Garibaldi

Garibaldi: Round Two. Click here for earlier entry (Dec. 23).

Amuse bouche of ricotta cheese with walnuts. Sumptuously soft and smooth, with an intriguing interplay of milky and nutty tastes.

Spinach cappellacci stuffed with cod fish mousse, accompanied by mussels & saffron sauce. Comfort food for seafood fans. Brimming with the sea's sweet and salty flavors, this seemed like one of those simple spreads that could be served at Venice's waterfronts.

Pan-seared sea bass fillet in Mediterranean "Guazzetto" broth. Fresh-tasting fish in a tangy sauce. Not the most inspired recipe, but a seemingly healthy, reasonably well-prepared one.

Pecorino Romano Salato. Hard aged salted sheep milk cheese with honey.

Apple pie with vanilla gelato. A pleasant surprise; instead of being the typical tart-like confection, the pie was more of a fluffy sponge cake with sweet bits of apple inside.

Zabaione (mixed berries with pistachio gelato & gratinated marsala wine sabayon). The most luscious of desserts, decadently cold and creamy.

Blange F.lli Ceretto (Ameis). Wines are steeply priced here; the cheapest by the glass costs RM30, while there are virtually no options for the bottle below RM100.

Sensitive Blink (sambuca, baileys, fresh cream) & Gianduja (frangelico, chocolate, grey goose). Garibaldi offers enough choices of cocktails and shooters to slay a live Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Garibaldi,

Bangsar Village, Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 2282-3457

Moet & Chandon

France, Part II: Moet & Chandon's headquarters is in the scenic countryside commune of Epernay, where vineyards seem more common than houses.

A tour of the company's subterranean cellars provides eye-opening insights into the history of champagne, as well as its time-consuming production process.

There's also an in-house store where visitors can purchase wide-ranging champagnes at relatively low prices. Tempting, but the queues can get rather long.

Champagne tasting at the close of the tour provides light at the end of the tunnel.

Moet & Chandon,

Epernay, France.

Garibaldi

Garibaldi brings tantalizing Italian flavors to Bangsar Village, offering two separate menus in one venue: the ground floor lounge provides simple pizzas, pastas and snacks, but serious diners should head upstairs to the main restaurant, where the real culinary action happens.

Cheese-scented bread with Italian extra virgin olive oil. Opening night at Garibaldi's restaurant ran like clockwork, with the kitchen and service teams working with professional precision to ensure that six tables of customers enjoyed satisfying dinners.

The season for white Alba truffles isn't over yet, so there's still time to sample decadent delicacies such as poached eggs with these fragrant fungi (RM108++ per portion, comprising three grams of shaved truffles).

Break the yolks open, and voila! Sinful, seductive sumptuousness ensues.

Pumpkin & potato gnocchi with walnut & gorgonzola cheese sauce. Addictively flavorsome, blending sweet and savory sensations in every bite. Irresistibly light too, free from the stodginess that afflicts gnocchi at so many outlets.

Desserts are worth checking out. The mille foglie proved to be a competently executed concoction of crisp puff pastry layers with thick custard cream & raspberries.

Cassata (Sicilian ice cream cake with berries). A chilled-out finish to a cool meal. Unlike the original Garibaldi in Singapore, however, there's no pork served here.

Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Santa Margherita. A staggering selection of wine & champagne is offered, probably the best (but priciest) range in this part of Bangsar.

Evita (vodka, midori, orange juice, lime) & Sade Limonade (Scotch whiskey, midori, ginger beer, apple). Lotsa creative cocktails are available too.

Garibaldi,

Bangsar Village, Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 2282-3457

Al-Amar Express

Buoyed by its success at Pavilion, Al-Amar has launched an "express" branch outside Fahrenheit 88, offering what could be considered a fast food version of Lebanese cuisine.

Steamed fava beans with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic & parsley. A surprisingly hearty, seemingly healthy recipe to warm and fill our tummies.

Minced lamb wrapped in bread with hummus, onions & pickles. Easy to eat, without the messiness of Western burgers and sandwiches. But then, this isn't half as satisfyingly juicy and flavorsome as a Burger King Whopper.

Baked eggs with ground beef, served in a hot pot. Playfully called 'Eggcellence' on the menu. Alas, we left the bowl covered with a lid for too long, causing the trio of yolks to turn hard instead of remaining runny.

Lebanese pizza topped with cheese & spicy lamb sausages (sujuk). Only recommended for those who prefer relatively thick crusts. Might have been more fulfilling with a more generous sprinkling of sausage slices.

Iced mint tea & date juice. Beer is available, but not any other booze.

Service is warm and speedy. Al-Amar Express closes at 3am, which makes it convenient for late-night snacks. Shisha is also supplied, naturally.

Al-Amar Express,

Fahrenheit 88.

Solace

Solace might be Medan Damansara's least prominent restaurant, despite its excellent name, which evokes impressions of a calm refuge to comfort the wounded soul.

Braised pork belly. Rather salty and oily, but we still lapped up every bit of the melt-in-the-mouth meat. Total comfort food for carnivores.

Braised beef rib with BBQ sauce. Chewy, with a somewhat stale stench.

Grilled pork ribs. Not the best in town; tasted OK, but without the show-stopping succulence that we worship in ribs.

Seafood paella. Brimming with prawns, mussels, squid & clams, but lacked a real 'wow' factor. Maybe more saffron would have made the rice more flavorful.

Rum-&-honey marinated chicken with mushroom sauce. Sounded kinda interesting on the menu, but tasted like regular chicken breast.

Mojito & Long Island Iced Tea.

Southern Comfort & Triple Sec.

Concha Y Toro Frontera Chardonnay & Cabernet Sauvignon.

Solace,

Jalan Kasah, Medan Damansara.

G3 Kitchen

Telawi's streets are teeming with watering holes, but there's only a smattering of outlets for satisfying food. Thankfully, we can now add G3 Kitchen & Bar to that short list.

Potato risotto with field mushrooms & lamb sausages. This mix of creamy diced potatoes with firm, sticky rice offered a terrific textural change from traditional risotto. A smash hit in terms of taste too, thanks to the meaty, mildly spicy sausages.

Roasted pumpkin salad with almond flakes & feta cheese. A whopping chunk of warm, velvety pumpkin, perhaps sufficient for a week's requirement of beta-carotene.

Salted beef sandwich with mustard & gherkins. Scarcely medium-rare, the meat mustered a melt-in-the-mouth moistness and spectacular savoriness that worked wonders with the ultra-fresh, pillow-soft bread.

Duck confit, slow-cooked for six hours and served with beetroot relish. Flavorsome, but not quite the duck confit of our dreams. Frangipani's succulent version remains our favorite in the city, though some might consider it excessively sodium-laden.

Braised grain-fed Angus beef ribs with onion mash & gremolata. Exceptional; the portion was supremely generous (for only about RM30), comprising fork-tender slabs of meat packed with a rich, beefy taste. A knockout in our book.

Fig & walnut tart. Sweet, nutty and buttery. We absolutely loved this.

Rhubarb tart. Not bad, but tasted more like a raspberry jam tart. Nevertheless, G3's pastries boast a fabulous freshness, making it clear that desserts aren't a mere afterthought here.

J Lohr Painter Bridge Zinfandel (California).

Deakin Estate Chardonnay (Australia).

G3 Kitchen & Bar,

19, Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 2282-8019