Pork Belly? Now that's the kinda salad diet I'm talking about!


Been dying to try the pork ribs here since Sean blogged about it. Now there's the pasta tempting me too. Can't wait to sink my teeth into them.

eiling lim said...

ooh the pork belly salad looks good. very refreshing. It's like a combination of yin and yang where the high cholesterol dish is paired with healthy vege. haha...

boo_licious said...

precious pea - come back from Australia!!

foodbin - sounds like a good idea, buy some and poach at home.

Leo - ah, so you must make time and visit this place soon!

Thxs NovApr for the info.

Paranoid Android - will wait for yr verdict on whether fresh and hygiene pork makes the cut for you.

J - am sure even a simple place will be nice.

Bsar-babe - ss2 is always happening and so incredibly packed!

Lingzie - I want burger too!

qwazymonkey - since u're on a diet, the pork belly salad is definitely the best choice. Pork ribs can also be eaten with corn and vegetables, so kinda like a salad rite?

eiling - hee hee, one must always be in balance mah so if u're too healthy, u need to splurge out and make sure the salad comes with something sinful.

Rebecca Saw said...

Sean's post got me paying attention to this unassuming outlet..now with yr post I'm alreai flipping my diary for a timeslot to pay a visit!!
Hope their pork burger is better than Cristang's!

boo_licious said...

nomadgourmand - yeah but I think Cristang's one is unique with his sloppy joe topping.

boo_licious said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
fatboybakes said...

YAHHHMMEEEEEEE!!!!! so this is the pork od you've been referring to. looks so good! pricing quite reasonable too hor.

boo_licious said...

fbb - pok pok wk shld be ending soon. deepavali round the corner.

Unknown said...

would love to see a photo of the front facade of the shop.
lemme hop to your flickr set then.
SS2's really mighty packed with eateries eh?

boo_licious said...

j2kfm - see the other links. It's just a glass walled restaurant with words written on it and a very cute pig pix in front.

女飞侠 said...

wow!!! everything looks so good!!! i am going to try it one of these days....thanks boo_licious! ^^

zewt said...

Question: How can we be sure that the pork is indeed from that endau-rompin farm? after all, this is malaysia, a lot of things can be... bolehnised...

sorry... skeptical mood today...

cheers!

Penny Wong said...

Tried it a few times, delicious!!

kamagra online said...

Hi,
Great recipe found on this blog..Like the presentation of pistachio pannacotta.Really looking very delicious..
Thanks for posting this blog...

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