Sam's Kitchen: Bangsar's new secret spot serving banana leaf rice packed with flavour

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 — If you love banana leaf rice that tastes like it's been cooked lovingly at home, scramble over to this place located within the Bayu Angkasa condominium.

We guarantee flavour bombs, packed with sweet onions and fragrant spices here. There's also a respect for cooking with the freshest ingredients, whether it's fish, kampung chicken, kampung mutton, deer meat, turkey or crabs.

Opened about a month ago, Sam's Kitchen is run by the friendly M. Panisamy or Samy, together with his wife, N. Shanti. He is also known as “Ayya” to his regulars.

M. Panisamy or Samy has been cooking since he was 10 years old.

It's not the first time this 68-year-old has opened an eatery in Bangsar. Last year he operated an eatery near the government dental clinic on Jalan Bangsar.

As an increase in rent forced him to look for new premises, he ended up at this space located within the condominium's clubhouse, on his cousin's recommendation.

Samy picked up his cooking skills when he was just 10, after his mother died. As the eldest of seven siblings, he took over the responsibility of cooking for them.

The young boy learned to cook by observing his father and grandmother. Since he loves good food, he would often eat out and pick up tips on how to cook a certain item.

Fresh fish is marinated in a concoction of spices before it is fried.


Samy uses his own mix of spices for the dishes here.

"Once I eat, I know the recipe," he explained. With around 275 recipes of his own, he is much sought after for his tasty food. Friends and family from Kuala Kubu Bahru, his hometown, often ask him to cater for functions.

In his younger days, Samy ran a pottery business in Kuala Selangor that supplied clay pots sourced locally. However a love for cooking led him to open his first eatery in 1999 in Buntong, Ipoh.

Later he gave that up and worked as a limousine driver for a hotel. An unfortunate accident saw his return to cooking.

He started first at Sentul before moving back to Kuala Kubu Bahru. After a family emergency, he left the business to be run by one of his relatives. Later, he moved to Bangsar when a friend recommended him a place.


Assisting Samy with the cooking is his wife, N. Shanti.

From as early as 5am, you will find Samy preparing the ingredients and cooking in the kitchen. Breakfast is served from 8am onwards.

They have nasi lemak, various fried noodles, idly and uttapam. Then it's back to the kitchen to cook up a storm for lunch.

Currently, there's a selection of around 10 to 15 dishes daily. Every day, there'll be fried fish, fried chicken and a sambal beancurd. Some items are rotated so you may get turkey peratal, mutton varuval etc.

Only the freshest ingredients are used for the food served here.

The dishes are served with rice and three types of vegetables. Vegetables change each day depending on what's fresh and available in the market.

You may get some unusual items like his tasty spring onion dhal. Try his mango pachadi too as it's made from apple mangoes that give it a nice aroma. On Fridays, they offer five different vegetable dishes. For Sundays, you get a bigger spread that includes crabs.

The key to the dishes' deliciousness is an abundance of onions. Samy tells us he uses seven kilograms of onions and one and a half kilograms of garlic a day!

You will find that Samy doesn't scrimp when it comes to adding spices to his food. Even the ingredients used are the freshest picked from the market. "I always want good food and good quality vegetables," he explained.

Vegetarians will love the 'sambal' beancurd (left) and there's fried chicken (right) every day.


Try this unusual mutton stomach 'kurma' where the tasty gravy is made by blending cashew nuts, raisins and almonds.


You have the option to select 'kampung' mutton cooked 'varuval' style that has a leaner texture.

A close friend will select the best items. This could be, for instance, leaner mutton from the kampung. As Samy has close ties with fishermen in Kuala Selangor, he sources the flower crabs from there.

Try his fried fish and you will discover sweet tasting flesh mingling with his mix of spices like ground black pepper and cumin. Delicious!

Once you finish your meal, drink up your rasam! Samy makes a mean rasam that is packed with spices. For instance, the mutton rasam reminds us of a comforting mutton soup. It tastes nothing like the watered down versions found at other eateries. Samy also serves a chicken rasam. On Sundays, you get to savour crab rasam.

As the place is still new, they will be introducing more dishes in the next few weeks. Samy tells us, you will soon be able to enjoy biryani rice on Fridays and Sundays. He will also be making his tomato rice, a crowd favourite from his previous place in Bangsar for Thursdays and Saturdays.

Samy prepares a different 'rasam' every day... it tastes like a hearty broth with a heady aroma of spices.

There are also plans to list the eatery on FoodPanda and GrabFood, making their food more accessible to all.

The banana leaf rice is RM12 with three types of vegetables, pappadum and either fried chicken or chicken varuval. A choice of kampung chicken is RM14 with the rice.

If you choose deer meat for your protein, it's RM20 and for kampung mutton it is RM18. Depending on availability, they also offer prawns for RM16 and crabs for RM18, with the banana leaf rice.

The clubhouse sits about 40 persons inside and there's also a terrace for more seating.

For vegetarians, you can get banana leaf rice for RM7.50 with three types of vegetables, mango acar and sambal beancurd.

Sam's Kitchen, Clubhouse @ Bayu Angkasa Condominium, Jalan Medang Kapas, Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar, KL. Open: 8am to 3pm. Tel: 017-2135096. You can register at the guardhouse to enter the eatery. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sams-Kitchen-At-Bangsar-333852744216216/