Porky Goodness - EEST's new non-halal menu at The Westin KL.

EEST is now non-halal! The new menu was rolled out on the 16th of March, apparently because of popular demand, so the darling and I take a detour from our usual haunt at the Westin (i.e. Prego) to see how the 猪油 affects the food :)


Upon stepping into the restaurant, it's clear that only the menu has been revamped - the decorations are untouched. EEST also has an open kitchen, which makes the restaurant relatively noisy. I like, though - somehow eating chinese food, must have some "noise" then only got the proper ambience to eat, ha ha.


EEST now advertises itself as serving 5 different cuisine (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Malaysian and Vietnamese), but the bulk of the dishes are Chinese. After ordering we're served with complementary pastries - these are delicious! Crispy and with a delicious hot char siu bao-ish flavored chicken filling. Cheese crust on the top was an interesting twist, too.

I guess this is sort of the Chinese equivalent of the amuse bouche?


Anyway on to the food! The Wok Fried Rice with Seafood and XO Paste (MYR28.00) is a bit mixed. The texture and oil level was excellent, but on the flipside there was not enough flavor and tasted rather bland. It's OK for eating with other dishes, but as a stand-alone you'd probably get rather tired of the (lack of) taste.


Salted Fish with Smoked Bacon and Lap Cheong (MYR32.00) was better, with some nice tasting gravy and delicious bacon slices. Amount of dried chili was OK too - enough kick without being too spicy. One criticism that both the darling and I agreed on was that there wasn't enough salted fish taste - you had to really concentrate to taste any.


Finally, we had the Master Tossed Hakka noodle with Roasted Pork Belly (MYR32.00). The noodles were, well, noodles - nice and springy, and the roast pork had been 'stewed' long enough so that the skin was juicy. However, there was also a lot of gravy - and the gravy was a tad bit salty (to put it nicely) - so it was a little challenging towards the end of the dish when there wasn't enough noodles to cover up the saltiness of the sauce.


Reading the menu was quite amusing - I've never seen a Chinese food menu that mentions such things as Wagyu and Black Angus beef. In any case, dinner for the both of us came up to $53-ish (after 50% Starwood Privilege discount). For that price it's a good deal, but if you're not an SP member I think the food needs a little bit of work to justify paying full price.

The darling and I have previously visited EEST for the King's Kitchen Club and dimsum buffet: KKK event at EEST at the Westin KL, and you can also check out eatdrinkkl's review.

B4 - Beer, BBQ, Banda & Bandido at QBA, the Westin KL

A few months ago, out of the blue and for no obvious reason, I was somehow invited by Westin's F&B Team to attend B4 - Beer, BBQ, Banda & Bandido (last two are Band and Buffet) at QBA at the Westin KL. Nice perks eh? Except that being a n00b|3 blogger, I kind of ... didn't check my comments ... and sort of ... missed the invite. Haha. So no choice lor, have to pay.

Luckily, managed to get my hands on a free B4 voucher for one, so effectively have half price :)


QBA is a very nicely decorated place. It's a bar-cum-restaurant-cum-cigar bar. The entrance areas house a bar ...


... and the lounging/relaxing area for enjoying cigars and whiskey. Not that I'd know anything about either of those two things :P


Anyway the entire concept of B4 revolves around a few things: unlimited beer, cocktails and other drinks, food, BBQ - and music (a live band takes turns with a DJ spinning salsa music). We start off with a couple of Bandido's - frozen margaritas.


I don't know the proper names for any of these, so I'll just stick to English :) Anyway, we're served with some cold seafood starters on a bed of ice - prawns, crabs, mussels and oysters. They're very very fresh, and a perfect start to the evening. Love the presentation, too.


Having polished it off, our first 'main meal' stop is at the uh ... grilled uh ... tapas area:


Background: the Grilled prawns were nice, and very fresh.
Foreground: Grilled squid on tomatoes (nice), Grilled salmon on some sort of pancake (not so nice, the pancake was quite tasteless and salmon wasn't flavored strongly enough to compensate), and Olives on Grilled goat cheese (nice, if a tad bit too salty).


We then spot a huge plate of Spanish paella - it's a rice dish with lots of seafood - again, mussels, prawns and squid.


The paella was superb - kind of wish we had taken more. The side dishes were pretty good too - there was some sort of bean mash, beef mash (kind of like chili), and some lamb. Skip that biscuit/cracker looking thing in the back though, it's tasteless, dry, and hard.


We were quite amused by the size of this sub/sandwich. Didn't try, though.


Next up: the tortilla counter - made to order. I have chorizo sausage only - the darling has chorizo and chicken combination.


Delicious and juicy. Turns out to be a bit spicy though, so I end up more or less eating both (darling can't really take anything chili :P)


Corn-cakes corner. There are 4 different types of fillings for the corn cakes.


Sadly I can't quite remember what we had. One was bean and beef mash, I think the other was chicken and egg. The fillings were delicious, but I'm not so sure of the cakes - they were a bit hard, and had a pretty strong 'burnt' taste.


Centerpiece must of course, be the BBQ. Plenty of assortments of chicken, beef, lamb and fish - choose whatever tickles your fancy ...


... and hand it over to the chef manning the BBQ pit - he'll grill it perfectly and send it to your table.


The resulting grilled fish. The grilling was done pretty well, actually, but the fish was ... well, I'm not sure what fish that was, but it had a very strong 'fishy' smell/taste.


Grilled lamb sausage and egg combination. Sausage was delicious. Eggs were ... eggs ... haha.


By this point we're mucho stuffed but no choice, have to make room for dessert (no choice cos the waiters bring the desserts to your table once you're done). The 3 things were something like macarons - chocolate sauce sandwiched in light and fluffy pastry-like ... buns. In the foreground, these aren't popiah but instead something like rolled-up crepes - all delicious.


Snow fritter (tastes somewhat like a more fluffy & light donut), and chocolate mousse with cream. Also delicious.


And finally the last dish of the night - popsicles to refresh the palette. Couldn't decipher what flavour these were, probably some tropical fruit mix. I think there was some orange and some passion fruit, among others. Check out the presentation!


Wanted to stay to salsa a bit, but nobody else was dancing so a bit paiseh. That, and the darling didn't have the right shoes for salsa, so home we go!

Overall, I rate the experience decently high. The food is a mixed bag - some items were outstanding, some below average. But the experience (other than basically being seated next to a noisy road) is top-notch. I'd say the real complication comes from the price - it's about MYR170.00 per person after taxes and service charges. Is it worth it? If you drink, then yes, otherwise ... it can be a bit steep if you're paying full price

B4 is on every Saturday night at QBA, the Westin KL. Head on over to their website to make bookings or for more information!

KKK event at EEST at the Westin KL

Firstly no, this isn't some racist post about white supremacy (or yellow). KKK stands for King's Kitchen Klub, and is a ~2 hour session where the Westin KL chefs guide you through cooking/preparing a couple of dishes, followed by brunch/lunch at the restaurant. It's an interesting concept, and the darling and I attend a session at EEST - Westin's Chinese restaurant.

We arrive a few minutes early, and first impressions are that EEST is one of the most nicely decorated restaurants we've been in. The open dining area is adorned with these ... rock pools?


No idea what they're called, but they add a very serene and calm air. Here's a shot of a bigger pool in the center:


View of the dining area:


On to the cooking class! We're introduced to Chef Lai (Chef de Cuisine) and Chef Chong (Dimsum Chef). They start off with standing behind the kitchen counter, with us on the other side, and tell us we'll be learning 3 dimsum dishes - Steamed Chicken Wings with Black Bean Sauce, Shrimp Wanton in Chili Oil and Crystal Dumpling with Crab Roe and Crabmeat.


No fear though, we soon end up on the other side of the counter and inside the kitchen. After all we're decked out in King's Kitchen Klub aprons and chef hats!


Classes are kept down to around 12 people so the chefs can keep an eye on all of us.


After the teaching, it's practical time! Some of the participants hard at work wrapping Shrimp Wanton - the darling being an ex-chef is already done and posing for the camera instead :)


Some photos of our respective creations. I've got a Crystal Dumpling and two siew mai's in my bamboo steamer. Doesn't look like much from this distance, but I assure you it's super professional and looks like what a chef in a 5-star restaurant would have cooked. Ahem. :P


After we're done with the class, we're let loose on the buffet-style eat-all-you-can Dimsum brunch. Here are the rows/stacks of steaming dimsum:


Here's the porridge condiments counter.


At this point our camera ran out of battery (oops), so excuse the picture quality as these were taken with my iPhone :)

The porridge is available in two flavours - normal and with crab roe. You choose your choice of fresh seafood - cod fish, salmon, shrimp, etc, and the chef cooks up the porridge and has it sent to your table.


Here's the 'meats' corner. Assortment of roasted/fried Chicken, duck, lamb, and beef are available and chopped by the chef upon request.


Desserts! The desserts corner has some nice variety - from malay kuih, fresh cold chrysanthemum tea, tau foo fah, mochi, and assorted chocolates and pastries.


Graduates of the class posing for the camera with our two chef hosts.


King's Kitchen Klub, the cooking academy in The Westin Kuala Lumpur is the brainchild of Chef David King, Director - Kitchens. King’s Kitchen Klub offers cooking classes that encourage you to ‘Come as you are’ and ‘Cook as you like’ in The Westin’s innovative restaurants.

It's actually a pretty great concept, and considering that lunch at Westin's restaurants is already almost MYR100/pax, the price is pretty good. If you've got a group of 10-ish people they'll even set up a session according to your preference. (the darling and I paid $100/person for the session plus lunch, courtesy of Starwood Privilege).

As for the EEST restaurant - food was overall above average. The dimsum is good considering the dual handicaps of no pork and no ajinomoto, with some gems like the portugese egg tarts which were super nice. There are a few mis-hits though, most noticeably being the porridge which was bland, and in my opinion the natural fishy taste of the cod doesn't quite go well with the porridge.

Prego at the Westin KL (revisited)

Saturday night dinner at Prego, our favorite Italian restaurant. Full review was in our previous visit, so this one is gonna be short and sweet.

When you go, ask for a table on the second floor overlooking the kitchen. There's just something special and addictive about watching the chefs whip up all the different dishes.


I decide on the Braised Lamb Shank in Saffron Risotto (MYR64.00). The meat is tender and well cooked, and the texture and taste of the Risotto complements it perfectly.


The darling has the Lasagne al Forno (Wood-fired oven-baked pasta, beef ragout and parmesan, MYR43.00). I thought it was decently good, but not particularly outstanding or delicious.


If you haven't yet visited Prego, it's highly recommended - and the prices are reasonable though, as long as you avoid the restaurant scam of charging you MYR24 for a bottle of still or sparkling water.

Set Dinner at Living Room, Westin KL

Part of the Starwood Privilege Card's benefits are three complimentary dining vouchers for two, so the darling and I take a short drive to the Living Room, Westin KL. On a non food-related note, love the design on the ceiling:


The customary bread before the meal. Rather odd choice of 'western' style breads, seeing as the menu is all Malay food.


Anyway we have the Signature Set Dinner for May ($98.00), which is one-and-a-half person's portion of:

- crisp spring chicken with malay herbs
- braised short ribs in malay spices gravy
- grilled king prawn, spice turmeric coconut floss
- seabass and scallop with spice chili paste
- salted egg, fish crackers, cucumber with steam fragrant rice


It's a lot of food, and certainly more than enough unless you're a very very heavy eater. We like the ribs (mutton) and the chicken, which were delicious, juicy and tender. Fish and prawn were a bit less yummy.

Dessert is cinnamon fritters with sweet creamy durian gravy. Neither of us are durian eaters, so in hindsight we should have actually read the menu and requested a different choice of dessert :(


Judging from the pricing, I'm guessing this is pretty much Malay fine dining. But apart from the service (good) and the ambience (classy), the cuisine although delicious wasn't all that different from ... well, from any other Malay-style restaurant.

So ... if you're coming here for free or on a heavy discount then you'll have a satisfying feast, but I find it hard to justify paying over MYR100 for the meal.

Prego at the Westin KL

I've been abusing my Starwood Privilege Card lately. Who wouldn't abuse a 50% discount on some of the nicest restaurants in town? Anyway took a weekday trip to Prego at The Westin KL for a quick dinner. Got an upstairs table overlooking the open kitchen - I adore open kitchens, it's a lot of fun watching the chefs in action.


Dinner at Prego comes with this loaf of bread with tomato dip to start. I find the quality a bit inconsistent - previous visit the bread had a nicer crust, this visit it wasn't even warmed up properly (center was cool). Also don't care much for the tomato dip, prefer a good butter (or olive oil + balsamic vinegar) anytime.


We have the Antipasto (MYR43.00) to start, which is an appetizer sampler plate. I like the taste of the Calamari, but not the texture which is a bit on the chewy side. Smoked Salmon is heavenly and the cheese-on-tomato is unique and tasty. I have absolutely no idea what cheese it is, though, ha ha. Beef fillet is a bit of a miss for us.


We decide to do pastas and I have a Prego Carbonara Fettucinne (MYR31.00). Absolutely heavenly! The sauces for each serving of pasta is whipped up individually, and this one is the perfect creaminess. Bacon (presumably beef) is generous, too. Would definitely come back and eat this again :D


The darling had Vongone Linguine (Clams in white wine sauce, MYR32). The clams themselves were great and full of flavor, but the sauce was perhaps a bit too bland for our Malaysian taste buds. Of course, no complaints on the pasta which is perfectly cooked.


Despite being stuffed we share a Tiramisu Tradizionale (MYR21.00). Comes in a glass, and has real brandy! Tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts, and this one didn't disappoint. Only 4-out-of-5 stars though, I like the tiramisu in cafe cafe KL more :)


Dinner for two after the SP discount came up to MYR73.05 - which is plenty reasonable for starter, main course and dessert! I'm not too sure if I'd be as satisfied with the food and pricing without the SP discount, though.