where and what to eat lah?

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Restaurant Harbour Steamboat is located in Sri Petaling, same row with the New Restaurant Ipoh Chicken Rice. I walked past this row of shops around 9pm during one of the weekdays and noticed how packed this place was from the outside. Feeling curious and how can I missed out such popular place!? So, I have made a point to return.


Don't attempt to walk in without a prior reservation or you might end up waiting outside for hours. Even during the weekdays, these waiting chairs are filled with customers waiting to be seated.

The restaurant is fully air-conditioned and messy graffiti walls filled with all kinds of marker messages and drawings one could think of.


Like any other Hong Kong steamboat, you'll have a variety of sauces. In here, you have the dried shrimp chili paste, fermented bean curd sauce, chili sauce and cilantro.


And you are supposed to concoct your own sauces, depending on how spicy, sour, salty you like it to be.

The concocted special sauce were actually pretty good!


One of the selling point of this restaurant is probably the variety of soup-based offered. Ranging from Macau pork soup (RM 20), herbal soup (RM 15), century egg soup (RM 10), sugar cane soup (RM 10), Teow Chew soup (RM 12), papaya fungus soup (RM 10), white pepper soup (RM 15), tom yam soup (RM 12) and clay pot lamb (RM 30). We had the Macau pork soup and papaya fungus soup within a pot for RM 30 in total.


There isn't any per head set menus and everything is ala-carte from all the balls to vegetables. We had some prawn wantan (RM 10), dumpling (RM 12), mushroom pork ball (RM 8), garoupa fish slice (RM 10), Tong-Hou vegetables (RM 5) and Japanese udon noodles (RM 5).


Never failed to have fish maw (RM 12) for steamboat.


And of course, lamb slice (RM 15) and pork slice (RM 10), without doubt fresh and tender.


Dipping a slice of meat into the hot boiling broth, and swish it back and forth. The worst thing that can happen is to ruin a potentially good thing by overcooking it.


Don't mind paying extra for the soup but the downside was, they are all going to taste almost the same since the subsequent refills are all from the same clear soup-based that dilutes it further.

Verdict: Special concocted sauce, freshness of the ingredients and the wide variety of soup-based definitely warm the hearts of their ever-packed line of customers. Expensive though!


Address:
No. 19, Ground Floor
Jalan 13/149L,
Sri Petaling,
57000 Kuala Lumpur
(another branch in Bandar Puteri Puchong)
Tel: 03-9059 4353
Business Hours: Opens daily from 6pm - 11pm
Pork Free: No
Taste:
Value:
GPS: 3.071577, 101.682372
Map:

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Hola! It's time for Spanish cuisine and we were brought to El Meson by a close friend of ours. El Meson is located along the row of pubs and posh restaurants on Jalan Telawi 3 in Bangsar. The interior is rustic and warm, with a bar area and dining tables that sprawled around the restaurant and walkway.

El Meson is true to its Spanish origin, from the imported ingredients used to iberico pork and even to their head chef, Fernando Martinez Tabernero - a passionate young Spaniard who hails from Valencia.


Like any other upper-class restaurants, El Meson too boasts an extensive range of fine wine and alcohol.

The meal started off with a complimentary fresh and warm bread basket served with rich garlic butter. You might want to save some bread to go with the tapas.


I had my first melon and ham combination in Madrid many years back. I must admit, I was a bit skeptical at first but the saltiness flavor of the ham makes an excellent contrast with the sweet and juicy melon.


Platter of cold cuts for two (RM 54), thinly sliced layers of iberico, serrano, parma, speck, chorizo and salchichon with melon, olives and capers. Apart from the similar saltiness, each of its own exhibits a different taste and texture characteristic.


The iberico ham was a stunner with its melt-in-mouth texture and a smoky nutty undertones. So what makes these ham so special? Similar to Kobe beef in Japan, the iberico ham is made from the black Iberian pig lives primarily in the south and southwest parts of Spain. These pigs are allowed to roam in pasture and oak groves to feed naturally on grass, herbs, acorns, and roots, until the slaughtering time approaches.


The ultimate pork burger (RM 25), topped with cheese, mushroom, bacon and caramelized onions in a sesame bap and served with potato wedges and salads. The pork patty was incredibly thick and tasty! This pork burger is undisputedly one of the top pork burgers in town. Unfortunately, it is only available for lunch!


An endless list of tapas is unsurprisingly available at El Meson with an exhaustive choice of both hot or cold kind...it's all there. Iberico pork strips in honey and sweet paprika on potato (RM 24), it was really really delicious, tender and sweet. However, it was a little too expensive for such a small serving. Maybe it was me, not a fan for tapas style dining gimmick - which is small and expensive.

Queso frito (RM 14), deep fried goat cheese with tomato jam. It was crispy outside but soft and stringy inside with a strong robust cheesy flavor that complemented well with the sweet and tangy tomato jam. It is terrific if you enjoy strong-flavored cheese!


Champinones (RM 14), saute button mushrooms in garlic, wine and cream. You can't go wrong with that and the sauce went well as a dip for the bread.


Iberico rack of ribs (RM 62), oven slow cooked and basted with slightly smoked sweet membrillo sauce. The ribs were so delicious and fall-off-the-bone tender, each bite was a little taste of pork heaven!


Paella marinara for four (RM 118), with mussels, squid, prawns, clams and halibut in rich seafood and chicken stock. I had my first paella cooked outdoor in Spain and ever since, I couldn't find that authentic taste. Nevertheless, this luscious dish was filled with generous seafood toppings with a tinge of aromatic saffron.


For a nice touch of flavors, you might to add some olive oil with garlic and dried chili flakes.


Linguine with speck and piquillos pepper in cream sauce (RM 32). It was actually pretty good and the cream sauce had the right creamy consistency too.


For drinks, we had a jug of sangria (RM 78) for the six of us. Made from refreshing blend of red wine, rum, orange liqueur, sprite and fruit pieces.


Finishing a lavish meal with these dessert masterpieces waiting for you at the end of the meal.


Their signature dessert, the ultimate molten lava chocolate with vanilla ice cream (RM 18). These warm, round individual chocolate molten lava cake oozed out rich molten chocolate that strikes a perfect balance with the sweet and cold vanilla ice cream. It was heaven to the taste bud and absolutely to die for!

Verdict: It was an upscale dining experience with an expensive price tag but overall, food is good. The service was a little slow but good food is worth waiting for.


Address:
No. 61-63,
Jalan Telawi 3,
Bangsar Baru,
59100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2282 8290
Business Hours: Mon - Thurs from 11am - 12am, Fri - Sun from 8am - 12am
Pork Free: No
Taste:
Value:
GPS: 3.130333, 101.670935
Map:

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Try asking around where is the best roast duck in London and most people will direct you to Four Seasons restaurant in Bayswater. Reputably and touted as one of the best roast duck in the world. Still, it didn't leave much of an impression even though I had it twice during my university days 7-8 years back. Well, maybe they were really good long before but definitely no where near world's best for the price I have paid for.


Then back in 2008, I was intrigued to see Four Seasons opened its first branch in Cap Square, Kuala Lumpur. I contemplated to step in since there wasn't many customers most of the time - I'm guessing it was either the food was really bad or overpriced. Is this the real Four Seasons from London or could it be another marketing ploy by using the same branding? Sadly, Cap Square killed them.


Not long after, they were bought over and revived back into Empire Shopping Gallery in Subang Jaya and Perdana Shopping Centre in Damansara Perdana. The restaurant itself isn't very big. The setup here is simple; place your order at the counter, pay and wait for your food. Since I work nearby, I decided to give it a go.


3 combinations (RM 29) with roast duck, char siew (bbq pork) and siew yoke (roast pork). The roast duck was tender and fragrant but, the skin wasn't as crispy and juicy as I hoped for. Maybe it was hung up and waited too long for me - after all, Perdana Shopping Centre is as dead as Cap Square. Luckily, the char siew and siew yoke didn't disappoint. Our Malaysian style char siew was juicy and carried a hint of sweetness at the caramelized outer skin. Definitely better Hong Kong style char siew in Four Seasons at Bayswater. The siew yoke was succulent with crispy crackling skin and followed by the melt-in-mouth layers of fat underneath.


Hong Kong style dry plain noodle (RM 4.50), it was indeed a plate of plain noodle with a not-so-plain price! However, the egg noodles texture was springy and appealing.


Stir fried Hong Kong kailan with garlic (RM 6.80), the green was fresh and crunchy with a strong garlicky flavor.

Peanut, pearl bean and spare rib soup (RM 8.90), warm and hearty soup with a deep nutty flavor and sweetness from the spare rib.

Verdict: On the whole, it was so-so. Slightly better than a normal bbq roast restaurant but nothing exceptional for the price paid for. It'll be difficult since the legendary Four Seasons in Bayswater has set the bar so high for them.


Address:
LG1, Perdana Shopping Center,
15, Jalan PJU 8/1,
Damansara Perdana,
47820 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor
Business Hours: Opens daily from 10am - 10pm
Pork Free: No
Taste:
Value:
GPS: 3.167597, 101.606004
Map:

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