Urbano e Fresco, Publika, Solaris Dutamas

Hello people! As I was browsing my Facebook feeds the other day, I came across with a status update of a friend showing the photos of pasta and according to her, 'that' place serves the best Italian food in town. 'That' restaurant is, as you already know, Urbano e Fresco. Urbano e Fresco is not new in the sense that the restaurant has several other branches in the world.

What is so special about Urbano e Fresco are they claimed that their pastas are home made and they only serve the freshest ingredients available. Well, I would love to explain a bit about Italian cuisine, only a bit since Italian cuisine is very broad in its historical background and profiles. Firstly, Italian cuisine is more than just food you can find on the table. Since this particular cuisine relies so much on the freshness of its ingredients rather than the presentation(that is why Italian cuisine is quite generous on the plate), hence PREPARING those ingredients is also part and parcel of Italian cuisine. For example, winery, cheese, vinegar, pasta etc all require a traditional way to make them. Secondly, there are a few common ingredients that one can find in Italian cuisine:- cheese, black pepper, garlic, olive oil etc. Thirdly, Italian cuisine is regional in nature. I mean you can find one way to make carbonara in one place and different way in the other place.

Bruschetta: panini bread, butter, olive oil, tomatoes, basil, garlic, rocket salad and parmesan cheese. RM 12,50

Bruschetta is simply bread with toppings. Usually tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and herbs. If there is one thing I can say, is the bruschetta was good. Complete ingredients and taste, generous portion and reasonable price. What more to ask? There were six packs of bruschetta on the plate. 

Pesto Italian Spaghetti: spaghetti, tiger prawns, parmesan, pesto, salt and pepper RM 26.90

The plus points for this dish are they use home made pasta, fresh prawns and generous amount of olive oil. The minus point for dish is I wished the pesto to be a little bit stronger because the taste was quite mild over there. Pesto is simple the combination of basil leaves, olive oil, roasted pine nuts, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper, (cheese if intended). It is in my opinion a pesto should really deliver what a pesto really is, a basil leaves paste. I don't say it must be really strong but enough if it leaves you with a slight basil after taste. 

Como Panini: panini bread with roasted chicken strips, provolone cheese, sun dried tomatoes, avocado, basil and garlic mayonnaise, roasted potatoes and salad. 

It may look simple because it is simple but it was quite good actually. If there are something to criticize then may be they need to reconsider the roasted potatoes (whether it really play any significant there?). I'd prefer if they replace the potatoes with batter onion rings. Then I wished the panini to be a little bit moist in the inside. I know panini is a grilled bread, that is why it is hard but 15 seconds of steaming is not wrong. Only to soften it a little bit. That would be great. My 2 scents opinion. And I drizzled some balsamic vinegar onto the salad just to make it edible as I was quite full. 

Verdurina Pizza: mozarella, olives, broccoli, spinach, onion, garlic, tomatoes, rocket salad and some other unidentified ingredients. RM 27.90 for 9"

This is a vegetarian pizza. A perfectly cook pizza. Perfect dough, nice crust, fresh toppings. Try this. Enough said. 

Tiramisu: mascarpone, lady fingers, coffee powder etc RM 10. 

Well, this a good but normal tiramisu. Decadent, sweet and perfect texture. A great finishing. 

Some of its interior:

Traditional dough roller

They actually sell some ingredients

In short, Urbano e Fresco is a good rising Italian restaurant. Though the cuisine is not complete but they are good with what they are serving. I hope there is risotto in the future. A good place for muslim since there is no pork or lard. 

Muugu Garden Bistro, Jalan Bukit Bintang

In the recent years there are more and more hidden cafes and restaurants in the amid of Kuala Lumpur. Usually one has to relay the information and people come. Muugu Garden Bistro is one of them. With the concept of rustic elevated, Muugu promises quite a serene environment to the diners, It is a bungalow situated at a corner of maze roads with spacious area. Your arrival might be celebrated by a flock of geese.

Simple and modern concept of dining

The Bar area, boozes are available.

With the fact that Muugu operates in a bungalow, it fully utilizes the whole area for dining

As a fan of comics, this has to be my favourite section

Enough with the interior design, let's jump to the food, shall we?

In brief, the concept for the dishes is similar to many rising restaurants that you can find in Kuala Lumpur. Muugu serves beef steaks (three cuts are available: tenderloin, New York strip and ribeye) take note that you can choose the doneness too, medium-medium rare usually the best. Muugu also serves lists of dishes using chicken, fish and lamb. Too american? Don't worry, if you feel you wanna go Italian they have it. they have pastas (penne, spaghetti, fettucine, linguine and capellini) for seven different dishes of pasta. To my surprise, Muugu also serves risotto. Risotto(ri-zo-to) is a type of italian rice dish. Unlike our Malaysian rice dish, risotto is creamy usually while serving. Italian does eat risotto as it is or with sides and garnishes, many flavours are available because risotto is plain, it gives a big room for chefs to create flavourful risottos. Other than that, Muugu serves several desserts, milkshakes and boozes.

The first photo is french fries scented with truffle oil. RM 8. As I always mention one of the character of a good restaurant, always serves the customer with fresh potatoes for french fries and Muugu did just that. Using the most suitable type of potato which is russet potatoes, the real deal was the truffle oil. Truffle is a type of mushroom or fungus that a good kitchen needs to have. It produces a a complex smell that is contentious to some chefs in the world, including Martha Stewart. Hence some dislike the usage of truffle oil. However, most truffle oil in the market weren't made from the real truffle but rather synthetic ones. 

The second photo is crispy golden mushroom. RM 12. Made from oyster and button mushrooms, this dish has more downs than the ups. Reading from the menu, I thought it would be tempura-likes. However they made fritters instead. Nonetheless it goes to the taste which the batter could use some more seasoning. 

Pesto risotto with red snapper and mixed salad. RM 27.

I loved the risotto. I loved the fish. I am okay with the salad. But I am not sure whether I love them, together. One of the major flaws while serving risotto is the sides should be tougher in texture compared to the risotto. The red snapper should be a little bit crispier(not too crispy) so that the texture is not so bland together. One of the downs is in its portion. I wished for more risotto on the plate. In every plates, there should be one hero and the hero usually appears a lot. But my plate was like on a diet or something. If risotto is the hero, then give more risotto. Judging from the presentation, it is lacking of furnace. But the pesto was delicious. 

Rack of lamb. RM37.

Three racks of lamb, medium cooked, mint sauce, ratatouille(hidden, my bad), baked potatoes and some garnishes. The lamb has a good seasoning but the seasoning didn't blend well with the lamb. Unfortunately. I say it blended about 80%. Another 20% may be caused by time insufficiency. I didn't feel the flavour to the bones. Loved the baked potatoes(they left the skin on, which was good). The ratatouille was quite messy but the taste was okay. Presentation was just an okay. I loved the fact that this was actually a balanced diet dish. 

Tiramisu for dessert. Good tiramisu. Not the best that I have had but it was definitely good. RM 12.

Since I had an Italian entree, it is only right to finish it with an Italian dessert. They used lady fingers which is a plus point. Creamy and sweet. What can I say. 

Overall Muugu was quite good. some down sides which is normal. What Muugu needs to do is to correct the details of its food. I need more furnace on the plate, also. And since they serves Italian then I would love to see Panna Cotta in the menu card, someday. 

Dash of Nutmeg, Bangsar Village 1

Hello dear readers! Today I will bring to you one of the latest 'hipster' cafe in the town ~DASH OF NUTMEG! The cafe brings in a different concept of food & beverages stores that we don't usually find in urban area. The idea of a food truck. Food trucks, though are common, are usually the outdoor type. Dash of Nutmeg, however is using the concept of a food truck but inside a shopping mall! Let's take a look:

Well, of course it is NOT REALLY a truck but rather a design of a truck that is attached to the wall. 

The real food trucks near a beach in the US. Source: Google

I noticed that all of the workers are actually Pinoy including the chef. Food wise, they serve sadwiches, panini (a type of Italian sandwich that normally made of unsliced bread and duly pressed while toasting), pies, scones, coffees etc. But since I could not afford to buy everything, I asked the worker to give me the best from the kitchen, anything, that is the best. 

Smoked Chicken Sandwich
(RM12.50)

Smoked chicken, coleslaw and bread. Well, it is not that it is not as good as I expected, it is good though. Just it supposed to be better. With some extra few ringgit, I could definitely get a better sandwich at some other cafes nearby. Just saying. To add some credit, the chicken sliced were sweet and the bread were soft. That is all about it basically. Nothing else is special about the flavour, just tad normal. Next I had a scone.

Cranberry and Walnut Scone

(RM6)

Just a normal scone. With some cranberries and little traces of walnuts. This appeared to me as a hot buttered scone rather than cranberry and walnut scone. Since they serve a warm scone, all that you need to do is to put the cube of butter on top of the scone and it will melt. The above scone was a little bit dry. Well, some like it dry and some like it moist. Many 5 stars restaurants serve dry scones but they usually give you some other things also like butter, milk, jam to suit your liking. A cube of butter for me is just not enough. 

For me I loved the concept of Dash of Nutmeg. They even serve the food with oil paper like the real ones. However it appears to me Dash of Nutmeg have taken this concept way too seriously that it affected the foods they serve. Being in a shopping mall, in urban area, food vendors must only serve the best quality of food. Despite its concept, Dash of Nutmeg is still a cafe, nonetheless. When I asked them to give me the best of foods, the 'normal' sandwich is just not enough. 

Sugar Rush, Pusat Bandar Damansara

How do you do, dear readers! I know in the recent years there have been more and more humble cafes and bakeries popped up in Bangsar area. Some of us even called them 'hipster restaurants'! But this new cafe is not in bangsar nor Hartamas where you can see fleets of new 'hipster' cafes. Located in quite a peculiar area for a cafe, Pusat Bandar Damansara is kinda like an almost dead 'cowboy' town. If not for the fast food chains and HELP Institute, the place is ghost town. But nonetheless this cafe sure is unique and I salute the owner for having the guts to open a cafe in this area.

Sugar Rush from the main road

Okay, yes it is Sugar Rush and of course it is sugary. So if you're on a strict diet or something you can neglect the cakes and go for their sandwiches. Yes, this place is more than a bakery. They have sandwiches, pies and design drinks. But, hey, me too are on a diet but when you go to gym or if you work out why not try to reward yourself with some desserts. Hehe. They go in and go out. Simple math. 

Chocolate Ganache

If you have no idea what is a Ganache (ge-nash) it is a mixture of chocolate and butter. The traditional way of making it is to simmer a pot of water, and put a bowl big enough to cover the pot. Put your cooking chocolate in the bowl and it will melt. Later mix the melted chocolate with butter and mix them well. THAT IS ALL. And the taste is wonderful. Use it to layer your cake, keep them in your fridge then sprinkle with confectionery sugar, there you have a beautiful cake. OMG. Okay, let's get back to the above cake. To me the ganache was perfectly made. I can still taste the chocolaty richness and the butter used. The sponge was great too. It just melt in my mouth. Well, they nailed it. RM12.80.

Lemon Poppy Seed

Well, the cake was amazing. Haha. No, I don't have any shares in the cafe. Just my humble gastronomic opinion. Vanilla+lemon scented sponge, citrusy frosting, dried sliced lemon peel and poppy seed all over the sponge. :D Yummy! I bet it tastes better if I eat it immediately. About the poppy seeds, I know it is not very common in Malaysia. Poppy as we know it the flowers is called opium but bear in mind not all poppy seeds are one of the same kind. The seeds however is commercially used in culinary and bakery as well. RM12.80.

Banana Salted Caramel

Here we have a delicious banana cake layered with salt and caramel as two of the main ingredients in the frosting. The frosting was sweet and salty, not sweet plus salty. I mean you can taste both sweetness and saltiness separately in one bite not the mumbo-jumbo of sweet and salty. Which to me it requires some degree of experience to do that. The sponge was moist and quite sticky which is good. RM12.80.

Cakes beautifully placed and labelled

The dining tables and me

Sugar Rush in brief sells good cakes. You can meet their cheerful bakers with the kitchen uniform that are able to assist you at any point of information. If there is one thing to point out, the deco has a funeral mood. Cakes supposed to be interesting and we need to feel happy eating them. I find it rather difficult to be happy under such a gloomy dark space. Haha.

Fish & Co, The Mines

Hi people! Today I would like to share about a restaurant that I saw in the Instagram: fishncomy. A family restaurant chain that you can find in several leading shopping malls like The Mines and Pavillion. Initially I thought Fish & Co is akin to Fish Manhattan but as I go through the menu it is more like Bubba Gump to me.

Fish & Co has a wide range of menus from fish n chips, paellas, Italian et cetera. Well, I tend to be sceptical with a restaurant with too many menus. It is all about the quality control. I prefer to be at a restaurant with 20++ range of foods but able to observe the quality on each plates.

It's best to call this 'menu magazine' rather than 'menu book'

Seafood Platter

Well, from the illustration on the menu, expect 1/2 of the portion. I loved everything on the pan except for the salads. Simply because it was not fresh. They served me with 2-3 days old salads. But nevermind as it was compensated with the perfectly cooked prawns, calamari, fish nuggets with amazing sauces. The sauces were the real heroes on the pan. RM18.95.

Peri Peri Chicken with White Fish

Ermm.... frankly speaking if I do not know what is that thing in this picture, I wouldn't want to eat it. It looks like a pile of something. But don't worry they tasted better than the way they look. The paella was okay, I could not taste anything fresh in the salad, the chicken and the fish were quite good. Nothing is really special about this dish. Except for the chicken fillet was topped by a homemade peri peri sauce. Although both are nice, I felt the loose connection between fish and chicken. Both have different flavours. There might be some ways to integrate these two proteins but the above way isn't the way at all. Sad. RM29.95.

Grilled Sea Bass with Sambal Sauce

If you are familiar with fish dishes, then you must be familiar with sea bass. Sea Bass is like a celebrity in the ocean to the chefs. You can find the fish in many 5 stars restaurant and you definitely can find it here. Obviously we don't talk about the quality here. Other than the okay paella and the sad coleslaw, the fish was quite good. I loved it especially the skin. It was crispy and flavourful. RM26.95.

Located at the first floor, west court

Other than the said dishes, I had a soup (mushroom soup) and a designed passionfruit drink also. But since you can find them anywhere I don't bother to share. Nothing special by the way. I noticed the desserts section are filled with chocolate based desserts. Well I am a fan of chocolates but I don't think chocolate dessert goes well with sea foods? I am sure I am not alone in this. Since sea creatures have the delicate flavours, they are acidic thus strong chocolate based desserts which are also strong in flavour don't go well together. I'd prefer something refreshing, zesty and citrusy like key lime pie (like the one I had at Bubba Gump) sorbet, sherbet, fruit tarts et cetera.

Nonetheless, I had a good time here. What Fish & Co needs is a serious quality control. Other than that maybe they need to revamp the whole menus. To make it lesser and better choice of desserts. And one more thing, I was sad with the fact they sent my starter and main course together. My soup and drink 10 minutes AFTER that. 

Acme South, Bangsar Village

Finally after so many waits. The new branch of Acme Bar  & Coffee is in Bangsar. With the name of Acme South, it has a new concept unlike the other branches. Here, you can have the taste of southern american cuisine or we simply call the as 'Soul food'. I am not going to have a two hours lecture on these 'soul' recipes although I know many are not familiar with the terms bla... bla... bla... but this is a good chance to show you that western cuisine isn't just all about chicken chops, lamb chops and fish n chips that obviously are now and ever overrated by us Malaysians.

Cool wall, huh? That guy in blue is way more cooler. The dark blue shirt.

Unlike some food bloggers, they go together with friends so they have more to show in their blogs. I usually go alone or with a friend so we don't order that many which means less picture for you guys.  :( but nevertheless, I will try to mark up by explaining more about the food. :D

From the menus we can see this might be temporary. They might include more in the future. 

Jambalaya

Jambalaya was put under Creole. What is Creole? It gonna be a long explanation but in brief Creole foods is a type of improvised foods from the Europe (Spain and France) but were brought to other parts of the world. Basically Jambalaya is a type of 'nasi goreng' or whatever rice that we Malaysians cook using stock like 'nasi tomato'. Of course with a bit of spices and tomatoes, sausages, meat et cetera. People would usually compare Jambalaya with Gumbo and Etouffee. Both are rice only different way of cooking. Gumbo for example is soupy. What you can expect from one of the famous dish in Creole food is the aroma and flavour of the rice. When you eat it, you will automatically know what is inside, if your palate is good. 

Po'Boy Oyster Sandwich

YAIKS! My first oyster sandwich. I loved what they did to the oyster. The oyster was dip fried coated with batter, so you can taste the crunchiness but never lose the sea freshness and that oyster aroma at the same time. Top notch, the oyster. Other than that were normal. Normal loaf with veggies and potato wedges. It has what a Po'Boy sandwich should have included. By the way, Po'Boy Sandwiches are Lousiana's sandwiches so yeah, it is basically southern. Haha. 

Potato Cheesy Wedges

Funny because I ordered for Grit Sticks, instead of this but nevermind as I forgot to say a word. Too busy eating I guess. Nonetheless it was a good potato wedges. Home made wedges. One of my rebuttable yardstick to decide whether or not that restaurant deserve my second visit is to see whether their potato wedges or french fries are home made. If you know that they use the supermarket's then they are lacked of qualities. 

The bar area

Desserts but they didn't show up in the menu papers. I guess we need to order for them separately.

One important note, I was notified that Acme South get the meat from Halal-certified producer. If this is true then good news for us muslims. No pork here too. For the win to one of the pioneer of southern cuisine in Malaysia!

Pancake House, Mid Valley Megamall

Hello readers! Have you ever tried making your own pancakes? Yeah, I know it is easy, made them many times from scratch myself, but just in case you feel lazy to beat the batter or to crack the eggs even, but you still want to eat pancakes, good one of course, may be you can try Pancake House at Mid Valley Megamall.

Before that, I know many Malaysians are not THAT familiar with pancakes. Pancakes are similar to our 'lempeng' as we call it. But obviously they are not one and the same. It is popular among the British and some parts of America.

The carrot pancakes I made. With honey and butter. I purposely charred it a bit more, I like it better than the smooth ones.

Ah, let's get back to the cafe! 

Banana and walnut pancake

This was the pancake or pancakes I had the last time. Simple smooth pancakes with roasted banana, whipped cream, roasted walnuts and butterscotch sauce. Sugar syrup as additional. They didn't include what's inside in the menu list so you gotta figure it out by yourself. Well, not bad kinda reminds to dorayaki. The taste and flavour were average. RM 9.90.

Well, if you want to become naughty a bit, I might suggest you to this dessert.

Waffle foldover

Simply a round waffle layered with peanut butter, chocolate syrup, the sister to MnM and of course, two big scoops of ice-creams of your choice (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry). Well, nothing really is special except for its presentation. Average. RM 11.90. 

I am sorry because there nothing more to show as I was here only for a t-break. Although what I had were average but they're the good average. Haha. Not that so-so type of average. I saw an elderly couple that were sitting next to my table had a club sandwich which appeared to be good. Huge portion. Here I include some of the cafe's angles: