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.

KODAWARI MENYA – BEST UDON IN KAGAWA, JAPAN – Grand Opening in Malaysia @1MK Mont Kiara Kuala Lumpur

 

One of the best Udon from the Kagawa Region –Kodawari Menya is here in Malaysia. Located at Mont Kiara opens its door to serve one of the most authentic UDON from Japan.

The grand opening was attended by a number of local celebrities which includes Datin Sofia Jane, Daphne Iking, Raja Atilia, Julie Woon, Vanidah Imran and Choo Mei Sze and others.

Kodawari Menya is the one of the leading UDON restaurant in Japan that offers full self service much like the one we frequent to the American Fast Food, where customers made their purchases over the counter.

There is a process which is clearly depicted at the entrance.

The most important factor is of course in the process and ingredient in making of the UDON itself and secondly it is the ingredients used to bring out the most flavourful broth that compliments perfectly to the UDON.

So, what makes a good UDON we asked during the launching of this first outlet in Malaysia. Kodawari Menya UDON. The key ingredients for making UDON, is simple it consists of superior wheat flour, water and salt. The skills lies in with how it is left to cure, cut and kneaded to a round fisted round chunks that has a soft and flexible texture. 

The next challenge would be the broth. For Kodawari Menya, the head chef took 383 techniques to create their signature broth using rare sugar which is both healthy and delicious.

The thinly cut scallions, tempura fritters and blended radish were a perfect add-on garnishing to the hot delicious Kake flavoured broth UDON.

 The firm quality of the UDON and delicious broth was superb, i.e. you can just eat the UDON by itself without any other add-on, it was that good.

As with any UDON meals, fresh from the frying pot Tempura pieces which you can order from the counter, is best to be complimented with.

We had the pumpkin, sweet potato and chicken (very meaty) tempura. You have the option to dip the tempura into the hot dipping tempura sauce.

There are 9 types of udon which are served at Kodawari Menya, for that, we will be coming back for a FULL review later. Watch this column.

PRETZ n BEANZ Cafe @Solaris Mont Kiara - Malaysia First Pretzels Pizza Review

They are not many restaurant specializing in Pretzel in Malaysia, one such restaurant that was started 2 months ago is PRETZ n BEANZ Café @Solaris which is located strategically at 22, Jalan Solaris 4, Solaris Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur, which its’ primary highlights is to bring you all food made from PRETZELS.

The design décor has a casual and relax setting, where different patrons can choose the different areas like al-fresco, sofa set and dining style table for the meals. It is also decorated with aesthetic pieces of inspiration and motivation poster around the cafe. 

PRETZ n BEANZ Café @Solaris is fast becoming a favourite everyday café where they serve a huge variety of food besides PRETZELS for all-day dining.

Well, you may have guessed it, that PRETZ means PRETZELS while 

BEANZ here means coffee beans. To ensure they are able to deliver one of the best latte in town, the beans are purchased on a weekly cycle to ensure that they get supplies which are freshly roasted. The coffee are then freshly brewed at a slightly lower boiling degree as, if the water is too hot, it will cause the loss of quality in the coffee taste.

At PRETZ n BEANZ @Solaris Mont Kiara the key motivation is 

LOVE LIFE - LOVE COFFEE - LOVE FOOD

To start off our night, we had my favourite FILLED PRETZEL, which was an in-house developed filling i.e. SWEET POTATO PRETZEL

Eaten hot, you can taste the natural sweetness of the sweet potato with the melted cheese and the fluffy and soft baked pretzel all blended together in perfect harmony with every bite.

This was followed by the CINNAMON SUGAR PRETZEL 

It has a light sugary taste and strong cinnamon flavours and it is simply deliciously done.These pretzels are oven baked, so it is not oily at all, unlike those that are deep fried i.e. a much more healthy option.

and lastly we had, the BASIL CHEESE PRETZEL which was very crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. The generous amount of cheese was evident in that, it has a smoky cheesy taste and fresh sweet basil all in one. 

Next, we had the PRETZEL PIZZAS, which the base dough is made from pretzel unlike the other most flour base dough which gets hard pizza crust after awhile. The advantage of using pretzel as the dough, is it tends to be crisp on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. This will make the pizza crust still maintaining that quality even though it is left for a couple of hours.

The first Pretzel Pizza which was one of their signature pretzel pizzas, we had for the night was HOT PEPPER CHILLI CHICKEN PRETZEL PIZZA. The  hand pressed pretzel pizza dough with is prepared fresh daily was not overly oily and garnish with a lot of fresh toppings

Words of mine cannot do justice for this pastry so you really have to experience how sensational this pretzel pastry was. Each bite has its own distinctive peppery flavors that to tantalise the taste buds

The next pretzel pizza we had was the AL-FUNGHI PRETZEL PIZZA - using fresh mushroom,  green and red peppers and black olives, and topped with a layer of cheese, it is a splendid display of the choices of ingredients to feast our eyes and stomach.

. The olive was also not of the type that is too soft and still have that crunch and feel of preserve black olives. The secret for the plain looking mushroom pizzas lies with the use of freshest ingredients.

To wash down this wonderful PRETZEL and PRETZEL PIZZA is the CAFÉ LATTE, the Latte had a strong freshly roasted coffee aroma and a tinge of sweetness in the coffee. Sipping the latte, after every bite of the pretzel was very satisfying to my taste bud.

We then proceeded with some pasta dishes which the first one was the DORY FISH WITH SOUR CREAM PASTA - The dory fish fillet was lightly seasoned with salt and deep fried at high temperature to give it a crusty layer while maintaining a succulent meat inside. 

Eaten with the special rich sour cream sauce, which has a strong overdose of cheese, it was a nice combination with the spaghetti. 

Next, we had the SAMBAL SEAFOOD PASTA which is for seafood lovers. Its' sauce which comes with a spicy aroma of sambal is very intoxicating and the spice level was just right. 

The fragrance from the aromatic spices just permeates through & the taste of the fresh kai lan used to cooked with these pasta have a crunchy feel and was the perfect combination with the pasta and sambal sauce.

This is one of the dishes from the breakfast menu i.e. the ROYAL SALMON EGG BENEDICT -  The dish is very pleasing to the eye and have gained popularity due to the BIG breakfast trends. 

This is a very challenging dish to prepare as the egg Benedict have to be at that particular texture and not over or under cooked. It has to be a perfectly runny egg.

The generous serving of smoked salmon which is slightly salty goes well with the fresh garden green salad that comes with the dish.and is pretty reasonable price.

And for desserts, we had the CARAMEL BUTTER THICK TOAST, you get a mountain of super smooth whipped cream top with caramel butter.

The silky whipped cream tasted like ice-cream with a tinge of sweetness from the caramel, while the thick toast which was crisp adds a new dimension to the overwhelming satisfaction to end this marvellous review.

To continue serving great food, it is the philosophy of PRETZ n BEANZ @Solaris Mont Kiara to constantly get valuable feedbacks from customers to position their signature products to the market. If you are one of those late night people, you can get this late night snack as they are opened up to 12am on weekend and public holiday.