House of Croissant

House of Croissant is an interesting concept café that, despite being a new business in a new building, emits colonial aura. Sitting on the verandah of the café reminds me of sitting on the verandah at Penang's E&O Hotel (minus the ocean). It is located in Sungai Besi at Trillium, a new cluster of shop lots only five minutes' walk from the LRT (turn right out of the LRT...you cannot miss it).

Like most cafes, House of Croissant serves a range of coffees and teas and juices. Some are more unique than the norm, such as the cranberry-pomegranate tea. They have a full menu if you want to have breakfast, lunch or dinner. Otherwise, there is a help-yourself wall full of pastries and...yep, croissants.

I admit that I have never tried one of their croissants (I know), but I did have their pineapple tart bar which was amazing. I also tried their kaya puff pastry. This was also really nice. They have a real knack for making their pastries very flaky and fluffy.

The prices are cheaper than most cafes. The service is good here, though the girls are a bit quiet and shy. There are also too many employees for the amount of business that the café has. Unfortunately, it leads to some staring (them at me, not the other way around). But management is friendly here. And the staff is constantly replenishing the multiple pitchers of ice water (with lemon) both inside and outside. It's nice touches like this that make House of Croissant a nice place to relax and enjoy their fine baked goods. I believe I just may make a regular habit of coming here.

My rating: 5 stars

House of Croissant
Trillium, Sungai Besi
56100 Kuala Lumpur

Web site: http://houseofcroissant.blogspot.com/
Telephone: (+6) 017-329-9517
Open from 9am until 9pm
closed Wednesdays

Naili's Place

Naili's Place is a small chain of (currently) 3 stores around Kuala Lumpur. For the sake of disclosure, I have never been to the Taipan--Subang Jaya branch. But I have been to the Ampang Point and Sentul branches and will base my reviews based off of these two. The Ampang Point location is at the end of shop lots next to the Ampang Point shopping center in Ampang and tries to cram too much character into its small location unfortunately. If you want the best experience, go to the Sentul branch. It is somewhat isolated but in an increasingly popular dining area. It has even opened for lunch recently.

The Sentul branch is all about ambience. The tropical setting is nice. Trees, stylish decorations, leaf-roof huts, and tree stump tables. In some cases, private dining hits were built around large trees that were there before the restaurant was built. Sometimes mosquitoes can be a problem here, but you will hardly notice as you take in the scenery (and sometimes even a DJ).

Naili's Place is popular for functions and parties but individual diners or "lepakers" fill up the rest of the tables or bar stools. The food is better than average...not out of this world...but the ambience makes up for that easily. A range of sheesha flavors is also available. It is a good place for (Malaysian or Western) dinner or just hanging out over a few drinks and maybe a snack.

My rating: 4 stars

Naili's Place
116C, Kampung Chempedak
Jalan Taman Dato' Senu
Sentul 51000 Kuala Lumpur

Ampang Point
39, Jalan Memanda 9
6800 Ampang

Taipan
48, Jalan USJ 10/1B USJ Taipan
47620 Subang Jaya

Web site: http://www.nailisplace.com/
Telephone: (+6) 019-202-0755
Open from 5pm until 2am
(the Sentul branch has recently started lunch hours too)

Dhivya's Cafe at Batu Caves

After the long (no, really...LONG) climb up to Batu Caves, then all the way back down, you kinda work up an appetite and thirst. Appropriately, there are a few small restaurants onsite at the base of the caves, some connected to souvenir shops. Dhivya's Café is unique from the others in that it has an outdoor and an air-conditioned indoor eating area. The rows of long tables encourage "community eating" and the waiters have quite good English actually...and are even friendly and a bit chatty (surprise!).

The food, as to be expected, is pure Indian vegetarian fare and is served on the largest banana leaf I've ever seen. That's unfortunate, in a sense, because it made the portions served look skimpy. The set lunch (which was heavily pushed by the waiters to every customer) cost RM7...a little high compared to what you would pay elsewhere for this type of meal, but it is a tourist site after all.

The helping of rice was good and the vegetable side dishes (boiled, pickled, and curried), although not too plentiful, were tasty. At many restaurants, you can find a caboodle of condiments (ketchup, soy sauce, salt/pepper). But here, you get three connected containers of vegetable curry, some sour milk thing (that I don't remember the name and never really got into that much), and dal. Dhivya's Cafe also offers different varieties of roti, mock meat dishes, and ice cream. Overall, it was nice.

My rating: 4 stars

Dhivya Cafe
Batu Caves
Jalan SM1a
Batu Caves, Selangor
Malaysia
Open for lunch and early dinner

Castro

Castro is a Cuban-themed restaurant that really doesn't serve any Cuban food at all. The walls are decorated with Latin-American revolutionaries. It looks good, so maybe that is why they chose the theme. Complete with a pool table, Castro has an indoor and outdoor dining section, and is located at the main entrance to the new Axis Atrium Mall in Pandan Indah.

As for the food...well, the menu was filled with dishes that you wouldn't normally see at other Malaysian restaurants. Though, most of the names on the menu were just fancy ways of labeling fairly simple dishes. There were sections for beef, chicken, fish, pasta, appetizers, desserts...even pizza.

My friends tried the jambalaya...one chicken, the other beef. Jejaka Anggun got the chicken penne pasta. I had the "tropical" pizza...which was just a bunch of atypical vegetables and some chicken (which I picked off) on a super thin but limp crust with a bitter tomato base. Ya...doesn't sound too appetizing.

Speaking of appetizing...I broke down and got an appetizer. I had the onion soup...always hoping that I will find a good French onion soup served here somewhere. While it wasn't a good French onion soup, it was a good onion soup (with some cheese toast thrown in it)!

The dishes cost between RM10 and RM30, which was a little high priced for the low quality of the ingredients. But they are on to something...just need better execution of their dishes and some better ingredients overall. I wouldn't avoid this place, nor would I recommend it to anyone. If you're eating there, take it for what it is.

My rating: 2 stars

Castro
Axis Atrium
Jalan Cempaka, Taman Cempaka
68000 Ampang, Selangor
Open till 10pm weekdays, 11pm weekends

The Castle

The Castle is a Middle Eastern restaurant that has recently closed its flagship store on Jalan Damai and opened two in other locations. The one more popular with the local Malaysian crowd is now located at the edge of Kg. Baru. The one more visible to tourists (and reviewed here) is the branch on Jalan Imbi, across from Berjaya Times Square and next to the Imbi Monorail station.

The Castle attracts a good crowd for late dinners, and on weekends it is packed till the early hours of the morning. Smoking shisha is common with 'diners' here. The Castle on Jalan Imbi has replaced a mamak (Al-Esfan), so there is plenty of open-air (but roofed) dining space as well as an air-conditioned room in the back if you can't take the KL heat.

As with many Middle Eastern restaurants in KL, food prices are considerably higher than most other restaurants. It is best to come here in groups to order a number of plates and share over some bread or rice. The menu is not very helpful unless you eat Arab food often. But some of the waiters were able to explain the difference between the dishes.

We ended up getting some naan bread to eat with the other dishes we ordered, which were among the best-tasting Middle Eastern dishes I have ever had. The only thing that was good but not great were the falafels...a favorite of mine. The salad was delicious too. Our drinks were fruit juices mixed in some odd combinations...whether you like it or not will vary greatly depending on your personal tastes as most of these combinations they have are not too common. Still, it is good to try.

Overall, the drinks, naan, falafels, salad, stuffed grape leaves, and humus-type dish we had cost about RM60. It was typical price for Middle Eastern food, but it tasted great. While I wouldn't come here all the time, I did enjoy eating at the Castle.

My rating: 4 stars

The Castle
Plaza Berjaya
Jalan Imbi
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Open till very late (5am?)

Akasa Taj

The Akasa Taj is a mamak style restaurant on the corner of Jalan P. Ramlee and Jalan Perak underneath the Rohas Perkasa Building. It sits right across the street from the Milkshake Factory, Coffee Bean, and Gaucho Steakhouse.

Akasa Taj is open 24 hours a day like most mamak restaurants. But it is located in a premium-pricing region, just a short walk away from KLCC and surrounded by Jalan P. Ramlee's popular bars and several offices and serviced apartments. Because of that, it is a bit pricier than most mamak.

To its advantage, though, it is quite clean and spacious. There are ample places to sit outdoors around the fountain or inside under the modern lighting. The help-yourself mixed rice bar looked great when I was there. I was one of their first customers just before the Friday lunch rush started so everything was nicely displayed.

The usual fare was on offer, ranging from fried chicken to fish curries. I jumped all over the tempeh, potato, and ikan bilis cooked in spicy sambal. Yum. The lady fingers cooked in oyster sauce was also nice. And a side of green sambal topped it off.

The standard mamak drinks were available. I kept it simple and ordered an iced milk tea. On such a hot day, it was refreshing. But it was a bit watery. Still, it worked.

The service was a bit slow though. There weren't many people in the restaurant when I was there. But it still took a while for someone to come over and take my drink order and calculate the price for the mixed rice. But this is a popular (and busy) place. I even noticed several of the expats working in the area stopped in and got a takeaway box.

For me, the teh ais cost RM2.50 and the mixed rice (3 veggie side dishes) cost RM7.00. Overall, I'd have to say that it was a nice place with pretty good food...but higher priced compared to the same quality in other locations.

My rating: 3 stars

Akasa Taj
8 Jalan Perak
50250 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Open 24 hours a day

Milkshake Factory

For the first review, I think it is best to stick to a universal crowd pleaser...the milkshake. The Milkshake Factory is in the middle of the bars along Jalan P. Ramlee, right next to the Coffee Bean and The Beach Club. It is a short walk from KLCC...and I walked from here to Dang Wangi LRT station (feeling guilty perhaps and wanting to burn off the calories I just put on with the milkshake?).

These milkshakes are quite delicious, actually. Not overly sweet or milky. They went down very smoothly. There are only two sizes: small and large...but not much difference in size or price (Splurge a little and get the big one!). The cost ranges from RM8-RM12.50...not bad considering you won't find any equivalent drink at that price at the Coffee Bean next door.

The menu is quite impressive. "Kid in a candy store" is a good way to describe how I felt when walking into this mostly-open-air restaurant. Your milkshake is mixed with whatever your favorite candy is, from Kit-Kats and M&M's to Toblerone and Ferrero Rocher. There are "cereal" options too, like Pop-Tarts or Special K. For the more health-conscious, you can get a smoothie instead, featuring some interesting flavors, like rambutan, avocado, raspberry, and even beetroot.

I had the Snickers milkshake. And it really satisfied me. I would drink one of these everyday if I had the motivation to exercise it off! But I don't! So this will serve as a nice treat every now and then...or anytime someone invites me to go along with them!

The staff was very friendly and offered their personal favorites as suggestions for me while I took way too long to figure out which flavor I wanted to try. The soundtrack of the day was Earth, Wind, and Fire...surprisingly good music to listen to while drinking a milkshake. Who knew?

My rating: 5 stars!

Milkshake Factory
12, Jalan P. Ramlee,
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Website: http://www.milkshakefactory.blogspot.com/
Open from 10:30am until midnight