Monday, April 21, 2014

ABC - Acme Bar and Coffee

Hi everyone how was your last weekend going? In this post, I will be introducing a place for you all where you can indulge yourself in between the retro and modern themed restaurant with light jazzy music while having a good time with friends and families. Read on guys!

It was a nice Sunday morning, my friend and I was looking for a nice place to not just to have lunch but to stay there for some time. So we discovered this place called ABC as known as Acme Bar and Coffee, my friend went there before and he suggested me to do a booking before going as it will be very crowded on weekend. So after I done with the booking around 9.15AM (the restaurant open for business at 9.30AM) for 1PM lunch, we start our journey around 11.30AM.


We reached our destination around 12.30PM, as what my friend would have thought, the place was crazy crowded with people.


The weather has changed slightly cloudy, so the outside part of the seats is not seated that day.


It would be a waste I thought because if the weather is sunny the outside part seems to be a nice place to have both warm sunlight and the natural breeze from the wind.
So as we wait for the booked time, I went and shot some photos around the place.


I noticed the reception table has some fake plants and some random decorations, the butterfly is fake as well for those who concern.



Look at the waiting list in the book, it was full of names and numbers, I noticed their phone rings are very old-fashioned ring, so I went closer to have a look, well it really is an old-fashioned phone, I thought it suits the interior design as a whole.


Thanks to the natural sunlight, the place looks elegantly beautiful and classy.


We have our seat and we start to order:

Main
  • Sea Bass Fruitere (RM 41.00) – Pan seared sea bass, anjou pears, cranberry chutney, citrus cilantro, salmon roe and sea salt.
  • Moroccan Pineapple Chicken Breast (RM 39.00) – Grilled chicken breast with chick peas, French beans, barley mushroom ragout.
Sides
  • Grilled “Bacon” Wrapped Snails (RM 25.00) – With coco beans and parsley garlic sauce wrapped in duck bacon.
*government tax and service charges are not included for the above prices.

I was going to have seafood as my lunch so I thought I would order a side dish I did not try before the bacon wrapped snails.


After we ordered we are served with plain water and I like where we seated, I have this view just in front of me, where the right side has a nice sunlight shines through and on the left side has a nice dim lighted section.


For those who likes dessert (especially ladies), you may find your likings near the barista section, thank me later ladies.

Lovely colors

Every table has this cute pretty cup of fake flowers nice to see because it is colorful, oh besides that I also found that their coaster has nice design as well.

After 15 minutes and more of waiting finally we have our food served!

Nice coaster design!

Mine one would the Sea Bass, for your information Sea bass is a type of fish, the term bass shared by wide range of species of fish, anyway this dish is cook with a lot of fruits as seen in the description, hence the word “fruitere” is at the back of the name of the dish.

Sea bass fruitere

My first bite at the fish, it was slightly fine, it does not have the sweet and freshness taste of the sea but it did not has the fishy taste as well, so it was just ok. The fruit dressing is mostly sweet and slightly sour, the reason might because of the combination of cranberry and citrus cilantro, and oh if you look closely they have the salmon roe on top of the sea bass.

I asked my friend about his food

Salmon roe on top

Moroccan pineapple chicken breast



The Moroccan Pineapple Chicken Breast, you may already smell its spice in your nose before you start to enjoy, however when you have it in your mouth, it somehow near to the state of tasteless, the dressing is nice, the barley mushroom mix with the French beans has the right essence for me. For my friend it is kind of a letdown for him.



Following up is the sides I ordered, I took a few sip of the sauce made with parsley garlic, it was slightly tasteless despite how the color is vivid to our eyes. Next, I tried the bacon wrapped snail, the taste of the bacon is tasty as usual, but the snail is tasteless as well, I do not know whether it is supposed to be like this or did I miss something important here. Do let me know if I ever missed something, thanks in advance.

To be honestly, I like the place and environment, it was really a good place for leisure time with families and friends, just that the food we ordered does not taste strong. If you all need to visit this restaurant on weekend, I suggest you all to make a book first.

  • Food 5/10
  • Price 8/10
  • Presentation 9/10
  • Environment 9/10

Below are the details of the restaurant.
Unit G1 The Troika,
19 Persiaran KLCC,
50450 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.

Email: mailbox@acmebarcoffee.com
For reservations, please call +603 2162 2288.

Operating hours:
Monday to Thursday: 11AM to 12AM
Friday: 11AM to 1AM
Saturday: 9.30AM to 1AM
Sunday: 9.30AM to 12AM
 *Breakfast served on Saturday and Sunday from 9.30AM to 5PM.



Thursday, April 17, 2014

Ishin Japanese dining

Hi all, in this post I am going to share a place where you may experience having freshly done air-flown quality ingredients on your plate in a nice cozy ambience environment, do I got your attention? Good read on to be amazed! Last week my friend and I were discussing about some requirement of a good food and environment with the worthy of the price given, and then as he recalled, he suggest we a place where it meets his taste and then we are good to go, the Ishin Japanese dining. Off we go without any hesitation, we reached there at 8.30PM and still worrying whether it is full house or not.


When we arrived, I saw a landed house exterior as their restaurant and I saw a valet parking service section. We prayed hard to have the waitress to lead us to their unreserved table because it was quite crowded, lucky for us, we got our seats.



Every table has a small set of these:


It is tooth picks and soy sauce, they made it looks authentic with effect of the small burning candle light. 

Creating a feeling of owning the moment from the dim light, too bad my friend is a guy, it would be better if is a girl because the restaurant’s ambience and interior was made to stimulate Japanese culture. The picture hanging of the Fuji Mountain, Sakura flowers, the decoration from the Japanese beers if you notice at the photo above.



Alright we ordered our food using the iPad they provided, yes an iPad as their menu. You could say this is actually as same as one of the Japanese retail restaurant Sakae sushi which also using an iPad, but the only thing is you still need to ask the waiter or waitress there to take order from you, the iPad is just for viewing purpose only.

These are the dinner set we have ordered:
  • Sashimi Zen (RM 58.00)
  • Teppanyaki Seafood Course (RM 48.00)

After we ordered around 5 minutes, they served the appetizer and drinks, hot green tea and fried fish with mayonnaise I guess? I have no idea what is that, so please do correct me if I am wrong, thanks in advance.


After several minutes of waiting while me and my friend was taking photos awkwardly but without interfering the mood of other customers and staffs (hopefully…). Our food is served!! First thing I was like “Woah” because it was in big portion and another thing was the Sashimi Zen has an ice bowl for the fish meat, literally an ice bowl. We do not see anyone has the ice bowl even though that is the same dish we order, honestly we felt special that moment. Check the photos out!


Ah the chawanmushi in Japanese is called “Tea cup steam”, as the photo shown it is an egg custard dish, this is a cold chawanmushi.


Another ingredient from the Sashimi Zen set.


Ah this is the one I meant about freshly done meat, there are 4 types of fish meat here, Sashimi fish, white tuna, red tuna and Salmon fish. According to their official website, their fish is from Tsukiji fish market, Tokyo. Tsukiji fish market is the biggest wholesale fish and other seafood market in the world that it became one of the major foreign attraction.

I tried the white tuna, it was fantastic, the meat feels like it melt by the time you place it on your tongue, and it is very soft and fresh. Then I tried the red tuna for a change, red tuna’s meat is tender compare to white tuna, it gives you the joy of biting it bit by bit.

The Salmon and Sashimi has the sweetness from the freshness of the fish, overall the fish is the main thing to have for this dish, and we were contented by the thickness of the meat given.

Next thing up


This is a Teppanyaki dish, a style of Japanese cuisine which uses an iron griddle to cook the good food, “Teppan” means iron plate and “Yaki” means grilled. So as you see in the photos, most of the ingredients is grilled.


The garlic rice is nice, I could just have it without anything on it.


The salad is the nicest for me because it taste very unusual, thanks to my friend, he told me to try until to the soy sauce of the salad, it taste delicious because the soy sauce is added a little bit of wasabi, it helps clear out the other taste from your taste bud and nose, so that you may fully concentrate on the freshness of the vegetable, great move I thought.


The grilled prawn has a well tenderness when bite, it was not hard nor too soft, just nice. Besides the prawn, the scallops is very nice too, the texture of the surface slide into your mouth.


There are fruits for each of us, for our finishing meal purpose. I thought this place was awesome, the food was top-notch freshness in quality, the price was reasonable and the place has nice cozy feeling. I will recommend to my friends for sure.
  • Food 8/10
  • Price 9/10
  • Presentation 10/10
  • Environment 7/10
Below are the details of the restaurant.
No. 202, Persiaran Klang Batu 3 3/4 Off Jalan Kelang Lama, 58000 Kuala Lumpur

Tel : +603 7980 8228
Fax: +603 7981 0011
For reservations, please call +603-7980 8228
Free valet services available.

Operating hours:
Lunch 12pm – 3pm
Dinner 6pm – 10.30pm.

Website: ishin.my

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Restaurant De Hunan - spicy Hunan cuisine you will remember!

Hey everyone how are you all been doing with your week? This week my friend and I decided to go for spicy food from Hunan also known as Xiang cuisine (湘菜), the shop we are about to enter is 湖南湘菜馆 (Hunan from the Xiang cuisine), Xiang river is one of the region of Hunan, besides this region there are others such as Dongting Lake and western Hunan. Hunan cuisine is one of the Eight great traditions of Chinese cuisine, well known of its spicy hot flavor with cooking style of frying, smoking and pot-roasting. Behold what’s coming, we will be opening our mouth frequently due to the heat and spice and we cannot help but to continue to eat!


Enter the restaurant and it was just like any normal above average Chinese restaurant. It was quite empty but that was around 7.00PM to 7.30PM if I remember it correctly, so it is normal to have less customer at this time.


We ordered the following dishes:
  • 平锅北京包菜 (RM 30/ RM22/ RM15) – Stir Fried “Beijing” Cabbage
  • 农家小炒肉 (RM30/ RM25/ RM18) – “Hunan” Farmer Style Fried Pork
  • 湖南石锅鸡 (RMRM50 / RM40/ RM30) – Chef Special Fried Chicken On Sizzling Stone Plate

As you can see there are 3 prices those are for the size, large, medium and small respectively. We order all 3 of the dishes in small sizes. After we ordered, I looked around and I saw there is a picture of three girls with their traditional cloths and Chinese instruments, then I noticed besides the photo frame there are these decorations, yes chilies decorations.


Is like telling you to brace yourself for this spicy hot cuisine

It is like telling customers that this is the place where you will experience lots of chili peppers, garlic and shallots, just search some basic information about Hunan cuisine, Hunan cuisine is best known for dry hot or purely hot. Their dishes will tend to be oilier compared to also one of the famous spicy food genre, the Sichuan cuisine in which often being discussed about, most noticeably their ‘mala’ which literally mean hot and numbing.


So after our long wait our rice have been served, I purposely took the photo of the rice is because I was attracted by their flat rice bowl instead of the inner curve side. Nothing special here, they have their own custom tissue packaging. The dishes is served after the rice is placed after 10 minutes:


Seriously this is extremely hot

Chef Special Fried Chicken on Sizzling Stone Plate, despite its hot red color gravy and the heat from sizzling stone that makes the popping bubble dance, I am pretty sure I will be needing to drink a lot of Chinese tea to cool down my body, it’s like a volcano down there. I tried the gravy part for start, it is really spicy, and you might need to add some rice to neutral down the heat. The chicken is fine, the meat when bite will not feel like it had been dipped in the gravy for a long time and become lose in tender, it was nice and tight to bite, I like it. The aroma from the scallion matches the gravy spice is the ultimate combination for a good guilty pleasure moment, my lips are beginning to feel the effect of too much spice, my friend said my lips is getting red and a little swollen, well in a good way that is. You guys should try it.



Very nice pork aroma with cabbage

Next thing up it will be the Stir Fried “Beijing” Cabbage, the is one of their customer preferable dishes, I can see why after my first attempt, the reason it is so nice in taste is because the taste of the pork and the pork’s oil mixed with the freshness of the cabbage and the best thing is the taste will stay there for a while after you swallow. I should have try this dish first because the last dish had influenced my taste bud with its hot spice. I guessed they cook the pork and the cabbage separately then fry it together to let the essence mix in harmony under the wok, thumb ups for the chef.



The last one is the “Hunan” Farmer Style Fried Pork, this is just normal for us if compare to the other 2 dishes I just mentioned, the pork was not that strong in taste in this dish, even we stir a little bit to let the pork oil spread evenly, this dish has below average level of spiciness, the green color ingredient is the green chilies by the way. This is my first time to try this restaurant, my friend on the other hand is not, and he commented that this dish is nicer when he tried last time, so bad luck for me I guess.

So that is, I was impress with this restaurant’s cooking style, it was my first experience to taste such spicy Hunan cuisine beside of Sichuan cuisine, when we are almost done with our dinner, the restaurant is beginning to fill with crowd of people, look like a good place to have good food to me, so you guys should give it a try.

Address
No. 2, Jalan Kuchai Maju 6,
Off Jalan Kuchai Lama,
58200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: +603-7987 9318