Bullseye

Solaris Dutamas might be a booming hub for restaurants, but only a few serve pork. Thankfully, we can add Bullseye to that very short list.

German pork sausages wrapped in bacon & served with mustard. Succulent, savory & as spectacularly phallic as they come.

Pan-fried pork belly with onions. Fairly tender meat, soaked in a sweet-&-salty sauce that tasted Chinese, Korean & Japanese all at the same time.

Grilled pork chop. Skip this one; much too tough & not tasty enough (though a substantial splash of gravy improved matters slightly).

DE Berloti Cabernet Merlot (2008, Australia).

Cozy & romantically lit or gloomy & eerily empty? Maybe a bit of both.

All in all, an OK stop for supper, but not a restaurant we'd recommend highly.

Bulls Eye,

D2-G4-03, Solaris Dutamas, Kuala Lumpur.

Meeples

Battle while you binge: this cheerful cafe stocks hundreds of hugely engrossing board games, letting customers compete with friends for endless hours in everything from warfare strategies to trivia challenges.

The fee is RM5 per person for each hour; customers are not required to order food & drinks unless they want to (excellent!). Simply browse the selection, pick a game & let Meeples' affable service team show you how to play it.

We kicked off our evening here with Settlers of Catan, establishing roads, settlements & cities in an intricate quest to colonize an island (I won!).

Next up: Wasabi, in which we assembled complex sushi recipes on the board (I came in second, after failing to complete a maki that contained sea urchin, egg & daikon).

Finally: Smart Ass, a fast-paced trivia game that forced us to call out answers such as O.J. Simpson, Adelaide, the Amazon & the square dance (I won!).

Meeples' food menu is limited to the likes of chicken nuggets & calamari rings, so we returned to the conveniently nearby Hungry Hog, which introduced new items this month including the wittily named "iPork" _ pork burger topped with apple mayo & cinnamon apple sauce.

Earlier entry on The Hungry Hog: July 25, 2011.

Humpty Dumpty, a patty-free burger stuffed with egg, streaky bacon & cheese. Sinful, for sure, but relatively light _ not hefty enough to fill all the king's horses & all the king's men.

Pork chops in honey mustard sauce, oozing with meaty juices & monumental flavor.

Prefer rice instead of bread & potatoes? The Hungry Hog's siew yok rice is more than worthwhile, thanks to perfectly crisp roast pork & delicious, gravy-drenched grains.

Save space for dessert & scream for porky ice cream, laced with candied bacon bits for a sweet-savory bite that's brilliantly addictive.

Back to Meeples, wrapping up with their drinks: milkshakes & honey green tea.

Meeples European Boardgame Cafe @ SS15 Subang,

64-1, SS15/4D, Subang Jaya.

Open Tues-Sun, 11am-1am.

Tel: 03-5633-8033

La Vie En Rose

Back to La Vie En Rose @ Raja Chulan. Earlier entries: Nov. 14 & Nov. 15.

On a steamy, sultry night, best to begin with La Vie En Rose's lightest, most scintillating starter: coral trout belly tartare, served on ice with fennel, green apples & citrus zest Chantilly cream.

Pan-fried duck liver, caramelized apples & aged balsamic vinegar. Not bad, but not the best ever. Maybe the tastiest foie isn't always found at French outlets.

Escargot vol au vent with garlic & anise cream sauce. The black sesame pastry was nice & buttery, but what thoroughly wowed us were the snails, spectacularly soft & luscious.

Ocean trout with Pantalleria capers, lemon confit & croutons. This rustic recipe feels like it could have come straight out of a provincial restaurant on the Mediterranean coast.

Evocative of quiche: tart of duck lardon & mushrooms with carrot & cabbage slaw. Moist but far from soggy, with an unexpected meatiness attributed to slivers of air-dried duck inside the tart.

Again, let's pair La Vie En Rose's Gallic savories with the French sweets of Les Deux Garcons. We keep returning to this Bangsar patisserie for the white truffle macarons, but we're also learning to appreciate the garlic macarons _ pungent but pleasurable.

LDG's eclair ranks among the most excellent we've eaten _ light choux pastry brimming with rum-laced (we think) vanilla creme patissierre. Also delectable: Le Pagode Noire, a milky-nutty combo of choc ganache & black sesame praline.

La Normande _ heavenly Granny Smith mousse with financier base & salted caramel cream _ alongside a less exquisite but still enjoyable almond tart layered with joconde & sour lemon curd.

Le Favori (pistachio biscuit pate a choux, raspberry brulee & pistachio mousseline).

Earlier entry on Les Deux Garcons @ Telawi: November 15.

Coffee, hot & black, partnered with the pastries for an affair to remember.

Arthur Metz, Cremant (Alsace). Cheaper than Champagne.

Fresh sourdough loaves for sale at La Vie En Rose. Get 'em while they're warm!

La Vie En Rose,

39, Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2078-3883

Allison's Place

A secret hideout of a cafe-store, chock-full of teak tables, mahogany cabinets & the most charming clutter that money can buy.

Real thought & effort have gone into Allison's menu, resulting in comfort food that transcends mere scrambled eggs. Thumbs up for the huevos rancheros _ piping-hot baked eggs made tangy with tomatoes, topped with super-creamy feta cheese & served with warm tortilla.

Fluffy frittata, filled with slow-cooked eggs, parmesan, potatoes, tomato salsa & sorrel. Much more flavorsome than any old omelet at high-profile outlets elsewhere.

Salmon-&-tuna akame fish cake with poached egg. Prices are encouragingly low; most items cost under RM20, so even a belly-busting meal with drinks won't exceed RM50 per person.

Pumpkin soup with cilantro pesto. A tangy Thai twist to perk up what would otherwise be a banal broth; it's like tom yam crossed with pumpkin soup, almost.

Almond-blanketed prawns with Oriental salad. The nuttiest crustaceans ever; a tasty testament to the crazy creativity of the folks here & their expert execution.

Complimentary moist dark chocolate cake. All in all, Allison's Place is a crackerjack venue for breakfast, lunch & tea.

Cranberry smoothie & cappuccino.

Mixed smoothies: apricot & oat bran, alongside banana & macadamia.

Allison's Place @ Damansara Heights,

8-1A, Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur (behind Hock Lee mini-market).

Open Monday-Saturday, 8am-4pm.

Pietro @ Damansara Endah

After a flurry of new Italian eateries stormed KL in 2009 & 2010, fewer have opened this year. Pietro is the latest entry to our city's spaghetti scene, but so far, it hasn't scaled the same heights as Il Lido, Garibaldi & Favola.

Pietro is handsomely fitted, occupying two floors of the ECM Libra Building, with a hard-working service team. But its menu feels pedestrian, offering too few thrills to warrant repeat visits.

Our meal began promisingly: warm, fluffy bread with a thick, savory olive dip.

Spicy seafood soup, brimming with Venus clams, prawns, scallops & mussels. Would have been commendable if the clams had not tasted past their prime.

Cappellini al aragosta, with slipper lobster, sun-dried tomatoes, chili & white wine sauce. Competently prepared, but we shouldn't expect less of pasta that costs upward of RM40.

Roasted wild barramundi. A complaint: numerous items on Pietro's menu were unavailable. Even this was supposed to come with saffron broth & barley, but those were replaced with Mediterranean veggies & potatoes. A shame; this nice slab of fish would shine in a better recipe.

Red & white Sangrias. Fairly cheap at about RM20 each, though less forgiving patrons might liken the wine in these beverages to vinegar.

So what gives? Maybe we ordered the wrong items; maybe we should return in a month to let Pietro find its footing.

Pietro could potentially be a worthwhile outlet, but if first impressions count, it's kinda like the blind date that starts well before becoming less exciting as the evening progresses.

Pietro Ristorante Italiano,

Bangunan ECM Libra, Jalan Damansara Endah,

Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2093-6433

Click here for online reservations.

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