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.

HOUZ WARMING CAFE @ PUCHONG – Melaka Home Cook Nyonya Food Comes to Puchong Review

What is the first food you think of when it comes to Melaka Food, to many it has to be the Nyonya Food. Well they are many version of Nyonya Food which have gone thru many changes i.e the true blue Nyonya and the improvised version.

We had the opportunity to try out a real home cooked Nyonya Melaka food, which have recently started to operate in Puchong which is HOUZ WARMING CAFE @ PUCHONG located at 5G, Jalan Puteri 1/6, Bandar Puteri Puchong, PUCHONG, Selangor

By the way, the owner cum chef is not a Baba Nyonya, as one might expect but she has mastered the skills of cooking Nyonya Melaka food ever since she was a very young teenager and cooked many simple yet appetizing Melaka specialities. 

The design of the café is a very straight forward, no-frill café that caters mostly to office workers and families around the area. 

One of the Melaka Specialities at HOUZ WARMING CAFE @ PUCHONG is the ASSAM NENAS PRAWN. Served in a clay pot, the entire dish was cooked with plentiful of quality mixed spices, some of which comes from Melaka itself. The use of salted fish adds a new dimension to this dish. 

The pineapple was cooked, until it was very soft and you can taste the pineapple juices which blended to give it a natural sourish and sweet taste. The end effect, the gravy had a strong and distinctive flavour that complemented very well with the Prawns.

This is one of the daily specials from HOUZ WARMING @PUCHONG i.e. this dish is not served everyday on its standard menu. To be able to savour this dish, you probably have to drop by on the days that this dish is being offered only as a daily special set. With a generous serving of 4 medium size prawn and if you are a small eater, this serving can be eaten by 2 person. 

The daily special sets come with a rice, a fried egg and a glass of honey jasmine tea for only RM13.90. Check out what is their daily special as we understand that there are more than 20 dishes on a rotating basis.

Another of the specialty dishes on the daily specials is PATONG CHICKEN CHOP. This dish is a Thai inspired dish. The chicken chop is first fried. The Thai sauce are then cooked and layered on the fried chicken chop.

This sauce is sweet, sour & spicy all at the same time but blended harmoniously. If you are familiar with the Masak 3 Rasa, it is somewhat similar but the use of the condiment here is obvious and gives you a satisfied taste. 

The last daily special we tried was the BUTTERED CHICKEN CHOP, this chicken chop is first coated with batter and then deep fried. The buttery sauce which has strong curry powder and leaves fragrant are cooked with butter and cheese to give you that extra creamy sauce, which is then layered at the bottom of the chicken chop.

Taste wise, it is quite similar to the Butter Prawns taste, which we are familiar with, but with a scent of cheese flavours, and the sauce was thicker and very much more creamier.

After sampling the daily special, we had some ala-carte dishes namely the HOUSE SPECIAL SAMBAL FRIED FISH.

It is a CENCARU fish, which have been deep fried and laden with a generous amount of sambal topping. Although, I find the sambal a little too subtle and light for me, as I am used to the sambal type, which has a very strong distinctive belacan taste with a lot of dried shrimp, for this kind of sambal fish.

Next, we had the ASSAM BANDUNG SEAFOOD – this is quite similar to the Assam seafood or the Assam fish which Melaka is famous for. The differences here, is the chef had added in coconut milk to cook this dish and henceforth the dish is called with BANDUNG – remember our sirap bandung. 

The use of the coconut milk makes this dish more flavourful and a little sweeter and creamier than the pure assam fish dish. You can taste the strong aroma and flavours of the seafood which have been infused into the gravy in every spoonful.

Another one of the special dishes, you can hardly find it anywhere else, is the HAKKA VINEGAR PORK. We KL people are used to the black type of VINEGAR PORK cooked with ginger, which are usually found at Bak Kut Teh stall or during confinement period of the new mothers’. 

But, here is the surprise, instead of the very sourish taste; the vinegar pork is of a sweet type with a hint of spice, as we were told that, they uses a small amount of Assam and dried chillies. Once again, this dish has a light sweet taste from the raddish, a tinge of sourish and a very light spicy taste.

On top of that it uses the white vinegar instead of the black vinegar. It will take a number of spoonful to start to like this dish, as our chain of taste for this dish is the black sourish type, which we are normally associated with.

All, the above dishes are usually found in home cooking and are suitable to be eaten with white rice.

For the noodles, we had their signature PRAWN MEE, the soup was very rich broth of prawns taste. The sharpness of soup was strong, and has the oomph factor. 

Lastly, we were offered the PORK NOODLES SOUP, but we just had the soup instead i.e. minus the noodles. The soup based was of the clear type. The soup was a recipe of over 30 years. They had a shop in IPOH selling pork noodles with this recipe. 

So, if you have a craving for some nice Melaka food, head over to HOUZ WARMING @PUCHONG to give it a try and leave us a comment or two after your visit.

THE SALAD BAR @Citta Mall, Ara Damansara - Eating Healthy Need Not Be Boring Anymore Review Best Restaurant To Eat

Most of the time, the sheer mention about eating healthy, it usually means, not having delicious and mouth watering dish. What comes to mind about healthy food, is some boring and tasteless food. As the saying goes what is nice to eat is usually not healthy and what is healthy is usually not nice to eat?

With that in mind, I was initially hesitant to attend a food review session at THE SALAD BAR @Citta Mall, G-03, Ground Floor, Citta Mall, No 1, Jalan PJU 1A/48, Ara Damansara 47301 Petaling Jaya, expecting some green leafy salad and was preparing to go for a nice supper after this review. Find out whether we did have supper at the end of this review.

This is THE SALAD BAR second outlet, the first is located at Damansara Uptown where they have been operating for more than 5 years. The outlet here just opened about 2 months ago. The décor is simple and provide an ambience of healthy living. Over the years, the owner of the THE SALAD BAR, have set a mission to create tasty healthy food.

This was evident in the choice of ingredient used to create some of the special dish that suit the palate of healthy people looking to enjoy tasty healthy food. One of the critical factor in a salad will be the used of choice and fresh green vegetables.

The dinner session started with a delightful FRUIT SALAD BOWL - pleasing to the eyes with the bursting reds of the strawberries. Refreshing start.

This was followed by the BLOG SALAD which consists of olives, raisins, orange, dried apricot, onion and tofu with a special Asian dressings (premium soy sauce with sesame). It is rather unique but will take sometime to acquire the taste of it.

and the next one is the OLD GRANNY CAESAR WITH EXTRA AVOCADO – a plateful of goodness – this is an all-time favourite with chicken, cheese and herbs in Italian dressings mix with olives, tomatoes and boiled eggs. For us, we had the additional Avocado to top it up.

If having a standard SALAD is not your cup of tea, you can custom make your own salad by choosing on your own green i.e - 2 types, 3 toppings and 1 dressing to suit your own preference. 

For the main dish, we had the special CAULIFLOWER FRIED RICE. This fried rice does not contain any rice, in fact it is all cauliflower florets cut to resemble rice and fried with mixed vegetable. 

We were taken aback when we tasted the first spoonful, it was everything you get acquainted to Fried Rice taste, the crunch on the cauliflower makes it a little crunchier and sweeter compared with rice. It is a real wholesome meal without the carbohydrate of the rice but tasted quite similar to fried rice. It is really great for those who love Fried Rice but not the carbohydrate in rice. You also have an option to spice it up a little by ordering the spicy version, which they add on freshly cut chilli padi. 

Next, we had the TOMATO PASTA – simple tomatoes based top with Chery Tomatoes. Really for tomatoes lovers. Light meal and a little sourish. Vegan can have this.

Another pasta we had for the night is the TUNA PASTA SALAD, this is a rather unique combination of 2 different dishes into one i.e. pasta and salad, which are usually eaten separately but is combined here for a change.

How can we have no meat no dinner, with that we were introduced to a special Fried Chicken, which is AIR FRIED CHICKEN CHOP. Using the Air Fried Cooking method, no oil is used as the chicken are not deep fried in oil, but using a special Air Fried Fryer to fried this chicken.

For the health freak which still wants to enjoy fried chicken, this will be a great substitute for you. Also, the Fries which, was accompanied with the chicken was also Air Fried. No extra oil and guilty feeling to worry about.

THE SALAD BAR @CITTA MALL also serves croissants and sandwiches. The first one that we tasted was the TUNA CROISSANTS. The first thing we notice was the generous amount of Tuna that was sandwiched in the croissants. 

and this is followed by TURKEY CLUB SANDWICH 

and the last one YO DAWG which is served on a ciabatta bread with Sausage 

For drinks, there are a collection of healthy smoothies of which we tried two of it, which is the MANGO BANANA SMOOTHIE – a concoction of Mango, Banana and Home Made Yoghurt.

the second smoothie was the PURPLE GLITTER SMOOTHIE – which has Dragonfruit, Lemon and Home Made Yoghurt in it. This one has a tinge of sourness, but can be very addictive after a full meal like the one we had here.

Final conclusion, not all healthy food are boring and tasteless. It depends on how it is being prepared and served with special sauce and ingredients that can make it tasteful, wholesome and healthy at the same time. Well, after such a hearty meal, we did not go for any supper.