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Red Flame Bistro was a chance discovery on a rainy, drizzly Friday afternoon when my colleague and I were looking for a lunch place that was reasonably near the office. It was oh-so-conveniently located just across the road from my office building.

We both had the 3 course set lunch which costs SGD 12.90. You have a choice of salad or soup of the day for your starter, grilled chicken chop or fish and chips for mains (there is also beef sirloin offered, but with an additional top-up of SGD 3.00), and finish off with dessert of the day. You can also top-up SGD 1.00 for 3 pieces of garlic toast or top-up SGD 1.50 for a soft drink or tea or coffee. There is no charge for water.

The salad is nice and fresh with a bit of crisp to it and the dressing is made a little bit more interesting with the addition of pineapple pieces that lend their distinctive sweet yet acidic taste to the salad and a sprinkling of sunflower seeds.

If the soup of the day is mushroom soup, you’re in for a treat. It was the best mushroom soup I have ever tasted this far – creamy and smooth with a mushroomy taste that is not too strong (too much mushroom can be a bad thing sometimes) and not oily at all. On other occasions we’ve been there, the soup of day was corn and clear vegetable soup. The mushroom soup is far and away the cream of the crop though and is always available on the ala carte menu for SGD 4.95.

My colleague absolutely raves about the garlic bread (add on SGD 1.00 with the set menu or SGD 1.50 off the ala carte menu). I find it better than your usual bakery garlic toast, as it is crispy without being burnt and generously slathered with garlic butter. I would prefer it much more if the toast slices were sliced a wee bit thicker for a heftier crunch when you chomp down, but hey, you can’t have everything your way, right?

The grilled chicken chop is nicely done without being dried out. I would have loved it more if they had given more of the grilled potatoes and I could do without the corn-on-the-cob slice.

My favorite has to be the fish and chips. Coated in a golden batter and fried, the fish fillets were fresh and yummy. The best part was that it was not too oily. Accompanied with a serve of fries and a scoop of salad, this was possibly one of the better fish and chips I have had in a long while.

The first time I went there, I had the Mushroom pasta (which is no longer on the set lunch menu). If you like your pasta al dente, then Red Flame’s chef does it quite well. The cream sauce that accompanied the linguine was just right, not to heavy nor was it runny and it was not so overpowering that you feel stuffed after. Over a series of visits, I’ve tried variations of their vegetarian pasta (SGD 9.90) in cream sauce and aglio olio and find that it’s pretty good with a medium sized portion.

As of now the bistro has a steady trickle of customers during lunch hour so it is still nice and cozy and doing quite well. I understand from the manager, Guna (really friendly and helpful guy) that they plan to rotate their lunch menu every month for some variety so the dishes I have reviewed may no longer be on the set lunch menu but are still available on the ala carte menu.

Note: As of June 2011, Red Flame has increased the price of their set menu from SGD 12.90 to SGD 14.90.

Red Flame Bistro
2 Stanley Street

I like Henry Cook. Those four words could very well sum up my review but that wouldn’t be doing justice to Henry Cook, now would it?

Henry Cook originates from Singapore, and this is their first outlet in Malaysia. Although I am working in Singapore, I have yet to (locate! and) patronize the Singapore outlet so this review will be based on my two visits to the Malaysia outlet at SSTwo Mall.

My first impressions of Henry Cook were good. The restaurant is bright and uncluttered but still manages to exude a homey air, perhaps thanks to the magazines and boardgames in the shelving by the wall. They have an open kitchen concept going on, so you can watch the chefs prepare your meal as you wait.

A montage of the various drinks and soups I had during both my visits – homemade pear drink, tropical fruit punch and tea. Some might find the homemade pear drink to be on the sweet side. The soup of the day – pumpkin soup and mushroom soup. I have to say that Henry Cook makes one of the better pumpkin soups I have tasted so far in Malaysia but it is not in the same league as my favorite. I would have preferred it to be a touch creamier but it was good overall, as was the mushroom soup.

Some of the sides and salads available. The garlic toast is yummy dipped into the soup of the day and the fried chicken drummets were nicely done too. The salads normally come as part of your main dish meal but are also available on their own. The herbed potato salad can be a bit bland on its own, but when eaten together with your main it balances out the meat. I quite like the unique green salad.

Clockwise from top left corner : beef stew, stuffed chicken roll, baked fish fillet, beef bomb

My aunt, who is a big fan of beef stew, gave Henry Cook’s version a thumbs up. The beef is soft and tender and the stew is flavorsome. I like my stew chunky but did think the pieces of beef were cut rather large, as were the potatoes and carrots.

Henry Cook’s signature dish is their stuffed chicken roll – which to me is a bit like a fusion version of the Peranakan lor bak. It also reminds me a bit of kebab meat, especially with the sauce.

Beef bomb. I would like the ground beef to be a little less dry but it was still good overall. It was interesting to find a hard boiled egg smack dab in the middle of the beef patty – somewhat like an alien landing in one’s backyard.

After the meaty goodness of the other dishes, we did find the baked fish to be a bit plain and not so memorable. It was alright though and fresh.

For all of their main course dishes, you have a choice of selecting either yellow rice or herbed potatoes as a side. If you’re looking for a vegetarian option, then I would suggest the soups and salads. Other than that, most of Henry Cook’s dishes are hearty and meaty – on both occasions I came away feeling like I’d had my meat quota for the day and more.

Henry Cook also has this set meal for 4 pax called their Meat Madness platter. From my experience, it could well feed 6 pax comfortably. It features all of Henry Cook’s specialties and is a good way to taste nearly everything on the menu in one visit.

Being a small, family run operation gives Henry Cook a slight advantage in terms of service. I find their waitstaff to be prompt, friendly and helpful. It’s also one of the plus points of why I like Henry Cook.

I would visit Henry Cook more often but for its location as I have a ton of gripes about SSTwo Mall (but I’ll save that for another blogpost).

Read other blogger reviews here :
Lilian
Su Fen
Thistle.Tea
Wendy

Since my previous post on Marmalade @ Bangsar Village II, I’ve gone back a few more times with friends on different occasions and thought it would be nice to put up the accumulated pictures of food we ate to compliment the earlier review post.

Hope it doesn’t make you drool too much, because I’m hungry just looking at all the photos!

Some kinda salad – not sure which one it was since I wasn’t the one ordering. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, I realize this photo of the logo is not taken from the right angle…

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in November when the blogger girls gathered for a good old-fashioned natter about… what else, gossip!

Can you see our table in the picture above?

The Bee fits all of our criteria for a meeting spot. A cozy setting that is great for photography, an extensive and delicious brunch menu, bemused staff (very important!) who are tolerant of the noise and demands that our group of females can be capable of coming up with. The suggestion to meet at The Bee came from Kahani, and as one of us, her suggestion was definitely spot on. Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone who hangs out with me long enough will know that there’s only one type of coffee I’ll order from upmarket coffee houses/cafes. And that would be a latte – regular sized, with one packet of raw/brown sugar.

My usual java of choice comes from that ubiquitous brand – Starbucks. Spare me the spiel about how Starbucks is evil and yadda yadda yadda – I choose it because it’s convenient. Everywhere you go, you can find a Starbucks outlet, right?

Image credit

Last Friday, my colleague kindly bought me a latte from Austin Chase as thanks for playing driver and ferrying her to MidValley. And this was my first time tasting coffee from Austin Chase. How did I find it?

Well, the milk froth/foam on top of the latte was not as dense as Starbucks, so it felt more like air bubbles. And the coffee strength seems less strong, because I didn’t get the same caffeine buzz as I normally would. (My caffeine tolerance level is pretty low.) Also, I found the overall packaging of Austin Chase’s takeaway coffees to be less refined as compared to Starbucks – especially the plastic lid, which reminded me of McDonald’s takeaway coffee cups.

So, am I a coffee snob much? I’d say yes.

Two separate outings, but at the same venue and with the same gang of madcap friends!

The first time around was last year, when we had a surprise birthday party for Paris B at Marmalade in Bangsar Village II. Fast forward 10 months later and we were back for a weekend brunch cum gossip session.

I find Marmalade to be an excellent venue of choice for those laid back weekend brunches and for catching up on the latest gossip with friends. The bright and cheerful interior of the cafe boasts colorful murals on the walls with comfy seating arrangements that allow you to linger. It is also a good place to host small parties as there is a section of the cafe which can be blocked off and seats around 20 people comfortably.

Marmalade’s staff are also incredibly helpful and accommodating – when we held the surprise birthday party, they graciously allowed us to bring in the birthday cupcakes and helped us store it. And no matter how long we linger around (on average we can sit around for up to 4 hours at a go), service is always prompt and cheerful. It’s nice to know that good service does exist in Malaysia.

Now, the highlight of dining at Marmalade for me is always their breakfast sets (which are available up till 1pm). Tip : Order a few different sets and share amongst family and friends! That way you’ll get to try more. The Hearty Brekkie above comes in a set with choice of coffee or tea and juice.

We couldn’t get enough of the scrumptious omelette you see above, so we had 2 sets of this (or was it 3?) and still wanted more!

I simply love the fruit and yogurt that comes with the French Toast set. Makes me feel more healthy in a way. LOL.

I didn’t get to try much of this burger, but as with the other items on Marmalade’s menu, it must have been good since it vanished off the plate in a hurry. Oh, but those grilled mushrooms you see at the side of the burger? Absolutely yummy even on its own.

This last dish of pumpkin soup was ordered on a whim, since the Caucasian ladies at the table next to us had ordered it and it looked so good even from afar. We reasoned to ourselves that soup was just liquid anyway, so we went ahead and ordered it even though we’d had multiple sets of the food above! It was a good decision, for me anyways, because I love pumpkin and this soup was nicely creamy and akin more to pureed pumpkin rather than a watery soup. I was scraping the bowl clean on this dish!

All in all, I do love a good brunch at Marmalade and I really shouldn’t wait for 10 months to pass by before I make my next trip there! Anyone up for brunch?

Marmalade Cafe
Lot 1F-18
First Floor
Bangsar Village II
2, Jalan Telawi 2
Bangsar Baru
Kuala Lumpur

Click here for the Google Maps link.

Read the other surprise party event blogposts here :
Paris B
Beetrice
Pinkelle

Read other blogger reviews on Marmalade here :
Boolicious
Chocoholic Memoirs
Lyrical Lemongrass
MeiyeN

Last week, Paris B kindly invited me and Kahani to join her on a food tasting review of the delicacies that The Huckleberry Cafe (hereafter referred to as Huckleberry) has to offer. The foodie session was organized by Candy of Asian Age Holdings and boy, were we on a sugar high after!

For folk who are familiar with Food Foundry in Section 17 PJ, you’ll be happy to know that Huckleberry is opened and run by the same folk, so you can expect the same standards to apply at both eating outlets. I’d heard of Food Foundry before, but never managed to find the time nor an occasion to check it out but I think I’d want to after sampling the light finger foods and desserts at Huckleberry.

Huckleberry is tucked away into a nook at the back of Times Bookstore in Bangsar Shopping Centre (BSC). (As such, I had a moment of confusion when I arrived and checked BSC’s tenant list only to find no Huckleberry there. Luckily, a quick call to Paris B sorted things out. Phew!) The area itself is not very large, but the tables, chairs and comfy sofas have been neatly arranged to maximize space constraints without feeling cramped. I can imagine chilling at Huckleberry with some coffee and cake whilst browsing books from Times on lazy afternoons.

And since we had some time to spare before the food tasting began, we had an impromptu photoshoot session for Kahani so that she could showcase the lovely cerulean blue dress she wore on Frocking Around.

Then it was on to the food, glorious food!

Here’s my iced cafe latte (MYR 6.00) before I mixed it all up. A decent enough, normal cup of latte that went well with the pastries and cakes that we had.

We started off with the savories. Here you can see 2 types of quiches and a cornish pastry. The spinach and beef bacon quiche (MYR 9.00) was less savory than the mushroom and onion quiche (MYR 9.00) (which I really liked!) but both were melt-in-your-mouth delicious, with just the right amount of flaky pastry the way I like it, which is that it doesn’t remind me of pie, where I have to go through layers of pastry that flakes to bits before you can get to the savory filling. But the standout would be the beef rendang cornish pastry (MYR 9.00), which had a solid meaty filling of rendang that reminded Paris B and me of serunding and would be excellent with nasi lemak.

We then moved on to the sweet stuff (but not exactly desserts yet), starting with the Banana Raisin Bread Pudding (MYR 9.00). Silly me forgot to take a picture of the pudding! I love a good bread pudding and the addition of bananas and raisins to traditional bread pudding was pretty inspired, if you ask me. Not overly sweet, but just nice. Made me wish for vanilla ice-cream to accompany it though.

From left to right, clockwise, you have the Guinness Chocolate Cake (MYR 9.00), Whooppie Pie (MYR 5.00), and Macarons in the flavors of Pineapple, Green Tea and Red Bean (MYR 2.50 each). I would have preferred a slightly stronger tasting Guinness Chocolate Cake and it also needed to be a little bit more moist but on the whole it was good. Same with the Whooppie Pie (could’ve been more moist) which reminded me a bit of Oreos and made me wish for vanilla ice-cream again. The macaroons were uber sweet but oh-so-tempting! The pineapple one reminded us all of traditional pineapple tarts but my absolute fave was the Green Tea one, because the taste balanced out the sweet macaroon shell.

We were by no means finished, because like a magician, Candy whipped out four varieties of cake for us to try! Clockwise from bottom center you have the Chocolate Cake, Hummingbird Cake and Carrot Almond Cake (MYR 9.00). The Chocolate Cake was just right, chocolate-y and moist and reminded me of brownies that would go absolutely perfectly with ice-cream (yes, I think I was craving for ice-cream that day. *wink*). The Hummingbird Cake was nutty and grainy, just the type for people who like “healthy tasting” cakes and got classified as “now-I-know-where-to-get-a-cake-for-my-godmother”. (The Huckleberry Cafe does take orders for whole cakes, but you’ll have to call them up 2 days in advance.) I had rather high expectations for the Carrot Almond Cake because I love carrot cakes in general and this was one of the good ones – not too sweet and light, but filled with lots of good, nutty ingredients. The only thing that threw me off a bit was that faint taste of cinnamon, which I’m not used to having in my carrot cake, and which I suspect may have to be an acquired taste for me at least.

If you have been counting, you would have noticed that I talked about tasting four varieties of cake but only pictured and described three above. Well, I had to save the best for last, right? Here is the highlight of the desserts…

Mille Crepe Cake (MYR 10.00)! Pictured above in Vanilla, it also comes in Strawberry and Chocolate flavors too. Even now, I can picture and taste the delicate crepe layers melting in my mouth with every bite. No wonder this is the best-selling cake at Food Foundry.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and settle some dessert cravings from writing this post. Contact details of The Huckleberry Cafe are as pictured below.

The Huckleberry Cafe
@ Times Bookstore
Bangsar Shopping Centre
Tel : +60 3-2095 1606

Read other blogger reviews here :
Kahani (featuring the photoshoot session only)
nrewq
Paris B
Xin