Plan B @ Publika, Solaris Dutamas

I heard about this place since last year I guess but didn't have the chance to really set my foot there till last week. Decided to give this place a try and luckily my friend knew about this place and the rest is history like they say. Anyway, let me introduce the place first, it's called Plan B. Cool Name~! It's actually under a big umbrella called the BIG Group (another cool company name). 

The BIG Group opened a lot of their flagships around town and Plan B is one of them. They even have their own grocery market called B.I.G (Ben's Independent Grocery) downstairs. So Cool~! You can check out their website here. Now let's get back to Plan B. 

Publika is definitely a unique place cause I can't find the parking and decided to valet park instead. The price is RM10 for the first two hours. I guess it's alright. Plan B is located at Level G2 and it's quite easy to find even if it's your first time over (like me). There are a lot of seats indoor and outdoor.

I especially like the deco on the outdoor which you can see from the picture above. Yup, those are chairs being hung on the ceiling board. Cool~! The place was packed when we arrived and luckily my friend came early and managed to get a table for us. As we are seated, people started to queue outside waiting for a table. Business is really good during lunch hour I guess. Not sure how it goes after office though. 

Ordered a bottle of mineral water. The mineral water is FOC and is bottle in some sort of a medicine type bottle. Good idea. 

As usual, I started off with some mushroom soup before the main course. I was particularly hungry that afternoon so I go ahead with it.  It's either this or Borscht Soup. I am more of a mushroom guy so I decided to go with this. It's actually vegetarian. This is not the best mushroom soup I have, but it's above average I I have to say. Chunk of small mushrooms to bite on really do tickle my fancy. 

My friend ordered their seafood Borscht soup. We did asked the waiter what is the portion of the soup and he did replied us that it's not that large. But this Borscht soup really make up for it's size with it's plentiful of seafood. I think you can order a white rice and take this as your main if you are a small eater. 

Mushroom or Borscht?  

My friend decided to go with pasta and both of us actually saw this dish because of softshell crab in the menu. They do have Carbonara but both of us didn't ordered that (surprisingly). Both of us agreed that this would be the better choice. It's spaghetti in creamy butter sauce but get this, it's tossed together with  chili padi, crispy curry leaves, and chili flakes. Top that with some soft shell crab and you got yourself an Asian style pasta. I don't think everyone can accept this dish as it's some sort like a fusion between pasta and kam heong cooking style. But both of us really dig this. Super creamy and spicy at the same time. Soft shell portion was really generous. And it's freshly fried too. 

So what's for me? I didn't ordered their Carbonara but went with one of their burger. I was reading the details of the dish when I saw one thing that decided it all, onion rings. Yup, I am a bit of a onion ring freak. The dish was really large. Other than the main patty we have french fries and salad at the side. The bun is soft and I think they might be making those buns themselves too. Just guessing here though. 

Look at those juicy beef patty. The cheese on top and three crispy golden onion rings on top. Simply delicious. How do you eat it? This is definitely not an issue for me since it's a burger freak.  Just cramp everything in there, open wide and just sink your teeth in those juicy home-made patty of theirs. Highly recommended. By the way, I didn't even managed to finish the salad off since I was already full. 

The kitchen was neat and clean and well organized. I can see the barista is busy preparing the drinks for the customers and all.   

There's also three big Samsung infinity LED on the wall. But not sure why are they showing 60s Malay movies on and on?! We had a great lunch and saw some cool chicks. What a great place to hang out too. Price might be slightly high but it's fine with me. The bill amounted to $87 in total. $40+ for a lunch? Depends I guess. You can't really set a price tag on good food now, can you? Definitely coming back here again soon. Who am I bringing next round? 

Rating: 

Food: 4.5 out of 5.0

Service: 4.0 out of 5.0

Ambiance: 4.0 out of 5.0 

S'Mores Bar-Restaurant-Chill Out @ Bangsar South

I know it's been a while since my last update but heck I am getting lazier now to post. Don't ask me why. Maybe due to life commitment or work. But it's upsetting to see my blog left unattended for so long. I still eat around and snap lots of pictures but I don't really have the time to update them in here. After a long morning of sorting out my pictures from my phone, so here goes. S'Mores is located over at Bangsar South which I heard about since last year. I was actually looking forward to their beef burgers but was disappointed that I can't find any over there during my visit. 

So I browsed through their set menu and saw some pasta under their set lunch. Decided to go with that. I ordered a mushroom soup as usual to warm up the old stomach before the main course. Well, it's your usual mushroom soup from the cane if I am not mistaken. Better save the money. 

I can't decide on either ordering their chicken or pasta and at the end decided to go with their cream sauce pasta. Damn, I made a huge mistake. The Alfredo based sauce is too watery to my delight and the portion is that sufficient either. Looks nice but don't really fancy me at all.  

My lunch buddy decided to go for their Pesto base pasta which was a good choice indeed. Well at least it's way better than mine. The mint flavor from the Pesto sauce is quite strong although I still prefer the one from Louisiana better. But this is acceptable for me. 

 In short, cream sauce fail, pesto sauce save the day. Although it's just a set lunch I do have quite high expectation on my pasta. And this cream sauce just didn't pass the average line. 

There's plenty of seats inside and it's air condition which is really good. Like the atmosphere as it's good to bring your customer for a lunch or meeting ending with some beers on the side. 

They do have some promo going on for Happy Hour kakis at night. They served beers and liquors too. Not sure how's the crowd at night but I heard it's quite alright. Maybe you can drop by some day and let me know how's your lunch/dinner goes. Cheers~! 

Rating:

Food: 3.5 out of 5.0

Service: 3.8 out of 5.0

Ambiance: 3.8 out of 5.0

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

Palate Pallate Restaurant & Bar @ KL

I was invited for a surprised dinner over at this small place called Palate Palatte.Com. It's located along Jalan Mesui which is behind Changkat Bukit Bintang. It's a small cozy place with an open concept but no worries as it's air condition inside but you can still opt to dine outdoor. The place celebrated their 4th anniversary on Dec last year. The place 

The place is nicely decorated by an artist called Su-Ann. I read from the website that she graduated from London and came back after graduation. She drawn the whole place like palate hence the name of the place. The place is co-own by her and Paul. You can really enjoy looking at all her arts all over the restaurant.

Since we're waiting for the birthday girl to arrive, we had decided to ordered some food to eat. I had decided non other than fried calamari. Portion is moderate but luckily we ordered another appetizer. A bit too much flour for me but heck,it's fried and crunchy.

Next appetizer would be the usual nachos. The nachos are fresh from the oven as we can still feel the heat. The dipping are really appetizing. There is this sweat and sour dipping so you can choose ever you prefer.

I had ordered their chocolate with vanilla float. This is because their coffee machine was out of commission. Not bad, it's actually quite nice to drink. But I actually wanted to try their mocha.

After browsing their menu, we had decided to order our main. So much to choose from in the menu but we can only order one main so we decided to share around and try it out.

Before the main arrived, we are served with this funny looking bun.

The bun is served together with this margarine cheese like ball. So cute~ 

Let's get into business now. No need to ask who ordered this. Yup it's me. They served fettuccine carbonara with bacon. The cream was a bit too liquid for me in the beginning but it turned thicken towards the end which I like. Although it should be a good plate of carbonara, but I am not sure why it's not.  Maybe it's because of the lack of cheese in the cream.

You know from the name that the dish spells cow. It's actually pasta with cubes of beef in it. The scent is really strong. For beef lover you might love this one. Pretty filling with the amount of pasta and the beef.

The presentation of the dish was so damn shocking. You have a stick poking into the fish with fried sliced potato being put through it. Not really bad, but just your normal plate of fish and chip to me.

It's simple and it's filling too. You have spiced chicken tandoori style. One healthy dish with tender spice chicken breast.  The chicken is properly spiced up and mixed with the dipping on the side, just nice.

The birthday girl had ordered this mushroom cappuccino which is recommended in the menu. Really strange as it's actually mushroom soup but with whip cream on top. Strangely nice~!

This is a bit plain to me. If you wanted something simple and filling, you can try this out. It's like any other fried chicken to me but with mash potatoes and corn on the side. 

Another recommended dish by the chef would be their saffron terrayaki salmon. Looking at it actually give you some fishy idea. haha~! You have two salmon put together which mash potatoes in between and a few slice of vegetable to add some color to it. The salmon was really soft and tender and the sauce by the side did compliment it. 

We didn't really ate much of this actually as we found out that most of us didn't take egg plant. haha~ Even the carrot seemed to be a bit bitter to me. Weird~! 

There's a bar for beer and liquor if you are in the mood. The crowd really comes in around 8-9pm. Luckily we made reservation that night. Food was alright and the service is good. Sadly that the coffee machine was down so we had to walk over to my friend's shop for coffee at Deluca. We had good laughs that night and since it's quite noisy with the music and all, so we didn't felt awkward talking and laughing a loud. Not bad for a night out with friends or a gathering. 

Food Rating : 3.5 out of 5.0

Ambiance Rating: 3.8 out of 5.0

Service Rating: 3.8 out of 5.0

Address: 21 Jalan Mesui
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

open everday 12pm-12am
friday & saturday till 2am
closed on mondays

Huck's Cafe @ Gasing Indah

For this Christmas dinner this year, the girls had recommended a place called Huck's Cafe which is located at Taman Gasing Indah. I heard of the name before but never really know what they serve over there. So this is a good chance for me to give it a try. Since it's quite recommended by some friends beforehand. The place is located inside a residential area so don't be alarm when you need to get pass a checking point. I am as surprised at that moment too. I was thinking, is Papago GPS'ing me to Holland again or what. It's actually a end lot two and a half storey house. The place is quiet and busy with cars looking for parking as it's a full house that night. Word of advice, car pool.

We were seated at the small reception room (converted) while waiting for our table. Decoration is nicely placed everywhere around the house. We were later guided to the 1st floor of the house where we are seated in a joined table as we have 10 people coming for the dinner. Sadly that the VIP room had been occupied by some other customers. I think we should have the room since we made a lot of loud noises and there's an attached toilet inside. We were quite annoyed that the senior citizen in the room was quite rude to us when we entered the room to access the toilet. Nevertheless, there's an additional toilet upstairs which we can use.

Thanks again to Wannie & Jacq for the home made cookies and also candies for all of us that night. 

They served basil seed mint soda which is really refreshing and good to refresh your taste bud before the main course. The drinks are refillable but it was finished before the end of the night but instead we are served with sour sop juices and plain water.

Actually we had pre-ordered Wild Mushroom soup as it's highly recommended by Jacq and Wannie who had tried the other soups. But sadly we were informed that the mushroom wasn't available that day as they only served two soups which is pumpkin and onion. All of us were disappointed and I did asked Huck about this. He explained that they can't satisfy everyone, so they will go with majority of the customers order and go with that. Well, to me, that defeats the purpose of pre-ordering our food in the first place. Anyway, the pumpkin soup was nice and not too thick. Quite enjoyed it.

Not a really big fan of onion soup. Babe ordered this to give it a try. I think I like my pumpkin more. The soup come with two pieces of bread and topped with cheese. Plenty of sliced onions in the soup beneath all that cheese. Sadly not my bowl of soup.

We had decided to order some main courses to share around since we had ordered two roast chicken for the night. The first main that come is the tomato based lasagna. I am such a fool for Italian cuisine and this is one of them. It's something new as Huck uses a lot of tomatoes in this lasagna as you can see from above. Not too bad. Something simple.

Saw this from their menu in FB and decided that I need to try this out. You have crispy baked fish topped with cheese with pasta underneath. You have most of the combination I like in a food. Pasta, fried fish and cheese. Overall, it's a nice dish to start your dinner with. Make sure you eat it when served, as cold un-crisp baked fish with cheese is not a good combination.

Here comes the main course. It's Huck's No.1 Best Selling Lemon Roast Chicken. We had ordered two sets of this as one whole chicken can feed 4 people. Since we had 10, so we ordered two birds. Yes, we killed two birds in one night. As you can see the chicken is roasted to perfection with the special delicious juices flowing out into the pan. There's a lot of stuff on the side but what I like most is the salted potatoes. Damn I ate so many of that that night. Simply delicious. 

Huck mentioned that he uses a new oven for this round of roast chicken and the result isn't as good as the previous old oven. But heck, we had a good roast chicken that night. So I can't imagine how much better was before. Overall, the lemon roast chicken is a good dish to share around with friends. You can order the 2 pax lemon roast chicken which consists of two whole legs.

Before dissecting the chicken, there's this ceremony of poking the chicken's behind. This is because the chicken's back side is stuffed with this lemon in it. As you can see what I am doing there, I am preparing to poke the chicken when water come bursting out which caught me off guard. Huck told me this is the first time that had happened. Well, must be my lucky night I guess.

Huck has advice us to take all the juices from the pan as it's the essence of the whole meal and he is right. Don't waste a drop of that delicious juices. Just pour it onto the chicken and dig in. Did I mentioned that the potatoes are delicious too? : P

After a long battle with the roast chicken, most of us are 90% if not full. So there's this fresh salad which is really good to slow the pace down. I think all of us agreed that this is one of the best dish that night. Haha! The salad, the dressing, everything is just perfect. A nice and healthy plate of salad.

 Next come a new dish called Sealed wit a kiss. Huck helped us to cut the aluminum foil open to release the strong smell of mushroom aroma into the air. Maybe the air cond was quite strong that night as I can't really smell it but some of the others did. So how's the taste? 

It's called sealed wit a kiss cause the dish consists of 5 different type of mushroom all combined together to create an amazing aroma. The chicken breast is marinated with fresh thyme and white wine. Add that with some potatoes and you sealed it up and you got this dish. The soup was really good as mentioned, it combined all the ingredients above. Something refreshing and new.

At this point, most of us are totally full. But there's still the dessert. So we ordered 3 of their house best dessert to try around. First we have the chocolate mud pie with ice cream. Damn this is so darn filling again. You have oat cookies as based, cashew nut, peanut, Cloud 9, raisin and whole lot of chocolate and top that with a scoop of ice cream. Trust me this is really filling. Something new for me on the dessert list.

Drum roll, their No.1 hot selling dessert (from their FB), the cream brulee. I had this before during my proposal dinner over at Le Bouchon. They will torch the brulee before serving as it will melt the sugar icing on top. Nice dessert. Maybe a bit too sweet for me. But that's just me.

Last but not least, the hot chocolate brownies with ice cream which I think most of us love. The brownies are served hot so that it's soft and importantly melt the ice cream away. This dish is less sweet but totally sinful with a capital S. Totally love this dish but we are all too full that night to really finish it off.

Overall, the dinner was a really satisfying one but we did need to wait for quite some time (1.5 hours) before we are served as the house is packed that night. They only served a maximum of 20 pax a day. Yes, you heard me right. So they can control the quality of their food and also the ingredient stock. They believe that all ingredients must be fresh and prepared on the same day or so. So they do not stock pile their loads. Hence they only take pre-orders from their website. Desserts can be order that night itself, but mains, must be pre-order online. I heard that this concept had been quite famous for some time in Europe and Huck brought this idea back from Sweden (if my memory served me right) and introduces it to Malaysia. 

Jacq told me that Europe is famous for this concept called underground kitchen where the customers will be seated in the kitchen's long table while the chefs create their food right in front of them. Interesting. But I'm not sure if the concept is available over here or not. The whole meal cause us RM68++ that night inclusive of everything. Had a good loud laugh that night and surprisingly we didn't got any complaints from the neighbors. Huck was so nice to come out to have a chat and photo session with us at the end. All in a day work right?

Food Rating: 4 out of 5

Ambiance Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Service Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Address: 26, Jalan 5/58, 

Gasing Indah, 

46000 Petaling Jaya.

Selangor. Malaysia. 

T: 03-7781 2781

SMS: 012 604 8719

FB: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Hucks-Cafe/122362777810506