Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Italiannies @ The Gardens Mall, Kuala Lumpur

The best way to enjoy Italiannies - bring friends and a big appetite.

And that was what we did. We brought our family for lunch one weekend - that's 5 hungry mouths to feed!



It's been a while since we've visited this outlet, but I was glad that their service and food was still good. It pays to visit the restaurant early since service is considerably more attentive.


Complimentary bread was served while we waited for our food to arrive.


Balsamic vinegar and olive oil to dip the bread in.



For starters, we ordered a Quattro Platter (RM27.90) to share. A combination of deep fried risotto balls, calamari, fried lemon cheesy balls, and zucchini strings, along with marinara and alfredo dips, it was a very indulgent starter. However, not ideal for anyone on a diet since everything was deep fried. This was definitely more than sufficient for 4 adults to share. Baby C loved the calamari and keeps sneaking another piece into her mouth when (she thinks) we weren't looking. My favorite was the fried lemon cheesy balls, though it is quite rich and one can't have too many of them.



Everything deep fried!


Lemon cheesy ball


The Caesar Salad (RM16.90) was decent, fresh salad leaves served with toasted foccacia croutons. After all that deep fried stuff, we needed this to balance it all.

For every adult main course purchased, you are entitled to a kids main course for FREE! Choose from magherita pizza, parmesan fish fillet, and several types of pasta. We went for the spaghetti alfredo (worth RM7.90), which is Italiannies favorite sauce. Though this photo of the pasta does not look like much, but the pasta was actually quite nice. We loved the rich and creamy sauce and how it coats every strand of pasta. (OK I ate more of this than Baby C!)


My personal favorite from lunch that afternoon was the 4 Cheese Pizza (RM17.90). A lovely thin crust pizza topped with Philadelphia cream, mozzarella, Parmesan and gorgonzola cheese. Simple yet so delicious.


The seafood risotto (RM31.90) came laden with quite an impressive amount of seafood such as mussels, prawns, scallops and squid, though the mussels were puny. The seafood has been sauteed in white wine and then added to the Arborio rice which has been simmered with clam and chicken broth. This dish was actually quite tasty... BUT I wouldn't class it as a risotto. For me, it tasted more like a paella than a risotto. But as I said, if you blindfolded me and asked me to eat this dish without telling me its name, I would happily eat it all. I would say that it is well worth the price that we paid for the portion and amount of seafood.



For every RM100 spent in Italiannies from Mondays to Fridays (all day long), you are entitled to a free bread and pudding. Luckily for us, we were holders of The Gardens Club card so we got to enjoy this promotion too (note: we were here on a Sat).


The bread and butter pudding was moist and soft, and was served warm with cream/custard.

For an Italian restaurant located in a shopping mall, the food standard is pretty good. Prices are quite reasonable, unless you go for a meat main course. There is currently an ongoing lunch promotion on weekdays (12pm-5pm); prices start from RM15.90.


Price: Total bill was RM145.90, which includes 4 drinks.

Location: Italiannies, Lot S209, Second Floor, The Gardens Mall, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2283 3675


Saturday, June 4, 2011

Set Lunch @ Coco Tei, Jalan Delima, Kuala Lumpur

I never got the chance to get acquainted with Hajime.

Coco.Tei, the new Hajime, reopened in May 2011 much to the delight of many of its loyal customers. I too was excited to visit this Japanese restaurant, a favorite of many in the past.


Housed in a rather big white building, Coco.Tei takes up the ground floor and is tastefully done up with lots of stone decor on the outside wall and lots of wood on the inside. Tatami seating was offered to us but we declined since we had two young kids with us and a table would be more suitable.



Tatami seating

I love the bar area, especially the wood logs used under the island. Beautiful pattern and textures.



Another intricate wood piece on the wall


We were offered both the a la carte menu and set lunch menu to choose from. For anyone who likes a good deal, you will be pleased to know that Coco.Tei offers their set lunch daily, including weekends. Yes, you read right. The set lunch menu was actually pretty impressive, with almost 30 choices of mains to choose from. Prices range from RM30+ to RM36+ depending on what you choose.

In comparison with the a la carte, the set lunch looked like a great deal hence we decided to try this first. You get a choice of 2 mains per set, hence we went for the sashimi moriawase, prawn tempura, unagi yanakawa, and gindara teriyaki.

The sashimi moriawase (assorted raw fish) consisted of 2 slices each of salmon, tuna and hamachi. The sashimi was fresh and had a firm flesh. The only thing I thought was weird was that they used a garnish which looked like colored plastic, I thought Japanese restaurant usually use edible garnishes in their food?


The gindara teriyaki (grilled cod fish) was excellent, firm flesh with a nice caramelised finish albeit the portion being a little small.


I did not like the unagi yanakawa (grilled eel with omelette). The omelette was cooked in a stew with some root vegetables and I thought it tasted downright weird and way too watery for my liking. I went for this because it was something different from the usual unagi kabayaki I have. Not good value as well, since this was in Category C (more expensive item) but only came with 4-5 slices of unagi. I'll just stick with my unagi kabayaki next time.


The prawn tempura was pretty good and non-oily, though again, the portions were a little small.

All sets are served with chawanmushi, rice, miso soup and pickles. We did enjoy the chawanmushi as it was silky smooth and laden with ingredients.




For an additional RM4+, you can get a scoop of ice-cream per set. Considering the price per scoop from the a la carte (RM10-12 per scoop), this was really reasonable.

If there was one thing we would return to Coco.Tei for, it would be their black sesame ice-cream. It was definitely rich and had a slight nutty flavour to it, definitely awesome. We also tried the wasabi ice cream which I wasn't too keen on as the wasabi flavour was too overpowering for me.





Kawaii Japanese dolls




Giant crabs



There is ample parking in the compound, just hand over your parking ticket to the waiting staff to enjoy complimentary parking.


Verdict: The service was warm and courteous, the food was above average and reasonably priced. Perhaps the a la carte menu items would fare much better than the set lunch.


Opening times: 11.45am-2pm (Lunch) and 6pm-10pm (Dinner).

Price: We went for the RM36+ set lunch plus RM4+ for the ice-cream.

Location: Coco.Tei, Tokyo Japanese Cuisine, No.5, GF-B, Jalan Delima, 55100 Kuala Lumpur. (next to Levain)

Tel: 1800 88 6655

GPS Coordinates: 3.146751, 101.720867

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Note: There is currently a 10% discount on all orders (Opening Promotion).
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