I absolutely love Indian food and this place will probably be my new go-to place! The restaurant is so nicely decorated since its inside Starhill Gallery, service is great, and most importantly the food is so good! We ordered the Lamb Biryani, and the portion was definitely enough for 2. They serve papadum with mango chutney and mint sauce as a complementary appetizer, which I absolutely love. The lamb curry fills the bottom half of the pot, topped with the biryani rice. It looks small but it definitely fills a lot. No doubt I'll come back again for more!
Azzuro Cafe offers a pretty good lunch deal-- 1 free 1 pasta for RM35 (before tax), and it includes 2 sodas. I had mixed feelings for this place. When we first sat down, they took our order and served the drinks pretty quickly, the service was pretty good. But it took forever for the actual food to arrive. The lunch crowd was pretty big and I guess the servers were getting overwhelmed. We ordered the Mac n Cheese and Linguine Vongole, they were okay, but not very special.
If you enjoy listening to live bands, especially jazz, try No Black Tie. You can pay an admission fee to watch the performance, but if you just want to listen, you can sit outside of the main room, it's literally just divided by a curtain. We ordered the Nachos and Peach and Banana Crumble. The peach and banana makes a very interesting combination. The crumble is served warm to so it's almost like eating oatmeal. The guacamole salsa that comes with the chips were pretty good, I just wish they were more generous with it! Definitely worth visiting if especially you're a music person!
Bounty is part of Kl Journal hotel, located at their ground floor. It's a very pleasant cafe-esque restaurant serving Italian-fusion food. We ordered the Tagliatelle Pomodoro (RM39 nett), basically pasta with tomato sauce and chunks of fresh mozzarella. It's a very simple and satisfying meal, and I especially love the thin and smooth pasta! One thing to note though, is that when the waiter asked us if we wanted still or sparkling water, we said still. When the guy came back to the table, he immediately poured a bottle of Fiji water in our cups and I was like oh my god this is gonna cost a bomb. Idk what you would say to get regular water, but just make sure they don't give you Fiji, unless you want it lol. It was RM 18 btw 🙄
If you wanna grab cheap beer with your meal, try Beer Factory Express! They have happy hour drinks all night for RM20 nett per pint, for Tiger. They are Wonder Mama so you could even order food at the bar. It's not as noisy as compared to a regular bar, so it might be a good place for casual meetings.
This small stall sells various local delights. We got the Nasi Tomato Set for RM14 nett. Everything was pretty nice actually, except the rice was a bit mush. But nonetheless, good for a satisfying quick meal!
Qing Zhen is a Chinese restaurant located on the second floor of Novotel. I ordered the Cantonese style Sang Meen for RM35 tax inclusive. I personally didn't love the sang meen, but I didn't hate it as well. It tasted very healthy; the noodles weren't too fried, soup not too salty, and few types of vegetables. It was kind of like the restaurant itself, very clean and pleasant. I personally would prefer the roadside sang meen, a more fiery style, and way cheaper. The environment was really nice though!
Novotel is located at a fork behind Pavilion, and the Spiral Lounge, encased in full glass, looks right out to the busy street. It's quite fascinating to watch during rush hour. The happy hour drinks are available 5-8pm, where everything but Hoegarden is RM16. Besides the bar, there's a nice seating area with comfortable sofas, great for a casual meeting.
For a healthy and heart meal, try the Organic Lei Cha in Simple Life. It's basically a mix of different cooked vegetables, tofu, peanuts, sunflower seeds and red beans. I really like that it comes with brown/red rice instead of regular white rice! My favorite way to eat this is to pour the pot of vege soup into the bowl, stir everything in and dig in! Yums! (P.s. it's not bitter at all if you're wondering)
Mini Mini Cafe is filled with miniatures, the decorations are all so adorable, they even have an Alice in the Wonderland-esque tea party themed table for larger parties. We ordered the Mini Trio Burger (RM19.90 before tax), expecting the burgers to be pretty tiny; they were more like sliders. The trio platter came with 3 different proteins - beef, chicken and salmon. They were pretty okay actually, not too in-your-face. The decor though, was the most special thing about this place, feels like a little doll house!
We ordered the set lunch Korean Gogi Set (RM17.50 after tax). It comes with purple rice, 3 side dishes, a small bowl of seaweed soup, and a drink. The stir fried meat with kimchi was served on a stone plate sprinkled with lots of sesame seeds (which was great). Personally I felt like the meat was a little too sweet, and also the kimchi wasn't really kimchi -- basically raw cabbage with some spices, not the softer well-marinated kind. The sides were mediocre, and the soup tasted a little strange. Not my favorite place to get Korean food, but it's definitely a very affordable and filling meal.
I haven't really tried much British afternoon tea-styled high tea in Malaysia so I can't really compare it with anything. But basically Ritz Carlton serves high tea from 3-6pm daily, at RM80 nett per person (note that it's not buffet).
There's a really wide selection of teas and they all sound so good, I had such a hard time picking just one! They serve your pot of tea first with a mini candle stove thing, and you can refill the pot as many times as you need. They start you off with a couple tiny bread pieces and a salmon spread. *Do note that everything is petite*
So on the tower, each person gets a chicken mushroom pie, a pastrami (choice of beef or chicken), a spinach quiche, 3 sandwiches (egg, chicken, tuna), and an array of sweet treats. On the side you get 2 scones (1 plain, 1 cranberry), along with clotted cream, strawberry jam and orange marmalade.
It doesn't seem like a lot of food but by the time we were done, we were so full we could hardly move. I would say that generally the foods were not bad, but nothing that's 'to-die-for', except for the desserts 😛
The environment here is very nice and relaxing, but I just have one complaint -- the tables. They're either too low or uncomfortable for your leg placement. But everything else was quite nice. I feel like RM80 might be a little pricey though.. Maybe because it's in the Ritz? The high tea place in Starhill is slightly affordable, and I'm guessing TWG should be slightly more affordable too. Maybe I should try those some time..
