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.

Jaya One Foodcrawl, Part 1

An invite from Ramesh led me to join a large group of bloggers for a food crawl at Jaya One recently. Been ages since I joined a food crawl with bloggers, so why not eh? Met a number of new faces (not all were food bloggers) and a big bunch of food bloggers.

We all congregated at Brisik to begin our crawl..Starters at Brisik consist of satay serai and satagor. The satay serai was very much like satay lilit; Brisik's version was moist and good with the sauce. The satagor, which looks like begedil, was actually a mash of bean curd, potato, mince chicken and veg deep fried. Satagor is a blander and softer version of begedil, which you'll either like or dislike. I find it ok, but would have given my vote for good old begedil.

Kerabu Mangga added some zing to the mild flavoured starters..

The chilli padi was fiery and complemented the sour mango well. The shredded mango was slightly soft, the extra crunch in the kerabu would have been better. Taste wise, it was very appetizing.

We adjourned next to Bar Madrid for some tapas..

It was highly strung compared to Brisik, maybe having so many bloggers visiting the establishment on the same night added the tension. Anyways, we got to try some tapas prepared for us..

The tortilla espanalo was served first..

This was a more lavish version of the spanish omelette, this was filled with ham, cheese and a scattering of herbs. A compact version of an omelette, it was quite nice.

The Jamon Serrano Croquetas was a bane for some of us..

Jess and Mike, whom I had the pleasure to share table with, had a strong dislike for cheese. And this croquette (fried potato balls) was filled to the brim with creamy, cheesy, bechamel like sauce and chopped serrano ham. It had a rather strong porky flavour, which might put some diners off. Else, it's actually a rather yummy treat.

Iberico Confitado was served last..

The Iberico pork was slow cooked till tender and served on baguette. This tapas tasted rather asian, the flavour tasted almost like the pork filling for seremban siew pau :p. Delicious nonetheless, a mouthful of goodness that I enjoyed.

After the starters, we moved on to Divino for some wine..

Dawn was there to greet us almost immediately- we were slightly late and guess she was expecting us. We were brought around the restaurant and also to the adjoining Pristine Wine Shoppe which carries an extensive selection of wines from both Old and New Worlds.
For our night, Dawn had selected 4 wines from New World..

Frm L-R: June Shiraz, Ken Forrester Petit Pinotage, Black Cottage Pinot Noir and Lobster Reef Malborough Sauvignon Blanc

Lobster Reef Malborough Sauvignon Blance 2009: The only white wine for the night, the wine was light in flavour as its a young wine. Easy to drink and would be good with seafood.

Black Cottage Pinot Noir 2008: Slightly spicy, this wine was quite easy on the palate too. This wine is recommended with red meats and pasta.

Ken Forrester Petit Pinotage 2008: I find this rich with strong tannins. Think will suit heavier flavoured food.

Juno Cape Maidens Shiraz 2007: Another spicy based wine, this Shiraz carries hints of nutty flavour too. A deep flavoured wine, this goes well with more intense flavoured dishes (red meats).

Brisik

10-1, Palm Square Jaya One, No 72-A, Jalan Universiti, 46200 PJ.

Bar Madrid

12A-G, Palm Square, Jaya One.

Divino Restaurant

6-1, Palm Square, Jaya One.

Fitou, Desa ParkCity Waterfront

When I first went to Desa ParkCity Waterfront one late evening, I checked out the restaurants there and Fitou was the first place I'd like to have my meal..

Reason? Looks like they had the nicest looking alfresco dining compared to the other restaurants.

And as if the heavens above was pulling my leg; it was pouring heavily when I finally decided to dine at Fitou. :(

This was how it looks like on a misty, rainy night..

Since it's a cold night, we started off with some soup to warm us..

The mushroom soup(RM16)..

Thick blend of chopped fresh mushrooms with a thread of cream. Most unfortunately they were heavy on the pepper; doused most of the flavour of the soup.

Confetti Seafood Chowder (RM18)

One word. Sour. My tolerance for sour stuff has always been low. And having this soup was rather hard to..erm..swallow. Even Dragon girl, who likes sour stuff said that this was way sour. Seafood sweetens it? Nah...

Fitou's Feta Cheese Salad..

Fresh lettuce topped with lots of pork belly, cheese shavings and a sliver of mid grade anchovy. We enjoyed the salad; sans the anchovy which was extremely salty and fishy (which dragon girl avoided like a plague).

Grilled Prawn Bacon tapas (RM18)..

We were expecting nicer presentation. Oh well. Simple grilled prawn wrapped with pork bacon and a dollop of BBQ-ish sauce. Quite tasty.

Spicy pork sausage (RM12)

Lived up to it's name, it's spicy alright. The bird's eye chilli added enough kick to an ordinary pork sausage.

Sauteed mushroom..

Served compressed in a small cup. Well, at first I thought it was small. After picking on the mushrooms for a while, it was quite generous actually :p. Again, too heavy on the pepper.

The manager's recommendation

Iberico Back Ribs (RM45)
For that price, we got a long rib and 2 measly short ones. A tad pricey me thinks. The rib were juicy with lovely charred sides; the sauce was not needed actually. El cerdo's iberico was nicer though.

The seafood paella for 2 (RM70)..

A generous amount of prawns, mussels, squids, pork sausages, and chicken. Alas, it was only an average dish- the rice was too wet, the sausages very salty and the chicken had the freezer taste.

The spaghetti meatballs (RM18)

Came with 5 rather large beef balls. The meatballs were very flavourful and well marinated; and rather moist. The pasta texture was ok, but the sauce was again extremely sour! So sour that we could not finish this. I believe it's the same base they used for the soup. :(

Oh, we skipped desserts as all looks horrendous (it was displayed in the wine room)

Overall, I find the food mediocre. The only reason I'll revisit would be for the nice ambiance, lovely place to chill with family and friends.

Fitou is located at Lot GF2, The Waterfront @ Park City, 5 Persiaran Resdien, Desa Park City, KL.

Moussandra, KL

A suggestion to meet for dinner after work in KL got us to Moussandra.

We wanted a nice, quiet place for some catching up and since all of us work in KL, it easy to pop over to (the almost dead) KL Plaza ...MC was stressed at work and the girls decided to meet up to help her relax and destress :)

Something that we could toast to...we had Sangria to start the meal..

Was a decent glass, but not even close to the delicious one that I had in Hong Kong( Mr BS claimed it's the best in the universe..maybe he was not joking after all)

Ceasar salad (RM20) to start the meal

Fresh veggies, cute little crisp garlicky bread toasts and a tad creamy dressing goes very well together. A good start (though would have prefered a bigger portion).

We ordered some tapas to share...

The Setas Salteadas (RM9)- Mixed mushrooms sauteed with herbs

Cant go wrong with this right? Very tasty, would have been better if they serve it with some bread. Portion size was ok for a tapas.

Some Banderillas De Gambas (RM16)- Grilled Marinated Prawns with Asparagus & Olives served with Garlic Mayonaise..

Pretty good stuff too, the prawns were nicely marinated, juicy and slightly charred...just that the portion was too dainty. Then again, it tapas :(

The famed Moussaka (RM40)

Served piping hot, I nearly burnt my tongue with the first bite. Very cheesy and creamy, definitely not for the faint hearted. The mince lamb was rather gamey, which was excellent. Would have been better if the eggplants were sliced thicker.. it was all melted into the bechamel, we could not detect much of an eggplant. Tasty dish nonetheless.

We ended the meal with Penne Al Pesto(RM25)

The pesto was very oily and not fragrant. Have tasted better versions of it.

Moussandra is located at Sub Lot B-8, Mezzanine Floor, KL Plaza, 179, Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur. I used the side entrance as the main KL Plaza looks sorta creepy to go in at night :p