Decanter Too

About 18 years ago, a good friend of mine brought me to this quaint neighbourhood pub, DECANTER, on Jalan Setiakasih 5. It was run at the time, by two sisters, Jo, and Eileen, and well, it became the pub where everyone knew my name...(it's not NORM). From thenceforth, me and my friends kinda "grew up" there. Seasons came and went, girlfriends became exes, we held meetings, discussing the latest "acquisitions"....indeed, many a life defining moment were captured in that pub. Their fried rice with extra bulls eye was our staple diet, so muh so, Jo always chided me for recommending "only fried rice" to my friends. They had other stuff too, chicken pot pie, their signature peach and banana crumble, home baked cheesecake..... ah, nostalgic glassy look in my eyes.

Fast forward to 18 years later.....the original had been bought up by a prominent retired politician's son, who also has a string of other F&B establishments. Decanter itself went through a total image change, and spawned more outlets, like religious people who don't use contraception. I kinda stopped going..... I mean, part of the charm of the place was the personal touch the two sisters brought...and even the waitress etc, knew what my normal order was. A new era had dawned, and the old had diminished.....

Until.... Ryan Khang of MY NOURISHMENT invited a select group to try out the food at Decanter Too.

In place of the two (occasionally) grumpy sisters, a young lad, who was probably not even in primary school, 18 years ago...helming the outlet at Desa Sri Hartamas. Okay, so they have a different target audience, and a chick magnet is placed there to lure them in.


The very affable manager, Timothy, made us feel very welcome ....

A few serious moments, or so it looked. James is one of the editors of MY NOURISHMENT, together with Ryan etc. Cumi is the other half of Ciki.....



Black boards. There's something so quaint and charming about specials written on a blackboard, using chalk. I wonder if schools today still use blackboards. Remember how we used to rush to volunteer to de-dust the duster? Life was a lot simpler those days. Whacking up a cloud of chalk dust was enough to make our day. No play station, no facebook, no handphones....we could concentrate on what mattered, such as dusting the duster and making sure blackboards were clean.



I wondered about the Rib Eye steak...RM 25, almost half the price of what is usually charged at other restaurants. Perhaps the owners have their own cow farm.


Our starter was a lovely spicy Tom Yam Soup, which only James & I managed to finish. Ciki was melting from the pedasness, Cumi doesn't take prawns, Nipple Joe had turned a scarlet shade from the chilli padi, Ryan ...well, just looked too delicate to finish the entire bowl...afterall, he has his svelte figure to maintain. I enjoyed it thoroughly, have always been a fan of Tom Yam, and this one was good. Lots of ingredients.

The next dish that was served were these chicken wings, but they flew away, after being photographed. Apparently they weren't meant for our table. Drat. Had we not had been busy snapping away, we'd have polished it in a sec.

Then came the Sang Har Yee Mee. Tasty, and adequate. I personally prefer sang mee to yee mee, but it was tasty enough, and the gravy not overly starchy, though someone did comment on the liberal use of corn flour in a lot of the dishes.



One thing I have to say is, it tasted very "clean". It lacked the years of grime and probably the wok hei that you'd find in Soo Kee's sang har mee, or other older establishments.



Mmm, the yummy oxtail stew. I am not sure what's ethnicity of this dish, it tastes like a cross between our soup ekor, oxtail soup, and stew, all combined in one. No complaints here. The meat on the tail was tender and falling off the bone. The gravy was screaming for some carbo, either bread or rice, but Nipple Joe was too Hak Hei to ask for it.


Pan fried garoupa, with garlic butter and vegetables. Alas, I think because of the photography, etc, the dish had gone cold.



Hainanese Chicken Chop. Now, I am almost sure the moniker came about because some Hainanese flers must have been working as cooks for the British, in the good old days when we were part of the British Empire, and must have been instructed to prepare chicken chop, AND THEN passed on the recipe to their descendants, who eventually open their own coffee shops, and name it HAINANESE CHICKEN CHOP. I am PRETTTTY sure you cant find these in Hainan island. Rule Britannia!!!




Aren't they a gorgeous bunch.....



Peach and Banana Crumble. Different from the one I remembered from the original decanter, and I can't really taste the peach, but the crumble was yummy. Very buttery. However, I didn't care much for the custard sauce in which it swam. I'd have much preferred it with whipping cream, as the crumble was sweet enough on its own. Timothy on the other hand, indicated that he had a sweet tooth and liked it sweet.


Admiring the shoot, all in a day's work.

I assume all the outlets serve more or less the same thing. To summarise, I reckon its a good place for wholesome, non pretentious food, in a relaxed atmosphere. Most of their outlets have easy parking, (Setiakasih 5, Setiabakti, Section 17, and Desa Hartamas...the latter being the hardest to park).

Of course, it helped that the manager, Timothy, was so accommodating and friendly, and made us feel very much at home. Thanks Ryan, for organising this, and thanks Timothy for being a great host.