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Entries in anniversary (6)

7:39AM

Glitzy

It wasn't often that we get to out for a fancy party, let alone dress up. We had one such chance when our friend Zura and Faizal invited us to attend their 20th wedding anniversary.

It was a black tie event, held at Le Meridien with Anuar Zain being the main attraction - exclusively for the girls. But I must admit that he was charming. See the video below ...

It took me a few days to get my attire in order, having not own a dinner jacket, I decided to buy one. I might need them again in the future. Anita bought a brand new dress of course and had a make-up artist coming to the apartment to get her ready. It was worth it.

The food was great and the company was amazing. Anuar Zain appeared while we were being served dessert and belted up a few of his classics, going round the room working his magic. Then came the selfies and photos, plus in the end we had a personal audience with him being Zura's close friend.

Faizal invited many of his school friends and business associates, dining us with fine food. Great memories.

It was past midnight when we finally left the hotel. A great night indeed and certainly we would me looking forward to their 25th anniversary.

10:14PM

Another Anniversary Lunch

My parent-in-law celebrated their 58th Wedding Anniversary yesterday. When Anita was pregnant for Irfan, we went there for a fabulous lunch buffet at Genji, PJ Hilton. We went there again this time around for old times sake.

Over the years, the place retained the nice food although there were plenty of items being taken out from the menu now. No more oysters - my brother-in-law’s favourite. But the rack of sashimi was still sublime. So was the tempura and tappenyaki. Idlan especially loved it.

This way to Genji ...The startersWe spent a good couple of hours at the restaurant, taking multiple trips to the buffet line. By the end, the boys made their way through the food and picked up what they liked. We topped it up with a nice cake that Anita brought through an instagram advert. Pandan cake topped with gula melaka. Sublime! Even the restaurant staffs asked for a slice. A flavour not very common I guess ...

The restaurant was pretty secluded, located right at the deep end of the hotel on the first floor. I had to ask around for directions not being able to find the place from the car park.

Cosy interior

In the old days, one had to make an advance booking to get a table there. Now, there were plenty of fast sushi outlet as well as other competitions. The place was not as popular. In fact, despite being a Sunday lunchtime, patrons can walk in and ask for a table. It was something we never even dared to do before.

The food was great. Everybody enjoyed themselves. The staffs were very nice - all of them Malaysian. Definitely would be going there again now that we knew that the boys loved the food. Price-wise it was comparable with many 5-star restaurants in town, but this being a buffet and if you loved Japanese cooking, then it was well worth it ...

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3:58PM

Anniversary Lunch

I arranged for the dinner and Anita sorted out the lunch. That seemed fair. But I must say that the choice Anita made was better.

We enjoyed our 20th Anniversary this year and last Sunday we had lunch at Maison Franchaise, a French restaurant located at a bungalow nestled in the middle of Kuala Lumpur. The place was nice and the food was something else.

The front Really neat inside ...Started with some drinks

We got there early since we wanted to just chill out. The lunch option was mainly from a set. You could request a couple of changes from what was offered but that was just about it. Dinner was a la carte.

The restaurant a converted bungalow, with a hint of European architecture, now fully converted into a restaurant. There was a terrace on the ground floor where there was a pool, a perfect place for an evening candle-lit dinner.

What's on offer ...Waiting for the starters ...

The restaurant was empty for lunch and we got all the attentions to ourselves. Nice French music in the background and all the food were freshly prepared. Absolutely fantastic although I felt that the cod for the mains was rather out of place in the scheme of things.

The menu item for starters were oysters. We were not into it and got some lovely smoked salmon as replacement. Then came the entree, artichoke soup with season ducks. OMG!

The smoked salmon ...The gorgeous antichoke soup ....Sauteed shrimps. Asparagus. Scrambled eggs.Salted poached codSlow cooked lamb loin ....We had the cod and lamb for the mains. The lamb was alright, the cod was not great. The lunch was topped up some ice-cream, cherry and crumbles.

All in all a nice afternoon ..... Definitely worth a visit.

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8:27PM

The Week After

A lot of people was asking me about the dinner I had with Anita on our Anniversary. It wasn't much about what we did, but more on the venue which got plenty of people excited.

The view was not bad ...Getting to our tableThe venue was Thirty8 at Grand Hyatt, a restaurant at the top of the hotel, overlooking the Petronas Twin Towers. The view was spectacular and the fact that we started the dinner at 6.30 meant that we were able to enjoy the whole sunset.

Getting there was straight forward and that being a Sunday meant that traffic was light. We reached the car park at the basement, took a lift to the ground floor before getting into another which took us straight to another lobby on the top floor. You would then take another set of stairs up to the restaurant who also served as the breakfast venue and the bar.

Looking down towards the Pokemon Go players at KLCC ParkLooking down towards the lobby which was a floor belowThe starters are hereAnd one of the sous chef came along to complete the presentation We were treated very well indeed and the food was fusion of Western and Chinese. After some salad, I had some steak while Anita had some roast chicken. I must say that the food was great. The chef was a French gentleman and one of his assistant actually came to my table asking me how the wagyu beef were to be cooked. And lastly came the dessert which topped the evening out for us.

Since I mentioned that it was to be our Anniversary Dinner during the booking, the table was specially prepared and hence the great view that we had.

And the sun was coming down ...The gorgeous chunk of wagyu beef for the mainsSome asparagus on the side for meAnd the dessert to share to finish things off ...I would definitely recommend the place for those interested. Yes, it was on the costly side but it was not excessively so.

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6:18AM

Anniversary Dinner at Favola

The nice welcoming ambiance. Nice seats, dimmed romantic lighting. Expecting a nice meal.Puan Anita and I celebrated our 14th wedding Anniversary last evening. Being Ramadhan, we planned for an Iftar in town, but since it was Saturday, most of places were already fully booked. I wanted to go to Latest Recipe in Le Meridien, but the only seats we could get were by the lift. Not exactly romantic.

As an alternative, I booked a table at Favola, the place where I had a superb lunch a couple of weeks ago. It was a true Italian affair, with nice motifs and decorations. The seats and ambiance were very welcoming, and we had our seat overlooking the kitchen, and was able to see how the food were prepared. The lighting were suitably dimmed, and the waitresses were kind and attentive. We arrived early, and made our orders for the food for Iftar. We then took a stroll around the hotel lobby.

The place promised much, but unfortunately for the evening, it did not deliver. We were left disappointed. The entre and pizza were delicious, but unfortunately, the same could not be said about the main dishes. This was a similar complaint I had when I had the lunch there previously. The antipasta was superb, but not the mains.

For starters, I has grilled peach with buffalo mozzarella and rocket salad. Anita had some seafood salad - calimari and clams basically, all served with Italian bread. The bread and the salad were excellent.

My buffalo mozzerella and rocket salad. Definitely something to order again should I return.Now you see it ...... now you don'tNext came the pizza. It was not bad. But the wood-fired pizza at Alexis Ampang - my children favorite - was much better. And this was the chef's specialty pizza - called Favola.

Then came the disappointing main dishes. Anita ordered spaghetti marinara. It was on the dry side to start with, and despite adding tobacco Tabasco (thanks Jools!) and sliced parmesan, she still did not finish her meal. The pasta tasted bland, and was overpowered by the overspiced thick marinara sauce. I suspected that there too much olive oil as well. By the end of the meal, when the pasta cooled down, it started to absorb the oil and became soggy. Thumbs down unfortunately.

Anita's main dish, the marinara. The least we say about it, the better.The top layer was crisp. Blowtorch may be?If you think that the pasta was bad, I ordered another chef's recommendation in a lasagna for my main meal. It was well overcooked, and the top crust layer was more or less as crisp as a piece of wood. It was burned, while the minced meat at the bottom still tasted rare! A basic culinary mistake I must say, and one I did not expect from such a prestigious outlet! The top burnt layer tasted bitter and …… burnt, while the oily bottom layer tasted like ….. olive oil. You can see the herbs still separated from the minced meat, as if they were added in as an afterthought. Did they use a blowtorch to burn the top layer?

To cap things off, my mango juice smelt as if they were fresh ….. out from a box. We did not bother to order dessert or coffee. We would rather head home and see what our boys were up to.

The meal experience could have been much better .... if the meal was as good as the ambiance.The main lobby at Le Meridien. Nice and compact.Well, Favola may be a nice place to have afternoon tea and salad, but that was just about it. The main meals were disappointing, despite me picking up the chef's specialties. The ambiance was nice and the waitresses were competent and attentive, but this did not make up for the disappointment in terms of the overall gastronomic experience. We were expecting better.

Favola was located on the 8th floor of Le Meridien, on the level of the swimming pool and the Grand Salon. The official Le Meridien website featured the restaurant here. Remember to show your FourSquare check-in to claim your 10% discount! Sorry about the quality of the snaps since the lights were dim, too dim for my iPhone.

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