Jules eating guide to Malaysia & beyond: Fine

Showing posts with label Fine. Show all posts

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Hanare, The Intermark Hotel - Kuala Lumpur

Add: Ground Floor, The Intermark - 182 Jalan Tun Razak, KL
Tel: +603 2164 2133
Review: Lyrical Lemongrass
We wanted to try a different Japanese, besides the regularly visited Rakuzen, Mizu, Zipangu etc ... so I asked LL (See review above) for some advice. Hanare was one of the 2 short-listed restaurants, so we braved the drive to Tun Razak at rush-hour to have dinner :-)

I chose the "set menu" ... which started with a simple salad.

Deep fried fish fin (For the life of me, I can't remember exactly what fish - I think it was stingray!) whose salty texture went perfectly well with my Sapporo.

The Malay chef (where were the famed Japanese masters that I read about in Hanare!?) then prepared my simple tofu steak, which was very good ...

And our mains arrived ... mine being a Aussie wagyu steak, whilst bbG chose the Unagi. Both were good, but hardly "rocking"!

V's dish, a simple soba in soup, turned out to be the BEST DISH of the night .. Mmmmh, japanese soups rock!

My set menu was completed with a rather bland stir-fried vege dish, and garlic fried rice.

The total bill? RM$300 for the 2.5 of us :-)

Yes ... I liked the decor with lots of wood and granite, and the service from the Japanese "captain" was good too (Pity about her less eloquent waiter), but somehow ... I found the food too ordinary and "safe", perhaps it was due to what we ordered?

What did I think ... Not my fave Japanese, but perhaps I should have ordered some "authentic" Jap stuff like LL did ... Next time!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Finz - Finest seafood, Beach Rotana Abu Dhabi

Finz has long been one of these restaurants that I had to go to, but didn't want to go to ... Why? I am not a big fan of seafood!

Hotel: Beach Rotana
Add: Tourist Club Area, P.O.Box 45200, Abu Dhabi.
Tel: +9712 697 9000

After enjoying X-Men: First Class at Abu Dhabi Mall, we had a lovely lunch at Finz over the weekend ... bbbbG loved the bread-basket too, check out the "star-fish" sundried tomato roll!

Cataplana with Saffron and Fennel broth, 220 AED (RM$180) - Portugese copper pot style cooking, served with garlic bread, and another salad. We finished most of the lightly flavoured broth, and quite enjoyed the mussels, prawns, fish and other seafood!

We shared the Finz Platter, 220 AED (RM$180), which was a platter of tuna steak, plump grilled prawn, large scallop, and some other fish and cuttlefish too. It even came with a nice side salad, which was perfectly dressed. Surprisingly... I enjoyed this, strange with me being a carnivore and all!

We also shared a large bottle of San Pellegrino, 32 AED, and with the Entertainer voucher, our bill for the two of us came up to 292 AED or RM$230 for a lovely lunch.

Abu Dhabi Exchange and Sowwah Island under construction opposite the Beach Rotana waterfront.

You can dine al fresco (Perhaps in the months of October - February!), or enjoy the air-conditioned ambience inside. Yes, Finz probably has the reputation of being very expensive and uppity, but we found the atmosphere to be relaxed and ambience to be beautiful. Perhaps it helped that we used our Entertainer voucher here too, which meant one of our mains was ... FREE!

Finz ... Didn't expect to enjoy the food genre, but I was pleasantly surprised and will be back!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Ushna the posh indian - Souk Qaryat Al Beri, Abu Dhabi

Located: Beside Shangri-La Hotel, along Souk Qaryat Al Beri
Tel: +971 2 558 1769
Child-friendly: No! They do not allow children at dinner-time. You can bring your little ones at lunchtime :-(

How nice ... a vew of the Abu Dhabi Grand Mosque from the al-fresco side of Ushna ...

Very fancy bread/poppadom basket!

Posh, eh ... They even serve you an amuse bouche ;-)
This is (by a mile!) the poshest Indian restaurant I had ever been to ... the food is good, but really expensive. It wouldn't be difficult to spend up to 150 AED per person at this place.

Perfect naan bread ... and a delicious tandoori chicken dish.

Prepare to pay anything from 70 to 90 AED for a dish here, not cheap! They did (in 2010) accept the Entertainer voucher book, but this offer seems to have stopped now.

Complimentary sweets before the bill arrived :-)

Monday, December 20, 2010

Fine dining at Sage, The Gardens Residences KL

Add: The Gardens Residences. 6th Floor, The Gardens.
Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, KL.
Tel: +603 2268 1188
Located: The Gardens Residences, connected to Mid Valley Megamall in KL.
Take the lift from the Isetan side of The Gardens to the 6th floor.

As far as I know, back in October 2008, whilst Cilantro (Micasa Hotel, KL) was closed for renovations, Sage opened at the Gardens. This was of course Cilantro's sister restaurant. It seems, thanks to Lyrical Lemongrass, Cilantro has now reopened in what is now known as MiCasa All Suite Hotel.

Bread and truffle butter was always a hallmark of the mighty Cilantro ... But the flavours seemed to be lacking at Sage. Not the best of starts! But mind you ... expectations were high. Very high!

Amused by the amuse bouche :-) Yes, restaurants that serve an Amuse Bouche can generally be categorised into Fine Dining in my books. This write-up introduces another new category in my blog, "fine" :-)

Foie Gras, Cappelini and Fedellini pasta and the freshest prawns were always going to be our choice for starters ... certainly didn't dissapoint.

Originally founded by Cilantro's maestro, Chef Takashi Kimura, the japanese-western fusion cuisine is now under the helms of Chef Daniel.

RM$140 buys you a three course dinner, or that was the price about a year ago (Yes, this blog is much delayed, thanks to trips abroad to UK, and HK, and settling back here in the UAE!) ... And add about RM$100 more for the Chef's Table experience alongside the open-plan kitchen.

Our selection of mains was good ... but again, not spectacular. Or was that due to over-expectation on my part? In summary, I would recommend ANY of the foie-gras dishes, as well as pasta and prawn-inspired creations.

The desserts were good ... but hardly remarkable. I would stick to the desserts which are served alongside Earl Grey ice-cream, to me that was the hallmark of Cilantro!

Haha... this blog is so old that I can't remember why they served us ... macaroons! Perhaps we had tea or coffee after :-) I do remember that we were celebrating V's farewell to Singapore when we went for this night out!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Christmas dinner - The Marriott, Dubai Marina

Marriott Harbour Hotel
Add: Al Sufouh Road, Dubai Marina, Dubai
Tel: +961 4 319 4000

Our Christmas dinner this year was at the Marriott Harbour Hotel and Suites, in Dubai... Here's my Madras Steak. The accompanying onion rings and potato wedges are simply divine, as is the beautifully and lightly marinated steak with an interesting curry sauce! At 105AED, or RM$100, I like this very much!

bbG had the Sirloin steak ... I thought it was a little too tender (!), but liked that it was simply prepared, and the jacket potato was really good.

The Cheese Cake dessert was average, though we liked the "reindeer chocolate" pieces on the sides of the cake, very festive! The "blobs" were molecular gastro-type food stuff, which basically pops a sour-ish liquid in your mouth when it dissolves ... Odd!

The German Warsteiner on tap was good value at 26 AED, or just under RM$24.

ps - Total bill came up to about RM$300 (Including posh water) which is good value for a "top" hotel ;-) and a stunning view of Dubai.