Tag / pub
A week or so ago I was invited by Haze’s friend to a small food review session at Scott Garden’s AfterWerk pub/bar. This isn’t usually my type of place to look for food, but since it’s a friend, why not?
As it turns out, you can sometimes find decent food at unsuspecting places.
AfterWerk at Scott Garden, ground floor at the left corner, with live band
AfterWerk is operated by the same people who used to run Pedro’s Place, a new management/owner for the last half a year or so.
The restaurant/pub is located on the left corner of Scott’s Garden on the ground floor, you can park your car in the huge indoor parking, or right outside the restaurant aka valet/illegal style.
Like most pubs/bar, AfterWerk offers a variety of cocktails, beer, whisky, and there’s dart machine, and most importantly, an ass-kicking 8 piece Filipino band that actually sings very well! (We stayed for quite a few songs after the food review session)
we started with French Onion Soup
Anyway, since the owner previously ran proper restaurant, food isn’t something of an after thought here. The menu consists of a mixture of Mexican/Western and local dishes. Prices are pretty decent, as with most pubs that usually make a lion’s share of their revenue from drinks instead.
For the purpose of this visit, we sampled four of their dishes.
We kicked off the night with French Onion soup that comes with a floating piece of cheese and a side of garlic/cheese bread. The serving was rather big for a starter but I don’t even mind, it was really delicious. The savory of cheese with those broth really worked well.
Chili Burger with a side of fries
Next up was their Chili Beef Burger. This rendition of the popular American staple comes with a rather thick patty and plenty of chili with a layer of melted cheese on top. You can request the chili to be mild or really hot, we had it probably somewhere in the middle.
While I liked the chili, I thought the thick patty was not nearly as fatty as I usually liked them. Then again it is probably a good thing for those who are slightly more health conscious. A pretty decent burger otherwise.
half a rack of ribs, jalapeno poppers
The four of us then shared a half rack of pork ribs. The ribs properly prepared and came with a layer of BBQ sauce plastered all over. The meat was soft and savory, I find myself really enjoying it despite being pretty stuffed from the previous two courses. Definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of pork ribs. It could maybe be slightly saltier, but I’m just nitpicking.
Other than the three dishes, we also sampled one of their beer food – jalapeno poppers. This turned out to be pretty hot, and perhaps slightly too hot even for me but I imagine it’d be pretty awesome with some ice cold beer. Jalapeno is like any peppers, the level of spiciness is not constant, sometimes you get it hot, and sometimes they are mild.
Haze & KY, Reiko & friend at work
If you’re close to the vicinity of Scott Garden, AfterWerk is definitely a decent place to check out if you’re up for a beer of three, but I would also consider it a good option for some late dinner as well.
Address:
Afterwerk
Scott Garden
Jalan Klang Lama,
58100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.094886, 101.674963
Tel: 03-7982 0700
Hours: 4pm to 2am
Sid’s pub is one of the very few places in town that is not only dog and kid friendly, but also serves up pretty good English/Irish food. The place is slowly becoming one of the places we frequent with Gareth and Kim when Charlie the dog is around. A few weeks ago Horng, Suan, and I went there to test out their kid friendly environment.
Sid’s burger (pork, beef, lamb, or chicken)
Sid’s is set up like a typical pub, with solid wooden furniture that aren’t placed too close to each other and a big bar at the center. Parking is also typically not a stressful exercise as there are plenty of space around the single row of shop houses opposite the condominium.
The pub is usually rather packed at night especially during important sporting events. However, seats are aplenty during lunch sessions especially on weekends.
breakfast set, scrum of bangers
I’ve tried quite a few of their dishes, pork vindaloo (RM 26) which is a type of pork curry with rice and chips, the bbq pork ribs (RM16) and fried sausage, onions & chillies (RM 16) that makes very good beer snacks, the scrum of bangers (RM 28) that comes with pork, chicken, or lamb & cranberry sausages with mash potato and baked beans.
All of them tasted pretty good, very hearty and very wholesome, but my favorite has got to be Sid’s burger. I’ve always asked for pork (chicken, lamb, and beef available) patty with bacon and cheese. The burger goes for RM 16 with RM 2 for each extra topping. The whole serving would be RM 22 if you decided to add the fried egg in addition to bacon and cheese, or for RM 28, you can have it with double patties, insane.
KY, horng, suanie, and Ryan
The burger also come with generous portion of fries and some really good mustard that goes so well with the pork. With the fats from bacon and the thick slice of cheese on top of everything, it’s just very succulent and super delicious. I love it.
Sid’s pub is located a stone’s throw away from Maybank at TTDI
Other than good food, Sid’s also serve one of the best Guinness drought in town, along with other types of alcohol. Give it a try, you don’t have to go there only if you need to find a dog friendly place.
Address:
Sid’s Pub
34 Lorong Rahim Kajai 14
Taman Tun Dr Ismail
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.155621, 101.622934
Tel: 03-7727 7437
I was invited to an exclusive Guinness St. Patrick’s day Food Creation event at Nikko Hotel last Thursday thanks to Celine. All I knew about this event was that I get to sample a Guinness infused food, I was quite intrigued, as the only type of Guinness infused food I’ve ever had was Guinness pork ribs served by many Chinese tai chau places.
Update 18/8/2013: Nikko Hotel is now Intercontinental Hotel
Guinness infused Lamb Shank
For the uninitiated, St. Patrick’s Day is an annual feast day which celebrate the patron saint of Ireland. It is traditionally observed on the 17th of March every year. Since this is a celebration of food and drinks, and Guinness is from Ireland, they came up with this Guinness infused Food Creation contest that runs until the end of the month. There are 9 outlets participating in this contest judged by celebrity Chef Emmanuel Stroobant of Chef in Black. The results will be out on the 25th of March.
chatting up with Chef Halil
This particular food tasting event was held at Bentley’s pub on first floor, a very cozy English pub setting with classy deco that seems so fitting for this occasion. I was greeted by Azira, the communication person at Nikko (who incidentally worked at the same place I am working now), the resident manager Ron Brooks, and of course, the very friendly Chef Halil. Besides all sorts of drinks (alcoholic or otherwise), they serve dishes such as fish and chips, steak, shepherd’s pie and so forth. However, until the 30th of March, the special addition to the menu is the Guinness Braised Lamb Shank on Sauteed Arrow Root Chips with Onion Jam, the very dish that is the competition. Best thing is, I get to eat it!
Christian from KL Lifestyle and Celine enjoying their lamb shank
As we were waiting for the lamb shank, chef Halil explained to me how the dish is cooked. First marinated with salt and pepper, the lamb shank is browned with vegetable oil on a flat pan. Then came the celery, carrots and onion, and then garlic cloves, tomato paste, then a whole bottle of Guinness stout. After that there’s the brown sauce and so forth. 1 hour and 15 minutes later, the dish is done. (I actually have the recipe from this friendly chef, but I guess I am in not hurry to try this myself just yet).
The lamb shank was very tasty and very tender, with a very subtle hint of bitterness from the stout but masterfully balanced with the sweetness of onion jam. The use of arrow root (ngaku) and other vegetables compliments the texture and taste of the lamb. It was very gastronomically satisfying, I think it’s a winner! Naturally, I had the lamb with a glass of Guinness Draught.
I just had to have a glass of this!
To try this dish, you have until the end of this month. It is available at RM 30++ at Bentley’s pub, Nikko Hotel (just right next to Citybank at Ampang Park).
GPS: 3.159767, 101.718045
One of my old friends cass, whom I haven’t really meet since Terence’s wedding last year suggested that a small get together session is organized to catch up for lost time. The venue was to be at Bernard’s Bistro at Bandar Utama Centrepoint, and she called it a chicken rice gathering since the chicken rice there is supposed to be superb. A facebook event was created, and last week 8 of gathered.
plenty of chicken, a soup, and some bean sprouts
To be honest, I have some reserves on the lady’s statement with regards to the chicken rice, but I ordered it nonetheless. This is partly due to the fact that I know Champs (just upstairs of Bernard’s) also serves pretty good Chinese food (especially the soya sauce pork 豆油肉), and since Champs were sort of a spin off from Bernard’s according to some sources, the food shouldn’t disappoint.
These two restaurants are unique in the sense that they have a wide selection of traditional Malaysian/Chinese food in a bistro setting that is not very different from Chilis or TGI Friday’s. So you can have a combination of chicken rice and whiskey, or nasi lemak with cocktail, if you wish.
prawn mee and nasi lemak are good too
So I went with the recommendation and ordered the chicken rice, drum stick portion. The other noobs had the wing portion, and faggot called for the left breast (left breast is statistically bigger than the right), and some ordered the hokkien mee and nasi lemak as well.
clockwise: kerol, suan, faggot, steph, cass, st, kim
Food was served professionally some 10 minutes later. A pretty big portion of chicken, a plate of bean sprouts, soup, rice, and the chili sauce/paste that is synonymous to chicken rice. To cass’s credit, it actually tasted very good! The chicken was very smooth and the sauce not too salty, the chili was good too as Kerol had about 3 servings. The others commended the nasi lemak and hokkien mee too.
Bernard’s is located at BU Centrepoint, below MOMO Japanese Restaurant
The chicken rice was RM 11.50++, the bill came to around RM 20 per person including drinks and the extra charges. It was a very nice get together session that I think we should do a bit more often, good food, nice ambiance, and even better company.
Address:
G9A-14, Centrepoint,
Jalan Leboh Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
GPS: 3.137988, 101.610124
Tel: 03-7710 3188
