Monday, May 17, 2010

Favola at Le Meridien KL

Continuing our journey of (i) abusing the Starwood Privilege Card, (ii) Exploring Le Meridien's restaurants and (iii) to erase the horrid memory of crappy pasta at the Spaghetti Farm, the darling and I take a trip to Favola at Le Meridien KL.

First impression is that the service is unacceptably bad for such an upmarket restaurant. Reservations were made for 9pm, but when we turned up there were no tables available, and we were basically told to go walk around for 15 minutes. So off we go to explore the private dining room area, which is immaculately decorated.


I also thought this wall was nice


Anyway after 15 minutes we're seated at our table. As seems the norm with these restaurants we're given a huge serving of bread. Our favorite is the loaf in the foreground that's crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. The bread also comes with avocado and mashed potato dips, in addition to the customary olive oil + balsamic vinegar combo.


Having once again made the mistake of eating way too much bread, we continue with the Chef's Antipasti (MYR50.00) - a sampler of five cold appetizers. We especially like the Caprese (tomato & buffalo mozzarella) and the Seafood Salad (shrimp, mussels, scallops, squid tossed in garlic, chili-olive oil and lemon juice). I also quite like the Bresaola (shaved dried beef), but neither the darling nor I care much for the Octopus or the Bruschetta.


Next up is the BBQ Cod Fish (MYR75.00). The fish was expertly cooked, with a nice mildy seared/burnt BBQ flavor on the skin/crust, and juicy soft on the inside. Mashed potato was nice and creamy but otherwise somewhat nondescript.


Pot Roasted Lamb Shank (MYR75.00) is what I have. The meat on the lamb shank is tender and full of flavor, without an overly strong "lamb" taste (for lack of a better word, ha ha), and comes in a very italian-y tomato-based sauce. Wish they were a bit more generous with the gravy, though.


Bill comes up to MYR115.00 after taxes and SP discount. Great food, great ambience, but the experience was marred somewhat by having to wait even though I had a reservation - and the overall poor quality of the service. Waitresses were not particularly friendly or helpful, and rather inattentive. Will definitely come back again, next time to do pasta or pizza and compare with Prego :)

3 comments:

  1. I was totally disappointed with the food quality. A simple grilled asparagus starter and spaghetti vongole turned out burnt asparagus, and vongole soup with spaghetti.
    Don't think I'll ever return.

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    Replies
    1. We haven't visited Favola for over two years now, and that's a LONG TIME in restaurant years. So sad to hear that the standards have dropped a lot since then, perhaps?

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