I Just Wana Eat: March 2010

Porto Romano @ Mont Kiara

Posted by ijustwanaeat On 1:18 PM 1 comments

Passed by this particular Porto Romano outlet at Mont Kiara many times while heading to Solaris. And since we are to look for place to eat around this neighbourhood, suggested this Italian Mediterranean restaurant to Cass. After this dinner, I was recommending this place to few other friends, and found that this restaurant seemed to be missed, probably over-shined by its neighbour, Wendy's.

The traffic was rather smooth, and we managed to be on time, at 7pm for dinner. Having 2 floors seating, I opted to sit upstairs. Though the lower floor seemed pleasing to me, the upper floor was even better. Cosy, romantic ambiance and spacious enough. The business was really good as the restaurant got filled up in next hour or so, and saw quite a fair share of Korean and Japanese (as Mont Kiara is one of THE area for expats).

Inside the restaurant

We first had the salad, and this insalata porto romano salad was filled with fresh seafood, mix of squids, clams, mussels, and prawns marinated in herbs, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. The seafood was so fresh that you basically only need very mild sauce to go with it... and after adding on a wedge of lemon and salt, the taste got even better.

Insalata Porto Romano Salad. Price-RM20

Why have only 1 when we can have choice of 4 different types of pizza in 1 pizza? We went for the Four Seasons Pizza, where it allow us to choose 4 different variety of pizza, as long as original price of the pizza is less than the price of Four Seasons Pizza @ RM32. Choices of pizza we had was the mushroom, cheese, mediterranean, hawaiian. This is quite a good idea - at least each of us got to taste 1 slice of the 4 different variety, and I thought this was quite worth the price. The pizza size is huge, and by the end, we had a tough time finishing all. We were really satisfied with this order, as it tasted really good. Love the thin crust - each bite tasted good, and we were pleased with the generous portion of ingredients used. My favourite was the mushroom, and the mediterranean (where it used lots of mushroom and turkey ham, plus mozarella cheese).

Pizza Quattro Stagioni - Four Seasons Pizza. Price-RM32

We end our dinner by trying the Creama Catalana, a spanish dessert similar to creme brulee (meant burnt creme in French). We love this rich custord base topped with contrasting layer of hard caramel. The custard was cold, and with warm caramel. Don't mind having this again.

Crema Catalana. Price-RM12

We chatted and laughing the night away - and without realizing we were seated at this very cosy and romantic corner for a good 4 hours +. We were so engrossed in our conversation, that we didn't realize we were the last table left. ^-^

Good place for candle-lit dinner

Me and Cass, paused for a picture to be taken

Overall, the dinner was reasonably priced, yet with high quality and good tasting food served. Will definitely have more dinners here in days to come.

Porto Romano
28 Jalan Kiara,
Banyan, Mont Kiara,
50480 KL
Tel : 03-6207 8171

Kam Hin @ Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park

Posted by ijustwanaeat On 1:11 PM 2 comments

Woke up during the wee hours last Sunday, to get to Putrajaya for the 2nd Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Festival.

Overall, did not felt that this event was that interesting, and after an hour or so, we headed to Kuchai Lama for dim sum. Nevertheless, ought to say - bravo to the 4 of us on effort made, to wake up so early on Sunday. ^-^

Hot Air Balloon up in the air

The hero of the day

Our initial intention to head to Fu Lai was diverted, when we saw the packed Kam Hin dim sum restaurant (they have 3 other branches located at Damansara Jaya, Damansara Utama, and Bandar Puchong Jaya), and decided to go for this one instead.

Tray of dim sum

Man at work

These were some of the dim sum we had the other day. Overall, the steam dim sum was good, as they were served piping hot. As for the fried eg. pan fried carrot cake and brinjal, they were cold, thus, spoil the taste a little.

Basket of dim sum. Price-RM3.50 for medium dim sum, RM4 for big dim sum

The mussel steamed together with pork paste, with cheese, was quite special. I love mussel when done right, and this combination, works out well too.

Steam mussel with pork paste, and cheesy sauce

We loved the porridge. Real tasty, with chunks of pork, century egg, yau char kiau, with spring onion - lovely..

Bowl of porridge

This was the spring roll wrapped with egg yolk, and prawn, and fried together with vermicelli. Crispy, and has good aroma of the prawn. Nice.

Spring roll wrapped with vermicelli

Have always love egg tart. The outer pastry crust was flaky, baked together with egg custard.

Egg tart

Doesn't all the dim sum look real appetizing

The only setback about having dim sum on Sunday morning is that it will be so packed and you will be surrounded by people waiting to take over your table, and makes it feel uneasy to hang out a bit to have tea. ^-^

Restaurant Kam Hin
A32, 34, 36 Jalan 1/116B,
Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park,
Off Jalan Kuchai Lama,
58200 KL
Tel : 03-7982 5110

Bubba Gump @ Sunway Pyramid

Posted by ijustwanaeat On 6:04 PM 0 comments

It was through MSN, 'Hi babe', replied with 'Hi Ms SK, planning to ask me out?' replied with 'Yes, let's meet', which took us both to Pyramid last night. Hassle-free. LOL. Decided to meet at Pyramid, and since we have both been to Bubba Gump and liked it, we didn't mind having that again, so that we could try out its other offerings.

Mai - Yes, someone has been very busy with her BB lately

For drinks, she ordered the Speckled Strawberry, lemonade drink, whilst I opted for Blueberry Smoothie, the blueberry, strawberry with vanilla frozen yoghurt.

Love the logo of the cute prawn. From L : Speckled Strawberry. Price-RM11.90, Blueberry Smoothie. PriceRM11.90

For the night, we order 2 appetizers to satisfy our taste bud. As we were both prawn lovers, we opted for the 'Shrimper Catch-3', size of the 3/4 pound. We had the option of either cajun spice or garlic, or both. Went for both. Both of us truly love this. The portion with cajun sauce was oily, but minus that, it was lovely. The garlic was the more preferred option, as it has the strong garlicy taste, with slight saltiness. Nice. Plus most important of all, the prawns were fresh, and the reasonable portion of prawns for the price.

Shrimper Catch-3 : 1/2 cajun, 1/2 garlic. Price-RM27.90

The other recommended item was the 'Run Across America Sampler' which combines the Nachos, which was plain and healthy, thus not too tasty, Chilly Shrimp, which was plain prawns to be dipped with chilli sauce, Hush Pups, which was the creamy bake cheese which has some vege in it, and was pretty tasty, spicy Chicken strips, which has a strong sauce with it, however, found it too salty, and Fried Shrimp which was well coated with batter, and fried. Nice. However from the overall that we tried from the sampler, we love the fried prawns and the hush pups. The rest, so so only.

Run Across America Sampler. Price-RM43.90

Mai and I. Still holding her BB. LOL

I think that I found rather 'amazing' was that the staffs here were rather anxious to clear our plates, before we were done. After being asked the 5th time from different staff on the floor, I just had to say 'yes , please clear'. Was it us that ate too slow, or we were not supposed to be chatting through before finishing all our food. ^-^

We were really full, but still decided to order their Bread Pudding. The bread has a strong cinammon taste, accompanied by vanilla ice-cream and whipped cream. Though its not a dessert to die for, the overall taste was alright. And felt the price is rather reasonable.

Mama Bread Pudding. Price-RM12.90

We had a great time catching up, and glad that this sweet friend of mine share my love for taking self-portraits. ^-^

Me and Mai outside Bubba Gump, Sunway Pyramid

A snap of us, before parting

For my earlier post on Bubba Gump, here's the link

Bubba Gump Restaurant
Oasis Boulevard,
Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall.
Tel : 03-5638 4559

Mom's Cooking @ Home Sweet Home

Posted by ijustwanaeat On 7:06 PM 0 comments

A change from my usual eat out habit, I love it when my mom cook during Sunday afternoon.

This is my idea of a perfect home cooked meal.

Steamed chicken with dipping made out of lots of ginger, parsley and oil.

Steamed Chicken with dipping sauce

The steamed lap chiong to dipped with the scallion head (not sure if its called scallion). But to take this raw, goodness, I just love the taste of it.

Lap cheong

Voted as my No1 favorite out of my mom's cooking, it ought to be this - the minced meat wrapped with dried oyster/dried scallop. It was very simply, cooked with spring onion, garlic, black mushroom, oyster sauce and pepper to taste.

Minced meat wrapped in dried oyster

Hot Chocolate @ Damansara Heights

Posted by ijustwanaeat On 7:02 PM 0 comments

A special reason for dinner that evening brought me and a friend to Hot Chocolat Cafe, which is located very near to my office, in the vicinity of the Damansara Heights housing area.

The mushroom soup was presented in a rather special way, where it was filled in a rounded bread.

Mushroom Soup. Price-RM8

With such one-of-a-kind presentation, we expected a much better tasting homemade soup. It somehow tasted like can cooked soup.

Opening the soup 'cover'

We ordered the Pollo Funghi, tomato based cooked with mushroom and chicken. With the slightly coarse feeling spaghetti texture, and a little too sourish spaghetti sauce, this was a rather disapointment to us.

Pollo Funghi Spaghetti. Price-RM15

The deboned chicken thigh marinated and top with black pepper sauce and mushroom was also a dish we didn't enjoy. The sauce was thick, yet lack the aromatic-ness, and its fries seems to come from those frozen fries.

Black and Pepper Chicken. Price-16

The better tasting was the chocolate with ice-cream dessert - the heated chocalate cake was really moisture on the inside, covered with thick chocolate, and vanilla ice-cream. Yummy. Oh, bet the ice-cream is from Nestle, as the entire restaurant is branded with Nestle - La Cremeria ice-cream, including the nameboard. Felt its a little over-done.

Chocolate cake with ice-cream. Price-RM10.90

Perhaps I was attempting to make a scary pose, with my tongue jutted out, and under such lighting

The Hot Chocolat Cafe Sdn Bhd
25, Lorong Setia Bistari 2,
Medan Damansara,
Damansara Heights,
50490 KL.
Tel : 03-2093 9133 / 012-370 0463

Village Park @ Damansara Utama

Posted by ijustwanaeat On 6:56 PM 0 comments

Colleagues brought me to this well known Village Park Restaurant at Uptown during end Jan 2010. It was then I discovered THE place for nasi lemak.

Restaurant from the outside

The crowd to this restaurant was practically non stop, a real busy busy lunch period. No wonder it can afford to take up 2 shoplots. The service here was really quick and prompt and overall, very clean environment.

Inside restaurant

The specialty here is the nasi lemak with fried chicken. 3 of us ordered that the other day. This was one of the best tasting fried chicken I had. With strong fragrant of 'kunyit', the chicken skin was real crispy, and real fragrant. The smell of the rice was aromatic - just love the smell of coconut milk. I fell in love with Village Park nasi lemak.

Nasi Lemak with Fried Chicken. Price-RM6.80

Yati ordered the nasi lemak with cuttlefish. Equally good, of course.

Nasi Lemak with Cuttlefish. Price-RM6.10

Ita ordered the asam laksa. Big chunks of fish.

Asam Laksa. Price-RM5.30

Just look at how tempting is the fried chicken.Hot, crunchy, cripsy.

Ready to be served chicken

Village Park also sell mixed rice, with lotsa fresh dishes served. Everything just look so appetizing.

Delicious looking dishes

Ita and Kelly

Thanks to Yati for buying us lunch the other day, and it was also to celebrate Putri's last day.

Myself, Putri and Yati

Village Park Restaurant
5, Jalan SS21/37,
Damansara Utama,
47400 PJ
Tel : 03-7710 7860

Dubrovnik @ Solaris, KL

Posted by ijustwanaeat On 11:17 PM 0 comments

In celebration to SK's belated birthday which was 2 days prior to Valentines Day, I took her to 1 of my favorite restaurant - Dubrovnik as I wanted her to try out Croatian / Mediterranean food.

Dubrovnik has a whole list of revamped dishes on their menu

We were first served bread, to be taken with Dubrovnik's unique sauce - a blend of capsicum, tomato, chilli..

Bread with capsicum, tomato sauce

After checking that SK loves cheese, ordered the Palacinke - crepes filled with cream cheese, baked in wood oven with egg and cream topping. This truly is a specialty as I have not tasted this anywhere else. The soft tasting crepes wrapped with strong cream cheese taste - truly yummy.

Palacinke one for SK, one for me. Price-RM18

Dubrovnik's fine dining environment at a reasonable price is indeed quite the right place for romantic dinner - and me for one, enjoys romantic dinner with my fellow female friends. ^-^

A shot before we start eating - me & SK

Its not too many places that I've tried good Calzone, and I like the way Calzone is done at Dubrovnik. Folded pizza filled with tomato, lots of mozzarella, chicken salami and mushroom, this pizza was in fact overwhelmed with fillings. Love the cheesiness. We opted for the chicken salami, and choice of beef salami is also available. SK loves the dough, and I love the filling - however, we can't really finish this by the end of the dinner, as the size of pizza was big, and so filled with ingredients.

Chicken Calzone. Price-RM32

As I have been 'longing' for Chicken Peka after trying this meal some time ago, and the fact it was available the other night (pre-order required), I just ought to order this. They made this using a special traditional Croatian way where the marinated meat is cooked under the wood oven for a good 3 hours. The sides-potato and carrot which was cooked together with the chicken, was really soft and love the sweet taste of potato and carrot. And the hero product, the chicken was really moist, fragrant and juicy.

Chicken Peka. Price-RM45

A big smile from the Birthday Girl. Many Happy Returns SK

We were both very satisfied with the dinner and I felt especially happy when SK told me that this was 1 of the best dinner she ever had. ^-^

For my earlier blog on Dubrovnik, check out this link

Restaurant Dubrovnik
J-0G-14, Solaris Mont Kiara
No. 2 Jalan Solaris, Mont Kiara
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 6203 6780
Fax: 03 6203 6780

Business Hours :
11.30am-11pm (Tue-Sun)
Close on Monday

Email: dine@dubrovnikrestaurantkl.com
URL: http://www.dubrovnikrestaurantkl.com

It's A Noodle Bar @ Bangsar Village 2

Posted by ijustwanaeat On 10:48 AM 0 comments

A fresh feeling dashed in when I stepped into It's A Noodle Bar, which is connected to For Goodness Sake. I love the raw looking feel, simple yet cosy ambiance. We were brought menu from the 2 restaurants. Not bad. Seated at either side, and you have choice of menu from 2 restaurants.

A cosy, yet simple deco

You get the best of both world - menu from The Goodness Sake and It's A Noodle Bar

Ordered tong sui while waiting for the other 2 colleagues to arrive. The apple, boiled with lotus seed and lilybud was just nice-ain't too sweet, and good for cooling the body.

L : Snow fungus, ginko and egg. Price-RM5.50
R : Apple, lilybud, lotus seed, red dates and snow fungus. Price-RM5.50

This was the right choice made by Tay, as the vege and yam was fried till real crispy, and fragrant. Yumm yumm.

Yam and Vegetable Fritters. Price-RM5

Kelly opted for the pan mee, with minced chicken, ikan bilis and fishball.

Dry Pan Mee. Price-RM9.50

Tay was extremely tempted by the golden sauce noodles which in fact was very 'golden' looking. It combines kembong fish, pineapple, cucumber, 'keropok' with 'lai fun' noodles in spicy and sour sauce.

Golden Sauce Noodles. Price-RM9.50

My choice was the fillet of snapper with vermicelli. I like that it doesn't feel like I've had a too heavy meal - overall, this bowl of noodle tasted alright. It looks milky as its soybean soup, however, lacked the aroma.

Fish Fillet Vermicelli. Price-RM14.50

Chris's choice was the beef brisket noodles.

Braised Beef Brisket Noodles. Price-RM12.50

The bite size order came last - we were looking forward for this, as we love brinjal, and chicken floss. However, this was a little let down, as the fried brinjal was rather tasteless, and flavour from the spicy chicken floss doesn't help much either.

Fried Eggplant with Spicy Chicken Floss. Price-RM5

Overall, our take of the meal that it tasted alright, but lack the wow factor (somehow none of this dish has a strong aroma) that would make us want to return to have what we had the other night.

However, the environment and the meal that is quite fairly priced, especially around this area, may garner It's A Noodle Bar future visits.

It's A Noodle Bar
2F-29, Bangsar Village II,
No. 2, Jalan Telawi 1, Bangsar Baru, KL.

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