Brewsterlane Kitchen

Today's special menu written on blackboard with chalks. located outside of Brewsterlane Kitchen.

My recent purchases over Groupon has given me the opportunities to venture into some previously untested restaurants, Brewsterlane Kitchen is one of them. The deal is priced at RM55 for the choice of two, either Australian tenderloin steak or Australian sirloin steak with scallops. Please click here to view the full details of the deal.

However, I received a call from the restaurant one day before in which they confessed the beef they received aren't really fresh. They rejected the stock and request my permission to exchange for lamb tenderloin. I agreed, but with disappointment of course. At least they are honest, in some ways. 

 Located in one of the Ipoh's most well-known road, Jalan Sultan Idris Shah. Previously known as Brewster Lane in which the name of the restaurant comes from. The owner and chef, Sam Lee (李勇辉) has a decade of experience in 5 star hotels, especially in western cuisine. 

The restaurant makes you feel at home, well decorated with wooden furniture and antiques on the wall.

The dining place is rather small, only able to cater for 5 tables at one time. Therefore, early reservation at 016-539 4749 is rather advisable as compared to walk-in. Brewsterlane Kitchen has opened its door to public for more than 5 years.

Besides Groupon, the restaurant is also having their own promotion, where you can enjoy a RM15 - RM30 set meal for free when you order any item above RM40. The promotion duration lasts two weeks, which is one week before and after a diner's birthday.

 Fresh lime juice was recommended to accompany the main course, priced at RM2.50 per glass. The milky appearance resembles soya bean milk, however it does taste fresh and a bit sour.

The main course, lamb tenderloin is served together with French fries, salad, vegetable soup, and pudding dessert. The presentation is simple, yet the mutton's aroma has filled the room even before the dish is served. The soup tasted like freshly squashed potato to me, while the others are far from anything remarkable.

The lamb tenderloin is cooked medium done. The portion is adequate for one person, not much nor too little. Furthermore, the tenderloin lacks the offensive smell and gamy taste, which drives away its predators. The meat is tender (hence their name it tenderloin?!), juicy, succulent  and best served with the gravy provided.

  The restaurant's specialty, Foie Gras on tenderloin steak priced at RM168+ with portion for two, which has limited fresh stock daily. The waiter a.k.a. Uncle told me reservation should be to avoid any disappointment. Frankly speaking, that's what I intended to do for my next visit! 

Brewsterlane Kitchen （人禾居原汁味食馆）

Address: No. 142, Jalan Sultan Idris Shah, 30000, Ipoh, Perak.

Reservation No.: 016-539 4749 / 012-6892638

Opening hours: 12pm to 10pm daily

View Larger Map

el-Cerdo Restaurant

El Cerdo, a restaurant where KL people will be no stranger to, I bet. If anyone of you is a pork lover just like me, please head down to El Cerdo, a place you will not be disappointed with, where you eat all the pork you want, from nose to the tail. However, I deeply apologize if my post offended anyone, especially Muslims and non-pork takers.

1). Located at Changkat Bukit Bintang, a busy street of gourmet heaven, just behind the heart of Jalan Bukit Bintang, the Red LIght District of Kuala Lumpur.

2). Currently occupied two shop lots, as opposed to a single one previously. The original premise houses a better restaurant-style ambiance; where as the latter is a bar-oriented decoration.

3). Make sure you got yourself a table before you come, otherwise you'll end up queuing throughout dinner time. If you come in a small group, it is easier to squeeze in a small table.

4). After ordering our dinner, time for some liquor to kick in. A pint of Hoegaarden draught witbier is never enough, if you're a heavy drinker. By the way, the drinks here are much more cheaper as compared to where I come from.



5). Freshly squeezed orange juice for the lady, who end up finishing my beer ^_^


6). Hot mushroom soup is served together with a slice of bread. Creamy and hot, just nice to warm up our starving stomachs.

7). Our appetizer is served promptly after the soup. We got ourselves a Spanish Ham Platter for two, which consists of assortment of two types of Spanish air-dried cured ham, Jamón Serrano (mountain ham) and Jamón Iberico (Iberico ham) with a variety of Chorizo Sausages and condiments. Nice and salty, just right for two persons, too bad we couldn't differentiate which ham is which.

8). Time for our long-awaited main dish under their Specialties menu, Cochinillo Estilo Segoviano, a.k.a. Roasted Suckling Piglet. We ordered a half piglet, which is only few weeks old to my guess, just for the two of us.

9). There is a special way to eat the suckling piglet at El Cerdo. One of us will be asked to use a plate to chop the piglet at three different part of the body. First at the head, then center of the body, and lastly at the butt, just to prove the crunchiness and crispiness of the piglet.

10). After that, a wooden bin will be pushed over to the table, the person holding the chopping plate will asked to make a wish and smashed the plate into the bin. This is the traditional Greek way to cherish good luck to the person performing the ritual.

11). The unlucky piglet will be taken away to be chopped into pieces for easy consuming. Taste rather different to the our Chinese counterpart Suckling Piglet, where it is toasted into absolute crispiness. You can still taste the flesh as well as the crispy skin of the El Cerdo's piglet. Needless to say, it is really delicious, especially for pork-lovers like us, where we engulf the piglet with only bones are left. This is the reason that keep us coming back for more.

12). Besides the piglet, there are other side dishes to compliment the piglet, which are fried potatoes, a special gravy and Caesar Salad. To be honest, the potatoes and the gravy are worth mentioning. The potato tasted just nice on its own and the gravy also compliment the piglet very well. For the the salad, well, at least there are some veggie for our heavy dinner tonight.

13). As I always said, a dinner is never complete without its dessert. We ordered their signatured Ice Cream, although the name doesn't sound glamour. When the dessert is served, its attractive appearance really caught our eyes. The Ice Cream is made of Vanilla, Pistachio, Chocolate, Rum & Raisin Ice Cream with Hazelnut sprinkled on top. Again, needless to say it is damn tasty (if you're a ice-cream lover), until we are crying for more, but our stomachs couldn't take in anymore.

14). Lastly, we are presented with a glass of El Cerdo Special each for everyone, which is served as a digestive drink after our heavy meaty dinner. It is made out of Spirit, Wine and Juices. A very warm and considerate approach, I might said. A satisfying and stomach-busting meal indeed, even though the damage was RM200+. I personally feel that it worth every penny, and I am prepared to come back for more.

el-Cerdo Restaurant

Address : No.43 & 45, Changkat Bukit Bintang, 

                50200, Kuala Lumpur.

Business hours : Lunch & dinner hours daily 

                         (Closed between 3.00pm - 6.30pm)

                         Except Saturdays open for dinner only.

Tel. : 03-21450511

Fax : 03-21451375

E-mail : werner@elcerdokl.com

Website : http://www.elcerdokl.com/

View Larger Map

Dinner at Indulgence

Recently I had a dinner at one of the most prestige restaurant for fine dinning in Ipoh, Indulgence Restaurant and Living. This is a place where I would come visiting for special occasions with the special one. So, here it goes..

1). Secretly tucked away in a mansion in the heart of Ipoh City.

 2). The dinning hall has a simple, comfortable and relaxing ambiance.

 3). Better get your table reserved, especially on special occasions. This is also a kind of place where our royalties would dine in, we are talking about high standard nonetheless.

4).  Take a sip of a refreshing drink while scratching our heads on the menu.

 5). A glass of Merlot from Aussie, unfortunately it didn't taste as what I imagine it would be..

 6). Toasted bread with SCS butter spread, fragrant and creamy..

  

7). How about Foie Gras for starter? Topped with melted Manchego, a goat-milk cheese from Spain and bottemed with mushrooms. A nice and small portion, but not the best I have tasted so far..

 8). A seared rare Petuna Ocean Trout, served with caramelized onions, ginger-mustard on a picalilli sauce. The meat is tender and tasted even better with the special made sauce.

 9). The high of the night comes with the Australian Wagyu Beef, seared square and cooked medium rare with heirloom spuds, mango and pea tendrils. The meat was nicely grilled, tender and juicy. Craving for more, if only it doesn't cost a bomb..

 10). A special dessert of the day, named Banana-Nana, consists of crispy fried banana, chocolate banana cake and vanilla ice-cream topped with strawberries. You'll loved it, if you like banana..

 11). Last but not least, anather special made dessert, An Eton Mess Berries. Apart from the cute-looking dunk, tasted almost similar with the previous dessert.

12). A true rare gem in Ipoh indeed, with an award-winning restaurant and 7 uniquely decorated boutique guest rooms available to accommodate visitors all year long. It has become a branding for years to come and set a standard for fine dinning restaurant in Ipoh.  

Indulgence Restaurant & Living

14, Raja Dihilir, 30350 Ipoh, Perak.

Tel. no. : 05-2557051

Business hours : Wednesday to Sunday 9.00am - 11.30pm

Christmas at San Francisco Steak House

Although Chinese New Year is still around the corner, Christmas spirit still lingering in my mind, which is my favourite season of the year! In searching for a place to celebrate the festivity, I decided to give this new hang-out place a try, which opened their first franchise in Ipoh in early 2010.

1). This is the entrance to the steak house. As you can see, there wasn't a table to spare on Christmas Eve! Luckily I got my table reserved as early bird at this time of year..

2). The interior was nicely decorated, filled with Christmas atmosphere. 

3). Simple and spacious table arrangement allowed to fit in nearly a hundred of diners easily.

4). This is the best seats in the house to watch live coverage with a bottle or two.

5). Speaking of which, the Christmas meal is incomplete without a glass of wine. I ordered a glass of Tocornal Cabernet Sauvignon, all the way from Chile. Easy on the mouth, tasted even better with food..

6). A very special drink on the menu, Red Christmas cocktail, well suited for the occasion. However, it's not my cup of drink, better off sipping my own wine while we patiently waiting for a feast.

7). Slices of bread were served with a fragrant creamy butter chunk as appetizer.  

8). A dozen of Baked Escargots with garlic cream sauce was promptly served on the table. Nice and creamy, just the way I liked it! (RM15.90 for half a dozen)

9). More to come as the Red Sea Prawn Salad was served as starter. Salad was not the first thing on my mind when eating out, especially without any salad dressing.

 10). A Christmas dinner is not complete without the Traditional Roasted Turkey. Out of all the turkey I had tasted all these years, this is a real disappointment! The portion was too small, coldly served and too little gravy, etc. Anyhow, turkey was not my favourite meat.

11). On the other hand, their US Rib-eye steak was a different story. They were not called a steak house for nothing. Cooked medium raw and nicely grilled. Tasted tender and juicy, better with every bite, with or without the special sauce.

12). Here comes a Traditional Christmas Pudding for dessert, as part of the Christmas Set Menu. I am not the biggest fan of pudding either. This was the only dish that we reluctant to take a second bite, as was sent back to where it belonged, dumpster..

13). A dinner is considered disastrous without a mouth-watering dessert. Luckily, the second one didn't disappoint us. A slice of Dream Chocolate Cake was enough to allow us dreaming of Santa Claus!

14). The dinner left us with mixed feelings. However, this place is worth the try though the money is better spent on their regular menu. Dine-in customer can enjoy a complementary waive of the parking ticket, which costs RM2 flat per entry into the multi-storey car park inside this Coliseum Square. Last but not least, I would like to wish everyone a "belated" Merry Christmas, better late than never!

SAN FRANCISCO STEAKHOUSE
No 8, Ground Floor,
Coliseum Square,
Jalan Raja Dr Nazrin Shah,
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.

(Next to Impiana Hotel, formerly known as Casuarina Hotel)
Telephone : 05-255 5798

Business hours : 11am - 1am daily