Eat Drink KL

Monday, February 2, 2015

Croissant Delicatessen & London Sandwich Co

Slicing our way into some sandwich shops that serve fun fare, starting with Croissant Delicatessen, a newbie at Plaza Damas.

True to its name, this outlet's all about croissants that can be eaten on their own or transformed into sandwiches. There's an extra twist: The croissants come in four flavours - classic, garlic, pumpkin & wasabi. One pointer: To experience the flavours at their fullest, eat them plain & buy them fresh, so come in the morning or early in the evening when new batches may be baked.

We experimented with mix-&-match sandwiches, selecting savoury options of a garlic croissant stuffed with garlic-&-basil chicken (RM15.80) & wasabi croissant with turkey ham, pumpkin & mushrooms (RM13.80). Not bad for an outlet that's roughly a week old; it might be interesting to observe what other ingredients & recipes Croissant Delicatessen will offer in the future.

Prefer something sweet? There's the possibility of a pumpkin-laced croissant with mixed berries & whipped cream (RM12.80). Croissants on their own cost RM5 each; the ones we tried were not as fluffy, flaky or buttery as we might have liked, but that's probably understandable, since we were here past nightfall & the croissants were a bit past their prime by then.

Have a latte (RM10), surprisingly smooth & buttery - it turns out that the beans are supplied by respected Japanese roaster Kato-san of Pavilion's WA Cafe. The banana soy-milk juice (RM11) is enjoyable too, creamy & flavoursome.

Moving on to another mall: KLCC, where London Sandwich Co serves grab-&-go gourmet sandwiches; the outlet is founded by former Londoner Nick Tiernan & his wife Soraya Ismail, who also spearhead the popular Boost Juice brand's operations in Malaysia & Singapore. London Sandwich Co has the potential to turn into a similarly successful chain, & KLCC feels like the best birthplace for this business - the city's first Boost Juice was also set up here nearly six years ago.

It's a blast simply to browse & read the cool labels for these creations, which range from a classic ploughman's packaged into a sandwich (RM5.50 for a half-portion, with wholemeal bread, Branston pickle, mature cheddar, tomato & lettuce) to a Caesar salad (sorta) transformed into a baguette filled with roast chicken breast, lean beef bacon, lettuce & mustard mayo (RM11.90).

LSC (the perfect acronym for Anglophiles) pledges to provide honestly handmade & honourably healthy sandwiches, inspired by the likes of London's Pret A Manger & EAT. The two simple sandwiches we purchased proved satisfactory in those regards.

There's nevertheless more to LSC than sandwiches - salads (Greek, Nicoise, etc) can be taken back to our frostily air-conditioned office cubicles too, plus everything from guilt-free servings of fruit to live-a-little indulgences of potato puff pastries, cakes & brownies.

And of course, coffee - Artisan Roast provides the beans & trains the baristas, who labour on Kees van der Westen machines.

We're wrapping up this entry on a sober note though: While we say hello to Croissant Delicatessen & London Sandwich Co, we bid farewell to a now-closed sandwich shop that we never got around to writing about: Stacks at Tropicana Shopping Mall.

Stacks was a good one - it whipped up ambitiously & adventurously complex concoctions like flatbread filled with beef pastrami, kimchi & Monterey Jack cheese, or focaccia with smoked turkey breast, Swiss Emmental cheese & cranberry jam, all assembled to order, but it never quite took off in Tropicana. We hear that Stacks' founder is working to relaunch in another location though, & we're looking forward to it & we wish him well.

Croissant Delicatessen
Plaza Damas Boulevard, Outside Hartamas Shopping Centre, Kuala Lumpur. Between Subway & Pastryville. 10am-10pm.

London Sandwich Co KLCC
C68, Concourse Level, Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur. Weekdays, 730am-10pm; weekends, 10am-10pm.

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Sunday, February 1, 2015

Meteora & Meltz @ Subang

Checking out a couple of cafes with some interesting ideas in Subang, kicking off with Meteora, where customers consume cakes, churros & coffee under the inscrutable stares of Audrey Hepburn & Uma Thurman.

Variations on a theme: Toast with corned beef, sunny-side-up, onions & potatoes (RM13.90) & with beef bacon, scrambled eggs, cheese & mushrooms (RM14). Easy to enjoy, but easy for kitchen-equipped folks to execute at home at a curtailed cost.

Meteora gets creative with some of its burgers, especially an Indian-inspired one with tandoori chicken, mint sauce, cucumber, onions & papadum (RM12.90, with RM3.50 surplus for potato wedges) that shares the menu with beef burgers topped with tomato relish, gherkins & caramelised onions, though the buns taste a tad dehydrated & the patties seem under-seasoned.

Churros & pancakes on one platter (RM11.90), a nice touch in theory, but the churros could be fresher & the pancakes fluffier.

The disconnect between design & delivery dampens Meteora's desserts as well - cheese cake quenelles cushioned with cookie crumbs & crowned with salted caramel drizzle, served in a glass (RM9) sound like a deconstructed delight, but the substance is sapped of fun & flavour, a description that may extend to the cakes too. But we have to thank them for trying.

Meteora is a very friendly neighbourhood hangout nonetheless; perhaps order a coffee & play a card game with your buddies.

Next up: Meltz, which also offers a diverse menu, with Marlon Brando casting his watchful gaze on patrons here.

The Carnivore Hot Dog (RM18), with an 8-inch, 120-gram sausage, half-beef, half-chicken, soaked in beef & cheese sauce with turkey bacon, served with optional onion rings. While hot dogs are generally known to be a guilty pleasure, everything from the meat to the bun on this plate tasted over-processed, evoking more guilt than pleasure.

Meltz's 'fondue' (RM29) misses the mark too - the chocolate sauce is cloying, the butterscotch sauce seems strangely sourish, the fruits prove listless & the marshmallows & brownies feel like empty calories.

Props to Meltz for doing some things differently nevertheless - the Waffogato (RM17) is an intriguing cross between a waffle & an affogato, though it scores primarily for novelty value. Note: Our visits to both Meteora & Meltz were several months back, so the menus & prices here might have matured since then.

Kiwi fruit smoothies (RM8) & coffee, maybe not the main reasons to make it to Meltz. Again, this is a place we wish we could be more enthusiastic about - it's another welcoming cafe that's eager to please, & we would have liked to endorse its offerings.

Meteora

54-1, Jalan USJ 9/5P, Subang Jaya. Daily, 11am-11pm (1am Fridays & Saturdays)

Meltz

41, Jalan SS 15/4B, Subang Jaya. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 12pm-1130pm