vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
Posts tagged steak
Maria’s Cafe & Restaurant Western Food @ Damansara Perdana, PJ
Aug 17th
Ever since I tried Maria’s excellent Western food and cakes, I have not been able to find another restaurant that serve such high quality food at a good value they are offering. Being a family business also means that they are personally involved in choosing the best ingredients as well as the cooking.
Like for example, the Fresh Pumpkin Soup @ RM7.50. The cook at Maria’s goes to the market to pick only the freshest pumpkin to prepare this hearty soup. It is flavorful with a thick but smooth consistency, a nice alternative to the mushroom soup served almost everywhere.
The Caesar Salad @ RM12.50 has beef bacon, walnuts and crunchy croutons dressed with parmesan cheese slices and Maria’s very own secret dressing. We loved the creamy dressing and the perfectly fresh Romaine lettuce, which had a enjoyable crisp texture.
For non beef eaters, or for those looking for a more substantial topping you could choose to have smoked salmon @ RM16.50 or and chicken (deep fried or roasted) RM15.50.
Our main dish of the meal has got to be the grilled Japanese Kobe Steak, priced at an eye-popping RM175/100gm. This highly prized meat has a fantastic flavor, tenderness, contains more fat compared to the Australian Wagyu. Its well-marbled texture is one of the reasons this delicacy is so popular, it literally melts in your mouth. To describe Maria’s grilled Kobe Steak would be “so, so good it’s heavenly delicious, fit for a king”.
Avanti Italian-American Restaurante @ Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa
Nov 2nd
It all began with a sudden crave for steak. Ever since I had the slab of Maria’s heavenly Charbroil Australian Wagyu steak, there was no turning back – I am now a Wagyu Steak convert. To fulfill my desire for this expensive luxury food I went to Avanti, an Italian-American restaurant in Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa. Instead of the many other well known and established steakhouse like Prime at Le Meridien, I chose Avanti simply because of its location.
I didn’t have the mood nor patience to get through the traffic jam leading to KL’s city center, especially on a Friday night. Besides, I didn’t read any complaints on the restaurant’s food after Googling around so I thought it should be alright. Sadly I went home a disappointed, a few hundred bucks poorer and did not had my cravings fulfilled, at all.
The night started well though, with unlimited supply of crusty bread to go with the tuna or dipping them in olive oil while we waited for our main courses to arrive. Our soup – Southern Italian Spicy Seafood Soup was perhaps the dish we enjoyed the most throughout the night.
Being robust and flavorful, a blend of different seafood like scallop, prawn and squid are prepared along with a generous amount of sliced shallot. Since this is fine dining it shouldn’t be surprising that a serving like this cost RM29. Did your jaw drop? lol.
Among the choices of Chateaubriand (beats me), Entrecote Double (omg what is this lol), Beef Tenderloin, Rib Eye and Strip-Loin, I chose Grilled Australian Chilled Wagyu Beef Tenderloin for being the most tender part of the beef. Click here to continue reading >
Maria’s Restaurant and Cafe – excellent Western Food @ Damansara Perdana, PJ
Mar 9th
For those Western food lovers especially steak lovers, there’s a restaurant you couldn’t afford to miss – Maria’s Restaurant and Cafe located at Metropolitan Square in Damansara Perdana. I was recently invited to savor their traditional, Western country style food like steaks, pies, pasta, sausages etc. I rarely feel so excited about my posts so you can only imagine the excellent food Maria’s has to offer.
First, a brief introduction: Maria’s Cafe was established in Ipoh about 8-9 years ago and their popular homemade food has been a crowd puller ever since. The Petaling Jaya branch is Maria’s second outlet, currently managed by one of the daughters – Mary Ann, who was also our great host that night.
First up was Oriental Salad @ RM10 consisting of lots of greens, cucumber, tomato, onion, orange and red pepper and topped with generous amount of bonito flakes and black sesame seeds.The addition of fluffy dancing fish flakes on the salad sure made it looked more interesting and livelier.
For salad dressing a mixture of Japanese soy sauce and some oil was used, which tasted a little salty but still OK overall. I have to clarify that the portion of salad we had was actually only half the usual size, because we wanted to leave space for other food hehe.
Two types of soup were served after that. One of them being Maria’s signature Oxtail Soup @ RM18, served with some garlic toasts for dipping.
Maria’s Oxtail Soup tasted fantastic, being a rich and hearty soup I feel everyone will love. A large, meaty chunk of oxtail was served in the middle of the bowl too. It was cooked till so tender that the flesh could be sucked off the bone!
What I loved about the Mushroom Soup @ RM7.50 was its exceptionally thick and creamy texture. The croutons was a great accompaniment too, as they provided a crunchy feel and extra flavor to the soup.
Since I am a fan of strong flavor (and meat) no doubt I preferred the Oxtail Soup more. Besides, mushroom soup is quite common in Western food but a good bowl of Oxtail soup is not easy to find.
At this point I was already quite full even though only salad and soup were served. Well, thanks to the meaty oxtail I enjoyed so much lol.
Because I told Mary Ann earlier that I love seafood and lamb prior to our visit, these two were planned in the main course. First main course to arrive was Fish and Chips @ RM19. What distinguished Maria’s Fish and Chips from the rest is none other than the type of fish used. Here at Maria’s, fresh local garoupa is used instead of the usual dory fish.
Click here to continue reading >
Black Canyon Coffee @ AEON Seberang Perai City
Dec 8th
I just returned from attending my sister’s wedding held in [tag]Penang[/tag] two days ago. Just before I boarded my train back to KL Sentral, I treated my family a dinner at Black Canyon Coffee, AEON Seberang Perai City.
The reason we chose [tag]Black Canyon[/tag] [tag]Coffee[/tag] is because we thought it was the nicest looking restaurant with western and fusion food among all. Plus, I have always wanted to try their coffee. Enough yabbing, lets move on to the food.
Due to the promotion of the day, all steak orders will have a free mushroom soup. It did have the thick consistency and huge button mushroom pieces, but lacks in flavor. I didn’t finish it.
I had the Honey Banana Coffee (front) @ RM8.95 while mom had Black Hazelnut Shake @ RM8.95. The Honey Banana Coffee was bitterly good, but needed a lot more banana flavor to make it great.
Siang Leng had the Black Crunch Coffee @ RM8.95. Besides sounding good, the black cookie was one of the things that managed to attract her. I liked this drink the most among all we ordered because it was sweet enough. Not that the others are not good, just that I prefer my drinks a lil sweeter, lol.
