MeatWork @ One Solaris

I had heard or read about this place for a couple of years now. But doesn't really have the chance to pay it a visit since it's not my normal hang out place. And I don't really have any customers over at MK too. But since babe was on duty over at CS that afternoon, I had decided to walk over to try it out. Out door parking is not easy so it's recommended to just park your car inside One Solaris. There are a few places around that area which worth trying out but maybe on my next visit. Since babe gonna be here at least once a week or two.

The place seemed a bit old to me. Old in terms of their deco and setting. From outside, it seemed like they have a lot of staff but once entered it took them some time to come over and take our orders. We went through the menu and most of their servings are patties based since they are selling their in house Gemas brand. They do have other choices like steaks and pasta too.

I saw Carbonara in their menu and decided to give it a try but since the place is famous for their Gemas patty, I had decided to give that thought up. Babe decided on their Marinara and she changed the pasta from Linguine to Spaghetti which the waiter obliged to. Portion was just alright. Taste wasn't that much spectacular. The seafood portion was generous as you can see from the picture above. Not my plate of pasta but babe like it.

They have a few burger to choose from and I had asked the waiter and he had recommended this to me. It's their own GEMAS gold classic burger. It's a 200g beef patty topped with melted aged cheddar cheese, tomato ketchup, American mustard and pickles. There are some cut fries on the side too. A little too simple for me maybe. I was thinking of more side dishes at least some salad or coleslaw.

Let's see now, the 200g in house patty is their signature dish but heck, it's a bit over-rated for me. The patty is fat and juicy but maybe too juicy. Cause I had ordered medium well as always and the patty fall apart when I tried to slice my knife into it. Damn! It's so saddening. A good patty had turn to waste if you asked me. I like my patty to be solid and juicy rather than juicy and fall apart even before I sink my teeth into them. The toppings are too safe for me. I need more cheese and look at the onion, it's so pathetic. Just two small slices of them. I like mine big and sloppy but I know this is not possible over here. 

We had ordered our drinks earlier on and it took them ages to get them ready for us. We had finished our dishes and they just managed/remembered to get us our drinks. But at least they tried to make up for it by pouring us some plain water. Again, I think the staffs are sufficient just that I am not sure what they are doing standing at the back of the counter and not outside serving the customers.

Food was over-rated but not sure of the rest like it's steak and all. Most probably won't be going back since it's quite pricey for lunch (RM80+) for the both of us. You can come over and have a try for yourself. I might not like it but to some, this might be good. Maybe their Carbonara is better, but I won't be going back unless someone is buying. haha!

Ambiance : 3.5 out of 5.0

Service : 3.5 out of 5.0

Food : 3.5 out of 5.0

Address: 2G 3A, 

Jalan Solaris 5, 

Block H  

Solaris Mont Kiara 

50480 Kuala Lumpur

Nihon Kai Japanese Restaurant @ Sunway Mentari

I was on a mission that day looking for Sunway branch of Nihon Kai. I first introduction to their restaurant would be the one over at Kuchai Lama. A friend introduced the place to me and we decided to give it a try. You can read from the post here. Needless to say, the visit was nice and the food was good. So I decided to give their other branch a try to see if it's the same standard. This particular restaurant is located along those new shop lot over at Dataran Mentari. It's behind Belly Good. Parking is still manageable since there's plenty of it outside the restaurant.

The place was packed when we arrived. Luckily there were still a table left for us to dine in. Browsed through their menu and it's the same as the one over at Kuchai Lama. Since I had tried their lunch set, we had decided to go with ala-carte instead. Since my lunch buddy was contemplating between katsu and udon, we decided to ordered these two to try it out.

 

We were served with hot green tea and the waitress was really patients waiting for us to take our order. The restaurant was really pack and they are a bit short handed but still they didn't show any sign of inpatient or chasing us from their body language. I think I saw one of the lady from the Kuchai branch before. 

Decided to give their Gyouza (fried dumpling) a try. Since I love these a lot, I really do hope they can surprised me. And they didn't disappoint me a bit. It's one of the best I had lately. It's not too over fried but the inner stuffing are still well warmly preserved and the outer skin is still soft and thin. I like mine thin and not too oily. And this give me what I wanted. Thumbs up~!

Browsed through their menu and finally found my katsu don set. The set consists of the main dish and also misou soup and kimchi like vegetable on the side.

The portion isn't that large but just enough to cover my lunch craving. The egg on top is freshly layer on top of the fried chicken underneath it. My complaint would be the lack of the katsu sauce underneath it. But overall it's was good.

My friend ordered their cold udon set which come with fried tempura on the side.That is not misou soup underneath that mini egg but the soup to go with the udon.

The buckwheat noodle doesn't seemed to attract my friend. As she'd been to Japan and had some share of cold udon over there, this is some what different. What's the different? Texture? She can't answered me but just not as good. Sorry but my friend is not good in expressing her opinion. I had a try and I think it's the texture of it. It's a bit rough. But the portion was really generous.

3 pieces of fried tempura on the side. Nothing fancy but for the price we're paying, it's alright.

Last but not least, they have this miniture egg which we do not know what to do with it? Do we throw it into the soup to go with the udon? Or just consume it like that? Another thing to highlight would be the soup/broth that goes with the udon is a bit too plain. My friend complain that it's too flat on the taste but and had to throw all the wasabi into it.

The place had two rooms for large crowds which you can book beforehand. It's always recommended to call in and book if you are having a large crowd for lunch over here. There is also a bar table where the chef will prepare fresh sushi as any other sushi restaurant. Overall, we had a good lunch. Nothing too over the top but just an average one. I saw there have another separate menu for set lunches which we wasn't shown to before. Had to check that menu through on my next visit over. 

Ambiance: 3.8 out of 5.0 (a bit crowded and noisy)

Service: 4.0 out of 5.0 (service was good although it's crowded)

Food: 3.8 out of 5.0 (decent and not too expensive for a lunch)

Address: 2, Jalan PJS 8/18
Dataran Mentari
46150 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan

Contact: (03) 5630 1368
Business Hour:  12:00p.m. – 3:00p.m. & 6:00p.m. – 10:00p.m. daily

The Olive Tree Cafe @ Damansara Intan

This lil' green cafe is located inside my working area  but I didn't have the opportunity to try it out for so long. Finally the day came when my colleague decided to treat me for lunch. She decided on the place too with the same reason. It's located inside the compound of Damansara Intan which is next to Tropicana Mall. It's at the same row as 7-11 and right at the 2nd entrance.

Both of us like the decoration inside as it's very calm and soothing. The concept of the whole place I would say is going green and environmental friendly. I like this section of the cafe with the rack full of nicely decorated green ornaments. Sadly Green is not my color according to the master. So you won't see any of these in my house soon. Well maybe a different color. 

When I say lil' cafe, it's actually not that little in fact it's quite spacious. You have a choice to sit on the sofas or normal tables. You can chill out surfing the net over here or having some dessert with some friends during tea time. 

I like the wall paper at the back as it brought out the whole green concept of the whole place. It was quite pack during lunch hour and I need to wait till all the crowds left before I took this pic. haha! 

 

Plenty of drinks to choose from and decided to go with their Aloe Vera Longan. Not too sweet just nice.

They have set lunches to choose from but we decided to go ala-carte. My colleague had ordered their fragrance rice with stirred fried chicken. The rice is really nice according to my friend but it looked to me like there's charcoal in the rice. haha! A decent plate of stirred fried chicken rice. 

Was contemplating whether to order their Carbonara or burger and decided on the latter at the end. Their house special ultimate burger. The patty isn't that large but it's thick in size. It's their own blend of beef patty with melted cheese, slices of tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, onions and french fries at the side. You can choose between chicken or beef of course. Not the best I had but it's filling and quite worth the money you're paying. Patty a bit dry to me. 

Overall the food was alright. Nice place to have some relaxing comfortable lunch. They used a lot of natural olive oil in their preparation of food, hence the name of the place. So I guess it's a healthy concept for those who are health conscious. There are also cakes which you can order to go if you like. 

Ambiance Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

Service Rating: 3.8 out of 5.0

Food Rating: 3.8 out of 5.0

Little Korea @ One Solaris, Mount Kiara

It was my birthday and it was a last minute thingy for me looking for a venue. I had listed out three namely Daidomon Japanese Buffet at Great Eastern Mall, Fong Lye Taiwan Cuisine at Jalan Imbi and Little Korea over at One Solaris. At the end after some voting among my friends, we decided on the latter. I am really looking forward going over this place as it was quite highly recommended by another well know food blogger.

The place is located outside of Tenji over at Solaris, Mount Kiara. It's facing the main road on the third floor. There's a big signboard on top of the building and it's the same row as Maybank and CIMB. You can't really miss it. There's an elevator so you don't have to use the stairs. There are a few Korean restaurants nearby the area which I might go over and have a try on my next visit.

I heard that the place was popular, so I made a reservation beforehand. And it's a wise move if I do say so myself. The place was packed to the top when I arrived. The place was really busy with customers waiting at the front entrance and all. So I informed the waitress of my reservation and they gladly show me the way.

I had previously asked for a private room as there were around 9 of us. The room is situated on the other side of the main restaurant. The room can fit 12 pax and has 3 hot plate. Air cond was at full blast that night I think as most of us are freezing. I guess it's really good since the room gonna be heating up when we start cooking those ribs and belly. 

Since four of us arrived early, we decided to start one of the hot plate first. This is when everything goes down hill. The waiter didn't asked us what kind of drink they have and just poured us plain water. And when my other friends arrived and asked for tea or other drinks they are a bit lost with the request. Yes, they are foreign workers but they should be well equip with the basic fundamental conversation with the customers, not?

Browsed through the menu and there were a lot of choices ranging from pork, beef and soups.

Since we're waiting for the others, we decided to ordered their famous pan fried flour cake. This is kim chi based with shrimp, clams, squid and scallion all mixed together. Basically it's a seafood kim chi flour cake. Not bad, but maybe the kim chi can be a bit stronger here.

What is Korean cuisine without their famous side dishes appetizers or 'banchan'. This side dishes should arrived even before our other dishes but it arrived really late actually. We were really frustrated as they only gave us one set of each of the above. Even after all of us had arrived, we still need to remind him several time to give us more and refill. Really really frustrating.

Another complain would be the salad which is for wrapping those meat we ordered. It came so late. We had finished our marinated beef and it's still not seen on the table. We didn't realized that until one of my friend asked about it. And we requested, it took them like 5 mins to get it. Another frustration. Is this the end? You wish. Since there are 8 of us, we had requested that they fire up the another hot plate on the other table. But the waiter said that we (8 of us) to share one plate. Huh? WTH?!! There are 3 plates in the room and 4 customers should share one, so if there's 8 of us, we should have two, or am I wrong in my MATH?!! Since some of my friend don't take beef, so we requested to separate the plate. At the end he heated the other plate and at this point most of us are really annoyed and I can sense that the waiter was too. WTH!?!! Service really sux!

This is the marinated beef ribs which we ordered and finished off without any salad to go with it. The beef is nicely marinated and I am not sure why they didn't throw in the garlic into the plate to grilled it. Another complaint would be the chili paste. We had requested extra as they only have us two sets for 4 of us at that point. And when we ordered more the waiter seemed to be a bit unhappy. WTH?!!

The marinated pork ribs came second but we are actually quite uncomfortable at this point as the service of the place really do affect our dining experience. The pork isn't that bad but we didn't enjoy it under the circumstances.

This is the pork belly which is really tempting for me, as I like belly a lot. The fat and lean meat are evenly separated. Delicious. Portion might be a bit little but you can order more.

A friend ordered their Kim Chi styled noodle to share. There's a lot of seafood inside namely squids, dried wort, garlic, onions and spicy pepper. There's also clams and octopus in there too with some spicy ingredients. But the taste fall flat as my friend who tried this in Korean said it's not really the same and isn't that spicy too. Sad~!

Another recommended dish by online blogger, their beef bul go ki. It's actually pan fried sliced beef and vegetable all mix together seasoned with soy sauce, sugar and pear juice. I was warned that it tasted sweeter than usual but I am alright with it. Either you like it or hate it. So some of us finished it and some didn't. Babe wasn't really into it so I have to finished hers. Not bad, something new for me.

This is a complimentary steamed egg by the restaurant. A bit plain again on the taste over here. But heck it's free, so I can't complain much.

Overall, the food isn't as good as I thought it would be and my friend even dared to say that the one we had over at DaoRae, Taipan is far better. Well at least the service over there are more down to earth and generous. We had to wait for a reserved table over at DaoRae and the boss came out and apologized to us personally and even complimented us on so many dishes that night. Service was superb and it complimented the dishes more. But that is not the same over here. It's actually the other way around. The food over here might be better but since the service is so darn bad to the point that my friend walked out to asked for service, I'm sure that this will be our last trip over. 

Yes, the place is pack that night. But they should have hired more people to help. You can't give an excuse of over crowded for the bad service and all. The waiter did his best to serve us but sorry to say it's not even on average level yet. One of my Everything was a disaster that night. The late salad, the late refills and lack of the appetizers, request for extra hot plate being rejected, not offered tea instead of plain water, slow service, refills of water .. .OMG, the list is so darn long. We are just disappointed. And I am really sorry that I had so highly recommended the place to my friends for my birthday dinner. But luckily we had a good round of beers over at Over Time, One Mount Kiara after that. 

Ambiance : 3.5 out of 5.0 (we had a private room)

Service : 3.0 out of 5.0 (this is the worst rating I gave to date)

Food : 3.8 out of 5.0 (hit and misses here and there)

Address: Jalan Solaris 1,

Solaris Mont Kiara, 

50480 Kuala Lumpur, 

WP Kuala Lumpur

Contact: 603 6203 7217

The Teapot Cafe @ SS2

I was invited for lunch last week at this cafe over at SS2. Initially we were supposed to have Korean for lunch but finally decided on this place as we can sit a bit longer after the meal. The cafe is at the same row as the previously Foh San Restaurant facing the bridal shop. I had actually passed by this cafe so many times before but didn't realized what they are serving until my babe's sister told me that they serve Western food. The name made me thought that the place was serving some English tea or something all this while.

Once we're in, the place was almost full house during lunch hour.  A lot of working ladies like to dine here as they can ex-change stories at work and the ambiance was so nice and calm. The place is handle by a Malay lady if I am not mistaken so it does attract a lot of Muslim's customers.

The deco of the place may seemed a bit old but it does gives some English home feeling to it. Why the name Teapot? You will know when you enter the shop as there are plentiful of teapot of different design being displayed on their shelves. Maybe the owner is a teapot collector?

Browsed through the menu and I finally decided to go with their Roast Beef Set which consists of Garlic bread, Soup of the day, main and also dessert and drinks. The garlic bread was  normal but at least it's still warm but not that crispy that I thought it would be.

The soup of the day was their pumpkin soup. This is one good bowl of soup I had. It's thick and not too creamy. Finished the whole bowl even before you can say "pumpkin stew". Portion was alright, not too small but just right to warm up your tummy with.

Now here comes the main dish which was the roast beef set. The beef are sliced thin and a salty sauce was poured on top of it. The sauce was a bit salty to me actually. Initially I thought it was black pepper sauce but it isn't. The portion of the sliced beef was really generous. If that aren't enough for you, they main still have some side dishes like vegetables, potatoes and a bun. They lost me with the bun there actually. 

Ellie ordered their fish steak which isn't that bad from it's out look. Portion was definitely enough for a lady to have. The fish was marinated with a lot of basil leaves and herbs spices. Isn't the best fish I had since I am not a fish lover anyway. But I do love the potato salad on the side.

After the lunch, three of us sat and chat for another 1-2 hours and the crowd started to leave around 2pm. They also served pastries like curry puff, breads and cakes. Oh, I almost forgot to mentioned that the set also come with a slice of Chocolate Eclair and a choice of coffee or tea. Not my everyday set lunch since it's not that cheap. But it's a good place to  sit down and have a tea while catching up with some friends.

Ambiance Rating: 3.8 out of 5.0

Service Rating: 3.8 out of 5.0

Food Rating: 3.5 out of 5.0