Serai Satay Bar, Satay on the go @ Pavilion

Located next to Food Republic, Serai Satay Bar is one of the latest eateries to open in Pavilion. They are introducing a new way of enjoying satay, which they call it Satay-on-the-go or Satay-To-Go.
Contrary to the conventional way of enjoying satay at the road side or taking away back to the home, Serai Satay Bar lets the customers enjoy satay in a specially made container, which can be easily carried along while you shop.

Because of the bar concept, customers can choose to either sit around the satay kiosk or at the table. Sitting around the kiosk would grant you a full view of the food preparation, while magazines are provided at the table for your reading pleasure.
So I was there last Sunday to meet Qistina, the owner of Serai Satay Bar to give the revolutionary concept a try.

After a brief introduction on the menu and their specialties, we got down to business straight away as we were hungry. While waiting for the food to arrive we had the Serai Blended @ RM5.50 (a drink that came highly recommended by Qistina) and Milky Bandung @ RM5.
According to Qistina, the Serai Blended originated from their family restaurant Serai Thai at Shah Alam. It is a highly popular drink over there so they figured that it would be good to make it available at Serai Satay Bar too.
I never had any lemongrass drinks before so it was something new to me. It tasted alright, cool and refreshing with a very strong lemongrass taste. I felt it would be better if the shaved ice was more fine but some other customers preferred it coarser to prevent it from melting too quickly. Oh well, you can’t please everyone lol. Besides lemongrass, some sweet lychee bits were present in the drink to give something to chew on.
I found the Milky Bandung more enjoyable because it had a more familiar taste to me. Prepared the Johorean style, it consisted of a layer of rose cordial, ice cream soda and fresh milk. The addition of ice cream soda certainly lifted the drink up giving it a nice fizzy taste.

We were served a mini pack of satay, Set D to be precise @ RM10. It consisted of 2 chicken, 2 beef, 2 lamb plus 2 condiments sticks of rice cubes and cucumber satay. The mini pack actually came a circular container that houses both the satay sticks and sauce.
Imagine the junk food we had when we were little like Nini and YamYam, substitute the snacks with satay and the chocolate dip with satay sauce. Then, enlarge the size about 5 times.

I had the satay arranged on a plate for a better view.

The satay was free from fat with only lean meat used. This resulted in a more compact and meaty sticks but it also made it rather chewy and dry. It went well with the chunky peanut sauce, which had a well balanced flavor of sweet and mild spiciness.
Although the outlet might look modern and all, it’s good to know Serai Satay Bar still uses the traditional method to cook the satay by barbecuing them over charcoal fire.

Next, Roti Boom from the all day Breakfast Menu – two pieces with Chicken Dalca @ RM5.90. The significant difference between Serai Satay Bar and mamak stall’s Roti Boom is that the former’s had a flatter shape and no sugar was used at all.

Besides satay, other skewered food that can be dipped in sauces are also available in the same circular container. For example the Keropok Lekor sought all the way from Terengganu @ RM6.50, tasty!

You must be thinking RM6.50 is too expensive for Keropok Lekor. But considering the generous amount of fish meat used in each piece (not flour) I would say it’s pretty worth it. And let’s not forget it’s Pavilion ok lol.

Lastly, the Pisang Goreng @ RM5. There are 6 pieces in each container and you get to choose between Vanilla Dip or Sambal Kicap Dip. To be honest the Pisang Goreng tasted normal and lacked the crispiness (I was told that something went wrong in the frying batter that day).
Lets hope they will manage to fix the problem because crispiness makes a huge difference in Pisang Goreng’s taste.

I preferred the Vanilla Dip more because it’s sweet. And it complemented the Pisang Goreng better too if compared to Sambal Kicap.

This is the Sambal Kicap dip, as used in Qistina’s family recipe. Eating satay here won’t get you into a mess especially oily fingers because the sticks are very clean. Because of that, consider it a good choice for snack during company meetings or any food related events.

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