First Look

The Four Seasons Hotel right next KLCC was recently opened and by the lobby, it housed a multi story mall by Robinsons which caught my eye my recent walks.

Finally this afternoon after work, all four of went there to have a look around and we were pleasantly surprised. At least to the lower ground area which housed a gourmet food outlet called Atlas.

We had some sandwiches there and the salami there was the best I had in town. Idlan went crazy with doughnuts and macaroons while Irfan had some gelato.

If I was hungry I might have tried one of their bar cum café which sells high grade wagyu beef by the weight. You just then pay extra RM for them to cook for you plus the trimmings if you wanted to have it at the restaurant.

That may be my destination in the coming week.

Before we left, we also went up the four floors of retail outlets but we didn't pick anything up. The object of the exercise was to have a look. And that was what we did.

With the café being this good, I wonder what the room service would be like at the hotel ...

Pasar Seloka Raya

Anita read somewhere that there was a bazaar going on at Publika. She wanted to buy some items there and asked if I can drive her there.

Being a public holiday, getting a parking spot could be tricky. But it turned out that there were plenty of pace at the lower levels. Once there, you just needed to climb on the escalator to get to the shopping floors. Quite convenient.

And the bazaar was great. After half an hour, Anita could not make up her mind about what to buy. There were too many optins and since the place was packed, it was difficilt to get any service. Maybe she should come back during work days when there were not too many people.

The bazaar mainly sell clothes. It was a great place to get Raya clothes for children, The dresses were damn cute, so were the baju melayu. There were also ornaments and cosmetics. The one stall which attracted my attention actually belonged to the singer, Amy Search.

I ended up buying some lights for the balcony for Raya decorations. All battery operated and portable. Definitely a great place to spend an afternoon shopping with plenty of cafe and restaurants - alas, it was Ramadhan. Great place to hang around ...

New Look IKANO

When I first returned from the UK, one of the first mall I went to visit was Ikano Power Centre. It was brand new back then. Just opened. The mall opposite, The Curve have yet to be opened. IKEA was only just being planned.

It was a stand alone mall but with Harvey Norman and other anchor tenants, they were doing well. They also had a very good food court on the top floor - which has since been replaced with Toys'r'Us. Since it was by the highway - NKVE and LDP was not that busy back then - getting there and back was convenient. Parking spaces were also aplenty.

Inside the new flagship Harvey-Norman store

Over the years they had many changes but none were as drastic as from the beginning of the year. The mall had been closed for a good part of a year now and was just reopened before Xmas. A major departure from what it used to look like.

Now, Harvey Norman expanded to a couple of floors. The whole of lower ground on one side was occupied by Ben' groceries shop. Cold Storage had moved out. The place also looked cleaner and brighter.

The many eateries on the lower ground floor remained opened, and on the evening that we went to visit, it was packed. Looked like it was a change for the better ...

Maison at Pavilion

Since my father in law been discharged, getting some time away from the house with Anita had not been straight forward. We managed a couple of hours last weekend since Anita wanted to do some shopping at Pavilion. We ended up having a late lunch at one of the new café there called Maison.

Located on the second floor of the complex - where there used to be an Italian café - the place was only recently opened. They served mainly desserts and sandwiches with a distinct French flavour. The set menu they had there was reasonably priced and since Anita was starving, she went for the lunch set while I just ordered one from the standard selection set.

A nice ambiance

For that, we got starters, mains and dessert - and a generous portions at that. Plus coffee or tea at the end.

Anita went for roasted Angus beef and it was enough for the two of us to share. I had some chicken terragon which actually wasn't as great as the beef. The dessert was a delight. We had bread and butter pudding with some gorgeous vanilla custard to top it.

My chicken tarragon Definitely worth a visit. Nice ambiance, friendly waiter and waitresses - all local. Good took some time to be prepared but it was worth the wait ... Definitely with come back and try another item from the menu.

New Look Pertama Complex

The main entrance to Pertama Complex had been under constant renovations for the last couple of years. That made access to the shopping mall rather inconvenient, putting off people planning to go in.

Yesterday, on my way to Kandaqstan launch, it seemed that the renovations were completed. I felt compelled to enter the building and have a look.

The central foyer by the main entrance appeared brighter and more openThe back lane remains the sameThe main change I saw was to main lobby. The facade was ageing before, not been given a new coat of paint. I also though that the lighting had been changed, the whole area looked more cheerful. Deep down, it remained the same old Pertama Complex. The old leather shops were still there on the upper floors.

I also made my way to once-mighty Foto Selangor. It had definitely seen its best day. Half of the shop now stored electronic goods rather than camera. Sad really. I supposed that was what the digital photography revolution did to the old brick and mortar photo shops. And they were only mainly selling consumer-grade cameras there now ... Had to look elsewhere if you want those fancy lenses.

There were more activities at the back rather than the frontThe once-mighty Foto Selangor looked to have downsized big time ...I remembered that there were I plenty of food stalls back in the days. They seemed to be missing now. Maybe the renovations had phased them out. I guess, in years to come, old malls such as this and Campbell would start to diminish a la Ampang Park, Sungai Wang Plaza and Yow Chuan. Unless these places managed to reinvent themselves to sell niche items to cater for a specific demographic of consumers. Leather goods maybe?