Posts filed under 'Food'
you know an Italian restaurant is good when it attracts customers who drive Lambourghinis with the license plate ‘DADI’ :P
Vincenzo is a nice Italian eatery that’s situated at the end of the One Bangsar strip of restaurants. i havn’t actually heard very much about Vincenzo prior to this, but the place looked so pretty that we just had to go check it out! arriving at 8pm, we found the place already full on both floors. there aren’t many tables in the place, plus they often hold private functions, so making prior reservations would be a wise move if you plan to eat at Vincenzo. dont be like azlan and i, okay - of the 375498756 times we go out to have dinner, we probably only make reservations like once. hehe. but we’ve learnt our lesson.
Vincenzo has quiet, understated and classy ambience with just the right amount of warmth. mellow jazz music is piped throughout the place, and there’s a little patio section for you to dine in if you want a bit of sun during lunch hours or some fresh air.
for my starter, i had … hehehe seafood soup! yes, again! cos i like lah. but the soup here wasnt very good though. it was so forgettable that i couldnt even remember whether or not i liked it, and had to ask azlan to jog my memory. he says that i didnt like it. then i remembered that i thought it was too tasteless and watered down despite having a lot of seafood stuff in it.
azlan had the caesar salad which he didnt like, cos the dressing wasnt creamy enough. i quite agree, but i guess salads arent meant to be sinful :P it was a pretty huge portion though, and the cheese was of great quality.
azlan’s venison main was up next, served on a bed of asparagus shoots and potatoes. he thought it wasnt up to standard, but i felt it was okay. the marinade could be better though. probably would not order again ..
once again, my expertise at picking the better main shines through! heehee. i had the sea bass which came with a lovely lemon butter sauce. this was soooo superbly good and quite possibly the best fish i’ve had in a while. every bite was flavourful and the fish was unbelievably fresh. very yum, i totally recommend it.
the waiter recommended the tiramisu, and despite being really sick of tiramisu, we had it anyway. we didnt think it was going to be good, since every place touts their tiramisu as their bestselling dessert even when it’s not very nice anyway … but Vincenzo’s tiramisu was actually pretty yummy! it’s served in a glass, and has very dense layers of mascarporne, which is exactly how tiramisu should be. none of that light and fluffy cheese crap!! the coffee liquer taste is strong and thick too. overall, pretty boring and nothing special, but still good. a 4/5 :)
okayyyyy this is their chocolate torte, and it is TO DIE FOR. the base is this nice crunchy biscuit pastry, the filling is the most amazing bittersweet dark chocolate, and finally, a thick blueberry confit lends the dessert a slight sweet tanginess. sooooooooooo gooooooooood. it’s like forkfuls of heaven!!! this dessert totally made up for the below par seafood soup, caesar salad and venison - and it’s the only reason i would go back to Vincenzo.
if you like creme brulee, i think theirs should be pretty good cos the table behind us were raving about it. plus it was the waiter’s first recommendation of dessert. we’re not creme brulee fans though, so we didnt get it.
i quite like the service here. very professional, very warm. well-informed, too! and the price is actually really reasonable - cheaper than most italian restaurants of this standard. it’s cheaper than Cipolla, that’s for sure.
overall, Vincenzo was just alright. it’s a very nice chillout place to just kick back and have wine with one or two friends - but i wouldnt come here for anniversary dinners or birthdays or any other special occasion. it’s just not that kinda place. it’s still a delightful place though, which is more than i can say for some of the restaurants on the One Bangsar strip. next time you go there, try Vincenzo. avoid NiNe and Montien Thai at all costs -_-
Vincenzo
One Bangsar, Jalan Ara,
Bangsar Baru,
59100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel : 603-2287 1686
————
hey i’m running out of italian eateries to go to. do you guys have any recommendations? i have extended my range to the Subang area since i study there now :D so if you know any good italian restaurants in Subang (or anywhere else), do tell ok! anyways here are my recommendations :
The Good
Ciao (Jln Tun Razak)
La Risata (Medan Damansara & Ampang)
Oggi (The Regent)
Opus (Bangsar)
Nero Vivo (Ceylon Hill)
Pizza Bella Italia (SS2 PJ)
Just Alright
Cipolla (Bangsar)
Prego (Westin KL)
Villa Danielli (Sheraton KL)
Vincenzo (Bangsar)
Allegro (SS15 Subang)
The Bad
Pizza Uno (Ampang & Subang)
Piccolo Mondo (Mid Valley & Lot 10)
Venezia (Tmn Segar)
oh by the way i’ve renounced my italian food strike. hehe. just couldnt stay away.
July 21st, 2006
i went for dinner yesterday at this place in Bangsar called Cipolla. quite by accident too - we were actually supposed to go to Flams (really good place too, just beware this one perverted waiter..) but coz we parked near Cipolla, and coz i think restaurants with those little chalkboard signs are soooo cute, we went to Cipolla instead!
it’s a new restaurant, been open for only 4 weeks. went in and found out from the manager that it was a sister restaurant of Ciao! Ciao is like one of my favouritest italian places ever. a full perusal of the menu (i love looking through menus!!! it’s so exciting. practically the best moment of the dining-out experience) revealed that the dishes were pretty much similiar to Ciao’s. but nvm lah. Ciao’s food good wat. zomg their cream marinara.
for starters, we had the wild mushroom soup and the seafood soup. mushroom soup was good but not great. tastes like what you’d expect from a place like this - creamy, rich and with lotsa mushroomy bits! the seafood soup is exactly like the one from Ciao and i ended up hijacking it from my date cos Ciao has the BEST seafood soup in the whole wide world! still have yet to find one that can beat it. it has the perfect texture and is just soooo full of flavour. and the shrimp in it is so GOOD!
they took ages with our mains cos they messed up one of the orders, and so they placated us with free bruschetta. haha how cute. and the bruschetta was actually pretty good for a tomato concasse topping! they put some leafy herby thingy on it, and garlic butter spread on the bread. and if their most basic bruschetta is good, i’m guessing the others that they have on their menu is going to be even better.
for mains - the Ravioli Zucca was simply amaaaaazing. it’s pumpkin-stuffed ravioli with slices of beef, in a light butter cream sauce. the pumpkin filling is so fantastic - it’s slighty sweet and soft and goes with the sauce and beef like you wont believe. there was supposed to be chopped almonds in the sauce, which were missing, which is a pity cos i think the almonds would have made this dish absolutely perfect.
when i asked the waiter which was better - the pumpkin ravioli or the porcini mushroom ravioli, he actually got really excited about the squid ink ravioli and insisted over and over again that i must try it. i was like, erks but it’s going to be black and so unappetizing! i mean i have trouble eating nasi kerabu (blue rice) already ok. but he was adamant that the taste would completely eclipse how weird it looks. actually he doesnt even think it looks weird, but whatever. anyways next time i go there i’m gonna try that. or if any of you go there before i do, and are willing to try it, tell me what it’s like okay!! i would so appreciate it.
their salmon main was actually not very good. the fillet itself, though very succulent, had next to no taste, and the pesto sauce was mediocre at best. the portion was very generous though! bigger than most places serve their fish. and it looked very nice and cute on the plate too. hehe. the superficial me likes.
for dessert, i made the wrong choice! i ordered this ice cream cake thing which sounded so nice on the menu, but was just alright. i’m so super fussy with my desserts so when i get one that i dont like i actually feel slightly upset, hahaha. anyways it’s this vanilla ice cream cake thing, with bits of sponge cake in the middle, with candied fruits (urk) and dark chocolate pieces as well. didnt really like. shoulda ordered the tiramisu but i have that all the time at Ciao. so next time i come back here i’m gonna try their chocolate mousse. ah, chocolate mousse! i’m still depressed that i never got to try Le Meridien’s during prom. it was supposedly super orgasmic :(
my date had gelati, the flavour of which i got to pick!!! hehehe. of course i picked bacio, which is the flavour everyone must love. it’s sorta like a ferrero rocher flavour - chocolate and hazelnut. very yummy. this one was lighter than the one i’m used to (Lecka Lecka!!!!! <3) but it was good all the same.
decor in Cipolla is nice. hock chuan, you will approve! or maybe not. (note to all : hock chuan is the worst person to go for dinner with, because everywhere we go, we cant eat without him criticizing at least 3 aspects of the decor. damn architects) the floor is polished concrete and there’s this funky brick wall on one side of the room. the bar looks nice too, and there’s this long basin that lines one wall - with very cool stone waterspouters in the shape of lion heads. the whole place is more casual than Ciao is, though. has a very laidback bistro feel. there’s even a little section at the back next to the winestore where the pizza chefs make pizza in the open!
service is great. the waiters really know their stuff. how knowledgable the staff of a restaurant is important, and if they cant tell which of their food is better than which, that says a lot. our waiter told us that he wouldnt really recommend the ice cream cake, but i went ahead and had it anyway. he turned out to be right! and he was also right about the gelati, and this other waiter about the ravioli :) they’re really warm and friendly too, though still maintaining waiter professionalism. oh and they gave us bruschetta on the house! that was really nice.
price-wise, it’s about rm20ish for their pizzas, rm30+ for mains, rm16 therabouts for dessert.
i like this place :) am definitely returning to try their squid ink ravioli. i guess it’s good after all to judge a restaurant based on whether they have cute chalkboard signs or not! :D
Cipolla
(same row as La Bodega)
4, Jalan Telawi 2
59100 Bangsar Baru
Tel : 03 2287 2628
July 16th, 2006
i remember when i was 14 and Kim Gary had just opened in Mid Valley. cheese baked rice was still quite new to me. and i cant recall the exact moment i first tasted Kim Gary’s french toast, or why we’d ordered that, but i do know that i was head over heels in love with it from day 1. i remember i loved it so much that i told my then-boyfriend that i loved Kim Gary’s french toast more than i loved him. and the boyfriend after that. and the boyfriend after that. and all my boyfriends to date. in fact, i think i’m going to wake my dad up right now and tell him i love Kim Gary’s french toast more than him.
it’s been several years since then - and just like the mushrooming of steakhouses, or fruitjuices in humongous mugs in the year 2000, Hong Kong restaurants and cafes have been mushrooming as well. there are lots of places now that serve the ubiquitous cheese-baked rice in dimsum baskets as well as Nissin noodles (we will never really know if it’s truly Nissin) and all those weird colourful drinks with names like Blue Sunset and Gem of the Sea. so when it comes to HK restaurants, we’re spoilt for choice. but i’ve got 4 favourites - the only ones i keep going back to!
and here i’m going to pit them against each other! :D hehehe. they are the Kim Gary chain, the Wong Kok Char Chan Teng chain, Tsim Tung, and Food & Tea. this is gonna be a comparison of their borsch soup, sandwiches, cheese baked rice, and of course, the absolutely heavenly HK french toast :)
1. Borsch Soup
to be honest, i have no idea what borsch is doing in an HK menu. the ones we get here taste and look nothing like the original beetroot borsch - in fact, it’s more tomato and onion than anything else! but it’s still damn good, so who cares :P in HK borsch soup, there is typically onions, carrots, cabbage and capsicum all boiled in a thin tomato base. very yummy! i much prefer it to the Campbell shit they try to pass off as mushroom soup in the HK restaurants here.
Kim Gary’s borsch isn’t as good as it used to be. it was so much better back in 2002-2003, thicker and heartier. now it’s kinda watery. it’s tangy with a strong capsicum taste, for you if you like capsicum. personally, i absolutely hate it, so i’ve grown to dislike KG’s borsch.
Tsim Tung’s borsch just sucks. it’s super thin, not tomatoey at all, and it tastes like a mouthful of capsicum juice. okay maybe the last bit was an exaggeration cos i’m super sensitive to the taste of capsicum .. but believe me, you dont want to order borsch at TT.
Wong Kok’s borsch on the other hand is such a delight. the taste of vege melds really well with the tomato, and although it’s a thin soup, it’s not watery like TT’s. it’s just one of those soups that taste so good you cant stop spooning it into your mouth! :D
Food & Tea doesnt have borsch so i replaced it with their Mushroom soup in a bread bowl cos it’s sooooooooooooo gooooood. the bread is crusty on the outside and soft on the inside, and is really fragrant. i have no idea what bread it is - all i know is that it’s not white bread. but whatever it is, it’s really good and compliments the soup so well. the soup isnt grossly starchy like most mushroom soups, and has just the right texture. it’s got lots of little mushroom bits too, and a subtle herby taste. it’s actually one of the best mushroom soups i’ve ever had!
2. Sandwiches
(at first i intended to compare only the beef n egg sandwiches - cos i think any eatery can just plonk luncheon meat out of cans or thaw out frozen ham and throw them onto bread and it’d all taste the same .. but bloody WK and F&T dont serve beef n egg. so i’ve got ham & cheese for both those places instead. blah. stupid WK and F&T. why?! beef n egg sandwiches ARE SO GOOD!)
let me just say that Kim Gary’s is the beef n egg sandwich to end all beef n egg sandwiches. the filling, as you can see from the pic, is super thick and super generous - the beef is succulent and sooo flavourful, the omelette soft and ample. plus the bread is lightly toasted (great texture) and has the nice light taste of butter. it’s so awesome.
and when you compare KG’s to Tsim Tung’s, you just wanna send TT’s sandwich back. it’s honestly one of the worst sandwiches i’ve ever had .. the egg is a paper thin omelette that’s disgustingly flourescent in colour??? beef is dry and overly peppery. sucks, dont buy.
as for Wong Kok’s and Food&Tea’s, there’s not much to say cos it tastes like any ordinary ham and cheese sandwich. though i liked Food & Tea’s more cos it was toasted. and the cheese was nicer. milkier. i donno. nicer lah!
3. Cheese Baked Rice
cheese baked rice, for those who’ve never tried it, is rice and meat coated with cheese and red/white sauce, and then baked in aluminium foil. meats of choice are chicken chops, chicken wings, beef, fish, pork. my personal fav is fish in red (tomato) sauce! chicken or pork chops go really well with the white (cream) sauce. the above cheese baked rice dishes are all with chicken chops in red sauce.
Kim Gary’s cheese baked rice, like its borsch soup, used to be better i think. in the earlier years, they were more generous with the meat and cheese, but not anymore. the sauce is still good - mild and subtle, with a really distinct asian taste to it. the meat is better than most, tender and marinated just right. but! the secret! to Kim Gary’s super yummy cheese baked rice is! … dumdumdum .. lotus leaves placed at the bottom of the rice! during baking, the rice really soaks up the fragrance of the leaves - and the moment a spoonful of the rice hits your tongue, the lotus leaf taste is unmistakable. really good, and lends such flavour to the rice. which is the upper hand that Kim Gary has above the rest when it comes to cheese baked rice.
Tsim Tung’s cheese baked rice is .. not too bad i guess. the cheese is really full-bodied, so if you’re a cheese fan then TT is where you wanna go. the red sauce however, is just tomato paste right out of the jar. it’s frankly too tangy for my tastes, almost rude. they could have diluted it a bit, i think, to make it taste better. but to be fair, i’ve got a few friends who love TT’s cheese baked rice.
Wong Kok’s is so-so. theirs have the little mixed frozen vege (corn, cubed carrots and peas) in them which is like damn sesat. their sauce also tastes like those straight out of the cans, but is at least more subtle than TT’s. cheese is alright only lah, but the unforgivable was how bland the meat was. not very good cheese baked rice.
my brothers like Food & Tea’s though. it’s different from the other 3 places cos the taste of it is actually very Italian. the sauce has a very obvious bolognese taste to it cos they actually use oregano. cheese is mozzarella as well. overall, pretty good!
4. French Toast
and of course … the all-important French Toast :D Hong Kong french toast is basically white bread dipped in egg and then fried to golden perfection. they are then sandwiched together with copious amounts of chunky peanut butter as filling, then drizzled with honey-flavoured sauce (no, it’s not honey, believe me) and topped with a big dollop of butter. it’s so orgasmic. and one of the best comfort foods ever!
Kim Gary’s french toast is utterly fantastic. its quality has never wavered and i absolutely love it. everything about it is just in the right proportions - the honey sauce and the peanut butter and the butter just come very well together. it’s the perfect French Toast :)
Tsim Tung has good bread though - it’s thicker and softer and tastes eggier, but there’s not enough peanut butter and honey sauce on it.
Wong Kok’s could give KG’s french toast a run for its money - the one-up it has over KG is that it actually feels healthier and lighter. not a lot of butter and honey sauce is used, which is a good thing if you dont like your french toast too scarily unhealthy. when you cut into WK’s french toast, you find lots of ooey gooey sticky melted peanut butter goodness in the middle and that’s really niceeeee. the bread doesnt contribute anything to it though, kinda tasteless.
finally, Food&Tea’s french toast has a light taste and feels less fattening as well. the bread is excellent here, and the honey sauce is sparse as well. not too shabby :)
so, in a nutshell -
Best Borsch Soup - Wong Kok
Best Sandwich - Kim Gary
Best Cheese Baked Rice - Kim Gary (Food & Tea is a close 2nd)
Best French Toast - Kim Gary (Wong Kok close 2nd)
i just want to say that Tsim Tung, despite the bad food, actually has the best service. Kim Gary’s staff need to stop hitting on their patrons, and Wong Kok’s need some manners, and Food & Tea’s need to be more efficient. the common factor is that they ALL need staff who can speak english … sometimes damn headache wan when i want to tell them certain stuff and dont know how to say it in Cantonese :(
ambience-wise, KG and WK is where you go if you like the hustle and bustle, Tsim Tung is warm and comfy and friendly (with free wifi access!), and F&T is the quieter and more chillout place. pricing is more or less the same in all places.
Kim Gary
@ Mid Valley, Sg Wang, Avenue K, Sunway Pyramid, Jusco Maluri, Plaza Damas
Other must-tries : French-style fried rice
Tsim Tung
@ Pandan Indah
Other must-tries : Char siew bun, Char siew sou (bbq pork puff pastry)
Wong Kok
@ SS2, 1 Utama, Leisure Mall, South City Plaza
Other must-tries : XO rolls, XO fried rice, Handmade noodles with honey chicken
Food & Tea
@ Taman Segar (outside Leisure Mall), Berjaya Times Square
Other must-tries : Cheese baked spaghetti, Mantao with crab sauce
July 9th, 2006
there’s been something off with me for the past couple of days. i cant quite place my finger on what it is. i dont know what’s wrong, i dont know how things are different, and i dont know why it’s like that. i just feel weird. sorta like, like a snake shedding skin. an excited snake, cos i get to break out of something stifling, and leave it behind, but then at the same time, a sad snake, cos i sorta miss the old skin. and i feel like i havent done enough with it. but it’s too late for thoughts like that now, cos what’s done is done. what’s gone is gone. with my new skin, i cant possibly crawl back into the old. it wouldnt take me.
anyway, it’s of the utmost importance that i’m happy this month. just because. so i’ve been trying desperately to shake off this weird mood. i tried baking (finally got new measuring cups!!!) but i only got more annoyed because i’ve now reached my tolerance limit of the smell of chocolate or butter or vanilla essence. you bakers know what i’m talking about. yeah. that sickly cloying cloudy feeling that you get in your head when you finish baking. argh. anyway. did brownies and peanut butter muffins.
the brownies turned out as they usually do (meaning, very damn good, heehee!), only i served them with peanuts this time. i think everyone who knows me is tired of my brownies by now. but i dont care. if i bake means you eat it!!! >:O meanwhile, the peanut butter muffins were okay only la. i wouldnt use the recipe again.
but, no, good mood still not in sight. not even after i camwhored with Superman.
but then i went out with Ivan and we did something fun :D *wiggles eyebrows* that made me smile and skip around like a loony bunny for a bit. betcha cant guess what it is!! will update post when i get the pictures back. meanwhile, i’ll give you a brownie if you can guess what we did. ivan, you shaddup ah. you are disqualified from playing.
June 5th, 2006
nothing to do with Grease, but i just have to vent
i went to catch Grease earlier tonight - thought it was good, loved it, but kinda expected just a little bit more than what we got. big chunks of the story was left out, and the dialogue moved a bit too fast at times, but the SINGING more than made up for all that. worth a watch, definitely, but not super uber impressive like Stomp was.
and was so upset cos they ran out of programme books :( what lah!
OOH and i’ve just discovered, like, the best cookies in the whole wide world. ever since Mrs Fields outlets closed down in KL i’ve been crawling the walls trying to suppress my soft-cookie cravings. sometimes Famous Amos just doesnt cut it, you know?
the first cookie is their Praline cookie - yummy and buttery with a slight hint of coffee, and a pecan in the middle for some crunch. veddy good, i am likin’. but i like the second cookie more, the dark chocolate cookie! soft and moist with ooey gooey dark chocolate chunks. soooo goooood. their milk chocolate cookie is super yummy as well.
Bakin Boys (pardon the weird name, their cookies are really very nice) is a concession stand outside Madam Kwan’s and Little Penang at the top floor of Suria KLCC. go try!!! they apparently have these ’special-er’ cookies but were sold out. it’s about RM3.50 per cookie. reasonable laaaah for a soft cookie.
i have the Grease song ‘Summer Nights’ stuck in my head. when i got home, i downloaded the song and started dancing to it in the middle of my living room. in my underwear. hahaha.
Summer lovin had me a blast! Summer lovin happened so fast!
May 21st, 2006
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