Pinchos Tapas Bar: Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Looking for great tapas in Kuala Lumpur look for El Toro! (above) Seriously head over to Pinchos Tapas Bar in Changkat Bukit Bintang.

I have read mixed reviews about the service and the food. We came on a busy night and were well looked after. Drinks were served quick and the food came fairly fast.

The place was buzzing and the tapas were probably as good as it gets for KL Spanish food.

Boquerones en Vinaigre/

Fresh Anchovies Marinated in Vinegar

Pan con Tomate/Tomato Bread

Manchego Cheese, Olives+ All the good stuff (salsichon, chorizo, serrano)

Albondigas/Meatballs

Fried Chorizo Pinchos

Gambas al ajillo/Shrimp in Garlic

Address: No. 8 Changkat Bukit Bintang, Bukit Bintang, 50200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Telephone Number: +60 3-2145 8482

one note samba : Locavore Kitchen x Drinks Kapitolyo, Pasig, Philippines

 ONE NOTE SAMBA…& its fat, fat, fat

The Great.. an ambitious MO-FI (modern filipino) restaurant, farm to table, organic food and mid priced.  

The Good.. Modern industrial design and good  MO-FI food presentation.

The not so good.. read on…

The dishes we ordered were all recommended by our server… who also very oddly asked us to sign the order slip to confirm our order.

Sisig Sausage

While one expects to get a relatively fatty sausage when one orders a "Sisig" sausage, this was fat wurst (no pun intended) laden with fat, stuffed with fat and garnished with fat. Great if you love fat. Otherwise, the highlight of the dish was the Sweet Potato chips.  

Gising Gising

This dish was the best of the lot, good use of local organic vegetables sigarilyas (winged bean), french beans, shallots, garlic and coconut milk. One would think that a restaurant that would expose organic ingredients would make the effort to use fresh coconut milk for this dish but this was not to be so on this day.  The use of fresh coconut milk coupled with a bit of spice and  citrus would make this dish perfect.

Sisig Fried Oysters

The fried oysters seemed fresh and were sufficiently moist and plump underneath the batter, the sisig lacked the crunch and missed the acid to off-set the heavy handed fatty gravy. Again pet peeve but the gravy tasted like industrial demi-glace (not a good sign). I can even tell you the brand ;)… 

Sizzling Sinigang

This was the one dish that I had very high expectations for but was seriously disappointed, same note on heavy handed fatty gravy as above with the addition of instant sinigang mix from the same company that shall not be named. 

Boneless Lechon Belly

Any dish that places Cebu before lechon sets the bar high. After  all, the great Anthony Bourdain in 2009 claimed Cebu Lechon as the greatest pork ever.  The dish presentation is also stunning and pictures very well. So this dish again over promised and under delivered. The pinakurat (coconut vinegar) & bagoong (fermented fish) sauce did not hold up to the overbearing stoutness of the pork. The skin also missed the signature crunch of a lechon. The meat also had an overbearing medicinal taste.. star anise? 

Turon Con Leche

The puff pastry was crisp and delightful, the leche flan was more of a pastry cream. Not bad... 

The Skinny: 

Props for spearheading MODERN FILIPINO dining, I so wanted this experience to work out and tell the world that MO-FI = LOCAVORE & this is the best place to experience it. 
But I am NOT quite ready to do that yet. 

Ho hum till the next one.

website: http://www.locavore.ph
Facebook :https://www.facebook.com/pages/Locavore-Kitchen-Drinks/400958036723741

Rambla, Rockwell Makati City, Philippines

Rambla-ing on..

Having heard a lot of talk about how good this place was, I finally made the effort to try it out. 

I thought this restaurant was  attempting to imitate Ferran Adria's style of molecular gastronomy. However, having sampled their cuisine I can say that this restaurant  attempts to introduce Catalan/Spanish cuisine to Manila with their molecular techniques. 

In my opinion, more places fail than succeed in doing molecular cooking because they place the "show-biz" of cooking before the "flavour" of cooking. Happy to say that this restaurant focuses on flavour before the show.

Because of my preconceived notion of what I would be receiving, I had a little snack before my lunch here ... and that was my first mistake.  

My second mistake, was thinking that the Spherical Olive was just molecular gimmickry. Alas, I still could not resist and I ordered  a little apero/amuse bouche.  This course was enjoyable and managed to convey the fruity, nutty flavour of olives that I like, sans the brine which I dislike. 

Spherical Olives Marinated in Evoo!

The next dish Pulpo a feira was delightful. The octopus was cooked to the perfect tenderness. The potatoes soaked in the paprika flavour contrasted with the right amount of salt. The foam perfectly embraced both the potatoes and octopus and added another dimension to the dish that a sauce would not.

Pulpo a feira

Now onto my third mistake don't get me wrong, there was not much wrong with this dish, it's just that I had a to die for burrata the day before - and the Rambla version came across as pedestrian in comparison.

Burrata, Pesto, 

Red Wine Cherry Tomatoes 

& Organic Arugula 

My fourth and final mistake was ordering the churros which I found very oily & soggy. Mental note: next time go elsewhere for dessert.

Churros con chocolate

Well, it seems I totally got this restaurant wrong so I will have to try it again, again and again!

Que aproveche!

One Way Street Restaurant-Legaspi Village, Makati Philippines

One Way ticket to…

great food in a quiet corner of Legaspi Village.

As we dine our way through our new neighbourhood we have encountered a lot of hits & misses. A lot of places have got the looks but totally miss the mark in terms of flavour.

One Way.. practices the old sales maxim of "Under-promise and over-deliver!"

I started with the escargot a la Bourguignone which was pretty darn good. 

The use of tarragon in place of parsley was a pleasant change to the tradition. The dish though was noticeably light on the garlic and missing a bit of acid from the wine. 

  

The croutons were fantastic a lot better than the stale bread served at many a fancy "fine dining" restaurants around the metropolis. 

I then had the coq-au vin which was braised to the perfect melt in your mouth "tenderness" the mushrooms added just the right amount of umami; while the wine & pickled onions injected the right amount of acid. The lardons and drippings from the chicken provided a perfect base for a splendid sauce that offered  a warm hug with every bite. 

One of the owners Joseph Assad played the role of "Maitre d' hotel" brilliantly. He was the perfect host. It was our first visit to the restaurant and he treated us like long lost friends. 

The Philippines aspiring restauranteurs and experienced "expat" hoteliers need to take a page from his playbook! 

Bravo Monsieur Assad. 

On a side note: They bake their bread on the premises. They have baguettes, pumpernickel and multi grain batard loaves on sale (mental note to self: next time I need bread.)

Website:http://www.oneway.com.ph

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/OneWayStreetRestaurant?ref=ts&fref=ts