Grand Imperial @ Bangsar Shopping Centre

I haven't been to Bangsar Shopping Centre in quite a bit. I was pleasantly surprised at the facelift that they had done. Everything looks new and shiny right now.

The family met up at Grand Imperial recently. They were serving Chinese food with a slight fine dining twist to it.

Nice flatware for everyone. They even have knives and fork that I ended up using more than chopsticks because I failed.

Additional dish of Peking duck that was ordered. Look at the glossy, crispy roasted duck prior to being molested by hungry family.

Post molested duck wrapped up in little rice pancakes with sweet sauce, cucumber and spring onions. Yum.

Deep fried rice paper lotus root with salted fish accompanied with steamed marrow melon stuffed with prawn paste and button mushroom. I love the white almost mushroom soup sauce they used for the stuff marrow melon.

Braised Vietnamese-style shark's fin soup in claypot. Thick broth that's filled with seafood such as scallops, prawns and pieces of sharks fin. It came with fresh basil leaf to be added to the broth should you so desire it.

Roast whole suckling pig. Poor piggy, life ended at such an early stage, but damn tasty sacrifice actually. However, they did serve it too us a little late so it was not as hot as we wanted it to be

Steamed 'Turbo' fish with chef's special preserved olive and black bean sauce. This was an odd dish as I found it slightly fishy while the rest of the family said it tasted just fine. Perhaps I have a love hate relationship with fish in general. The meat was perhaps a little too firm than what I'm used to with fish as well.

Sauteed red sandy clam with fresh lily bulb and fresh yam root. The clams were very fresh and tender and I love fresh lily bulb.

Braised bean stick with sea cucumber cube in meat ball. Very delicious and thick broth covering a well prepared meat ball. I couldn't really taste the sea cucumber though, as I think it was smothered by the stronger tasting meat ball. To me however, that's a good thing, since I'm not too much of a fan of sea cucumber.

This was the rest of the duck meat from the Peking duck earlier, since only the skin was used. They gave us fresh, crunchy lettuce to wrap it in.

Fried egg noodles with cuttle fish in superior soya sauce. This is probably hands down the favourite dish of the entire night as voted by the family. It was perfectly fried with a right balance of flavouring and texture. The noodles used are different from what's available in the market. We only had complains that we couldn't have seconds. Excellent.

Double boiled mountain snow seed with lily bulb. The sweets were alright, and not too sweet. I wouldn't give it rave reviews as they were perfectly adequate.

I'm not really sure what they were but the fried one had a slightly sourish filling that made me think it wasn't lotus paste but sweet potato paste and the other was just sweet. I would give it a miss if I had to.

Additional sweets one of the cousins brought. Jelly mooncake with various fillings. They were seriously delicious. I love the chocolate one (surprise, surprise), the black sesame one as well as the coffee one.

Overall, this was a good place to have a nice reunion with family and enjoy a good meal. I think I will try their dim sum there one day. It's supposedly very good.

Grand Imperial

Bangsar Shopping Centre

Tel: +603-2283 1118/3366/3389

Ho Ho Steamboat @ Sri Petaling

We take a break from at least 2 more Penang reduxes for me to post a short one on Ho Ho Steamboat Restaurant. This is my favourite steamboat place, where the soup and the chilly score all the points needed for a truly wonderful meal.

.... And I was playing with Lemecam on my Iphone.

Pretty popular place that went from one corner shop, to them taking over the second floor and finally the two shops next to them. The place is huge and most if the time, packed.

Our humble pot of soup. They have only one kind there, chicken broth.

Recent addition to the family. Barbequed chicken wings. Pretty tasty.

Our set. You can either order in set or by plate. What we do is to order per person and have additional stuff that we like later.

The extras that are our favourite. From the top left to right, Sui Kow, pork balls, needle mushrooms and seafood taufu. YUM!!

Our carbs for the day, which this time around, we couldn't finish.

Our pot of food cooking away.

Their fishballs are fresh and they say from Pulau Ketam. If you are in Sri Petaling, look for Jalan Radin Anum. You won't go wrong for a satisfying meal.

Ho Ho Steamboat Restaurant

Jalan Radin Anum,

Sri Petaling.

Il Lido @ Jalan Yap Kwan Seng

After hearing so much about Il Lido, I knew I had to give it a try to see what exactly the hype is about. This is a little late because I will be blogging about their festive menu, which they served in December 2010. My bad :)

Nice bright shiny menu, waiting for us.

While waiting for the Degustation menu and the Festive menu, we were served some really lovely bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The amuse boucher. I'm not really sure what this is, but it's lovely and crispy.

Crab Salad with Avocado and Bisque Jelly. It tasted fresh and good.

Seared Wagyu Beef Carpaccio with Truffle. My first try of truffle and I loved it. It has a strong smell but it went well with the rather raw beef.

Hand-dived Scallops with Aged Parmesan Cheese Fondue and Green Asparagus. The scallops were absolutely fresh and delicious.

Pan Fried Goose Liver with Saba Wine Must and Sweet Potato Galette. Did I mention how much I love goose liver?

Homemade Porcini Mushroom Cappelletti with Saffron Foam and Hazelnuts. This is where the meal started to slide downhill. I wasn't too sure about this dish. It tasted fine but to me, it wasn't exactly memorable.

Tagliolini with Lobster ‘Amalfi’ Style. I enjoyed the pieces of lobster but I didn't think the taste of the pasta was all that good.

Roasted Suckling Pig with Plum Sauce. I had high hopes for this with all the good reviews I have read on other food blogs. However, it turned out to be a big mistake. It was very dry and not crispy enough.

Turkey Supreme Stuffed with Goose Liver, Truffle and Orange Sauce. The turkey was very dry and crumbly. It was really hard to chew and swallow it.

Molten Lava Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream. This was very good. Moist and warm, the chocolate was flowing and the ice cream a good company to the warm chocolate.

Chestnuts Tart with Mandarin Liqueur Sauce. Thick and rich and not too sweet. I love the fresh fruits sprinkled on top.

Complimentary petit fours.

And we finish with coffee.

While there were highlights in this meal and dishes that were good, there were also misses that made me rather disappointed. I wouldn't exactly be jumping to return to this place but I am willing to give it another try if the chance came up.

il Lido Italian Dining + Lounge Bar

Jalan Yap Kwan Seng
50450 Kuala Lumpur
03-2161-2291

Coliseum @ Jalan TAR

Sorry for the long periods in between posts. Work and all that nonsense got in the way. And the fact I was out of town for the longest time.

Today, I bring you Western food, Hainanese and old school style.

I am not sure where the 'hotel'. This place is seriously old schooled with waiters my grandfather's age.

See what I mean? 

Oxtail soup. Thick and fragrant.

My meal came as a set, with a side salad. Look at the thick slices of toasts in the background.

I can't remember what dish this was but it's basically chicken with a serving of rice. The creamy sauce was good and went well with the slices of chicken.

Simple fare of roast chicken. Juicy and tender.

Minute steak. Coliseum is famous of its steaks. So far, it hasn't been proven wrong.

Sizzling tenderloin. I had a wear a bib to eat this. The sauce was thick and creamy, the meat juicy with a slight touch of red juices.

In comparison, my side dishes of sauteed potatoes and veggies were pretty pathetic.

Overall, Coliseum still serves good solid food, even if I think their waiters are this side of ancient.

Coliseum

100 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman 

50100 Kuala Lumpur, 

Tel: 03-2692-6270
Open Weekdays 8am-10pm

Snowflake @ Pavillion

I have always wanted to try Snowflake during my shopping trips at Pavillion. I see huge crowds converging and that can only mean something good is about to be served.

This is the classic taroball series with jelly. Ice is piled below. I loved the taroballs. I love how chewy they are. I didn't like the ice too much though. It was really very hard to melt and most time, I was using the metal spoon as an ice pick. The ice, I ended up leaving while the toppings were finished in record time.

This was the special of the month or week, sorry I forget. But the ice was coconut flavoured. Wasn't too much of a hit.

We moved on to the Sea Amber Jelly. I expected this to be slightly tart and refreshing but it disappointed me as it was too sweet. Not exactly bad, but not to my taste.

Lime Jade Jelly. This had the refreshing tartness I was looking for. However, it was too sour. We found out through the unwielding ice that the sugar was at the bottom and one thoroughly mixed, made for quite a delicious dessert.

While this outlet isn't bad, I just wish they would do something about their ice. It it melted a little easier, like some of the Ice Kacang we have, it would have been perfect.

Snowflake

Pavillion, KL