ChubSquared

Adding its name to the list of globally renowned hotels in Kuala Lumpur is the newly opened W Hotel. Commencing operations in August this year, this is W's first ever hotel in Malaysia. Being a fan of this hotel chain, we naturally had to check out their food offerings, beginning with its dim sum cuisine at Yen, a modern Cantonese restaurant which twists the usual menu offerings into something you can only get at the W. This is a pork free restaurant.  What's this : Shanghainese chicken dumpling with hokkaido snow crab meat in crab roe sauce. Chubsquared thoughts : Yen's take on Xiao Long Bao. The dumpling skin was perfect; not too thick or too thin. It came away easily to reveal the chicken filling which was tasty and cooked well. However, I felt there was insufficient sauce within the dumpling. I usually like my Xiao Long Bao to be bursting with soup upon first bite but this did not happen here. Still, I would overlook this matter since the dumpling as a who...

There's a new kid on the block at Gardens mall : Yu. Taking over the space left by Han Room which has now shifted to the upper floors, Yu is a modern fine-dining Chinese restaurant operated by the same group behind Ruyi & Lyn at BSC. The 2 restaurants differ vastly in terms of ambience. While Ruyi & Lyn gives off the speakeasy / high end disco bar vibe and is dark and noisy, Yu is the total opposite. It has warm bright lighting with an elegant quiet setting, perfect for that business meeting or family meal. This restaurant is pork free but not halal because they serve alcohol. As can be seen from the picture above, the layout of the restaurant is like a circle with the tables arranged around the bar. There are private rooms available for booking should you require them. Each table is given this tray of sauces which is refillable. All 4 sauces except the green one vary in terms of spiciness as they all have different amounts of chili present. The green sau...

Went for RIUH (a curated creative bazaar) recently at APW and discovered this Thai/Japanese fusion restaurant. It is a small space so not too suitable for big crowds. What drew us in was the interesting menu and the crowd waiting for a space which is usually a sign of good food. Given the compact space though, this is not the place to have lengthy or intimate discussions as one can literally eavesdrop on every conversation happening throughout the restaurant. We went on a weekend during lunch. Even with a full house, we were sat down fairly quickly, given a menu promptly, and the food was also served with a very short waiting time (15 minutes tops).  Our drinks. L : Yuzu, R : Lychee Pop Not sure why the Yuzu drink is red when it is usually yellow or orange but it did have a nice sour Yuzu taste. The Lychee Pop on the other hand just tasted like Sprite with 2 Lychees at the bottom.  What's this called : Kaiju Nachos What's in it : Nachos with spice mi...

Tucked away at a residential lane in Bukit Pantai Bangsar lies Naj & Belle, home to Malaysia's knockoff of the famous Black Star Pastry's watermelon cake in Sydney. Apart from that, this is a very good brunch place with a pleasant modern design, high ceilings, brightly lit, and big comfortable seats to lounge in. They have another branch located at SS15 Courtyard Subang mall but the area is not as spacious as this one and the menu is very different with less interesting options. Our drinks. L : Watermelon Lychee Juice, R : Mother's Bouquet Flower Tea What's this called : Soft Shell Crab Linguini What's in it : Asian style carbonara with curry leaves and bird eye chili topped with fried soft shell crab. Chubsquared thoughts : We were initially confused by what "Asian style carbonara" is and was happily surprised to see it referred to delicious butter sauce that I absolutely love. Take note this means it is not your usual chees...

Anybody who knows me well will know I am generally not a fan of vegetarian cuisine because in my experience with them they tend to be tasteless, or deep fried unhealthily with lots of batter, or consisting of fake ingredients - none of which I associate to be healthy which really defeats the purpose of going vegan.  However, my lunch companion was vegan yesterday so we headed to SS18 Organic Vegetarian Fresh Mart and Restaurant to eat. Upon parking we saw Le Food few shops down and being curious souls checked it out and lo and behold it was an all vegetarian restaurant with an equally interesting menu to boot!  Le Food SS18 is a new baby on the block just shy of 2 weeks into its opening with a promise to serve tasty healthy food without the 3 evils - MSG, preservatives, artificial colorings & flavors. They do have another branch at Bandar Bukit Tinggi Klang but that location is definitely out of our reach so this SS18 branch is a real blessing for us! Being ne...

One of those places that has been around for a while but we never tried until recently was 798 Rice Bucket . As the name implies, the majority of their dishes are served in a bucket which retains its heat. This is a huge restaurant with the other half sectioned for hotpot. They also own the lot opposite which is solely for hotpot consumption. As hotpot does not appeal to me generally, we went to the Rice Bucket side. With a huge menu offering many dishes that appeals to me, I foresee myself returning several times until I have tried everything I fancy. What's this called : Fried Mantao with Cheese What's in it : Literally fried mantao with cheese slice wedged in the middle and sweet and sour sauce on the side Chubsquared thoughts : You just don't say no to a fried mantao. Especially when it has cheese and that sauce. The sauce is like the sweet and sour sauce usually served with crabs at Chinese seafood restaurants for you to dip the crab and mantao in. Y...