vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
Mont Kiara
Korean BBQ @ Little Korea Restaurant, Solaris Mon’t Kiara
Sep 15th
I might have finally found a Korean restaurant that is able to convince me that Korean BBQ is nice. My previous dining experiences at various Korean BBQ restaurants just to name a few like Daorae and Go-Gung had been mediocre and borderline forgettable.
Little Korea at Solaris Mon’t Kiara has become the turning point for me and it was a blessing in disguise really. How so? Because we actually planned to have chicken rice at Segambut for lunch. But the plan took a drastic turn from having chicken rice to Korean BBQ because the restaurant was closed.
However, Little Korea is not a surprise stumble as a friend actually mentioned about this place before. He commented that the BBQ pork tastes like char siew and that comment of his stuck in my mind ever since. Korean BBQ that tastes like char siew? That’s new and worth trying alright. Somehow, we knew we won’t go wrong at Little Korea as it was full of Korean customers, which you won’t see of course because this photo was taken just before we left.
Meatworks @ Solaris Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur
Apr 10th
Meatworks is another meat-shop cum restaurant at Solaris Mont Kiara that claims to serve premium halal meat. And one thing they are proud of is the use of locally sourced meats from Gemas in Negeri Sembilan. But just to be clear, the cows are actually brought in from Australia then grain fed at Gemas. So essentially it could still be considered more premium than any other local beef.
If you are a steak purist then you might not want to read further because the steaks here are served along with sauces. The Signature Bone In Fillet (350gm @ RM69) certainly scored high on presentation but lower on flavor and execution.
Schokolart Hand-Made Swiss Chocolates, Cakes & Desserts @ Solaris Mont Kiara
Feb 22nd
Few days ago I had an invited dinner at Schokolart, a restaurant and lounge specializing in hand-made Swiss chocolate and chocolate inspired cuisines. Now who would say no to chocolate, lol. Like a popular quote goes, “9 out of 10 people like chocolate. The 10th person always lies”. Even the restaurant’s unique and catchy name, Schokolart is spelled to to sound like chocolate with an emphasis on the word ‘art’.
After being briefed on the food Schokolart‘s menu had to offer, we started off with two drinks that came highly recommended. The drink in front is Chocolate Almond Kiss, a concoction of Frangelico (a hazelnut and herb-flavoured liqueur), Chocolate Ice Cream and Vodka @ RM28. Even though I am not a drinker, I found the taste somewhat resembling Bailey’s Irish Cream (the only liqueur I have ever had) but more chocolatey.
The other drink we had was Schokolart’s signature shake – Soulmates @ RM16.90. Soulmates is prepared by blending dark chocolate ice-cream together with peanut butter then topped with whipped cream. I liked this chocolatey and peanut buttery drink a lot because it was sweet and had a right consistency. To differentiate the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in Schokolart is simple, those that come in hurricane glasses are alcohol free.
Pumpkin Dreams @ RM9.90 was another recommended dish, basically pumpkin soup topped with melted cheese and served with herb croutons. The soup was smooth and thick and tasted great, just like how a good soup should be. Some grated ginger was also present in the soup, giving a hint of spiciness and warm feeling to your stomach.
Next was our main course – De La Mer, a dish consisting of pan fried salmon fillet and Swiss Roesti served with special Hollandaise-wasabi sauce. In this dish alone there were two new things to me: Roesti and Hollandaise sauce. An explanation ensued and it seems that Roesti is potato pancake and is considered as a national dish in Switzerland. Hollandaise sauce on the other hand is a French sauce made using butter, egg and lemon juice that is usually served on asparagus (where the salmon fillets are sitting on).
Tenji Japanese Buffet @ Solaris Mont Kiara
Jan 10th
No doubt Tenji Japanese Buffet @ Solaris Mont Kiara is the latest craze in town. It has been forwarded in emails, blogged by numerous food bloggers, and perhaps the most attractive thing about it currently is the buffet luncheon promotion @ RM49.90 per pax. If you are a fast eater you might even grab it at RM29.90 for the first hour, followed by an extra RM10 for the subsequent hours. I was there yesterday and there are a few things (not mentioned in other blogs) you ought to know:
The luncheon buffet is fully booked until 15th Jan 2009Good news, the luncheon buffet has been extended to 17th Feb for RM55 nett per pax. This means there’s no more per hour dining.- If you did not make a reservation, you might as well forget about going to enter as a walk-in guest. Because only guests who made reservations were allowed to enjoy the buffet. Unless, you are willing to try your luck to see if any of the guests who made reservations did not turn up, then you could take their places. Chances are pretty low to be frank.
- The full luncheon buffet costs RM54.90 per pax, inclusive of 10% service charge. No government tax.
- Like some have mentioned in forums, the restaurant is not full even though they say they are fully booked. I guess they want to restrict the number of guests in order to maintain the service and food quality. Or simply because they might not be able to cope with the volume of customers, since it’s a new restaurant.
- Tenji’s [tag]Japanese Buffet[/tag] is pork free.
That being said, let’s move on to the food!
The sushi was good, I enjoyed the salmon sushi the most. The rest you see on the plate were so-so, because the lobster salad was pretty bland tasting. If you are wondering, the maki behind was not made with soft shell crab. I must admit I was tricked into taking it because it certainly looked like soft shell crab maki.. but in fact it was just fried prawns (the tail part).
Then I went to take some sashimi and oysters. Tenji’s [tag]oysters[/tag] are seriously huge, just humongous – at least 50% larger than the largest I have had so far. If you could down it in one mouthful, it would be really impressive, lol.
You can see it is as long as the plate, with plenty of flesh too. They were fresh as well but some had sand in them for not being cleaned thoroughly, which was the only gripe I had. If you are an oyster lover, I bet you would be 110% delighted to have joined this buffet.
For drinks, I drank the imported coconuts mostly, as the fruit juices were very diluted and didn’t taste nice. By now you would have seen quite a lot of complaints regarding the coconuts not being replenished fast or often enough. But, when I was there, I noticed the coconuts were always available even at the buffet’s peak. So it’s either I was lucky, or the management noticed the complaints and made improvements. The coconuts are a must try because they had a nice, aromatic pandan flavor. Very different from the local coconuts.
There is a station for Japanese paper steamboats and it’s perhaps the most relaxed among all. The huge tiger prawns caught my eye and I just had to try it. Besides, I have never tried paper steamboat before. After picking the other ingredients like mushrooms and vegetables, you can then choose between spicy and miso soup, then delivered to you when it’s ready.
A [tag]paper steamboat[/tag] holder is on every table but it won’t be lit up to keep the steamboat warm, hmm. The miso soup was OK, but the prawns were a let down. Despite being really fresh and having super tender flesh, my palate told me the tiger prawns were reared type and not those caught from the sea. Hence, the lack of sweetness.
Because this post is too long, I have broken it to 7 pages. Please click on the following page links to navigate to continue reading.
