One of my favourite German Dishes is Pork Knuckles. When Best Restaurant To Eat got this invitation to review a new restaurant that serves Pork Knuckles, we jump in without any hesitation. The new restaurant which serves German Bavarian cuisine is the Thirsty Monkeys Café & Bistro located at No.2, Jalan 4/109e, Desa Business Centre, Taman Desa, Old Klang Road, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Established in July 2014, the newly opened Thirsty Monkeys Café & Bistro is a restaurant serving the German food and beers.
Thirsty Monkeys Café & Bistro Taman Desa was a combined idea of 3 partners who saw the potential of bringing quality German food and beers culture to Malaysia. Why is it called Thirsty Monkeys? Simply put, all three owners are all born in the Year of the Monkey!
As the restaurant is at a corner shop, the décor is one of bistro setup with open spaces along the sides of the restaurant giving diners option to chill and dine in natural ventilation. Foods that are served here are suitable for family dine in or chill out with friends.
Our review started with a simple salad that comes with Thousand Island dressings.
Next, comes one of my favourite, which is Lamb Shanks. I have eaten many lamb shanks from many other restaurants previously and I find the sauce that was used to braise this Lamb Shanks to the right tender texture (the meat are easily removed without great effort) was very delicious and lip smacking as those that I have previously eaten.
The meat was very tender and there were no gamey lamb taste which can be a great turn off for Lamb Shanks. The Lamb Shanks was served with mashed potatoes and salad.
The next main course for us was the Baked Pork Belly which was served with mashed potatoes, fresh vegetables and apple sauce.
The Pork Belly was baked to ensure the layers of fats are fully gelled up to the tender meat with a slight crisp of the pork skin. The Pork Belly is then layered on top of a chef created Apple Sauce which gives it a special sweet and tangy taste to match the slightly salted Pork Belly.
In any German Bavarian cuisine, you can never miss the sausage and here at Thirsty Monkeys Café and Bistro at Taman Desa, the sausages are served in a Sausage Platter Set meant for sharing and it has 6 popular sausages in it. The sausages in the platter are the Farmer’s Bratwurst, Nuemberger, Emmenthaler, Hungarian, Thueringer, Chorizo and slices of bacon to topped up to this dish.
The sausages are very meaty and firm which I liked, Although a tad of saltiness was evident, it is a very nice pairing to the Hoegaarden cold beer that we had. The Sausage Platter is served with garlic mayo, habanera mayo, mustard, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.
Another dish which is a signature for German Bavarian restaurant is the Pork Knuckles. One of the your truly favourite dish. I find the meats and fat was nicely roasted and was flavourful but to me the skin was not to the crisp which I yearn for. A check with the chef says that some of the customers preferred it this way.
For those who love the skin to be roasted to a more crisp, please let the chef knows about it during your order. The Roasted Pork Knuckles are served with mashed potatoes, sauerkraut and pork sauce.
At, Thirsty Monkeys Café and Bistro @ Taman Desa, they do serve a variety of German Beer and the one we had was Hoegaarden – a very smooth beer and nice pairing for the meat dishes that we had earlier.
and Konig Ludwig Dunkel. For fans of German Beer, Thirsty Monkeys Café and Bistro @ Taman Desa is having a promotional German beer which is the German Bucket Promotion ie. RM120.00, you can have choose any 5 bottle of the German Beer.
Thirsty Monkeys also serves some snack food, which are suitable dishes for the Beer for example Tender Chicken, Squids Ring and the one we had was the Spicy Mutton. The Spicy Mutton has a very strong spice infused aroma and taste, which was ideal as a side to the beers.
Lastly, we had 2 desserts to end the night, the first of which, was the Fried Banana Fritter Ala Mode – The banana are battered and deep fried with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and caramel syrup, it is a combination of something hot and something cold which is a mix taste to our taste bud.
and the Apple Crumble. The apple crumble was soft, fluffy and crusty and with the layer of zesty apple sauce in between the crust, it was a sweet ending for our dinner at Thirsty Monkeys Café and Bistro.
So, for those that stay around the Taman Desa or Old Klang Road, you need not travel far to enjoy nice German Bavarian style dishes and beers. Thirsty Monkeys Café and Bistro is just a stone throw away and will be able to satisfy your yearning for German food.
