Bangsar Food: Rendez-Vous French Restaurant - A Traditional French Food Love Affair

French people are very particular with the quality of ingredients used but also the way the food are prepared and served. A serving dish usually consist of different taste, aroma and texture specifically to tantalize your taste-bud. With that +BestRestaurant ToEat was invited to review this traditional French cuisine at Rendez-Vous French Restaurant located at 100 Lorong Maarof, 59000, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.

The concept of the restaurant is to make authentic French cuisine affordable and also to offer a laid-back ambience in a truly relax environment where patrons can enjoy great French food and drinks with family and friends.

To appreciate a full course French meal you first start with a cocktail and the one that we had is the Le Kir Classique (RM26.00). It is a cocktail of white wine & choice of Creme de Cassis, Raspberry and others.

Next we had the Amused Bouche - a single bit size pre-meal appetizer. It is a dish not found from the menu and are served gratis and according to the chef's selection for the day to all present at the table. Our Amused Bouche was the sauteed onion with mushroom.

For starters, the chef recommendation was the Escargot Snails With Parsley and Garlic Butter Sauce in Vol Au Ven (RM34.00). At most restaurant Escargot are commonly served as Baked Cheese Escargot but here we get to taste out this traditional style of cooking with a light crust pastry (Vol Au Ven) which absorb the garlic butter sauce to give a nice texture and taste to the Escargot.



For the Soup, we had the "Soupe De Poissons Facon Laurent" which is Fish Soup Served With Rouille Sauce from Sete (RM26.00). The Rouille is a sauce that consists of olive oil with breadcrumbs, garlic, saffron and chili peppers. It has that special strong taste and when mix with the rich fish soup was excellent that it tasted more like lobster bisque. Served with crouton and extra cheese on the side for those that loves their soup to be extra cheesy with the Rouille Sauce as an add on.

French people have a craving for Pate and the next chef recommendation is non other than the signature Pâté de Chevreuil" Deer Pâté With Hazelnut (RM30.00) - Pâté (French forcemeat) is a mixture of cooked ground meat and fat minced into a spreadable paste and bake in a terrine. The Deer Pate has a firm texture; had a nice flavour and taste which goes well with the gherkin, caramelized onion and fresh cherry tomatoes with lettuce that makes a good companion to the Pâté.

After the Pâté, next comes the special salad, French people has an acquired taste quite similar to the Chinese as they are fond of cooking and appreciating innards dishes. For this salad, we had the "Salade Perigourdine" a.k.a Breast Smoked Duck (in-house made) with artichoke, gizzards, bacon, sundried tomatoes and topped with a thin slice of Foie Gras. The dressing is a mustard with red wine reduction.

For the main course, the chef recommendation is the Mussel in White Wine. There are 3 type of cooking style that you can choose from. This White Wine style comes with a pot enclosure and when it is opened, the aroma of the white wine and steam from the broth exudes out.



We like this style of cooking with garlic, onion and white wine as it brings out the natural flavours of the mussels.

The next dish is the "Filet Mignon De Porc" which is Pork Tenderloin With French Cepes Mushroom Sauce (RM46.00). The Pork Tenderloin is slow cooked in a vacuum pack and then lightly pan fried and topped with the Cepes Mushroom sauce. This way of cooking ensures that the pork tenderloin has a soft texture while it engulf the pork taste into the meat. The Cepes Mushroom sauce which is made in-house using porcini mushroom leaves a taste so wonderful you are still fantasising about it hours afterwards.

To truly enjoy this particular dish, it would be great to chew the pork tenderloin a little longer, so that it gets contact with more of your taste buds.

The next dish according to Chef Flo is a very authentic traditional French delicacy which is the "Boudin noir aux pommes" i.e. Soft Pork Blood Sausage served with apples and French Style mashed potatoes (RM44.00). The pork blood which are specially source are cooked with herbs and spices and stuffed into the sausage. It is then boiled, fried and ready to be eaten. This dish is a real challenge for many Malaysian; I would say it will be an acquired taste to many which will leave you either a love it or hate it after the meal.

For dessert the Chef recommended that we try out the popular "Crepe Suzzette" aka French Crepe flamed with Grand Mariner (RM26.00). When the dessert arrived at our table; the waiter will first flame the Grand Mariner before pouring it into the Crepe.



After the flame is doused off, upon the first bite of the crepe, we can taste the strong Grand Mariner that is embedded into the crepe which is mix with the orange sauce and vanilla ice-cream.

The last dessert that we had is the Marquise au chocolat which is Densed Mousse served with mint ice cream (RM20.00). We love the Chocolate Mousse as the densed version which is firm have a stronger chocolate taste and blended well with the ice-cream.

Not to be left out, Rendez-Vous French Restaurant is celebrating the Year of Fire Monkey with a few specially created dishes with a French flavour to welcome the prosperity.

For this year Rendez-Vous is also having a special Valentine dinner for you to romance with your loved one the French style. Book early for this Valentine Special today.



For me, at Rendez-Vous French Restaurant Bangsar; one can really enjoy the experience of the flavours of the dishes which are prepared using traditional methods and natural ingredients to retain its authenticity of its taste. 

TAMARIND Restaurants Festive Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day 2016

Welcome to the year of the Fire Monkey with the special CNY Festive Menus from now until 22 February 2016 at all Tamarind restaurants. Featuring dishes inspired by the season, each restaurant’s CNY Festive Menu highlights seasonal ingredients and specialties without departing from their unique palettes and cuisine, resulting in a mouth-watering adventure! 

The highlights of Tamarind Hill, Tamarind Spring Restaurant menu; is the in-house made Yee Sang With Fresh Salmon priced at RM68+ (small) or RM88+ (large). Feast in a pack, with every group of 10, and get a complimentary large serving of Yee Sang With Fresh Salmon worth RM88+. 

Also on the menu are favourites such as Sang Choi Pao - Lettuce Cups filled with a Thai twist of Spicy Chicken

Or try out the Crispy Sea Bass With Tom Yum Paste, Himeji Mushrooms And Cherry Tomatoes

Or the succulent and firm texture Tigers Prawns in Orange Sauce with Eryngii Mushrooms

In addition to the homemade Yee Sang With Fresh Salmon found in Tamarind Hill, Tamarind Springs’ delicious festive dishes also include the Fish Maw And Crab Meat Soup, Stir-Fried Sea Cucumber With Mixed Mushrooms, Smoked Duck With Fresh Yoghurt Sauce as well as Assorted Tong Shui (Red Dates), among several other lip-smacking options.

Expect elegant dining in the heart of the city this Chinese New Year at Neo Tamarind, Kuala Lumpur with unexpected combinations specialty dishes, such as the Cold Soft Tofu Served With Shaved Boito, Spring Onion and Soy Jus, Deep-Fried Oyster Mushrooms With Salted Egg Sauce and Bird’s Nest Panna Cotta.

While in Penang, dine like a Chinese tycoon at the turn of the century nowhere else but at Cheong Fatt Tze’s Restaurant, George Town, Penang.  Special dishes specially crafted by the chef are the Winter Melon And Seafood Soup; or try out the Braised Neptune’s Treasure Served In A Golden Pumpkin, where you can feast grandly with the restaurant’s take on exquisite modern Cantonese cuisine.

For Valentine 2016 which happen to fall on the seventh day of Chinese New Year, Tamarind restaurants will feature it's special Valentine’s Day Set Menus. Enjoy an evening filled with romance, ambience and of course, good food.

According to Tiffany Teoh, Sales Manager of TAMARIND Restaurants, “We are excited to share our unique flavour combinations this Chinese New Year. This time of the year gives us the opportunity to use seasonal produce that we have been looking forward to savouring and combine them with our authentic IndoChinese flavours, textures and preparations.

The results are a delicious celebration of what people continue to love about TAMARIND restaurants– a beautiful blend of cultures, coupled with authenticity and innovation, that go on create unexpected and immeasurably delightful experiences.”

*** Book Your Table Today ***

TAMARIND HILL Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03 - 2148 3200

TAMARIND SPRINGS

Tel: 03 - 42569300

NEO TAMARIND

Tel: 03 - 2148 3700

CHEONG FATT TZE Restaurant

Tel: 04 - 2620 006

On behalf of +BestRestaurant ToEat , we would like to wish our readers "Gong Xi Fa Cai" and Happy Valentine Day.

Bukit Bintang Food: Lai Ching Yuen Chinese Restaurant @ Grand Millennium Hotel Kuala Lumpur - 2016 Fire Monkey Chinese New Year Auspicious Set Menu

Serving auspicious meal during Chinese New Year will exudes the charm and joy of the festivities of this once in a year celebration. To celebrate this 2016 Year Of Fire Monkey Chinese New Year, Lai Ching Yuen Chinese Restaurant @Grand Millennium Hotel Kuala Lumpur; Chef Terrence Foong Kuan Onn which has more than 30 years of culinary experience in Cantonese cuisine has drummed up 5 special set menu for you to savour during this New Year.

Lai Ching Yuen Chinese Restaurant +Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur has been renowned for serving top quality Chinese Cantonese cuisine for many decades and is recognised by the experience and talents of its Chinese chef. 

Unlike most other Chinese Restaurant which are either heavily decorated in Red or brightly lit, Lai Ching Yuen decor is more subdued giving diners a more private, posh, relaxing and cosy dining environment.

The special five Chinese Set Menus for 10 person are the Active & Vigorously Set (RM 1,268 nett), Good Fortunes (RM 1,618 nett), Happy & Prosperous (RM 1,968 nett), Peace Season (RM 2,428 nett) and Smiles Of Fortune (RM 2,688 nett)

+BestRestaurant ToEat was served the Active & Vigorously Set which start off with the must have Yee Sang which is the Yee Sang With Jelly Fish & Crispy Fish Skin. We love the Fried Crispy Fish Skin as it blend a nice crunch texture to the Yee Sang.

Next on is the Assorted Seafood Soup With Tofu. Cooked with a combination of crab meat, scallop, prawn meat, thinly sliced asparagus to give a different texture, color and taste to the tofu soup.

And this is followed by the Buttered Prawn. The prawns are fried and then cooked with butter, curry leaves and eggs. One key point to this dish is not over frying the prawn and this was done nicely by the chef, which still retains a nice texture and blended with the saucy butter taste.

For fish, we had the Steamed Mandarin Fish With Minced Ginger. We love the texture and taste of the steam fish. Steaming fish can be a very challenging task for a Chef; if you over steamed the fish; the flesh will be hard. Getting the right balance especially a premium fish like this takes a lot of perfect timing and patience.

For meat, in this set, it comes with a Cantonese-Style Roasted Crispy Duck. Credit to the Chef for getting the skin roasted to a crisp while retaining the meat to still have a tender soft texture.

Many restaurant tends to offers their green as a gravy sauce type, but here the chef has done it differently on this Deep Fried Enoki Mushroom With Hong Kong Kailan. Choosing the perfectly young shoot of Kale which was stirred fried and laid with a topping of Fried Enoki which is seasoned with a light salt batter was a nice blend to our green dish.

The last dish before dessert is the Fried Rice With Assorted Chinese Waxed Meat Wrapped In Lotus Leaf. The rice are fried and then wrapped in a lotus leaf which is then steamed to add a different flavour to this waxed meat dish.

One of the dessert for Chinese New Year is the Nian Gao, Here at Lai Chine Yuen it is served  as the New Year "Nian Gao" Dual Variation. The first version is the Nian Gao which is sandwiched with a piece of Yam on one side and Sweet Potato on the other which is then battered up and sent to the fryer. The other version are for fans and lovers of Eggs; The Nian Gao is battered with a layer of scrambled eggs and are then pan fried.

To end our review, we were served a chilled Double Boiled Chrysanthenum with Longan & Black Sesame Rice Dumpling. A sweet and cold ending for our review at this lovely restaurant.

 

Celebrate this 2016 Year Of Fire Monkey in Grand Style at Lai Ching Yuen Chinese New Year @Grand Millennium Hotel Kuala Lumpur

+BestRestaurant ToEat wishes all our  readers a Happy and Prosperous Chines New Year

"Gong Xi Fa Cai"

Ploy @Work Clearwater Fusion Thai Japanese Cuisine Review

Fusion food are much of an in-thing now; but to serves it with top quality ingredient and with a special taste that lingers on your tastebud is not an easy thing to achieve. +BestRestaurant ToEat was invited to taste; new fusion dishes created by their Master Chef at PLOY @Work Clearwater located G-02 Ground Floor WORK@Clearwater Changkat Semantan Damansara Heights 50490 Kuala Lumpur.

One of the unique thing about PLOY is that they put a lot of emphasis in the science of food preparation; i.e thru the use of special cooking techniques to create these dishes to tantalize your tastebud.

At PLOY, the emphasis is on elegant dining experience; here you can enjoy the quaint and modern decor while nibbling sharing platters dishes specially created for better bonding experience.

One of the concept of dishes served at PLOYs' are of snack plate sizes where you can share these dishes while having your favourite drinks and chatting away. The first dish on our table was the Sliced Cucumber (RM 8.50). Served as a cold dish the sliced cucumber are chilled and arrange nicely on the plate and topped with an aromatic sesame oil dressing with a special flavouring.

Next is the Thai Spice & Miso-Butter Fresh Corn Wedges (RM 10.50). It comes with 2 flavours i.e. Thai Spice and Miso-Butter. A special taste for you to experience compared to the standard corn on the cob butter style.

Next comes the special Chicken Curry Popcorn (RM 8.50). Smothered with curry powder and chicken seasoning, it is indeed a special preparation of popcorn. For this dish, you have to eat it real quick as the popcorn will lose its crunchiness after sometime. According to the chef, they probably have to add more caramel to maintain the crunch.

This is then followed by another Japanese appetizer with a twist i.e. the Sambal Miso Edamame (RM 10.50). Marrying the popular steam Edamame with pan fried sambal paste and topped with sesame seed gives you a spicy taste to this bean.

After the appetizer dish, we move to some quick bites dishes, the first of which is the Tender Honey Pepper Wings (RM 14.00). The winglet which was pre marinated with the chef house made broth to ensure the full penetration of the broth flavour right to the chicken wings. Before serving the winglet; there are then fried with a honey-based soya sauce and topped with fragrant sesame seeds.

The Seared Wagyu (RM 46.00) is a pretty interesting dish, as the beef are lightly pan seared to enable it to be slightly charred on the outside while the inside meat is still medium done. This ensures that the meat still retains the juicy texture and taste of this top quality meat. It is then seasoned with orange Ponzu, chili miso and chopped crispy garlic.

Well, to many Japanese seafood fan, octopus are usually served sashimi style but at PLOY, this thinly Sliced Octopus (RM 24.50) are served with seaweed. It is served with a sourish concoction sauce of shoyu, lemon, mirin and sake.

Next on is the Spicy Cold Tofu Blocks (RM 10.50) This dish reminds me of the Chinese style steam tofu but with a Thai inspired creation. The tofu are served chill with a special 'Thai XO sauce', ginger and crunchy ground almonds for a different feel and texture. Simple as it seems, we love this dish.

Tofu Agedashi (RM11.50) is another popular Japanese dish, but at PLOY it is served with a sweet and spicy broth which is made out of dashi, mirin, shoyu and a special imported togarashi (Japanese word for red chilli pepper). It is then topped with finely shredded scallion and a dash of fine grind turnip.

For the Main Dishes; we were served with the Stirred Fried Lemongrass Beef (RM 46.00). The tender Wagyu beef are fried with Japanese Shishito Pepper, Thai herb oil and tamarind sauce. We love the juiciness of the meat and this dish should go well with some white rice.

For the fish dish, we had the Assam Steamed Seabass (RM 27.50). We love the taste of the Assam, as it has a well balanced spicy level with the right sourish taste. As again, would have loved it eating with white rice.

The next dish is very special; it is called the Flaming Red Fish Curry (RM 42.00). This dish comes with a glass of whisky. When served to you; the waiter will first light up the whisky and then poured onto the curry. You can still see the lighted whisky on your curries. It is quite an experience to savour this dish which has a strong whisky taste.

Next we had the Crispy Negihama Maki (RM 25.50). The Hamachi is wrapped in the sushi and topped with Onions, Scallions and Crispy Rice.

As mention earlier, Ploy like to employs special cooking method, the next dish is a sample of their chef creation of special raw dishes which is the Tuna Ceviche (RM 35.00) The tuna is served with lime, shallots and cube turnip on a coconut shell.

Next is the Lemongrass Tuna Wraps (RM 27.50), This looks like the Vietnamese roll, but the actual wrap used is a super thin slice of  'Sa Kot' - turnip with avocado, chilli paste and crispy rice.

At Ploy, you can have a taste of some special rice and pasta dishes, which we got to taste; it was the Unagi Meshi (RM 49.50). We love the Japanese rice as the white round steam rice are mixed with sauteed fresh shiitake mushroom seasoned with a housemade sauce with pickled turnip to add a new dimension to a slight sourish taste of the rice. It is then topped with grilled eel with teriyaki sauce.

Next, we had a western style dish which is called the  "FUN GUY" Spaghetti (RM 31.00). It is cooked al dente with a generous amount of oyster and button mushrooms and topped with some special truffle oil to give it that extra mushroom flavour.

To end our review, we had 2 desserts the first of which is the Cracked Coconut (RM 21.00). We love the presentation of this desserts as it is decorated to resemble a beach sea theme style. We love to experience the creative use of the chocolate based ingredients in this dessert. This dessert is not only very pleasing to our eyes but also very nice to eat especially the coconut sorbet.

The final dessert is the Japanese Cheese Cake (RM 11.50). This cake is served with a raspberry sauce.

For those that really loves to explore new tastes and have adventurous taste buds, PLOY (Gems in Thai) will not disappoint you.