La Belle Saison ft Hexa Spice Shop @ Kota Kemuning

Kota Kemuning was never exactly known for fine food, but that changed when La Belle Saison opened one year ago. The head chef, Jit Hu was trained in a three Michelin star restaurant in Paris before returning to open his own establishment.
Here, he applies various cooking techniques he learned during his culinary stint in France to create hearty and traditional dishes at affordable prices.

The Salmon Gravlax @ RM29.50 is a classic Scandinavian salmon dish that’s packed full of flavor and contrasting textures. It’s also a DIY assembly where you help yourself by layering the mini potato pancakes with thin slices of cured salmon, wasabi cream, shimeji mushroom, pickled cucumber and dill. All the components simply work together for a harmonious bite.

Three kinds of salad are available, in which we picked the Summer Salad @ RM27 because it sounded like the most interesting option, and it was a great call.
The vanilla vinaigrette gives the salad a unique aroma and light taste that’s easy on the palate, while the caramelized apples and pan fried chicken provided a sweet and savory balance. This was a delicious salad alright – and that’s coming from a meat lover.

Seafood Stew (RM48) is usually found in the soup section but it’s served as a main course here. You can expect the portion to be larger than usual and I don’t recommend sharing it because it’s so, so good that you would the whole thing to yourself. A dollop of creamy and mildly spicy rouille adds a touch of authenticity to it.

For something rustic you won’t go wrong with the Braised Ribs @ RM58. Having being slow braised in stout for 24 hours, the meat had become exceedingly tender and flaky. It just melts away with a smooth, full richness in the mouth. The addition of chocolate into the velvety and rich sauce also gave it a nice sophistication to the dish.

Through sous vide cooking, the Chicken Roulade @ RM36 featured some of the most succulent chicken breast I have ever had. For us, it’s hard not to think of this as high class chicken rice, but the flavor was much more exquisite than imagined. Even the rice, which was perfectly cooked with every grain separate, was a pleasure just with the garlic cream.

Among the four mains we tried, the Halibut @ RM45 was our least favorite. Just to be clear, there was nothing wrong with the fish, as it was nicely seared to have a wonderful crust and you can certainly taste the delicate sweetness in it. We just wished the sauce had a more pronounced flavor to complement the fish.

Dessert wise, we absolutely loved the dense and decadent Chocolate Mousse @ RM21 with espresso cream. They were alright if eaten separately but when you combine them together, it becomes a timeless combo that simply works like a charm. Highly recommended, though I must warn you this is pretty addictive stuff.

Poached pear in red wine (RM23) is one of the more uncommon desserts usually found only in French restaurants. Feel free to enjoy it your way, but the idea is to place a chunk of pear onto the toasted brioche and spoon the caramel vanilla ice cream alongside. The contrast of the warm pear with the cold ice cream is fabulous, and we totally dig the crispy brioche.

One interesting thing about this restaurant is that it’s fronted with a boutique spice shop selling Hexa Food‘s herbs, spices and and blends. You can find hundreds of different spices for daily cooking and better still, the prices are cheaper here compared to larger stores and supermarkets. In fact, most of the dishes are prepared with these seasonings like salt, cinnamon, pepper, garlic powder and etc.

I used to work in Kota Kemuning for over a year and I know for a fact that this area seriously lacks casual dining establishments. So if you are bored of eating at the coffee shop, cafe or mamak and want to treat yourself to a better lunch, La Belle Saison fits perfectly within a reasonable budget.
Their daily 2 course set lunch is priced at RM21.50 and comes with an appetizer or soup, a main dish with two side dishes and a drink of the day. The choices for main dish include fried chicken chop, oven roasted chicken and a selection of wraps and pasta.

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