Lunch at Rakuzen

I was treated to a nice lunch today, right across the road from the hospital. A Japanese restaurant called Rakuzen. A very unassuming place but the food was much better than expected.

Everything was kept simple, and our host were nice enough to book a room for us. I had nabeyaki udon and some salmon with rice. Very nice.

Since this would probably be a regular haunt for me in the future, I wouldn't call this a review. But it was nice none the less. Apparently it was a very popular joint amongst the hospital staffs. On the way out, the waitresses knew my colleague by the name and said, "see you tomorrow". Hmmm! I wonder why?

Serai at Empire, Subang Jaya

I was taken out for lunch earlier, but we did not go far. We had a quick bite over at Empire Subang. There were plenty of choice as far as food was concerned. We were recommended Serai, on the Ground Floor, and that was where we settled at.

It was a fusion restaurant, blending East and West. We were talking rendang pasta here. I went for the more traditional choice in nasi kerabu. It came with piece of roast chicken, something not commonly seen.

The chicken and the condiments were good, but the actual rice did not taste authentic. The drinks however were superb. I ordered calamansi soda. In hot weather, it tasted really nice. My host ordered the rendang pasta, but it came late. Apparently, the waiter - who was a fusion person, Bosnian we thought - messed the order up. Him being Singaporean was not impressed LOL! The Chief Supervisor did cone over to apologise. No, we did not get a discount.

The calamansi soda comes with a healthy dose of mint .... nice and coolingMy nasi kerabu which came with roast chickenWe raced through the rest of lunch. Service was quite fast, and it would have been faster if the order was not messed with. The nasi kerabu was not bad at all. My conclusion was, it was more a venue for snacking than actual heavy meal. The pavlova apparently was a hit, according to FourSquare.

Would I come again? Maybe for a quick drink, yes. But not for another round of nasi kerabu I don't think.

Bad Experience at Ben's

We finally had the chance to sit down for lunch at Ben's General Food Store. I was meaning to do this after the visit when I accompanied Idlan for some pizza. Today, I sampled some food, and the service there first hand.

On the previous visit, the restaurant was only half full, and I commented on how good the staffs were. It was packed today, with queue outside, and the service definitely eroded. Not only that some of our orders were messed, the waiters had the cheeks to come over and explained what we did wrong. Apparently, since we ordered mains which included salad, the starter salad we ordered would come together. But the problem was, the orders for starters and accompanying salad were completely different, and still the waiter insisted that we ordered wrong.

Playing spot the foreigners ....The food preparation area ....Anita was hungry at the time, and was rather mad at the waiter, and we had to explain again what we ordered and how we insisted our orders to be prepared. It was finally rectified when the shift manager came to speak to us.

The pizza for Irfan was fine, but apparently, we had to pay for the the extra parmesan - something we did not have to do three weeks ago. Hmm! Odd. Maybe in three weeks time, we should be forewarned to bring along an oxygen tank just in case we would be charged for the air we breath. You never know!

Irfan went hyper after all the fizzy drinks ...The pizza has arrived ....Told you I was not into green peas .....I think, the problem was not so much the food, but the "we know best" attitude of the staffs there. Anita thought it was more to do with the fact the majority of the patron that afternoon were foreigners, and hence we were treated as second-rate customers. To be honest, I kind of agree with her. Unfortunately, this was still true in many of the more affluent areas and hotels in the capital. I guess, all of us have the urge to please the foreigners more than our own people ……

As a result, I had to reduce the rating for this outlet, and warn that it may be best not to visit it during busy hours ….. unless that you are a foreigner ….

Ben's General Food Store, Bangsar Village

Coming straight off his Lego camp, Idlan was understandably hungry. He did not have lunch earlier, although he had a late breakfast. Straight away, he told us he wanted pizza. We were settled at The Loaf earlier, but since it did not offer pizza, Dina, our guest, suggested we head across to Bangsar Village and try Ben's.

Again, it was quite a find. We went there a couple of months ago, but could not get a seat, and had to settle for an alternative place. Now, we understood why the place was packed during lunch.

I did not have the chance to peruse through the menu, but they mainly offer Italian and fusion food. We went straight for pizza and milkshake. It was a ten inch, thin crust pizza, and Idlan finished them all on his own - with the help of sprinkling of parmesan of course.

I did managed to sample half a slice. It was very nice. Nice crisp base, tangy tomato topping and nice smooth mix of mozzarella and cheddar. Served piping hot, in a nice little place and a personal roll cutter.

Idlan and Anita did some groceries while I was with Idlan. Irfan joined us later and we ordered another pizza for take-out.

The pizza has arrivedIdlan working on themOne more to go

Since it was a quick stop, we would definitely be returning. It must be the Raya spirit, as I was kind to both restaurants - The Loaf being the other - I entered this afternoon.

The restaurant was located on the Ground Floor of Bangsar Village, right by the main foyer, directly opposite Village Grocers. I have to warn you that the place tended to be packed during weekends, especially lunchtime ….

P/S - we had a slightly different experience the next time we came here.

Tickets for the Smurfs

Bloated from yesterday, I missed breakfast. We spent the morning in front of the television and cleaning the room. Most of our friends and relatives were still in their kampung, so we decided just to have lunch outside while having a look at how deserted KL had been.

We were quite surprised that when we approached Mid Valley, all the carpark indicated red, meaning full. We were lucky that the parking tickets were still issued as I desperately needed to get to Gardens today. The reason, tickets for tomorrow's show of the Smurf! We settled for a parking bay on level B4, right at the bottom.

There were still plenty of tickets available for the afternoon show tomorrow. After the tickets were sorted out, there was a small matter of lunch. As usual, the boys wanted pizza, and we landed at Alexis.

Settling down for lunchMy cod. Looked dry, but was actually rather nice.The salad and pizzaThe place was full, but we managed to get the sofa seats still. A pleasant lunch as the boys were treated to a nice pizza - we had to order two since they finished both. I had some cod for a change, and it was not that bad. My rocket salad was a bit dry today, the leafs were rather too bitter and hard.

Irfan's chamomile teaEmpty-looking Mid Valley GardensWe sat down for tea - Irfan had his dose of chamomile, hence he was pretty chilled after that. Headed over at Isetan, where Anita bought a dress, before heading back home in an almost empty Federal Highway.

Looking forward for the Smurfs tomorrow ….