Eat Drink KL: 2014

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Foodlogy French-Italian Restaurant @ Viva Residency, Sentul

French & Italian fare, carefully prepared by two Malaysian sisters coached by a respected French F&B consultant, surfaces this month at this casual restaurant in Sentul's Viva Residency, not too far from the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre.

Foodlogy might work well for a laid-back lunch or leisurely dinner; relax & munch on toasted bread topped with duck pate (RM15.90). Recipes here feature unexpected twists, like pickled red onions that provide a tang to Foodlogy's take on crostini.

Love the flowery plating for this salad of apple, walnuts & cranberries (RM15.90); the visual appeal sure stirs the appetite. Foodlogy's menu is wide, with over 30 creations now offered; founders Sandy & Lily hope to update the selection monthly.

A touch of truffles turns up throughout Foodlogy's temptations - truffled croque-monsieur with smoked chicken & cheddar cheese (RM19.90), truffled mushroom cream soup (RM18.90), truffled spaghetti carbonara with beef bacon (RM26.90), & truffled omelettes & scrambled eggs (RM18.90; egg dishes for weekend & public holiday brunches only).

Asian influences also keep things tantalising, from tomato cream soup tinged with tom yam flavouring & coconut milk ...

... to this crunchy-fresh baguette, evocative of Vietnamese banh mi, stuffed with Cambodian-inspired lok-lak beef strips & Malaysian ulam-style leaves, accompanied by a piquant dipping sauce (RM21.90).

Main courses span the likes of spaghetti with meaty chunks of rustic beef sausage, baby green peas & broccoli (RM27.90) ...

... & tea-smoked, pan-fried salmon - savoury slabs of irreproachably moist fish on a bed of warm lentils (RM33.90).

Desserts include crepe suzette with orange sauce & vanilla ice cream (RM15.90), though our preferred recommendation would be the pleasurable panna cotta, sweetened with Gula Melaka syrup & textured with sago pearls inside the cream (RM9.90).

Tea & coffee come from Paris brand Cafes Richard; chamomile clocks in at RM10.90, while cappuccinos cost RM11.90.

Products ranging from penne to tea are available for sale. Many thanks to Sandy & Lily for hosting this enjoyable lunch.

Foodlogy
B-0-1, Viva Residency, Jalan Suppiah Pillay, Off Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur
Weekdays, 11am-1030pm; weekends & public holidays, 9am-11pm. Closed Tuesdays. Tel: 03-4050-4636

Check out the latest edition of Eat Drink KL: 100 Favourites, featuring 100 recommended restaurants for October-December 2014, including more than 30 new entries for this quarter.

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This link expires Dec. 31, 2014. Please check the newest blog entries after that for fresh links.

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Monday, December 29, 2014

Battery Acid Club @ Damansara Utama

When is a cafe not completely a cafe? Maybe when its founders consider the coffee-selling business to be incidental to their main mission: In Battery Acid Club's case, to serve as a space where designers meet & share ideas in a creative collective.

Battery Acid Club co-founders Aaron, Swiss & their three partners have carved out a place that they insist is not intended to target cafe lovers. Their community is meant to consist mainly of designers, though it's easy to envision that casual & curious customers will want to check out this venue, the sole F&B outlet on a shop-house row, tucked without a signboard underneath the offices of SWOT Design Group in Damansara Utama's residential section.

The venue stands in stark contrast to many Klang Valley cafes - there's a clean, clinical vibe that some will like & others won't. The aesthetics here feel polished & professional, though there seems to be a chill that's hard to shake off (perhaps because we visited on a rainy night, when the cafe was nearly empty), coloured up a little by a retail room that's like a mini-exhibition, with vintage stationery sharing shelf space with spectacle frames, socks & watches.

Make no mistake though: Battery Acid Club puts a lot of thought into the food & beverages it serves. Ling's Kitchen tarts are a terrific choice - there's one with coffee-infused dark chocolate ganache & mascarpone cheese cream, & another with layers of apple cubes, cream cheese & almond crumble.

Cakes come from respected indie baker Petiteserie Desserts, with options like The Cendol (pandan sponge, sago gula melaka, coconut cream & jelly), Gula Melaka Banana (caramelised bananas & crushed almond brittle) & Salted Caramel Chocolate. RM13 each; these chilled cakes do need to left out for quite awhile after ordering to be properly enjoyed.

Pastries (RM3.50): apple strudels, pain au chocolat, mocha whirls, raisin cream cheese combs & cranberry custard lattices.

BAC relies on DeGayo beans; piccolos & flat whites clock in at RM11. Trivia: Aaron had a stint as a barista at Artisan Roast.

Even BAC's juices have a design quirk, as far as their labels go; where else would you find apple-grapefruit juice that's named after a Swiss-French architect who's been deceased for half a century, or orange, strawberry & pink guava juice which carries an Italian designer's surname (RM10 per bottle)? Bottled lattes, sweetened with honey (RM12), are available too.

There's a budding library here, but we knew it wasn't really our kind of reading material (Towards A New Architecture?).

The 'No Wi-Fi' rule is imposed on patrons at BAC too, & is explained in a more in-depth fashion than 'Talk To Each Other.'

Battery Acid Club

21 Jalan SS21/34, Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Open Tuesday-Friday, 8am-9pm; Saturday-Sunday, 9am-9pm