Lintillac, Paris

I paid a visit to this restaurant after reviewing some good reviews about affordable but good foie gras served here.

But what I got was disappointment beyond contempt. I wouldn't say it was worse than my previous dining experience in another French establishment, but it's pretty bad.




First of all, to avoid disappointment, I called up early a day before to make a reservation.
And when I arrived, it was still early and we were the first customers there. It was empty.

When provided our name, we were adjourned to our table, a tiny laden square located just in front of the TOILET and the wine shelves!



We asked to change table but they said it was all fully booked, even though it was still extremely early and the restaurant was empty. When we asked why were we placed in such a horrible seating even though we reserved, they said we never specified which seating we wanted. So what? You just put us in the worst seating in the restaurant possible?

I don't believe that every single patron of the restaurant that was scheduled to come in for dining at least 1.5 HOURS later have requested to sit at a particular seating in the restaurant. Being very hungry and not wanting to walk more to look for restaurants, I even suggested that we could eat really fast and be gone before their guests arrive, and they refused. I strongly believed they were being prejudice, it was my first experience of racism in Paris.


wine we ordered

So the whole night I was dining next to the wine shelves where the waiters literally reached over (in front of me!) to grab the wine bottles every so often for their arriving guests. It was utterly rude and extremely bad attitude. I bet they were laughing at us behind the bars: "dumb Asians, won't leave even after we pester them so".

If I knew this was going to be this way, I would have left, but like I said, I was too hungry to begin with, and really wanted to just eat and leave.

I ordered some of the dish that were suggested online, and to my dismay, none of them but one lived up to my standards.


This must be the saddest piece of Foie Gras pate I've seen in Paris. The pate itself was smooth, but the pairing was poor. I can't even remember if they gave us breads.


the Foie Gras de Canard was another mediocre dish. It was nice, as most cooked well foie gras would, but again, nothing special. No sauce whatsoeve, only couple of plums to pair with. I might as well bring home a piece of foie gras from the supermarket, seasoned with salt and pepper and seared it myself.


my partner ordered the duck confit, I've never been of a fan of duck confit so I wouldn't know how to comment on this dish. Though it was a pretty small dish.

The only thing that excelled superbly in this restaurant was their chocolate mousse, however the sad the presentation was.



Sadly, I got wasted that night after finishing half a bottle of wine and puked out all my delicious chocolate mousse onto Paris pavement not long after. 

KFC @ Paris

One of the best KFC Burgers I've had was in Paris.

The French paired their burgers really well with bacons. They perfected the concoction if anything. Even Mcdonald there has made its CBO (burger with bacon and chicken and bacon bits on the buns, divine) a top notch 'cuisine'.


Bacon with grilled chicken on ciabatta bun (ciabatta! in KFC!)


Another favourite is the boxmaster, which is a tortilla wrap with deep fried chicken piece, cheese and hash with lettuce and mayo.



Just yumz... 

Madisons @ Bangsar

On a friend's birthday, I made a dinner reservation at Madisons with Peter, owner of the other four restaurants: Opus Bistro, Leonardo's and Cava along Jalan Bangkung in Bangsar.

I later also read that the head chef of Madisons was the Australian Chef Kelly Delaney who previously headed Auge Ristorante in Adelaide.

What I loved about Madisons was the service and common sense that many of the restaurants these days lack. They handled my birthday cake very well and have enough sense to call me to one side when it was time to lit the candles.

Madisons offer some delicate fancy appetizers which would not agree to patrons who were expecting a stomach satisfying starters; but thankfully they serve rather big portioned main courses so that compensated things.




cured meat platter


mediocre Waldorf salad priced at RM27, a little steep for something so light, you can find a whole sliced apple inside the salad.


lovely chicken liver parfait, fit for only one person to eat (not to share) with dollops of Chianti jelly and baby pears  to tantalize the taste-buds; would do with more baguette slices though.




An unusual pasta, oxtail pappardelle sheets. Nothing beats freshly made homemade thick slices of pasta all hot and steamy dropping with oxtail meat and juices fused in your mouth.


my favourite dish of all time, risotto. Not just risotto, pork belly risotto. This must be someone's prayers answered.


Giant potato gnocchi. Carb overload but it was heavenly, creamy and a raw egg yolk in the middle made this dish a carb craver's dream come true. Is that bacon hiding in them cream?


some pork loin with cripsy bacon on it. This was rather tough but necessary for the night as it was the only meat on the table. So it was wiped clean along with all the other pastas.

We didn't order dessert because one, we were so full; two, I have a mille crepe blueberry peanut butter cake from Humble Beginnings waiting in the kitchen's fridge to be served.

The restaurant ended our night with a sweet note by lighting the candles on the cake, taking it back, cut and served them in a fancy looking stone plate with peanut and chocolate cookie crumbs and chocolate sauce. That's personalisation and good service for bonus points.




I will return for dessert another day.

Madisons
Jalan Bangkung,
Bangsar.
Tel: 03-2092-1222
Closed Sundays.

Humble Beginnings Mille Crepe @ Bangsar

A friend Amos who owns Humble Beginnings invited me over for a tasting one day at his shop in Bangsar.

I've always loved Mille Crepe cakes and coming from Melaka, where Mille Crepe cakes first began in Malaysia, it's always a dessert that's rather close to heart, a pride almost.



Situated behind Telawi street, right next to Subway sharing a corner is a very humble outlet littered with tulip designs.







They have18 flavors of Mille Crepe cakes to choose from and they usually take online or phone orders with delivery, if you walk in to the shop you can buy a piece but the choices will depend on the availability that day.







My favourite flavor has got to be the Blueberry Peanut Butter. A unique selection and surprisingly good combination.

I love their packaging as well, and coincidentally I was wearing a polka dot dress which fit the theme of the shop, so we did a little camwhoring too. Hehe.






Owner Amos and I




Humble Beginnings

30, Jalan Telawi Bangsar Baru
Kuala Lumpur 59100 Malaysia
Tel: +603 2282 8035

L'Ardoise Restaurant @ Paris

It was a restaurant highly recommended by a friend that turned out terribly wrong.

It was meant to be a meaningful New Year's Eve dinner. I was in France, and of all places, Paris. 

A fine dining experience was to be expected. And L'Ardoise was strongly suggested; and soon it would be added to my list of series of unfortunate events in France. 

This was a long time ago, and my first lesson to French fine dining: always reserve before arrival. First rule of thumb to the start of any good dining experience, always call up to reserve a table, and always ask for the best table. With the best view, in a quiet corner, avoid seating close to the toilet or entrance. 

In this case, I called to reserve, but didn't inquire about a table. In Malaysia, it is fine to assume when you call up to reserve early, the restaurant manager will automatically assign you to the best table, or a reasonable one; but in France, if you don't ask for it, you get a table, but you don't get guaranteed a good one, and in most cases, you will be allocated to one of the worse tables in the house. As you've guessed, I was seated terribly close to the entrance. 

Upon entrance, I was asked to sit down immediately, and was served an amuse bouche (basically a pre-appertizer, usually comes in bite-size serving). I assumed it was complimentary since we weren't given any menu. So I ate it. And then looked through the drinks menu while waiting for the food menu. It didn't come. So I asked for it. 

To my utter surprise, the waitress told us we have already been served first course of that evening's set menu. And it cost 80 euro each. That was more than RM700 at that time. And we weren't even given a choice! Neither were we informed about the fix set menu info on NYE's dinner, since we read up all the reviews and knew what we wanted to order that night. 

We could have walked out, but it was NYE and we didn't know where else to go and we felt bad for having eaten the first course, thought now that I think back, we SHOULD have walked out. But in my defense, that was not knowing what we would be expecting next. 

Food came. First, second, third, fourth courses. Appertizers were good, first main and second main, bad and worse. 

some bisque soup that was decent

by now we were impressed because scallops and sauce were great. 

This was when things go downhill, the foie gras that came in a jar was tasteless, possibly because it was steamed and there's the taste of lard and fat and well.. nothing else. It was one of the worst foie gras I've ever put in my mouth. 

Really good dessert, perhaps the only thing the French can never do wrong; apart from good appetizers, the French can really do excellent dessert. 

When the main course chicken (before the dessert) arrived, it was too much to bear. The chicken was SO DRY and TOUGH it was impossible to even chew and swallow. We complained this to the waitress, to which she just shrugged and said: " well we can't do anything about it."

WTF?

"Well, if you could head in and inform the chef, that's all we want" we said. Which was true. We weren't looking for any compensation, but if the food's bad, I think it's the customer right to voice it out, and an opportunity for the chef to improve.

"Okay I will do that but we can't do anything about it" said waitress.

WTF x2 ?!

Few minutes, she walked out from the kitchen.

"The chef said he cannot do anything about it." she said. 

Effing serious? Are you running a restaurant? Are you qualified to even be in the service line? 

And then we realized the senior French couple sitting next to me were having something we're not. They were having a la carte food! (with wine) Did we just got conned into having the set menu?

Furthermore, what's with the horrible service attitude? Well, apparently it's extremely rude to complain that the chef's food is horrible in France. I suppose it's also the best response to tell their customers there were nothing they could do about it. Viva la France, indeed.  

My Elephant Thai Restaurant @ Hartamas

Decided to have something spicy one night and ended up in My Elephant in Sri Hartamas at 930pm. Great thing was that they opened till 10pm that night (called to check) and it was one of the few proper sit-in restaurants that's opened so late.

Between the two of us, we ordered a seafood tom yum gung, BBQ chicken with lemon grass and some tomato based fried tofu.


The tom yum soup was a bowl big enough to share among four people. Or two spicy-loving people with no other dishes.

We couldn't handle our spicy food well so this was a challenge despite ordering it 'mild'. Credits to the freshness of their seafood and well booked it is in the soup.





Most of their food are heavily herb-ed so one might get the illusion of a big servings; in truth the food are politely portioned so feel free to order more varieties even if you come in a small group of two.




My Elephant only serves brown rice for their patrons. It makes you feel a little (just a little) better about having a healthier choice for food.

We were panting from spiciness by the end of the meal and I had to take-away the leftover tom yum so I could dilute it and recook the next day for lunch (nothing beats left-over food seriously). The bill came up to about RM80+ for both of us which was very reasonable.

I would recommend this restaurant for Thai (or spicy) food lovers.



My Elephant Thai Restaurant
20-2 Jalan Sri Hartamas 8
Taman Sri Hartamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 6201 0649

Section 17 branch: 
Block C-G4 Happy Mansion
Jalan 17/13 Section 17
46400 Selangor.
Tel: +6010 220 1283
website: http://www.myelephant.com.my/

Aromatic Duck London

blogged about this before here.



Can't remember which restaurant I had this in, but it was one of the famous ones in Chinatown, London.

And I have to be really bold to say this but I think that London has THE best duck in the world. From their roast duck to aromatic duck; which frankly, the latter was created in London as a replacement of the dish peking duck to serve to the local Chinese immigrants in the past; because it was such a waste to just eat the crispy skin when you can have the whole duck, shredded up and wrapped in thin pancakes with hoisin sauce and shallots. Yum.



In a way, you could say that the most authentic aromatic duck in the world is, actually, in London.

Among other things we ordered that night.


exorbitantly expensive 'tong po' meat.


exorbitantly expensive oat deep fried mantis prawns.