Tiffin by Chef Korn is another newbie in town at Midvalley Megamall. If you think Chef Korn sounds familiar to you, that’s because he’s behind the well-known Thai restaurant Erawan. This new outlet is more casual in setting, featuring Chef Korn’s village-style cooking, dishes he grew up loving and eating.

The location is a little tricky, but here’s a tip. Locate Daiso at Third Floor, then take the stairs (inside Daiso) up, walk outside and turn right and you’ll see the restaurant. The decor is kept simple, with tiffin carriers placed all over, clearly referring to the name of the restaurant.

Before we talk about the food, let me recommend a couple of tasty drinks they have to offer:

The Passion tea is made with real whole passionfruit, peach tea and mint leaves. It’s on the sweeter side, and feels very “girly”. An absolute thirst quencher. While the Tom Yam Mojito is much bolder and punchier, with ingredients you can find in a Tom Yam soup: Lemongrass, Kaffir Lime Leaves, Chili (!), Galangal and Soda. If I’m not worried about the caloric count, I’d happily gulp down glasses of this.

The menu here is huge so you’ll be spoilt for choice. Pork lovers should take note because more than 50% of dishes here contains pork (which I will go back and try next time). We let Chef Korn cooked us whatever he liked when we visited, and here are all the starters.

The prawns are wrapped with wantan skin and deep fried, then served with 3 different sauces (my favourite is of course sweet chili).

Do not miss out on these Fire balls, made with minced pork, ground roasted rice, dried chili. spring onion, coriander and shallot. Break the ball apart and enjoy with crunchy raw vegetables (to balance out the salt and spice), but be careful as it’s fiery!

The Salted Wings are surprisingly crispy despite the lack of dredging, a testament to Chef’s skills.

While the “Pop corns” are actually mini corn tempura, with bits of sweet corn mingling with fluffy batter fried to a crisp.

The boxing chicken is a little bit on the saltier side though. Good to pair with beer, I suppose.

We also got to try the Yam and Tapioca Balls, which is actually a dessert dish. I love the fluffy texture of the yam, it’s only minimally sweet, which is a bonus.

Next, an interesting display came to our table.

Depending on availability, the condiments may differ day to day. We had Fried fish, perfectly hard-boiled duck eggs, fried chicken skin, fried eggplant and various blanched vegetables (this is always available).

I shall start with my favourite dip of the 4:

Everyone is fighting for this one, it goes especially well with fried chicken skin, and the hard-boiled duck egg.

This is slightly smoky, slightly sweet and slightly spicy, goes well with everything. I wouldn’t mind more of it now.

Roasted Kembong fish with fermented anchovies, roasted chili, garlic, shallots and lime juice, it’s as tasty as it sounds.

This one is the most robust in flavour and a little bit goes a long way.

Chef Korn was very keen for us to try the noodles dishes so he brought out not 1, not 2, but 4 types of noodles! It was not an easy task going through all of them. The first one is not on the regular menu (but if the customers like it enough, it might just become permanent), and it’s a dish sure to please Malaysian palate.

Pairing Chicken Curry with noodles is not uncommon. But here he also added raw shallots, spring onions, fresh lime juice, and most importantly homemade preserved vegetables. The broth itself is bordering cloying rich but with the addition of the toppings, there is a lovely balance of sweetness from coconut milk, tang from the preserved veges, and aromatic spices. I heard this is only available on Tuesdays for now.

I have heard about the Beef Ball Noodles long before I visited this restaurant (long is operative, as this place is only about 2 months old), and was looking forward to tasting it. It’s so exciting to eat the generous serving of meat (Australian shin meat and beef slices) and beef balls. The dark brown broth has a great depth of flavour and I couldn’t resist a second serving. To be honest though, I probably can’t finish the whole bowl by myself, it’s huge!

At Tiffin’s, you are encouraged to play with your food. The test tubes are provided with the noodles dishes so you can adjust the taste to your liking. Though I would say there is no need to add anything except a healthy dash of chili!

What a pretty name for a dish! The pink hue of the soup comes from a “foo yee” sauce, and this bowl is full of fresh seafood, perfect for those who pretty oceany flavours.

Suki-Yaki means stew or hot pot in Japanese, but here at Tiffin it comes in a form of glass noodles served with seafood, pork and vegetables. I was very full at that point so didn’t try this, but my fellow dining partners were singing praises.

I wanted to wave my white flags but Chef Korn insisted we try the Candied Banana. Here the bananas are candied, so they are super sweet, but served in unsweetend coconut milk flavoured simply with salt, which balances the sweetness. I certainly wouldn’t mind having it again (as a fan of bananas it gets 2 thumbs up from me).

I will definitely pay another visit (or more) to sample more of their ala carte dishes (think Green Pork Curry, Stewed Pork Knuckle, Village Pork, Crispy Belly Pork….. I want them all). Thank you Chef Korn for the great hospitality!