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

Annalakshmi

Annalakshmi is an Indian restaurant attached to the Temple of Fine Arts in Brickfields. It takes about 5-10 minutes to walk here from KL Sentral Monorail station. Otherwise, there is parking beneath the building or on the streets in front of it near the Vihara.

The restaurant is quite large and fancy-looking. There is a basic dress code in place (no open-toed shoes and so on), but I did see a few delinquents dining there anyway. The concept is a buffet and drinks can be ordered from the waiters (and water is provided).

The choice of food was quite wide. Throw some rice and pappadom on your plate and go from there. Stir-fried cauliflower and potatoes, seasoned veggies, sambhar, dhall, and several curries give you plenty of options. If after stuffing yourself there is still room left in your belly, the desserts (caramelized bananas, warm tapioca pudding, etc.) are phenomenal too.

Yes, this is an all-veggie fare, and it is one of the best non-banana leaf Indian veggie meals I've ever had. At the end of the meal, you pay however much you feel like. There is no bill presented. It is up to you to pay what you think is fair. I'm sure there is a lot of abuse in this system. For me, I tend to over-pay out of guilt of paying too little. Then my friends scold me for being too generous! Either way, it is highly recommended for a good, clean Indian vegetarian meal.

My rating: 5 stars

Annalakshmi
116 Jln Berhala Brickfields
Temple of Fine Arts
Kuala Lumpur
Open 11:30am-3pm, 6:30-10pm on Tue-Sun
(closed Mondays)

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