Ultimo, Solaris Mont' Kiara

We were there for MC's birthday dinner- WS suggested to try Ultimo for dinner..

Ultimo's a cosy restaurant, the warm coloured furniture and dim lights gave it a relaxing environment.

I was told that it's fine dining, but one look at the menu got me puzzled- it's not fine dining, it's a mixed selection of European food- tapas, Italian, fusion. Then I recalled that ground floor serves a less formal cuisine, while fine dining was held at the first floor. Seems like someone read my mind, before I could check with the waiter, another patron asked to move to first floor and the waiter mentioned that it's closed. Hmmm, fine dining no more?

So we settled for the meal, ordered some tapas..

Some prawn and mango spring roll..

Seems like what we can get in dim sum, this was mediocre.

A localised tapas, the pork satay..

This was a big hit- the well marinated pork was tender and succulent, the peanut sauce was thick and went perfectly with the skewered pork..

Deep fried risotto mushroom balls..

I had my reservations when we ordered that. I've tried deep fried spaghetti balls in Milan before and it was pretty bad. Fingers crossed, I took a bite. And it was delicious :). The exterior was wonderfully crisp while the risotto inside remains creamy, soft and piping hot. The mushroom bits gave further texture to this tasty tapas.

WS's pasta was served first..

He ordered the tuna and bacon angel hair pasta. The portion was surprising large, given that the price was only RM12. And we thought that the pasta tasted fantastic. The sauce tasted slightly different from the usual tomato based pasta, i wonder what's the secret.

Jacq's risotto with peas and ham..

Just mediocre as the risotto's too mushy.

MC had the seared salmon with gazpacho..

Ok, this was one dish I didn't like at all. The seared salmon was slightly over cooked- it was a tad dry. And the gazpacho was way too sweet. It's not natural sweetness from the vegetables stock- it was sugar sweet. Icky.

And me, who's forever behaving like I'm deprived of pork dishes, decided to order the braised pork belly..

This was a weird fusion combo for me. The pork belly, though served in a western looking presentation, tasted very similar to chinese braised pork. The first 2 layers of the pork were nice and tender, but the bottom layer of meat (the darker coloured one), was dry and chewy. The mash was good with the mushrooms while the vegetables- tasted akin to chinese stir fry vegetables with garlic.

Amy's Prosciutto wrapped pork too the longest to arrive...

Thick slab of pork served atop a bed of vegetables and potatoes. I find this dish way too porky, there were different types of pork rolled into one and the flavours just didn't work for me.

Overall, was an ok experience, I'll come back to try more of it's tapas (there's quite an extensive range of tapas) over a glass of sangria..

Ultimo is located at 13A, Jalan Solaris 4, Solaris Mont' Kiara, KL.