Monday, March 26, 2007

I Like Fine Dining? No la...Who Said.

It's not that I like fine dining, as mentioned by Boolicious in a comment on previous post, it just SO happens, when it rains, it pours. My diet this week has ranged from Ladida lunch at lafite, Chinese banquet at Shang Palace, and dinner at Sudu, to Hokkien Mee at Lian Bee and Ramly Burger at Kompleks Sukan Negara. It has been a whirlwind week, with book launch, Philharmonic Orchestra, AND best of all, the 3 Divas... the 3 indonesian singers, Kris Dayanti, Ruth Sahayana, and Didi J, but since they aren't food, I shall blog about them elsewhere. However, I can't resist adding that not only did I get complimentary tickets (thanks RK! you're a pal), but note those three important letters at the right lower corner of the ticket stub. Nyuck nyuck.


Anyway, back to food related stuff. Was supposed to have something on, on Saturday night, but that was scrapped at the last minute, so decided to bring wife to Sudu Bar, at KL Hilton. Now, again, let me reiterate, it's not that I like fine dining. But with these privilege cards, it really doesn't make sense for us to eat elsewhere. Any run of the mill restaurant would probably come up to the same price.

We were debating whether to have the buffet, but not for long, coz I really didn't want to stuff my face. They have 3 ranges of buffet, RM98, RM108 and RM118. The variation comes in the main course. Buffet appetisers and buffet dessert. Too much for us. So I settled for a soup, and rib eye steak, and wifey had caesar salad and cod fish. My battery showed that it had expired when the starters arrived, so I didn't bother with pictures, but oddly enough, the battery gave up its last juices for me to snap pics of the mains. My tomyam pumpkin soup with crispy wontons was good, rather unique taste. Went down easily. I didn't care much for wife's caesar salad, as I generally find caesar salads too creamy and rich. (this is rich hor, coming from me).

My steak, Australian Rib Eye, was fabulous. It is so hard to get good steak these days, a nice cut with little embellishment, where the purity and quality of the meat is all important. My steak was done perfectly, and the size, aiyo, humongous. Gave half to wifey. Her cod, (initally she ordered lamb, but then decided to diet, and had cod), was also very good...it was swimming in a hollandaise-y kinda sauce.







The stained class ceiling in Sudu (senses and chynna probably share this too) was rather attractive, and since we were sitting underneath, I had to take a pic. Again, my grouse is the close proximity of the seating. I could hear the entire conversation of the couple next to me. He was actually asking the maitre d how to go about obtaining the privilege card.

Friend ordered some stuff over the weekend, but wanted them in individual portions. Aiyo, so much work. The hardest part is making individual pastry shells. (for me anyway, since these fat fingers are not cut out for delicate work). And she wanted individual carrot cakes, so I suggested to make them in muffin form.


Individual Lemon Meringue Pie-lets

Carrot Cakes With Orange Butter Icing


Ah, further to the comments on previous post as well, by Boolicious and Nigel Skelchy of Just Heavenly, yes, the Lafite chef's name is Kevin Cherkas, and he does hail from Canada, but I knew there was a spanish connection somewhere, as his last stop before heading this way was indeed Spain.

15 comments:

Lyrical Lemongrass said...

I think Sudu's buffet (if u like buffets) is in the same class as Shang's Lemon Garden. Good food, small servings, attractive display. And yes, the privilege card does come in handy. ;-)

boo_licious said...

Oooo, lucky you to get those tickets and esp VIP ones. Yeah, I guess once you have the card, you shld use it to the max! Westin has these promos everymonth where they bring in Celeb chefs so try those as it's pretty good.

Tummythoz said...

Drinks?

fatboybakes said...

drinks? what about? if you mean the discount card, nope, they dont cover drinks.

MeiyeN said...

ooo...i tried da semi-buffet @ kl hilton before.... good and affordable! :D

Anonymous said...

of all 3 hotel cards u own...which is the best in terms of environment, food and value for money on purchasing their membership card?

thanks cos me too r interested to know..

stylo-milo

Tummythoz said...

I was just curious what drinks u had to go with such lip smacking thigh slapping meal.

backStreetGluttons said...

ya ya !
delightful new approach to previledged dining lah ok
oso can

fatboybakes said...

mei yen, yar, the semi buffet in kl hilton is as good as lemon garden. and the main course is HUGE!!!

stylo milo...hmm, very familiar la u, who ah? i used to think shang card was the best, coz i love shangpalace and zipangu (i'm not a buffet person actually), but lafite is way out my league...(except for the lunch promo).

the hilton card is now my current favourite, coz it covers KL hilton and PJ hilton. i've so far used it in genji, chynna, and sudu..and i have loved all three outlets. also, it comes with a free night.

i havent tried the starwood card yet, but it sounds very good value for money la.

tummythoz, the secret to value for money, is DONT ORDER DRINKS. believe it or not, i am actually not a real wine fan....(or at least not anymore).

team bsg...dun understand..as usual.

Anonymous said...

hi there,

thanks for the info, ya..
if i need more info on the hilton card where can i check it out? any website? hehe

cheers,
stylo-milo

fatboybakes said...

stylo milo, why dont you email me your number at fatboybakes@gmail.com, and i'll ask the hilton fler to call you. that way, if you buy, heh, i might benefit.

i've also just received my starwood card, and actually, that is also really fantastic value. comes with 5 dining vouchers, incldg a 250 voucher for villa danielli, 1 dim sum all u can eat at celestial court, 1 lunch for 3 at al nafourah, 1 lunch for 2 at prego, 1 lunch at sheraton subang, AND, 4 complimentary cakes, AND, 1 bottle of wine, AND one night stay at any of the 3 chains, ie, westin, sheraton and le meridien. if you like variety, i would suggest this card.

Anonymous said...

those voucher any limit to it? for example rm100 dining voucher or it's a eat whatever u wan dining voucher? keke...

btw, what's the other benefits we got when we used up all the vouchers and free stay? :)

thanks in advance

mei mei

fatboybakes said...

mei mei, (do i know you?) sure got limit la. the villa danielli one is RM250. the dim sum is an all you can eat buffet...the rest are set lunches.

Wandernut said...

Hey, how did you get the Hilton card. I want to get one too! :D

Is Shang's or Hilton's better?
Is there a number I can call to apply?

fatboybakes said...

wandernut, it really depends, both are good.
shang f&B are shang palace, lemon garden, and zipangu, which are all great. lafite only offers a limited discount. shang card doesnt give a free room for a night, but it does give a free room if you're staying 2 nights, whereby the first night you pay 50% off the rack rate, and 2nd night free.
in addition, there are other nice vouchers like 2 cakes, 4 glasses of wine, some happy hour vouchers at the pub.

the hilton card, has one free night stay, but little else. f&b wise, you can also use it in PJ hilton, so, there's a choice of iketeru, sudu, senses, chynna in KL hilton, and genji, paya serai, and the chinese restaurant in PJ hilton.

drop me a line at my email, fatboybakes@gmail.com and i'll direct you to the person in charge for either card.