Seafood Buffet At Urban Hotel Istana - A Special Feast Of Fresh Seafood

Mention the sheer word "Seafood", yours truly will be ever ready to taste it without any hesitation. More so a buffet. +BestRestaurant ToEat was invited to taste out the new special Seafood Buffet Feast offering at Urban Restaurant +Hotel Istana Kuala Lumpur .

The Urban is an exclusive and elegantly decorated restaurant with ultra modern concept at Hotel Istana Kuala Lumpur. We love the dining experience and ambiance; as it provides a quaint environment where you can dine without the hustle and bustle of the daily routine.

Urban has a specially crafted buffet that is happening twice a week; On every Thursday there is a special buffet for meat lovers (Cravery Nite)and on every Friday a special Seafood Feast; for people like me that have a strong craving for fresh seafood.

At Urban, it offers a wide varieties of seafood that are cooked in different styles and different cooking method; ranging from fresh seafood on ice, Japanese sashimi, western style seafood pasta and even the range of appetizers which some of their main ingredient are also seafood base.

For appetizers Urban +Hotel Istana Kuala Lumpur offers a very special range of starters which includes the likes of Apple Salad With Raisin and Raspberry.

Pan Burst Tomato Cherry Vine with Mozzarella Cheese

followed by the Smoked Duck ala Plancha With Balsamic dressing

Smoked Salmon

Smoked Mackerel

For the fresh seafood; it is best to cook by just poaching them, as it retains the best natural flavour of the seafood. Some of the highlight seafood that are presented to diners under the Seafood On Ice are Baby Lobsters, Shellfish, Mussels.

Fresh Oysters

Crabs, Clams & Crayfish.

You may ask; What is best way to serve seafood the Japanese style then serving it as Sashimi. The freshness of the seafood that are served in this special sashimi platter are freshly cut Salmon, Maguro, Sea Bass, Scallop and and slice Octopus.

To complement the fresh sashimi are a wide selection of maki offering too.

For those that love their seafood; the western style, you can start off with the Roast Crispy Salmon Skin with Sichuan Pepper with Tahini Yoghurt.

or for the pasta lovers, there is the Spaghetti With Clam, Garlic, Herbs with Olive Oil

Or the Chilli Flower Crab

There is also the firm texture, succulent and fresh Steamed Peruvian Scallops. 

While for those that loves a little rice for their meal, The Risotto Fruit Di Mare With Prawns, Clam, Mussels and Basil will filled your stomach.

Not forgetting for a dish for the meat lovers there is the Petit Fillet Beef With mashed Potatoes. The tender fillet meat was grilled to the right medium done texture which is still juicy and complement well with the mashed potatoes.

Another cooking style for the sea bass is the Striped Bass With Caramelize Onion and Basil Pesto sauce.

and you can also enjoy the Baked Salmon With Herb Dough

For desserts, Urban serves an array of these petite size desserts; so that one can enjoy more desserts in this way. One of my favourite was the Berries Pavlova,

HoneyDew Pudding on a glass,

Blackcurrant Jelly,

Tiramisu,

Petite size Creme Brulee,

and the Black Forest Cake.

This once a week Seafood Feast Buffet is only available for dinner every Friday and is priced at RM125.00 nett per person from 6.30pm to 1030pm. For reservations, please call 03-2141 9988 ext 3691.

Urban +Hotel Istana Kuala Lumpur also offers a 3 meal course; Executive Set Lunch for RM50.00 nett per person.

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. 

Monkey Waiter Serving Customers in Japanese Restaurant

Would you mind being served by a monkey when you eat out at a restaurant. Now, in Japan, there is a restaurant called the Tavern Izakaya where you will be served by monkeys. Watch the video below from NTDTV news from Japan.

Comment below if you think this is a good idea.