Yummy Malaysiana: 07/29/11

Italian Delights @ Favola, Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur

To make full use of our Starwood Privilege card, our next destination in Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur was their Italian restaurant, Favola. We decided to bring Baby C with us for dinner that evening after checking with the hotel that the restaurant is kids-friendly.

"Favola means fable in Italian and the experience begins as the diner walks through the open galleries into a rustic Italian setting reminiscent of the renaissance era. "

Buonasera....

We were greeted warmly at the entrance and led to our table facing the semi open kitchen. I love the decor of the restaurant, classy, and sumptous with beautiful ceilings, mosaic flooring and magnificent chandeliers while still retaining a cosy feel. This would be a great place for both romantic dinners or get togethers with family and friends.

Beautiful mural paintings on the wall

Table for 2

The wall of Venetian masks was beautiful and impressive.! We were reminded of the many beautiful sights we encountered during our strolls in Venice in summer 2005.

Dinner menu in the form of a scroll

Other than the restaurant interior, we were also impressed by the service. The waiting staff were efficient and friendly at the same time, making our daughter (and us) feel at ease in the restaurant. We were also equally impressed by the appetizers and main courses that we had that evening. While waiting for our food to arrive, we were served 3 types of bread with 3 dips. Though lovely, the breads served at Prime definitely trumps these.

Freshly baked bread served with 3 dips

Table decor

Since this was our first visit to Favola, to make life simple for ourselves, we decided to order the Chef's antipasti (RM50), a sampler plate of five cold antipasti selected by the chef. We were presented with this mouthwatering assortment of bruschetta, seafood salad, insalata caprese, bresaola and octopus. The portions were quite big, perfect for sharing.

The seafood salad was laden with prawns, squid, mussels, an! d clams and is slightly spicy from the garlic, chilli-olive oil, lemon juice and parsley seasoning. Another spicy selection was the octopus seasoned with simple garlic, chilli flakes, sea salt and olive oil. Insalata caprese is one of our favorite Italian appetizers, simple but effective; layers of buffalo mozzarella with tomato and basil. The bruschetta was topped with 2 different types of ingredients, tomato salsa and porcini ragout. The bresaola, or shaved dried beef was topped with rocket and laid on a layer cold potato. Overall, we enjoyed this platter and will come back during lunch for their antipasti buffet.

Chef's antipasti

Other than foie gras, another item which I cannot resist if I spot it on a menu is scallops. The seared jumbo sea scallop (RM55) was our favorite of the evening. Succulent, sweet and bouncy, this dish exceeded all our expectations. Even Baby C gave it her stamp of approval, and telling us to tell the chef that she likes it very much and "uncle did a job good cooking this". It certainly made us chuckle when she said that. The scallops were definitely jumbo and was topped with some truffle shavings, which made it all the better. It was served with canellini bean ragout which was flavoursome and hearty.

5 jumbo scallops, Baby C alone had 2... awesome!

The lasagna al forno (RM50) was really good as well. One of Favola's signature dish, the braised wagyu beef cheek (a mixture of ! beef min ce and chunks) was layered between fresh pasta, cheese crust and truffle oil. This is the truly the most decadent lasagna I've eaten.

Decadent lasagna al forno

Since we were unsure how large the portions were, we ordered the previous 3 items to start. By the time we finished the lasagna, we were still hankering for more... we decided to order the Risotto con Cappesante (RM50) which again features scallops since we enjoyed the last scallop dish a lot. The sea scallops were only slightly smaller in size and have been lightly seared to perfection. The risotto was excellent; slightly spicy and not cloyingly rich... Hubby who is not usually a fan of risottos enjoyed this tremendously.

Pan fried sea scallops on leeks, lemon zest, chilli and basil risotto

For desserts, Baby C had the Haagen Daz strawberry ice-cream (RM8 per scoop). Happy smiles from our little one.

The desserts fell short of expectations. I wanted to like the Panna Cotta (RM25) but it was not silky enough to appreciate. However, I di! d like t he presentation of this dish very much, the almond custard cream enclosed within the sugar veil.. very pretty indeed. The Illy Coffee inspired tiramisu (RM30) was a letdown too, seeing it was one of their signature dishes and all I could taste was the mascarpone cheese foam and nothing else.... there was hardly any sponge fingers unless their version does not have any.

Almond custard cream, minestrone of fruit, sugar veil and orange wafer

Illy coffee inspired Tiramisu

The meal was very enjoyable, with excellent food and top notch service. We left the restaurant with smiles, just like the sunny man in the picture below.

For a full set of photos, please visit my Facebook page here.

Opening times: Sunday to Friday: 12.00pm to 2.30pm (Lunch); Monday to Sunday: 6.30pm to 11.00pm (Dinner)

Service: Excellent.

Price: After the 50% discount with the Starwood card, the bill came to RM155.45 for 2 adults 1 child.

Location: Favola, Level 8, Le Mridien Kuala Lumpur, 2 Jalan Stesen Sentral, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Mal! aysia. ( Directly opposite KL Sentral station and next to KL Hilton)

Tel: 03- 2263 7434

Parking: RM8 for the first 2 hours, RM5 for every subsequent hour.

GPS Coordinates: 3.135685, 101.686524

Website: http://www.lemeridiendining.com.my

Review: Pre-theater Dinner @ Sushi of Gari 46, Hell's Kitchen NY

My first experience with Japanese food was at a restaurant called Teppanyaki (?) at Sungai Wang, one of the hippest malls of the Golden Triangle of Kuala Lumpur in the 90s. I could still remember the aroma of butter and garlic when it is placed on the hot griddle, the blue bandanas worn by the staff, the austerely decorated space was and the loud Japanese greetings given to customers upon entering and leaving the restaurant. I could still remember that it was in that restaurant that I had the very first taste of Japanese food, in the form of teppanyaki and sukiyaki. Both dishes were ordered by my mom, who knew very little about Japanese cuisine.

Although it was by no means gourmet, it marked the beginning of my venture into Japanese cuisine. I was barely 7 years old then.

Fast forward thirteen years. I was in a Japanese restaurant, at this area called Hell's Kitchen in New York. A table for one at 5.30 pm was booked under my name. A few days before my reservation was due, I doubted my decision to have dinner at Susi of Gari 46. Was it wise to have sushi in New York? I truly did not know. I made the reservation for Sushi of Gari 46 a month ago. Until today, I still could not understand the rationale behind it. Perhaps, I just wanted to enjoy good Japanese cuisine. I could have had it when I was in Melbournebut for some reason, I wanted it to be in New York. I told my mom about it. She agreed that I should have something Asian when I am New York. Just in case I got sick of Western cuisine.

She was right. I was pretty sick of bread rolls, jus and steaks and my dinner at Sushi of Gari 46 came just right to remedy my rice-deprived palette.

Modern interiors with a touch of zen

The types of appetizers that was part of my omasake

Sushi platter - 8 types of sushi. This was part of my omasake.

I love the creative interpretations here. :)

Can you name the fish?

Fresh and cooked ingredients were used

Taiyaki with matcha ice cream
When at Sushi of Gari 46, your best bet would be the omasake option. It looks pricey but I think it is so much easier to let the experts decide for you than just randomly pointing at the menu. Also, if you are fickle-minded like me the omasake option is easy. Looking at the sushi ala carte me! nu was a pain because everything sounded good to me.The standard sushi platter for the omasake course consists of 12 pieces of sushi but I wanted to save some space for desserts. Thus, I negotiated for eight. The kitchen happily obliged.

It did not take them long to get something out onto my table. For starters, I had three different hors d'oeuvre. I wished I could remember their names but my memory clearly failed me. What I remembered were their tastes. One of them tasted a little like rice cakes but the mushy texture sort of told me that it was not. Another was a lightly pickled seaweed dish, which offered a nice kick to my appetite. The dish at the middle was probably ginger because I remembered its sweet-ish, spicy flavour. There was nothing I disliked about the appetizers. In fact, I loved them.

Next up was the pinnacle of my entire meal: The sushi platter. Again, I could not remember all 8 types of sushi. I only remembered that there was eel, wild salmon, the oh-so-famous toro and sweet shrimp. The rest equally wow-ed but I had misplaced the paper where I had jotted their names down! The sight of the different coloured fish, ranging from translucent white to deep red, got me really excited. The little condiments placed on top of some of the fish slices was the source of my curiosity: where did the idea of putting condiments on top of fish slices came from?I had always assumed that sushi of such nature are fictional because the only time I had came across something of that nature was in a TVB drama "The Rippling Blossom", which is about sushi-making.

There was nothing that I disliked on that platter. Each and every sushi was like a unique fingerprint of flavor. The use of condiments was very clever. They fulfilled the purpose of enhancing the sweetness of the fish. The portion of rice to fish was balanced, which makes it easy to enjoy the sushi in one go.always felt that sushi ought to be eaten in one go, instead of having two or three bites.Taste wise, it was mind blowing. I ! was surp rised how some condiments can make sushi-eating so enjoyable! It was so good, that I felt really bad that the pictures turned out this way!!!

Extra soy or wasabi was unnecessary. All of them were well-seasoned by the condiments and I thought that it would be ridiculous to tarnish the taste of the fish with more soy or wasabi. The pickled ginger was, thank god, yellow in colour and home made. The ginger pieces worked really well as a palette cleanser before having another piece of sushi.

After that, it was time for desserts. I ordered taiyaki. For those of you who are not familiar with this term, it's Japanese fish-shaped cake. Most Japanese restaurants in KL will not put in effort to prepare this dessert from scratch but not in Sushi of Gari 46. When the dessert appeared, I was really, really impressed. I mean, from scratch? I never had taiyaki made from scratch! Upon first bite, I fell in love with the dessert. Its texture reminded me of pancakes and brioche summed up together. The adzuki bean was not too sweet, which was a good thing because if it was too sweet, it would mask the earthy flavours of the adzuki beans. The cold matcha ice cream, which had the lovely bitterness of green tea offered a nice contrast with the hot fish cake. The dessert was added a bang to the entire meal.

If I had a chance to go to New York again, I would come to Sushi of Gari 46 again. I had a fair share of sushi in my life. From the cheapest to the priciest but the experience at Sushi of Gari 46 was just AMAZING. Service was great too. Sushi of Gari was the only restaurant that contacted my Australian mobile to double confirm my reservation! Oh, and another thing: Initially, I made a reservation on the dinner of 4th of July. I tried calling the restaurant up but I could not get through for some odd reason. The restaurant blacklisted me by accident because of the no-show. However, they rectified it and insisted it was their mistake. I did not quite get it. For me, it was the telephone service that wa! s proble matic. To make up for it, my desserts and drink were on the house!

So, dear readers. If you are New York bound, and want to have sushi that will blow your brains off, Sushi of Gari 46 is one place you SHOULD NOT miss. :)

Little things:

-Cuisine: Sushi, Japanese, Modern

-Ambience: Place can get pretty packed if you arrive a little later.

-Service: Attentive

-Budget: Less than 100 USD

-Portion: Reasonable to large

-More information: