La Risata, Medan Damansara, Kuala Lumpur

La Risata, or 'the laughter' in Italian, recently won the award for Best Italian in Time Out magazines' 2013 food awards.

We decided to check it out today, hoping it would live up to its billing; KL has a lot of decent Italian restaurants but nothing I've been to really stands out amongst the competition.

La Risata is found on a little street offering a variety of eating and drinking options, including one of our personal favourites, Mezze.

Like Mezze, it's got a nice neighbourhood feel to it, and despite looking empty on the photo above, it got fairly busy for a Monday evening.

We decided to sit inside after a sweaty walk form our condo, and ordered a starter to share, tuna carpaccio RM38 (approx $12). We were also given some bread, which came with an olive tapenade.

The bread was fairly standard, and the tapenade was a nice alternative to the olive oil / balsamic mix you usually get in Italian restaurants.

The tuna carpaccio came with fennel, pine nuts, olives, orange segments, and smoked sea salt. We had hoped this would be a light, bright starter to balance the heavier mains to come, and in this sense it worked. However, it lacked basic flavours and actually tasted quite bland; it needed more salt and perhaps lemon would have been a better alternative to the orange. The tuna itself was a decent cut but I don't think this plate of food really warranted the price tag.

Overall - Okay, but we definitely wouldn't order it again 2.5 / 5

The first of our mains was spaghetti with meatballs RM26 (approx $8).

I do like spaghetti and meatballs, it's a difficult dish to get wrong but I find that it's rarely memorable, and this one was unfortunately no exception. The meatballs tasted like they had been cooked in red wine, which gave them a nice richness, but they were quite undercooked and pink in the the middle. The sauce was okay but was too sugary, something you'd expect in an American Italian like Tony Romas, not an 'authentic' one.

I was pretty disappointed with this, I'm by no means a good cook, and when I can make a better version of a dish at home, I shouldn't be paying for it in a restaurant.

Overall - Average at best 2.5 / 5

For the other main course, we ordered a chorizo pizza RM28 (approx $9).

The chorizo sausage is lamb (La Risata is Halal), the big white cheese is ricotta, and peppers, olives and chilli flakes make up the rest.

The first thing I noticed about this pizza was how thin the crust was - too thin. I couldn't actually pick up a slice without it breaking up and all the toppings falling off. Another gripe I had with it was that the cheese was very greasy, it almost tasted like the kind you'd get from a local takeaway. The sausage didn't work and I ended up picking a lot of it off in the end. To top things off, the peppers were also mixed in with pickles - not on the menu.....

A final complaint about the pizza was that the crust was simply too flaky.

I suppose the ultimate testament to this pizzas' lack of quality was that I left two slices, two slices! This is pretty much unheard of for me, and I gave one to Erin too...

Overall - Not a good pizza 2 / 5

As you can probably tell, we were pretty disappointed by La Risata, I can't understand why it was voted best Italian in KL, maybe we went on the wrong day or ordered the wrong things. However, I expect both of these musings would not be relevant if La Risata really was the best in the city; a good restaurant shouldn't have wrong days or wrong dishes...

Midi 57, Jalan Bangkung, Bangsar

Midi 57 has been a long-standing favourite of ours. Partly due to its location (it is very near to where we live) but mainly due to the authentic Italian food on offer.

Coming from Bangsar Shopping centre, it's a lovely short walk through a very wealthy neighbourhood.

These leafy suburban streets contain some seriously nice houses.

However, after around 10 minutes of enviously strolling around the quiet streets, you come to Jalan Bangkung, one of Bangsar's hidden gems. At the top of the Bangkung strip is Midi 57.

One of the nice things about Midi 57 is its lack of windows or walls - the whole thing is open, which makes it a very pleasant spot for a very reasonably priced happy hour pint.

After a few of these, we moved to another table and decided to order some food. Before I talk about the food, I'll give you a bit of background to Midi 57.

When we first went the menu was very different to the one you get today, the choice of pastas and pizzas was a lot more varied, and the Sicilian chef then working the wood-fired pizza oven is now worryingly absent. The changes have not been for the better, as the following reviews will indicate.

We started by ordering some pork croquettes, RM15:

These were irritatingly smothered in a mayonnaise sauce.

The shredded pork inside was lean and well cooked, however the batter was very heavy.

Overall - Ok but should have been a bit lighter 2.5 / 5

One of our tried and tested Midi 57 favourites is the porchetta and rocket pizza, RM26.

This is still a good looking pizza but is now tragically a shadow of its previous incarnation. The tomato sauce was far too sweet and the ratio of cheese to sauce was all wrong. The pork and rocket combo still worked but was let down by everything else.

Overall - Was once one of the best pizzas in KL, it isn't anymore unfortunately 2.5 / 5

Erin ordered the spaghetti with garlic, chilli, and roasted pork belly RM 26. A choice dictated by the now sad lack of great homemade pasta dishes. When the dish was first served it looked like this:

As you can see, it was very dry. The waiter was soon summoned to intervene and came back with this version:

This was much better, with the linguini style pasta especially good. The pork belly was a bit dry and almost tasted old. On the plus side, the newly added garlic sauce worked reasonably well.

Overall - decent but a far cry from the old pasta dishes that used to be on offer - 3 / 5

So where does this leave Midi 57? We didn't just catch it on a bad day unfortunately; I thought we had done that about a month ago and didn't write up a review out of respect to what Midi 57 used to be. It is still a decent non-halal italian restaurant but it is a shame to see it deteriorate so much - I feel a twinge of sadness writing this!

I would say that we haven't given up hope just yet for a revival, I don't know the circumstances behind its decline. It is however, still a lovely place for an early evening drink and offers good beers at good prices.

Kedai Makanan Dan Minuman TKS, Jalan Alor

Jalan Alor is one of the more interesting streets in KL - a food street adorned with Chinese lanterns with stalls serving food to people sitting on plastic chairs on the busy street. 

In case you haven't been, it looks like this:

The food on offer on Jalan Alor is almost exclusively Chinese, although there are a handful of Thai and Malay offerings. I've eaten in quite a few of the establishments on the street, and couldn't tell you the name of any of them. It's a place you tend to go to for atmosphere, passable Chinese food and cheap beer. None of the restaurants on the street have been memorable enough for me to seek them out again...

We did a bit of research on local blogs to find out if there are any places that serve something different or unique and this place came up - Kedai Makanan Dan Minuman TKS. 

If you want to find it, it is over halfway down the street (if you're walking away from the Changkat end) past the blue Thai restaurant, and it's on the right hand side. There aren't as many chairs and tables outside and the people who work there don't speak much English, but there was one young lad who was very helpful.

Now usually in this blog I give each dish a rating out of five and list the name / price. Here however, I'll just post a few pictures and comments on what we ate because I made no record of price or what each dish was specifically called!

First up was this Chinese potato salad which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

Next were the pan fried pork and leek dumplings. These were lovingly hand-made and were possibly the star attraction - we ordered about 4 helpings.

We also ordered some mapo tofu. I'm told this was excellent (as you may know from this blog, I don't agree with tofu).

Next to arrive was a sauteed aubergine and garlic dish.

We also got some of this spicy pork.

And some pork belly....

Everything we ordered was good, some of the dishes like the dumplings and aubergine were very good indeed. 

We'll definitely come back; it's nice knowing that there is some genuine quality amongst the madness and mediocrity along the street. 

The toilets however, were up to the usual Jalan Alor standards....

Bijan, Jalan Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur

Bijan, situated just off one end of the Changkat strip, has won the award for Best Malay Restaurant in the TimeOut KL food awards for the past few years' running.

We've had mixed experiences when it comes to Malay food (check out the review of Dancing Fish for a good experience), so I felt a mixture of intrigue and skepticism when we arrived on a busy Sunday night.

One of the first things that you notice upon entering Bijan is the tasteful decor. However, as I was taking visiting family along with me, I forgot all about taking pictures of the place! We had reserved a table for four in the non-smoking area, which is inside but the smoking area is in a nice outside area. We immediately ordered a bunch of starters, first up was the satay RM 18 (approx $6).

The satay consisted of three chicken and three beef, and were fairly modest in terms of size. Both meats were nicely marinated in a honey glaze, were tender enough and gristle-free. However, I've had much better satay elsewhere for a lot less, so while this was enjoyable, it didn't set the pulse racing.

Overall - Standard satay - 2.5 / 5

Next up were the spring rolls RM10 (approx $3)

These veggie-spring rolls were pleasant enough but the chilli sauce was tangy, bright and made everything taste more interesting.

Overall - not really much wrong but nothing special 2.5 / 5

The third starter we ordered were the deep-fried vegetarian fritters RM10 (approx 3).

These consisted of tofu, sweet potato, spring onion and bean sprouts. It wasn't the most visually-appealing of dishes but was tasty enough. Again, the sauce brought some needed brightness to the plate of food.

Overall - Solid starter but uninspiring - 2.5 / 5

The final starter to arrive was the brilliantly named Daging Bungkus Kukus RM12 (approx $4).

This was easily the most interesting of our starters. Inside this leaf was a pancake filled with minced beef cooked in coconut gravy.

There were definitely some well-balanced flavours here, and for me the coconut milk gravy taste rounded things off very well.

Overall - interesting and well-executed 3 / 5

I ordered the slow-cooked beef ribs in a rendang gravy with coconut milk and palm sugar RM68 (approx $22).

The beef meat was very tender and was pulled off the rib bones with ease. The gravy was also thick and full of flavour, with the whole thing nicely-spiced. My only gripe was the it came with nothing on the side, and that after a while it did become slightly boring with nothing else on the plate to break things up.

Overall - probably the best of our mains 3.5 / 5

Next up was a king prawn curry cooked in coconut milk RM 85 (approx $27).

This was another decent but uninspiring dish; the spices and general flavours were nice enough but the prawns themselves didn't taste that fresh and were somewhat lacking in meat.

Overall - Okay..... 3/5

Next up was Ayam Masak Kuzi RM28 (approx $9).

This was chicken chunks with almonds and raisins in a coconut milk curry sauce (a lot of stuff here contained coconut milk...). 

First of all, the curry sauce was really rich and full of flavour, the inclusion of the almonds and raisins was also a welcome one. There was however a big problem with this dish; all the chicken was still on the bone - the tasty curry sauce was hiding thighs, wings and all other parts of the chicken. There is an argument that meat on-the-bone can be more flavoursome, but personally I find it frustrating and difficult to eat, especially with curry.

Overall - could have been really good if it was chicken breast... 3 / 5

We also had a jackfruit salad, which was strange-tasting but interesting nonetheless. 

Finally came the desert - Gula Melaka Cake, which is steamed palm sugar sponge cake served with caramelised palm sugar, and coconut ice cream. RM15 (approx $5).

This was actually really good! The ice cream was homemade and was a fitting partner for the sponge cake and sauce. 

Overall - 3.5 / 5

In the end, we couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed with Bijan. There were a lot of nearly good dishes that just had something wrong with them, and you could also say that it is over-priced for the quality on offer. I'd been told that Bijan is Malaysian food for upmarket tourists - the decor and atmosphere is certainly befitting of this. However, if you live in KL I'm sure you can find more authentic, cheaper and tastier Malay food elsewhere...

Dong Bei, Imbi, Kuala Lumpur

When you think of famous districts of KL for Chinese food, you usually think of Petaling street and Jalan Alor. Here's another name which should be thrown into the hat - Imbi. Behind Times Square is an area dominated by Chinese establishments, many of which are more authentic and perhaps more delicious than the ones found in the better-known areas. After our first trip today, I intend on exploring this area further.

Today we were on a two person crusade led by my lovely wife (although not in terms of navigating - we'd have ended up in Ipoh...) to find north-eastern Chinese food. Most of the Chinese food found in KL is from the south of China so good northern cuisine can be hard to find. Today, we found some! It's called Dong Bei which actually means 'north east'.

Here's the outside:

You shouldn't judge a book by its cover....

 But let's face it Dong Bei isn't much of a looker. Check out the table cloth!

Joking aside, I thought Dong Bei had an interesting atmosphere, unmistakeably Chinese in the service and patrons but a real air of authenticity, albeit with an English menu - which was a pleasant surprise!

We got straight down to business and ordered the crispy leg of lamb; served with green chillies, red chillies, fresh chillies, onion and a whole lot of fennel seeds RM 35 (approx $11):

Perhaps taking back what I said about judging a book by its cover....this was a beautiful plate of food! The lamb meat had fallen off the bone and had been stir-fried with a mountain of chillies.

I've actually never really eaten anything like this before. The lamb meat was extremely tender save for a very small portion of fatty pieces, which is hard to avoid with lamb. The chillies added a nice kick without blowing your head off (that came later on...), and the fennel taste worked a treat.

Overall - Great dish, and a bit of a new experience for me - 4 / 5

Next up - our crusade to find good dumplings was over. Pork and leek dumplings RM 8 (approx $2.5!!)

These pork and leek dumplings ticked off all the boxes. The thickness of the skin was just right, the pork-to-leek ratio was spot on and everything was nicely seasoned. Dong Bei actually has 12 different types of dumplings, maybe I'll dedicate a post to all of them!

Overall - What we came for - 4 / 5

Along with the lamb and dumplings we ordered a coriander salad, aka tiger salad RM10 (approx $3).

This was coriander, Chinese celery, scallion and green chillies. The mix of flavours here was great, however there was too much salt for our liking.

Now I'm not exactly sure why it's called a tiger salad, however here is a theory... You're eating the nice (but salty), mild greens when suddenly you eat an incredibly spicy chilli. It's akin to wandering the forest and suddenly being attacked by a tiger.

Well the former story (fortunately not the latter!) happened to me today. I was busy stuffing my mouth with these greens when I ate the spiciest chilli I've eaten in years, resulting in 10 minutes of pain and suffering - you've been warned....

Overall - A bit too salty which was unfortunate because it could have been really good 2.5 / 5

We also ordered a bean curd salad, with diced cucumber and spicy szechuan vinaigrette.

Unfortunately I don't like bean curd so didn't eat much of this. Erin told me it was great but she doesn't get to give ratings!


Overall, Dong Bei proved to be an excellent find. We will come back to try some of their other offerings - I've heard the sweet and sour pork is excellent, and there's more dumplings to try. For those of you living in KL, for authentic Chinese food which is a clear step up from the mediocre stuff you get on Jalan Alor, give Dong Bei a try. Just watch out for the tiger salad!

Cantaloupe, The Troika, KLCC, Kuala Lumpur

Every now and then Erin and I have a bit of a splurge on food. We usually pick out a fine-dining restaurant with a good reputation, and then throw caution to the wind. In this case, the meal was paid for by Erin's folks - a Christmas present that we decided it was time to cash in on.

The Troika is an easily noticeable building amongst the KLCC skyline; designed by Norman Foster, it is a luxury condominium with a small cluster of high-end restaurants. Here's what the building looks like:

From klcccondominiums.com

Cantaloupe recently won the award for 'best new restaurant' in TimeOut KL magazine, and the chef used to work in Frangipani in Changkat Bukit Bintang. We went there on a Sunday evening and decided to book a table (although the restaurant wasn't full). We were put outside on the balcony, and there was quite a view:

 Cantaloupe offers the choice of a la carte or tasting menu. The tasting menu was a tad too expensive so we decided to go a la carte. Before our starters arrived we were given some freshly baked bread.

If my memory serves me correctly, the larger bread was sour dough, the greenish one was coriander and the last one was curry leaf-flavoured. The bread came with a fancy little plate of butter, balsamic jelly and cinnamon salt.

All three of these went nicely with the breads, however we didn't like the curry leaf bread as it had that distinctive fishy taste that is sometimes found in Malaysian cooking, which neither of us enjoy. The sour dough and coriander breads were very good though.

Next up was an amuse-bouche, a kind of mini-starter you will get in any serious fine-dining restaurant. This one was a soft shell crab, sauteed aubergine with capsicum reduction, some kind of dried noodles and foam! (there was to be a lot of foam during this meal....)

The crab was delicious, as was the aubergine and the sauce on the plate was a fitting compliment. Amuse-bouches are designed to whet your appetite - this one worked.

One thing I liked about Cantaloupe was the way the menu had been written, with each dish having a personal explanation from the chef. I ordered the scallops RM80 (approx $25) - have a look at the description above for more detail.
 

As you can see from the pic above, the foam takes over the plate somewhat. Here is a closer look at the scallops:

First of all, the scallops were high quality and well cooked. I also really liked the chorizo flavour, and the jerusalem artichoke / potato puree was great. It wasn't a big plate of food, but the mixture of textures and different flavours worked very well.

Overall - A lovely starter but maybe a touch on the small side - 4 / 5

Erin went for the Jerusalem artichoke soup RM50 (approx $17).

Although bigger than it looks on the picture, this was also a fairly small but satisfying starter. The soup was lovely and creamy while the sliced scallops were an interesting and worthwhile addition.

Overall - Another interesting and effective starter - 3.5. / 5

For my main course I went for the duck confit RM90 (approx $30).

I'm generally a big fan of duck confit. It can be a touch heavy, but if done well it's one of my favourite main courses.

At this stage it was quite dark outside so the photos haven't come out so well.

The duck leg was a good size and the potato chip acting as a well for the creamy mash was a nice touch. Behind the duck leg on the picture is the rillettes, which was the duck breast shredded into a kind of pate and covered in breadcrumbs.

The duck meat fell off the bone without much effort on my part. The meat itself was nicely salty, and when combined with the mash and mustard it was simply delicious.

Overall - One of the best examples of duck confit I've had - 4 / 5

Erin went for the wagyu beef RM 165 (approx $55).

What was clear when this plate of food arrived was that this is an excellent cut of beef; look at the marbling on the picture above. It tasted as you'd expect a top piece of steak to taste; tender, and full of flavour with the fat melting in your mouth. The torched minced fat on top was a really creative and effective addition and the accompaniments all worked very well indeed.

Ovreall - A really good steak - 4 / 5

For dessert I ordered the black forest bombe and Erin went for the marinated strawberries, both RM45 (approx $14). 

We'll start with the bombe:

The waiter kicked things off by blow-torching a container of cognac.

This was then poured onto the chocolate dome which slowly melted. This is what it looked like inside:

The mixture of congnac, dark chocolate, cherries, crunchy chocolate cake and chantilly is certainly not for anyone who is worried about their waistline. It was however a really nice mix, especially with the sourness of the cherries and the sweetness of everything else. We both started off loving this dish but it did become a bit too heavy after a while.

Overall - Definitely best shared but a good bit of culinary theatre - 3.5 / 5

These raspberry-marinated strawberries might just have been the best dish of the night. The eucalyptus caramel gel and fizzy lime sugar combined with the fruit resulted in a bright, refreshing and extremely delicious plate of food. It was the perfect partner for the chocolate bombe on the other side of the table.

Overall - Really imaginative and a great result - 4.5 / 5

So how good is Cantaloupe?

First of all it's an amazing place; the view, the interior and the sense of occasion it brings makes it all worth the visit alone. The food is also very very good but if I was to compare, it does fall slightly short of some outstanding fine-dining establishments we've been to in other countries.

I would however, wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone living in KL for a special occasion and a bit of a splurge. It is undoubtedly expensive but you're paying for the food and the views after all.