Food Blog | PiringMu Eco Botanic
Lots of new restaurants opening up in Eco Botanic, so that’s more food for me to go and try! Today I’ll be talking about PiringMu, which is a Peranakan restaurant with a branch in both Bukit Indah and Eco Botanic.
Is it Halal?
I’m not sure if they are halal certified, but there are a few mentions on their Facebook pages about being in the process of getting halal certified - therefore I think this is considered to be a safe place for Muslim patrons to indulge on Peranakan cuisine.
Where it Is?
PiringMu is located on the same row as Starbucks (not on the side with The Alley Milk Tea, the other row - because Starbucks is a corner lot). It is also next to Eco Fitness and a Cottage Hotel. Basically, when you see a food truck, you’ve gone too far.
Address: 56, Jalan Eko Botani 3/2, Taman Eko Botani, 79100 Nusajaya, Johor
Operating Hours:
Monday to Sunday 8am to 10pm (Source: PiringMu Website)
What it Costs
To be perfectly honest, this isn’t going to be a glowing review of PiringMu. So, starts right when I enter the restaurant. Outside, there is a promotional banner saying that they have Set Lunch from RM8.80. They put this on the tables as well. Honestly speaking, this is one of those where I personally think is almost blatant false advertising.
My analogy is kind of like this. Let’s say your promotion says from RM5. Of the 6 dishes you put on there, 1 is RM5 and the other 5 is RM50. Why did you bother with this promotion in the first place? In my circumstance it is double the price (around there) of the promotion price. Wouldn’t that leave you with a salty taste in your mouth?
Put it this way, what I ordered - the Ayam Pongteh Meal - came up to RM16.80, and I wouldn’t even know that it was RM16.80, if I literally just based it off of the sign outside and on the table. To add to that, I’m just going to be talking about the differences between their set lunch and the set dinner.
I saw the receipt that they gave me once I put the order in, and realised it was RM16.80. I mean I’m annoyed, but I don’t mind paying RM16.80 for decent food. I’m not really sure how it works, because what happened ultimately was that they didn’t serve me the iced lemon tea, and I decided, okay let’s just have the a la carte version then, it is cheaper.
Most of the prices for their rice dishes come at RM12-RM15 (add RM4.80 if you want the set).
So apparently, their lunch and dinner set promotions are fundamentally the same - just that with lunch, you get the additional iced lemon tea for free - hence why they couldn’t charge me the a la carte price. Their set from my understanding is basically everything else on the plate that is not the rice (see the food pictures), and ultimately the difference is RM4.80 for cucumbers, a salted egg, acar and some keropok that tastes like a bunch of rocks (I’ll talk about later) which I think really defeats the purpose of a set - which is supposed to add value. For me, just get a la carte if you insist on eating here.
How it Tastes
Honestly, the ONE good thing I’ll say about this place is that their chicken is actually really good. When you spoon the sauce, there is a lot of oil, but for me personally I don’t mind too much so overall it was still pretty nice for me. Really nostalgic, homely kind of broth that can be appreciated by pretty much everyone. It is almost in this strange place where it is in between soup and sauce, so I think overall the chicken as a whole is really good.
Really generous with the amount of chicken (and if people of PiringMu read this, PLEASE don’t take this as incentive to reduce the portions.
Acar was meh, I’ve had a lot better acar. Salted egg is salted egg. The rice, to be fair, I thought would be a bit more fragrant because they used something to blue the rice. The keropok thing for me is just really bad. Like, it is just so bloody dry. When I put it in my mouth and chew, it’s almost like rocks. I don’t know, maybe it suits other people’s palettes, maybe I’m the crazy one, but that thing is basically not for me.
Star Rating
3/10. What sealed it for me was when I went up to pay, I told them that the iced lemon tea didn’t arrive, so I asked whether he could change the bill. What happened next was like he kinda acknowledged it, and then suddenly he said the same price back to me - RM16.80. So I kinda had to ask why that was the case. The staff offered whether I wanted to takeaway, but didn’t offer any apologies for it not arriving or anything.
It is these simple things that REALLY annoy me about restaurants. Explain, apologise and service with a smile. I think those are the fundamentals. Staff are nice, but I feel should deal with a lot of situations better.
Certain aspects of the food have potential, but at that price point, I expect a little bit better - especially compared to everything else available in the area.