During our stay at Seri Pacific Hotel, we indulged ourselves in the elaborate breakfast buffet, so two meals sufficed for a day at the pool. One time we went to the store for a baguette, some pesto and rocket salad: yummy! The other day we went to Marugame Udon, a Japanese franchise in Sunway Putra Mall. Brecht loved the beef curry bowl (RM14.80). I had tendon chicken rice (RM14.80) with vegetable tempura which was tasty. Mmm, I’m a fan of tempura! Although, the sweet potato tempura (RM3.20) was not that great.
While wandering around the shopping malls, we hit a foodcourt or two. One of them being Lot 10 Hutong, the foodcourt on the lower ground in Lot 10 Shopping Centre. We read about it a lot, it’s supposed to be the best street food in KL (Kuala Lumpur). Tried black pepper chicken (RM10.50) and fried kuey tew (RM12.50), both were OK, but not great. Fried kuey tew is a local (but not our) favourite. We asked “not spicy”, without a doubt the reason for the missing flavour.
Not far from Sahabat Guesthouse was Jalan Alor, the place to be for some streetfood at night. On this street you can only find food stalls and restaurants, and everyone does his uttermost to convince you to eat in his restaurant. It’s a difficult choice, we picked a restaurant with quite a full terrace: Cu Cha Restaurant. We had sweet and sour chicken an chicken sesame honey, both with rice, both RM19.50. It was OK, but I suppose there are better choices on the menu, or at least in the street.
We took another tip from Mark Wiens to heart and went to Vishal Restaurant (Food and Catering) for some banana leaf rice. For RM34.98 we ate banana leaf rice with fish cutlet, prawns (very spicy) and chicken for two. You get to choose which meat, fish or curry you like and they serve different curries and sauces on your leaf, one even more spicy than the other. It’s all you can eat, but I was not so hungry after all. Brecht thought it was OK. It was quite the experience, to say the least! We were the only Western people there and everyone around us was enjoying and filling his belly to bursting.
After a couple of days KL, we wanted some Western food. Pinchos, a tapas bar, was recommended online and real close by. And wow, we really had a nice dinner there! All the tapas we tried were really delicious and the wine was good too. We ordered six kinds of tapas, which was definitely enough for the both of us: patatas bravas, fish croquettes with garlic mayonaise, Spanish omelette (tortilla), mushrooms with thyme and garlic, bruschetta, Serrano ham on tomato smeared toast with mozzarella and pine nuts. It was so good, we ate way too much and could barely walk home. We had to pay RM107.06 for the tapas (excluding drinks), a bit more than we were used to up until that dinner, but totally worth it!
Signatures Food Court is located in Suria KLCC Shopping Mall, with a view over the (dancing) fountains at the foot of the Petronas Twin Towers. Here we tried some Western food as well, although there’s also plenty of choice in Eastern food. We ate here two times. We tried the beef steak slice enchiladas (RM19.90), the grilled fish lemon butter with mashed potatoes and french fries (instead of vegetables, RM14, drink included), spaghetti bolognese (RM14.83) and vegetarian pizza (RM7.95), all good. A fair warning: if you’re used to Coca Cola, don’t try Est Cola, it doesn’t even come close.
Brecht came to love Tandoori chicken after trying it in George Town, so in Kuala Lumpur we visited Restoran Nagasari Curry House. The Tandoori chicken set (RM13.30) was delicious and the prawn mango curry with rice (RM22.10) was also quite good. This place also has reasonably priced beer on the menu, which is a rare thing in Kuala Lumpur!
The last foodcourt we tried was Food Republic in Pavilion Shopping Mall. The show cooking at Teppan-Yaki drew our attention. When Brecht spotted the salmon set meal for only RM20, he was sold. I ordered the chicken chop set meal (RM15). We loved to see the chef(s) in action and really enjoyed our meal! I almost dare say the salmon was heavenly. They prepare the vegetables one by one and the meat (or fish) of your choice as last. It’s hard to wait when you’re hungry, but we advise to keep at least some of the vegetables until your meat is ready.
Being the large city Kuala Lumpur is, there are tons of different choices for both local and Western food. We barely scratched the surface but definitely found a few places worth visiting. Enjoy your KL-meals!
Het ziet er allemaal even lekker uit!