Food Review - Star Cafe (Taman Desa)

Name 
Desa Star Cafe (Non-Halal - serves alcohol)
Food

Local, Western, Fusion, Casual Dining

Location

At a prominent corner visible from Jalan Desa Utama

View Larger MapGetting There
Located at a really prominent & strategic corner of the Taman Desa Business Park with lots of tall mature trees that provide ample greenery & shade for the cafe. Located at the far corner of the Business Park facing the Taman Desa Medical Centre, it is very prominent and even if you are entering Taman Desa (from the Old Klang Road entrance) for the very first time, you would not be able to miss it.

Parking
The Lunch crowd may find parking to be a challenge as this restaurant is located at a Business Park after all but the dinner crowd would have an easier time finding parking around the Business Park vicinity as the office people would've gone off by then.

Weekends are pretty quiet for this part of Taman Desa. So, if you are planning a weekend meal here, you'd have no trouble in getting a space.
Ambience
It is well lit and the couple of times that I had been there, I had seen families (including) have their dinners there to business colleagues winding down the day end with a couple of beers. Despite the chairs being plastic, they are very sturdy and look great, as you can see from the pictures.

The double shoplot has also been recently been refurbished so that it is a very cozy place with some good music to help patrons be relaxed .
Variety
Surprisingly, they offer quite a number of items on their menu catering to diners who prefer either Asian fare or Western/fusion food - from Char Kuey Teow to Rib-Eye, Tenderloin Steaks & Braised Lamb Shanks.

On top of that, they do have quite a few desert and beverage items as well. Enough for you to try on your next visit.Taste

The food is actually quite good. As a fairly young establishment, a lot of care has been put into the food preparation.

Presentation

Top marks for the presentation. Again, this is a neighborhood restaurant, hence, it may lose out if compared with some fine dining restaurants located in 5 star hotels or at an upscale mall. Overall, I was pretty impressed with the way the presented the food to us.

Value

Altho' it's considered a neighborhood cafe, the prices are on par with most restaurants in its category. It's not too pricey but it's not a place you may visit daily.

Overall

It's a nice little place to bring your friends for a few drinks or even a meal in a relaxed atmosphere, complete with good food with prices that are quite reasonable. 

Food Review - Tony Roma's

Name
Tony Roma's
Food
Casual American Dining (Halal )
Location(s)
There are several TR outlets in Malaysia (and all of them are in the Klang Valley I believe)
- Pavillion KL
- Curve
- Sunway Pyramid
- Gardens @ Mid Valley

Getting there
As they are all located in the biggest shopping malls in the Klang Valley, just go to the respective malls and once you get there, ask for the outlet location from the info counter.

Parking
As all of the outlest at the moment are located within shopping malls, you can park at the respective malls.

Service
I must say that the service is pretty good! I was impressed with the level of courtesy, not just from 1 staff member, but from several different ones! Kudos to the Ops/Training Managers.

I was however a little taken aback by the greeter - who was a cross-dresser in a tight mini-skirt! Well, if any of the TR Management (or if you are a friend of theirs), please not that that is quite an unpleasant 1st  impression for diners like me (of course there may be some who might like this sort of thing) who like men to NOT wear skirts, make-up or sway their hips as they walk.

Ambience
The outlets are clean, as they are fairly new in Malaysia (only 3+ years here) and the decor is the typical casual American dining (TGIF, Bubba Gumps, etc come to mind) only that the feel is a little less homey/comfy than those. I would be a little hesitant to really let my hair down here than those places. However, it's still pretty comfortable, with 2 types of seating tables -the standard wooden tables & chairs and the also standard cushioned u-shaped seating for couples of friends who might want to share their meals or get cozy.

Taste
I must admit that when they first opened a couple of years back, I tried their purportedly famous ribs at the Pavillion outlet but to my disappointment, the ribs were almost burnt with the meat texture coming close to being like jerky or charcoal, as the moisture was gone. Plus the sauce they use is pretty standard BBQ-flavored despite it being their Tony Roma's house recipe. There's a sauce bucket (see pic) with 4 special flavours of sauce for the ribs:
- Original
- Carolina Honeys
- Blue Ridge Smokies
- TR Red Hot

This time however (Since I won't be going back to the Pavillion Outlet), the ribs I had were much much better. They were still moist and tender. But the sauce used to baste was still the same. While my steak was just ok despite having them done at medium. Which to me, again, was very  disappointing as this place is supposed to be an American Restaurant. However, the ribs my wife had were still pretty much too dry and semi-burnt (like my previous experience at Tony Roma's Pavillion).

So, I guess you can conclude that I won't be headed back to any TR's outlet anytime soon.

Variety
Of course they have quite a number of menu items to keep diners going back for more. They have starters, salads, beef (of course), fish, chicken, burgers, Sandwiches, deserts, drinks (both with and w/o alcohol). Each main a la carte item also comes with 2 sides from the following choices:
- Cole Slaw
- Rice
- TR Pesto Salad
- Fries
- Veges
- Ranch Style Beans (which I chose)
- Mashed Potatoes  (which we both chose)
- Corn
- Baked Potato

Value for Money
I have to say that this place scores pretty low on this segment as their items are mostly on the high side. The full slab of ribs goes for RM99++ and the Rib/Steak combo I ordered set me back RM55.90++ while the Roma Rack were RM 49.90++. Credit where credit is due, their portions are huge! I barely was able to finish my plate of food! So, if you intend to order desert, i suggest that you finish your food before ordering or share your food with your friend/partner.

Overall
Fantastic service, above average food (if you're lucky) at steep prices but in a nice comfy environment. Strictly for those who're trying to impress someone and that someone insists on Ribs served by TR (as there really is nothing outstanding or memorable here). If not, there are many more places to eat better & tastier Ribs, Fish, Chicken, Burgers, sandwiches or Steaks.

Food Review - Paradize Thai Bistro/Poolside Coffeehouse

Name

Paradise Thai Bistro

Food

Local, Thai & Western

Location

Lodge Paradise Hotel, Jalan Sultan Ismail

Getting there

Located at the prominent left corner (if you are driving along the 1-way street) on Jalan Sultan Ismail, directly facing the Istana Hotel. This is an old landmark that has been there virtually untouched, except for some face-lifting work on the building’s façade, for the longest time.

Parking

There is ample parking around the entire vicinity – either at the public parking bays or in any of the commercial buildings or hotels.

Service

The staff are very friendly and helpful despite most of them being non-Malaysians. However, I was a little disappointed that none of them realized what I was talking about when I asked them (3 different people) about the menu items that appear on their Web-site but are missing from their physical menus. BUT,… credit where credit is due, they still served us with the fervor and eagerness sorely lacking in their Malaysian counterparts. This itself made me rate their service level as good.

Ambience

The place can be a little bit of a maze as we entered along the back lane leading from Jalan Sultan Ismail toward the Weld – which is actually the front gate because the guard house and boom gate is there – but because that was the first time we were there, we entered the hotel and went upstairs to the lobby lounge instead of the restaurant which was located next to the pool (and has a great view of the Jalan Raja Chulan/Sultan Ismail junction). Diners have the option to sit at the poolside – which looks great & enticingly cozy – however, we chose to sit inside because of the horrendously hot & humid weather we have been experiencing of late – hence, no air-con, no life. The Air-Con section is also split into 2 with 1 section laid out as a conventional dining area while the other is designed like a club/bistro. Cozy and really puts you in the mood.

Taste

Based on the items we ordered, which were a Thai Green Curry Chicken Combo Dinner set (RM19 – which comes with Mango Salad, Fish Cake, Pandan Chicken and Red Rubies Dessert) and the Sizzling Fillet Steak (RM35). And for our drinks and dessert: Banana Split (RM12) & Sangria (RM15). The Thai food definitely tastes much better than the steak. Having said that, the items were still not as good as some of the other Thai places I’ve tried (eg: Chakri Palace, Rama V, etc.) while the fried items were extremely oily. The steak unfortunately was a huge disappointment. The beef, although tender (I had it done medium), just didn’t make the grade in terms of taste and the black pepper sauce I opted for didn’t help it either. The Sangria was also disappointing as I have had much better Sangria. This one was a tad too bitter (perhaps due to the red wine used).

Presentation

All the Thai food is neatly presented atop a pandan leaf on bright clean white china while the steak came in a sizzling hot plate. This would automatically earn 2 notches for presentation. Moreover, this makes the food so much more irresistible!

Variety

There are enough menu items to warrant return visits to the place as they not only serve Western (eg: Fish Fillet) & Thai but also local favorites like Cantonese Fried Noodles, Fried Rice, Mamak Mee & Fried Kuay Teow.

Value for Money

With many items in the under RM 20 range, this place offers good value in a cozy and comfy environment right in the heart of the city.

OverallThe place looks great especially after dark as the lighting really adds to the mood & character of the place. However, the food isn’t great, but then, this is not the kind of place you go to for great tasting food.