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 - Celsius Restaurant & Bar

Name
Celsius Restaurant & Bar
Food
Western/Fusion Cuisine
Location
Fahrenheit 88 (Bukit Bintang)
Getting there
Located in the heart of the KL Golden Triangle facing the Pavillion. You can't really miss it. It's right at Fahrenheit 88's back entrance facing away from the Pavillion.

View Larger Map

Parking

There are lots of parking options available to shoppers/diners alike in the vicinity of the mall, including street, mall & valet parking. 

Ambience
As this place is a club/bar, the ambience & decor of the place really made it quite stunning visually. There is a centre piece right at the entrance behind the bar which looks like a giant mushroom (hmmmm, subliminal programming for getting high...?) that keeps changing color.

The place is rather dark for photography and the music was kind of loud for merely food. So be prepared for some dance-floor action after your meal. Yup, there is a dance-floor.

I just thought that piece alone gave this place its identity! I love it.

Variety

Bearing in mind that the main focus of this place is not so much the food but more on the beverage (especially the alcoholic variety), we kind of knew what we were getting into when we came here for a try. Unfortunately, despite having quite a number of food items and variety on the menu, most of them were not available when we went there.

Of course, this being a bar, it must have its selection of alcoholic drinks. Hence, there is an area where customers can pick their poisons.

Service

Although the staff were polite, they seem to be rather busy with getting the place ready for the club-goers than serving diners like us.

Presentation

Just for variety, we ordered the fish and the lamb items. The food was presented on large leaf-shaped white china, which made the food look all the more enticing.

Of course, the drinks looked fantastic. After all, this place specializes in beverages.

Taste

There wasn't anything for us to complain about except for the long wait for the food and the non-availability of many of the menu items. Other than that, the food wasn't bad but nothing really stood out either. 

The drinks of course not only looked fantastic but tasted good as well.

Overall

I'd say this place is worth a visit but perhaps a repeat visit just to impress friends with this place's unique look and great location. 

Alas, it is no longer there (guess that concludes the rating of this place as a food destination) as it has recently been replaced by another restaurant.

Food Review - Capriciossa

Name

Capricciosa (Sunway Pyramid Outlet)

Food

Italian 

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Location

Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall

Pavilion KL Shopping Mall

Getting there

It's located right next to the entrance facing the Sunway Theme Park.

If you're going to the Pavilion outlet, then it's located at the Lower Ground floor where a myriad of dining outlets can be found.

Parking

There are lots of parking lots at the Sunway Pyramid Car-Park itself or you can choose to park at the public Car-Park at the shoplots nearby.

Ambience
Capricciosa is very clean and well lit with a very interesting dry kitchen that's right at the entrance that's visible to diners and passers-by.

Diners and passers-by can see for themselves how their pizzas are freshly made 1st-hand.

The timber flooring also makes the place look very inviting and Italian. However, for this outlet, somehow, the way the seating is arranged made it seem kind of odd, with a little too much space.

However, having said that, the additional space is in no way detrimental on a diner's experience at this restaurant.

Presentation

During this particular visit, we only ordered pasta and not the pizzas. Even so, the pastas were served in pearly white china plates. This makes us want to dig into the food all the more as it makes the pasta look so much more enticing! Yummm...

Taste
We ordered the following from the Pasta Fresca (Fresh Pasta) Range:

• Pappardelle with Porcini & Eringi Mushroom in Cream Sauce
• Fetuccine with Smoked Salmon in Tomato Cream Sauce
• Pappardelle with Mushrooms in Spicy Ragu Sauce

They were all served hot and were all rich and creamy. The aroma made it almost impossible to resist for us to dig in immediately. There was no hint of any lack of freshness (Hmmmm, maybe we were brain-washed by what we saw at the dry kitchen thru the glass...)

All were good and we would definitely have no reservations in recommending you to Capricciosa.

Service

As the restaurant is not technically a fast-food outlet, we had to wait quite a bit for the food to be served. However, diners would know to expect this as it's not a fast-food joint.

The order taker was quite helpful in helping us decide on which menu items to order. Despite being an activity that we partake in 3 times (or more for some people ;P ) a day, ordering food can be a daunting task when one is unfamiliar with the menu. So, I'd say they provided pretty good service.

Variety

With a plethora of pizzas and pasta items, there are enough items on the menu to warrant multiple repeat visits. 

Value for Money

At RM2x.xx per item, it's not something that you'd indulge in daily but judging from the quality, taste and the overall experience one gets from Capricciosa, I'd say it's good value. The Pizza items are pretty competitive as well. So when you have a craving for pizzas, it's a good alternative to the other Fast-Food type places like Pizza Hut.

Overall

Good food, good ambience & good value. What more can you ask for? Go give it a try and let me know what you think.