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Porkville's playful porcine riffs on crowd-rousing recipes might make for a fun meal: Babi penyet hogs the limelight as a twist on Indonesia's familiar chicken original, featuring tender deep-fried pork, smashed and smothered with sambal penyet (RM16); nasi lemak babi is memorable for its rich, sweet-spicy bacon sambal (RM3.50), and the Oinkster Burger's chief lure is its layer of chopped crispy barbecued pork belly (RM12.80; request this without the cheese slice, which does the pork no favours). Porkville Lot 3, Lorong Utara (B), PJS 52,  Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Open Tues-Sun, 12pm-330pm, 6pm-10pm. This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com

From the first slurp of the spoon to the final swoop of the chopsticks, a ramen meal at Okinii seeks to soothe and satiate.  The effort poured into the Chicken Miso Ramen is exemplary, with eight hours of boiling for the chicken broth, laced with red miso and loaded with no lack of noodles, plus a kitchen-roasted chicken thigh roll (a substitute for porcine chashu, since Okinii shuns the swine), marinated kampung egg, scallions and a nori sheet. At RM18, it's ramen worth relishing, though it's more of a Malaysian Chinese interpretation, with broth that's poultry-sweet rather than umami-resonant. Other ramen varieties include seafood (with prawns and mussels) and even a vegan one (with carrots, bok choi and deep-fried ginger in a sesame broth). Rice bowls are also offered, with oyakodon and gyudon beckoning from the menu, as well as tofu or torched salmon salads; sashimi is also expected to eventually be available. And after supping up the ramen, customers can sip on coffee ...

Nearly six years after wife-and-husband team  Meeta and Prabodh Sheth took over The Ganga Cafe in Bangsar, turning it into the neighbourhood's hub for hearty, soulful South Asian vegetarian fare, there's now a second Ganga in town, bringing the brand's beloved chapatis and chaats, briyani and baingan ka bharta, parathas and paneer pakora to Petaling Jaya's Sea Park. The PJ outpost's repertoire replicates what made Ganga great in the first place in Bangsar, channeling a home kitchen's wholesome warmth, extensive enough to ensure meat isn't missed, that flavours remain resonant even without eggs and MSG. The gang's all here at Ganga Sea Park - butter naan to bindi masala, pav bhaji to pani poori, kulfi to kesari. Ganga Bangsar's Sunday buffet brunch is not yet available, but it seems inevitable. For PJ-ites, the ideal introduction to Ganga might be the single-platter meals - a standard thali of brown rice surrounded by three freshly cooked vegetable si...

No mere cafeteria, Kanteen serves up a cheerful spread of contemporary and classic crowd-pleasers. The soft-shell crab croissant promises plenty of crunch for your cash, made punchy with a salted egg cheese sauce (RM26), while the nasi lemak ayam rempah is the perennially popular pick, the can't-fail coupling of aromatic rice with tender spiced chicken (RM20). The rest of the menu is extensive, equally emphasising East and West, hopscotching from shakshouka, salmon omelettes and smoothie bowls to Korean spicy chicken, Malaysian satay and Southeast Asian noodle bowls, with some imaginatively playful pleasures like a quinoa sweet potato patty burger in the mix. Fans of live entertainment can also bookmark Kanteen, with talented local musicians performing here on many Friday and Saturday nights. Kanteen Tropicana Avenue, Persiaran Tropicana, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Open Sun-Thurs, 8am-10pm; Fri-Sat, 8am-12am. This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com

With founders who reputedly hail from Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon Avenue does delicious justice to the Vietnamese culinary repertoire: The pho bo is hearty and heartwarming, brimming with beef tenderloin, shin and meatballs (RM17), while the banh mi stuffed with barbecued beef is robustly flavourful, a very worthy lunch for RM11. Beyond beef, we'd return for classics like the stuffed squid, crispy pancake and lemongrass chicken with vermicelli; round out your meal with hot or cold Vietnamese tea. Saigon Avenue P-G-29, Tropicana Avenue, Persiaran Tropicana,  Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Daily, 11am-930pm.

Hunting for a memorably playful dish? Kaefae Inn Hub has it - crisp egg waffles, stuffed with poached chicken thigh, slathered with buttermilk sauce and sriracha mayo. It makes for a lunch that's hearty, tasty and reasonably priced (RM16). Follow up with a bombolone, filled with cream cheese and bits of walnuts (RM6.50), for a sweet finish at this friendly hidden cafe. Kaefae Inn Hub J-2-10, The OAK Pacific Place Commercial Centre, Jalan PJU 1A/4, Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Tel: 017-6717-216 This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com

This new pizzeria might look like a humble hole-in-the-wall, but it's a chateau of crackly crusts, a manor for mozzarella and a palace of plum tomatoes. Could this be PJ's most pleasurable pizza? If the team here keeps things up, it might be safe to bet a Happy Mansion apartment on that. This is wood-fired pizza that's terrific from the first bite to the final chew - every topping comes together, making each slice even more gratifying than the sum of its parts. Packs of custom-milled, soft wheat flour and hulking cans of preserved whole tomatoes from Lombardy and Puglia testify to the pizza parlour's committed passion. Of the 10 pizzas on the menu, Big Brunch might be the crowd-rouser (RM32) - beef bacon, button mushrooms, roasted cherry tomatoes and baby spinach surface in perfect savoury-sweet proportions, shored up by spring cream and fior di latte for fresh milky notes, centred with a runny egg for sticky-fingered, hot-from-the-oven richness, bound on a base with lo...