So there I was at Bijan Bar & Restaurant the other day with the good folks from The Entertainer for a night of good food and catch up. I've heard of Bijan before, with a rather good reputation for serving very nice fine Malay cuisine, so when I heard the meet-up would be over dinner here, I was elated. The 3 in 1 platter that served as our appetizers arrived looking really appetizing. I may be biased as I really love satays, and here the beef and chicken satay was done really well without being overcooked, nor too hard. The Cucur Udang wasn't spectacular though, but it came with some nice peanut sauce to dip in.#2 Daging Bungkus Kukus

Being part of the opening appetizer platter, Bijan Restaurant's Daging Bungkus Kukus was a unique dish indeed. When I saw the wrapped dish, my first thoughts were of 'otak otak' or some fish wrapped dish. The Daging Bungkus Kukus however was a welcome change to the usual appetizer, where we had these delicate steamed mince meat and herbs wrapped within a layer of pancake and coconut gravy. A great appetizer dish to whet our appetite for more to come. When the Rusuk Panggang was brought out, I must admit the looks did not do justice to it, as it looked really dark to begin with. One bite into the slice of chargrilled marinated short ribs meat, and everything changed. What started off as being a negative perception due to the dark texture, turned immediately to pleasure, as the meat literally melted in my mouth with a few soft bites. Served with pegedil, sweet soy sauce and sambal belacan, this is a must have at Bijan Bar & Restaurant. Tahi what? Well, again the name deterred me initially from the Pucuk Paku Goreng Tahi Minyak dish. But I can tell you, it tasted really nice, the wild fern blending well with the chilli and caramelized coconut. Served with a good amount of shrimps on top, this dish went really well with our plates of rice. Up next was the Rendang Itik dish, juicy and tender deep fried marinated duck legs topped with the aromatic rendang sauce. It was duck, and like its namesake, the meat was a tad too tough for my liking. The rendang was good, but the meat was just a bit too hard. Another signature dish from Bijan Bar & Restaurant was their Ikan Siakap Masak Asam Pedas. Coming from a nyonya family background, asam pedas dishes were the norm when I was growing up. Here, the seabass was simmered in a tangy chilli and tamarind gravy with okra, or asam pedas for short. I did like the taste here, as it was both sour, and spicy enough to tantalize the taste buds.

So I've heard that one of the first pork burger outlet which I had the chance to savour their fare was relaunched after some renovation works and change of management recently. Invited to their soft launch, where it is now run by new owners who took over the management of Andes BYO Aman Suria. A new look, a new year, so how is the food now? Read on below on my take of the food. The food served were a bit different from what I had previously (Andes BYO Aman Suria ), and from what I hear, they are still finalizing the final menu. As of now, do check out what we had that evening, beginning with the Pigs in Blanket dish shown in the first photo above, one which I really like, a lot. Probably it was due to the combination of pork sausages wrapped in crispy bacon, but I couldn't get enough of these crispy, savoury appetizer.Now I've always liked my Mushroom Soup served thick, and here at the newly launched Andes BYO, they serve really thick mushroom soup. By really thick, I mean you could actually taste these chunks of mushrooms inside, and literally 'eat the soup', so to say. The downside of this is that the soup was a tad too salty for my liking. Feedbacks were given, and hopefully the new iteration of this mushroom soup would retain the chunky feel, minus the saltiness. The Porky Fries were served next, a side dish or so called appetizer to whet our appetite for the mains to come. I've always liked this snack, where I had something almost similar to this in a couple of bars and restaurants before. It was basically ham, deep fried to a crisp, served on a plate. I could feast on this alone, never needing anything else until my stomach got bloated. It was a really good thing that the new management decided to retain Andes Byo's original signature Pork Burgers, as I felt it was good the last time. This time around, served in almost similar fashion, with very thick pork patties, with fries and veggies on the side, the burger was good. I like the fact the patties retained its juiciness without being too dry, coupled with some fried onions on the top, this would be one dish I will order again the next time I come back. The buns however weren't up to mark, being rather flat and cold.

Arriving at The Press Room just in time for dinner, there were some dishes had by other good folks at the table which I did not get the chance to snap. One of it, regretably was what I heard to be very good, their Steak Tartare. What I had though was more to my liking, the Grain-fed Rib Eye Steak Frites. Served with fries and garden vegetables on the side, my medium rare steak came just the way I liked. The steak was indeed very tender, without being overdone. I do love rib eyes for the soft, fattiness of the meat, which went well with my white wine that night. Sorry for jumping the gun and going directly to my steak just now. Coming back to what I had as appetizers, it wasn't bad at all. The Press Room Prawn Cocktail came with lots of huge chunky prawns, all fresh and peeled for our enjoyment. Doused with salad dressing, the plate itself was fairly large, good enough to be shared by two person should the need arise. I think the Roast Turkey with chestnut stuffing was part of Press Room's christmas menu. If you're a turkey lover, then this huge piece of roast turkey thigh will fit right up your alley. It was huge, which can't be really seen from the picture above, but trust me, remember to share this turkey because it is a mouthful to finish up alone. Served with roasted sweet potato and cranberry sauce, the roast turkey was a good meaty dish. For desserts, we were each given our very own Press Room's Chocolate Volcano. Now, I've always loved these type of 'lava volcano' desserts, especially if I can get the chocolate inside to ooze out the moment I cut into it. I personally think this is one of the best Chocolate Volcano dessert I've had, with so much chocolate oozing out, one person could not possibly finish this alone, unless you want to be stuffed to the brim with sweet sweet delight.

My last visit to Spring Garden at KLCC was a couple of months back for the Tai Thong Nourishing Ginseng Series Menu Introduction . With Chinese New Year just around the corner, more and more chinese restaurants in town and are introducing their various Chinese New Year set menus. I had the opportunity to check out Tai Thong's latest Chinese New Year set menu and their delectable Poon Choy pot. No Chinese New Year meal would be complete without the obligatory traditional Yee Sang. Here at Tai Thong, they served the Eight Jewels Fruit Yee Sang, a unique twist from our traditional yee sang. They do have the others in the menu, but that night we had the very special, and surprisingly tasty sweet fruit yee sang. I did like the Eight Jewels Fruit Yee Sang, especially the sweet fruits contained inside. We had various fruits thrown in, to be tossed for prosperity and luck in the new year. We were told the folks from Tai Thong actually experimented with various combinations before coming up with this perfected fruit yee sang. A total of 18 ingredients alltogether, I was rather pleased with the ingredients used. The Tai Thong Poon Choy Pot is layered with 18 ingredients, which I shall take the liberty to list it all down as follows. We had the fish fillets, fish maw, dried oysters, black mushrooms, celery, sea prawns, sea cucumber, wheat gluten, broccoli, lotus root, white radish, poached chicken, fatt choy (black moss), conpoy, roast duck/ beancurd stick and finally Tien Jin cabbage at the bottom.

There were two different sets, one the Prosperity Poon Choy Pot, and the other is with the addition of 10 heads of abalone, named the Prestige Poon Choy Pot. It was indeed a very filling dish, one which can be shared from 5 to 10 people. The feeling of digging into the Poon Choy Pot together with fellow friends was an experience in itself, with a sense of closeness, as the ingredients inside the pot simmered in. One thing to note, for each order of Poon Choy here at Spring Garden, the limited edition poon choy pot can be taken home for free, on a first come first basis.

Part of Chicago Rib House's Christmas Menu was a choice of three different main course to choose from. We had the Dry Rubbed Coffee Ribs, the Roasted Pork Belly Roulade, and the customary Roasted Whole Turkey Leg to choose from the Christmas menu. However for the media tasting that afternoon, we were only served with a sampler set, not the full portion, including all three main courses on one plate.

Roasted Pork Belly Roulade, the name itself brought thoughts of a delicious slab of very fat pork belly, roasted to perfection. Here, it was exactly how I envisioned it would look like, roasted pork belly rolled with sage infused apples, olives and chestnuts, accompanied with tangy sweet apple compote and red wine reduction. One of my favourite dish for the afternoon, some may shy away from the fats, but with me, it's all good!

Always a big fan or ribs, here at Chicago Rib House, they do serve some of the nicer ribs available. It was my first time having their Dry Rubbed Coffee Ribs, being oven baked dry rub spiced baby ribs with chargrilled glazed Coffee Sauce. I would have preferred my ribs being softer without being too burnt. Anyway it was a good dish, with the coffee sauce really bringing out that unique taste. For appetizers, to whet our appetite further for the main courses to come, we were served first with the Crab and Cod Crostini. Now this appetizer was a delicious mix of seafood with creamy avocado grilled with Parmesan cheese. All these placed atop a crispy olive oil toasted baguette. I was surprised by the generous serving of crab and cod seafood mix, as usually other places only gives a small portion, but here it was definately more than a mouthful of pleasure. The Crab and Cod Crostini was followed by a hearty serving of the Pomegranate Salad as part of the appetizer menu. It was a colourful mix of fresh salad leaves, yellow zuchini with Pomegranate dressing with feta cheese and honey roasted pecan nut. I'm a big fan of pecans, hence I personally picked off every pecan nut from my dish, and probably a couple of other dishes of my fellow diners that afternoon.