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.

To Sungai Petani

I am not going to deny that I am rather tired at the moment. After the trip to the butterfly farm, we had lunch at Batu Feringghi, at one of the Indian outlet there. What unique was that the joint actually do fusion of eastern and western food. And they dis not do that badly at all. We has some tandoori and tikka masalla. Yes, it was adjusted to the western palate, but the taste was definitely there. Shame about the price though. It was rather expensive! Comparable to KL rate.

Straight after lunch, we headed back to the hotel. The boys were buzzing for the pool. We obliged and spend more than an hour there. Understandably, Irfan was asleep when we travel to Sungai Petani to visit my Auntie. We planned to have dinner there.

Ikan tiga rasa ...... Nice!Unfortunately, my favorite store was closed and it was currently past 9 pm and my Aunt and Mum were still out ordering dinner. The children were getting restless and tired. It was going to be a horrible night!

Wadi Hadramawt

In the last few years, we have done Chinese, Indian, Minang, Western, Thai, so we thought we try Arab this year. Before everybody went overboard, the reason why we tended to go out for a big meal during my birthday was because I share it with my father-in-law - and Dr Mahathir as well if you must know - so, the family was actually celebrating his birthday and I just tag along for the ride. It tended to confuse my boys though as both their father and granddad share the same birthday.

Anita picked up Wadi Hydramawt. Every time we drove by Jalan Ampang, she kept looking at the restaurant and this time, she wanted to give it a try. Booking was straight forward, she asked for a private room upstairs and we turned up just after 8.30. Walking up the stairs proved a nuisance both for my kids and parents. So, be careful if you we planning to venture into the private rooms. We did not pre-order our food though.

Taking time to orderLet me start by commenting on the venue. It was a converted bungalow building, more of a colonial touch, right of Jalan Ampang, to your left if you were driving up from Ampang Park towards Jelatek. The building did look extravagant from the outside, and there were ample parking space for the patrons. It was attended full time apparently, so it was well-lit and safe. You have a choose of eating at the open verandah, or inside the building - our room were upstairs on the first floor. Pretty cosy but was crowded when we arrived. Sitting in the room, with the air-conditioning on cut us away from the buzz happening around.

The menu was straight forward, and we all took orders of rice with either chicken, lamb or fish. And here is a tip should you were there for a visit - order the set rice meals, such as chicken mendy rather than fish. The fish took a good half an hour to be ready, and were the laser to come. All the other rice meal I was sure were pre-cooked. The drinks came fast, so was the salad. Being a Sunday evening, I could appreciate that the restaurant was fully booked, but what did not help was they were clearly short staffed. And the staff on show were a mix of local and Arabs, and the Arab waiters could do with some English classes, as their Malay we non-existent. All that said, the waiter assigned to our table was courteous and did not mess our order at all. His English was another story.

So, what did I sample? Olive and hummus salad for starters, then chicken mendy for mains, with side orders grilled chicken - which looked and tasted pretty much like tandoori - and lamb with brinjal curry. For drinks, I had some freshly - and I really mean fresh - blended mango juice. We also had a variety of salads, and my children and father-in-law had fish for their main meals.

My chicken mendyTime to tapau!

On the whole, the food was better than expected. I couldn't resist the comparison with Al Rawsha, another Middle Eastern restaurant we frequent. The menu was comparable, and so was the price. I have to say that Al Rawsha's food was a touch better, with greater variety. The service at Al Rawsha was a bit slower though from what I experienced before. Al Rawsha's "castle" near Bulatan Pandan was much bigger however, although during peak hours, parking there could be a pain despite having attendants to help out.

On the whole, if you were craving for some Middle Eastern food, you could do much worst than here. Be prepared to pay a premium as it was not cheap. I might come here again on the odd occasions, and I would recommend you do the same as well from time to time. More information available here in their rather extravagant website.

Ming Palace

This was a favorite Chinese restaurant of Anita's family since she was young. As far as she can remember, this has been the spot. Anita's father was an army officer and they as a family used to live at MinDef nearby. The restaurant users to be the flagship of Ming Court Hotel. For the past 10 years or so, the hotel was taken over by the Corus Group and has been renamed accordingly. However, they still retained a couple of famous eatery there - The Ming Palace where we ate last night, and Kimuro, a Japanese restaurant who served a mean tappenyaki - shamed that I did not like tappenyaki, even thought I love Japanese food in general. I just probably prefer them raw maybe.

Last Monday was Idlan's seventh birthday, while Thursday was Mum-in-laws. It was her idea to have Chinese and the choice was obvious. Ming Palace it was.

The food there has been consistent for the last few years. The Peking Duck was excellent although we did not have it last night. The steam cod was heavenly, although expensive. The buttered prawn was not too bad either. In fact, the food were reasonable across the menu. We had soup to start things off, and for the last 10 years, I have been against shark fin soup, so I had some corn and crabmeat soup, which was a firm favourite. We ordered seven items amongst us last night, a variety of beef, chicken, prawns, vegetables and fish. The Kung pow beef was excellent, a new find for us.. Lemon chicken was good as well. The disappointment was the vegetables. The asparagus was rather overcooked. I did not taste the fish as we ordered steamed Latin last night, and I got this thing with fresh-water fish!

We had an excellent time. My brother-in-law was also present. We we're really too full to order any desserts. From what I know, the main attraction of the place was the excellent din sum lunch they offer. I have sampled them on a couple of occasions and the service was quick and friendly. In fact, the waiters and waitresses the knew Irfan and Idlan by now. In fact a few of them watched them grew up over the years, and remembered how t prepare their favourite Chinese Fried Rice.

I must confess that it was not the cheapest joint in town. In fact, do be careful if you were ordering for fish and you may be caught staring at the bill ........ Certainly for the business types, the private rooms offered privacy.

Corus Hotel is located along Jalan Ampang, opposite KLCC and right next to the now oh-so-quiet Avenue K. Ming Palace was located on the first floor of the hotel. The parking can be a pain as they charge you RM 10 per entry!

Quick stop at Alexis

It has been a long day. Not about the work, but the errand I had to run after coming home from work. First thing, I had to drive Anita to Bangsar to pick up the cake for tomorrow. That done, picked Idlan up from Quran School, and off we went to Great Eastern Mall for some more shopping at Toys'r'Us there, mainly for the tidbits in the goodie bags to be handed tomorrow at Idlan's class party.

By the time we got that sorted out, it was already time for dinner. As usual, it would be pizza for my boys and their favourite pizza joint there was at Alexis on the Ground Floor. Why you may ask? The pizza there was prepared in a wood fire oven. Well, allegedly. They were thin-crusted and nice.. The portion were also reasonable. Not too big, and not too filling either. And between the two of them, they would finish the pizza easily.

I had my usual salad and pasta for dinner there. The rocket and pine nut salad there was highly recommended, although the pasta could be hit and miss. Tonight, my carbonara was good, but Anita seafood pasta - I've forgotten what it was - was not so great. Another favourite of ours were the seafood pasta in parcel. Usually nicely cookers and delicious.

If you were out for a drink, or dinner, around Great Eastern Mall I'd definitely recommend giving Alexis a try. Yes, the price was a bit on the high side. Certainly more expensive than say, Delicious, but with good company, it could be great night out. The musical line-ups during weekends were not too shabby either. Usually jazz-infused and classy. Personally, I have never attended one. Maybe, with the kids on tow, those time where we can visit a jazz bar and chill, may have gone into a hiatus.