Chef Ken's Cafe

Went to Chef Ken's Cafe recently after hearing quite a lot about it. Located in Bandar Manjalara (no, not Maharajalela), Chef Ken's restaurant focuses on Italian food. Although there were no pizza, theres plenty of pastas, antipasto and other mains to fill your hungry stomach. It was full house, so we figured we may need to wait really long for our food :(

We ordered mushroon soup, eggplant Parmigiana, aglio olio with mussels, pollo pomodoro and spicy meatballs with linguine. The mushroom soup came rather promptly, as it was a cool day, we quickly slurp up the soup. Its obvious that the soup is not from campbell, it was filled with chopped mushrooms and a heavy taste of cream/milk. Not for those who are lactose intolerant though.

Next, the eggplant came. The eggplants was stacked up, layered with tomato puree and herbs, baked with loads of mozzarella (and parmigiana, most probably). I find this a tad salty, else, this is actually pretty good.

The aglia e olio with mussels (top) and pollo pomodoro

I rather enjoyed the aglia e olio with mussels, generously cooked in garlic and olive oil. This is a fragrant plate of spaggheti, served with mussels. I was disappointed with the pollo pomodoro though. The tomato base was very thin for this sauce and the linguine was covered with too much olive oil. After a while, you can really get "jelak" eating this. Unfortunately, the chicken does not help in bringing out the flavour of the dish.

The spicy meatballs came last, served with linguine (you can choose other type of pastas). Now, what is meatballs without the thick tomato sauce?? While I was tossing and mixing my pasta, I thought it was rather 'slippery'. I finally knew why when I took a bite. My linguine is smothered with olive oil. And the amount of garlic was so much that I could not taste the tomatoes. :(. That aside, the meatballs were yummy though, moist and well marinated. Was told that the tiramisu is absolutely lip smacking, but I was not hungry that day, so I didnt try..

Looking at the crowd, am sure there are dishes that are yummy, else why is business good? To me, food is slightly above average, can come back for another try.

Chef Ken's Cafe is at 102, Jalan 8/62A, Bandar Manjalara, Kepong 52200. Near the street where theres loads of steam boat shops. Tel: 6275 8931