Interlude Tapas Bar & Restaurant TTDI Kuala Lumpur - International Tapas and Bar Malaysia Review By Best Restaurant

Serving Tapas dishes are getting popular of late especially Restaurant that also serves liquor as these food usually complement well with these drinks. Best Restaurant To Eat was invited to a special preview to taste some of the special International Tapas at Interlude Restaurant and Bar at 50, Lorong Rahim Kajai 14, Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) Kuala Lumpur.

Interlude is decorated as a simple modern bar setting. It serves a wide variety of liquor drinks that spans from beer, hard liquor, Mojitos, Margarita and popular Mocktails. The ambience and soothing music will rejuvenate you after a hard day at work.

To complement these drinks; Interlude TTDI also serves a wide variety of fusion International Tapas that are master creation of the Chef.

Our first dish on the table was the Grilled chicken breast with mash and chicken jus. I am not a real big fan of chicken breast as I usually find the meat to be very tough and stale but I was surprised that the breast meat cooked with the CONFIT method; explains the tenderness and juiciness of the chicken breast. Served with a bed of buttery mashed potatoes with the chicken jus. It was the perfect start to our review.

The second tapas was the Crispy Pork Belly with Kilkenny Glaze. Super crackle crisp skin of a pork belly is a testament to the quality of a roast pork belly. The secret to this was the Pork Belly was first baked with a salt blanket for 2 hours and after removing the salt blanket; it is rebaked to the crisp. The pork belly is then glazed with a layer of Kilkenny glaze and serve with a side of pickle cabbage that add another dimension to this dish.

Next on is the BBQ Pork Ribs with Guinness BBQ Sauce. The pork ribs were braised with Cinnamon, five spice powder and other herbs for 2 hours. Before grilling the Pork Ribs, it is then glazed with an in-house made BBQ sauce that is mixed with Guinness Stout to enhance and provide the pork ribs with a special smoky malty flavour. 

· This is then followed by the Pork Burger - a thick in-house made pork patties topped with a piece of fried bacon and topped with a piece of melted cheese. Served with a side of French Fries which was sprinkled with Paprika for that added kick.

· After a few meat dishes, we then had the Citrus Chicken Salad - A plateful of fresh garden green salad with herbs i.e mint leaves, Italian parsley with Chicken breast chunks on a Lemon Vinaigrette dressing and topped with Fried Shallots.

· After that, our tastebud was ready for the stronger taste dishes, the first of which is the Baked Snapper in Tom Yam Broth. A Thai inspired dish - the John Snapper Fillet was deboned and cooked with a Tom yam/ Miso broth to gives it a sweet, sourish and spicy taste. It is oven baked and served on a bed of rice. 

For something special we then had the Carrot Parpadelle - This is a 100% Vegan dish. What looks like pasta is actually carrot strips which are finely grated to resemble pasta. Then it is tossed in the pan and added with oregano, cumin and mint leaves with orange and carrot puree to be cooked. 

The signature dish of Interlude is the 17 hours Slow Cooked Pork Belly - Cooking this dish takes a lot of patience and passion as it takes more than 17 hours to cook. The method used to cooked this dish is SousVide, which is a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath or in a temperature-controlled steam environment for longer than normal cooking times and in this case 17 hours. The final result is that the meat is still tender while still retains the meat juice and its full flavour. 

Nantua of Spaghetti with a Selection of Seafood - The Nantua sauce is also known as the American Sauce which has a strong smoky prawns flavours from the prawns bisque and tomatoes which was superbly done. It is then cooked with an array of seafood which include prawns, mussels, squids and topped with sprinkle of green herbs. 

To wash down on the delicious food, we had the Herbal Mint Ginger which has mint leaf, ginger puree, ginger ale and Gingerade. 

and then Melon Berry Crush which is a concoction of Honeydew, Watermelon and Strawberry.

and lastly the Rainbow Shot -It’s a vodka drink -- and not a very strong one, it is made by layering grenadine, sweet and sour mix, orange juice, vodka and blue curacao in a cocktail shaker. Each liquid has a different density, so if done right, they'll layer on top of each other and pour out all the colors of the rainbow in perfect order.

Interlude TTDI is a place where you can chill out while enjoying the delicious International Tapas while drinking your favourite drink after a hard day at work.

The Barn - 1 Mont Kiara(MK) - Wine - Small Plates - Firegrill - A Nice Place to Wine and Dine Review By Best Restaurant

There is a new restaurant in Mont Kiara that was opened just a couple of months ago where the concept is to be able to buy a bottle of wine from the New Wine World (Australia and New Zealand), dine in the restaurant while listening to the Live Band Performance while enjoying the delicious food especially the pork dishes served at the restaurant.

Best Restaurant To Eat was invited to review The BARN @ 1 Mont Kiara which is located at Lot G-2, G-3 & G-26, Ground Floor, 1 Mont Kiara No.1, Jalan Kiara, Mont Kiara 50480, Kuala Lumpur.

The concept of The BARN @ 1 Mont Kiara; in that it has its own retail wine room/shop with a wide selection of wine at one side of the restaurant; where customer can either shop for a bottle of wine or choose a bottle to be consumed at the restaurant for their meal.

The ambience of the wine shop gives you a feel of a wine cellar decor. Customer who choose to consume the wine at the restaurant only need to pay for the service charge and not the corkage charges unless you bring your own wine/liquor.

The BARN @ 1 Mont Kiara is section out; into the main dining area,

a cigar corner with soft sofa settee

with a cigar cabinet that is filled Cuban Cigar,

a bar lounge area with live band music

 an al-fresco area outside the main restaurant

and a coffee and desserts counter i.e. DRIP @ The BARN which serves a special blend of coffee from Coffex. DRIP @ The BARN is open in the morning, so you can grab your coffee fix for breakfast over the counter.

Also, the kitchen that serves the Tapas is based on an Open Kitchen Concept where you can watch the food being prepared and served.

Our food review started with the signature Tapas which is the Bacon Wrapped Sausages - the premium sausages have that bouncy, firm texture and was a good pairing

to the Classic Margarita which was concocted with Tequila, Grand Marnier, Cointreau and Lime Syrup.

 

Next, we had the Crackling Skin Crispy Roast Pork Belly, which uses a secret recipe and technique that ensure the skin is as crispy when roasted while the layer of fats and meat was very well balanced.

With the slight salty taste of the roasted pork belly, it was superbly paired with the

Luis Felipe Malbec (Chile) Red Wine which has a smooth texture and taste.

followed by the Garlic Prawns which was firm, succulent and bouncy. The garlic, herbs and butter taste was of the right balance without being too overpowering each other.

One of the nice things about dining in the Barn @ 1 Mont Kiara, is that they serves a wide variety of Tapas which goes well with the wine, beer or liquor drinks that are served here.

The next Tapas that we had was the Belacan Chicken Wings. The marinate of the concoction of belacan was very balanced where you can taste a tinge of it right to the bone. It was fried until light golden brown and has a crisp skin while the meat was still juicy.

The meat within the crispy surface was surprisingly tender as opposed to tough, which is common for most deep-fried items.

The last Tapas for the night is the Skewered Pork Satay. Here, each skewers of the satay contains a layer of fats and then meat and then fats and meat.

We were quite surprised why it was so: after checking with the Chef, it was purposely set in that manner, so that when the skewered are grilled, the juice from the fats layers will flow to the meat thereby making the meat to have a softer texture and covered with the fat juice to make it succulent. The peanuts sauce has a very strong peanut taste which was good as the dip for the Satay.

For the Cold Cut we had the Barcelona Platter which came with an assortment of premium choice cuts of milano salami, gypsy ham, iberico ham served with mix of olives and balsamic vinaigrette and ciabatta bread.

After our tasty Tapas, we then proceeded to have our main dish, the first of which was The BARN Original Pork Ribs. The pork ribs are cooked till tender and grilled with the BARN special fresh BBQ sauce.

The Ribs was grilled enough to be flavourful without tasting the carbon while the meat was tender and came off the ribs without much efforts. The BBQ sauce also has a smoky, tangy and sweet flavours.

Our next main was the Slow Roasted Pork Belly served with asparagus and Spanish salad mix. The Pork Belly is first roasted and then slowly cooked with Chinese herbs and spices. The aroma of the dish was it has this distinctive smoky aroma.

The verdict: the Pork belly was very tender, while the broth which has a very unique smoky taste was very tasty and delicious. Perfect if eaten with some white rice. It was so good that we finish the broth up to the last drop.

For our coffee fix, we had the AFFOGATO with Kapiti ice cream. The espresso has the right kick and the after taste still lingers in the throat which was matched with the super smooth Kapiti ice-cream, it was one of the best Affogato in recent time that I have tasted.

The coffee machine used in DRIP @ The BARN; extracted out the full flavours from the coffee beans is the La Cimbali - one of the premium range of coffee machine.

For desserts, we had 2 cakes the first of which is the Blueberry Cheese cake,

followed by the Red Velvet.

The Barn at 1 MK - Mont Kiara is truly a place to de-stress; where you can dine or chill with your families, friends and business associates having finger food (tapas) while sipping your favourite wine where you can purchase at their wine shop or liquor drinks in a comfortable setting while enjoying the soothing live number belted out by the live performance.  

Pipers Restaurant - Mont Kiara - Friendly Neighbourhood Restaurant To Rejuvenate Your Stress Soul - Review By Best Restaurant

Finding a place to feel at home when dining out is usually not easy to find. Best Restaurant to Eat was invited to this quiet part of Mont Kiara. Pipers Restaurant located at the B3-06 The Fare 10 Mont' Kiara, Jalan Kiara 1, Kuala Lumpur.

Pipers Restaurant at Mont Kiara offer a relaxing pub café setting where you can dine to the soothing music played by a resident band on every Friday night and a jamming session for band to play on Saturday night.

Pipers Restaurant at Mont Kiara décor are simple in design while an open area by the side overlook the Mont Kiara areas and gives a calming sight during the evening sunset.

We started the evening with an appetiser which is the FRESHWATER SHRIMP & AVOCADO SALAD WITH COCKTAIL SAUCE. The poached deshell prawns was very fresh, firm, bouncy and succulent.

We had another appetiser which is the DEEP FRIED CALAMARI FRITTERS WITH BALI HAI SAMBAL. The calamari are first coated and then deep fried to a crisp. At Pipers they use the thick flesh calamari species which has a firm and springy texture and is perfect for deep frying.

The Bali Hai sambal sauce had a light spicy and sourish flavour; which comes from the use of the sauce of lime, vinegar, chopped tomatoes and cilantro. The only drawback was that the sauce was topped into the crispy calamari. We suggested to have the sauce served in a separate bowl, so that the deep fried calamari can retains its crisp much longer instead of turning soggy too soon.

After the appetiser, it was then followed by the soup, we were recommended to try out the SEAFOOD BISQUE. The verdict, this was one of the best seafood bisque that I had eaten.

The soup was so full of flavours and you can taste the unique sweetness of the broth in every spoonful. A check with the owner/chef Mr Carl Isaac reveals that his secret recipe and techniques in extracting the full flavours from the prawn head and shells together with salmon head and bones are the keys to all these goodness and natural flavours of these ingredient.

Our first main course of the night is the SLOW BRAISED BEEF RIBS. This is a special recipe that dates back at least more than 40 to 50 years; the chef got this recipe from a very old Hainanese chef and further improvised on it.

The result; is the meat of Australian Beef Rib, was cook until it was so tender, soft and full of flavours from the braising stew that was used. We were told that it takes more than 17 hours of slow fire braising to get to this quality and texture.

This braised beef ribs is served with a jacket potato with sour cream and topped with some crispy beef bacon and coleslaw as a side dish. 

I cannot really resist the temptation of not ordering a Lamb Shanks, as it is one of yours truly all time favourite. This version of Lamb Shanks that are served at the Pipers is the BRAISED LAMB SHANKS served on a bed of Polenta mash and sautéed vegetables.

The shanks was braised at low heat using a special recipe and simmered in red wine for more than 4 to 5 hours. The shanks pieces was not too overly soft, which I prefer, as some of those that I have eaten tend to be too soft and the meat breaks off too easily. 

I also loves those shanks that still need a little effort to tear off the remaining meat from the bones. Frankly speaking, I would have loved this shank to be served with silky smooth mashed potatoes which I am used to, as I find the polenta a little rough and coarse.

To close the wonderful gastro evening, we had the CRÈME BRULEE for dessert. 

At Pipers, I was pleasantly surprised that the car park is free and ample during the weekend when I was there; I am not sure about weekdays. So, if you like a quiet little place that serves nice western fare and love to have a little music to soothe your soul while dining, then make a date with the Pipers Restaurant Mont Kiara.