180deg - buffet restaurant in Le Meridien Ile Maurice, Mauritius

Quickie update!

I'm working in Mauritius on a project, and the cut-over date was over last weekend - meaning I'm approaching my 10th day (in a row) of 12-13 hours at the office, with hardly time to even go to the toilet. Much less any time to blog :) Things are settling down now, though, so I'll steal some time away to post a quick review of the 180˚ restaurant in Le Meridien.

180˚ is the buffet restaurant of the hotel. It's buffet breakfast by day, and by night it has a combined Indian cuisine buffet, and a rotating nationality dinner (japanese -> chinese -> french -> etc). Pic of the buffet area:


We're here for breakfast, and we're seated outside overlooking the swimming pool and the beach/sea further on - it's great. Breakfast starts off with salads and some cold cuts - roast beef with mustard, ham, smoked tuna and smoked marlin ...


... followed by croissants, green tea bread, and some assorted pastries. Delicious! After all, Mauritius being an ex-French colony (and who cater to tons of French tourists), it's probably a given that the pastries are above average (at least).


Next up on the menu, some hot foods - omelette, and assorted sausages (pork, beef and lamb). Surprisingly, the sausages are terrible, which is a stark contrast to the quality level for the rest of the food.


Another closer view of the buffet area - this table holds all the assorted jams and bread.


We also had a buffet dinner here, for which I sort of forgot to take pictures cos I was too hungry, ha ha. Did manage to at least get a shot of some of the great desserts before eating them.


So that was that! Didn't get the price of the breakfast or dinner, but that would be pointless anyway as I'm pretty certain that the only people eating here are those on half-board or all-inclusive packages with the resort.

Overall, other than the breads and pastries which were top notch, the taste, quality and variety of the food was still below a top-tier buffet joint in Kay-El such as Latest Recipe.

And just before ending this post, I've received my first ads payment from FoodBuzz! It's a whole USD 0.01 yo! Thanks for all your support! :)

La Foya in Le Meridien Ile Maurice, Mauritius

If I was a marketing student I'd possibly be quite impressed by the Starwood group - of all the dozens (possibly hundreds) of hotels and resorts in Mauritius, I find myself in Le Meridien Ile Maurice - after all the great dinners I've had in Le Meridian KL, only seemed natural to come to Le Meridien all the way over here as well :)

Blogs & Pics of the resort proper will come in a future post, but for now here's a quick review of the restaurant we had dinner in last night - La Foya. It's a "ala-carte" restaurant, but every night there are only 3 choices of starter, main, and dessert.

Doesn't really show in this shot, but the beach is immediately at the right side of the frame, so you have your dinner practically on the beach.


One immediate criticism is that the restaurant is perhaps a tad bit too dark. I'm all for low lighting for ambience and mood, but when I can't comfortably make out what I'm eating, it's too dark. (For the photography-minded among you, exposure was 1 full second at f/2.8, iso1600).

Anyway we start off with a basket of assorted bread and butter. The bread is OK, nowhere near the kind of bread available at the restaurants in Le Meridien KL.


Tuna Sashimi, complementary "pre-starter." I know there's a fancy name for this "pre-starter" dish but I don't know what that name is ;P ... nothing really spectacular, if I'm honest.


My starter is the Classic Horiatiki Salad with Brined Feta Cheese and Lemon Confit (350 Rs). It's interesting, and something totally new to my palette. Tastes very Greek, what with the olives and all.


The darling has the Slow-cooked Calamari Salad accented with sweet chili peppers on orange salad (350 Rs). Calamari was nice and tender, although the 'orang salad' bit consisted of 2 peeled slices of orange on the side.


My choice of main course - the Herb-roasted chicken breast with roast garlic whipped potato (400 Rs). Nothing special about the whipped potato, which is miles below Prime's Truffle Mashed Potato, but the chicken breast was superb. Tender and juicy on the inside, with the perfect sauce accompaniment.


This is the darling's Pan-roasted fish fillet with roasted pepper & eggplant compote, lemon & pepper sauce with crisp capers (400 Rs). The fish is capitaine - which is apparently local to Africa/Mauritius. Flesh of the fish is tasty and fresh, if a little firm.


Dessert time! The Coffee Parfait with crispy almond biscuit & Amaretto sabayon (350 Rs) is a bit of a disappointment. It's basically a room-temperature coffee-flavored cream, with a forgettable biscuit.


The La Faya selection of ice cream & sorbets, passion fruit, strawberry, vanilla (300 Rs) is better. Passion fruit sorbet is refreshing, but takes a while to finish because it's pretty sour.


Overall, food was above average, and the service was impeccable. With the current exchange rate of 10.2 Rs = 1.00 RM putting the price of the dinner at about $105 per person, it's certainly not cheap. 90% of the people here (us included) are probably at the resort on a meals-included package, though, so the prices are probably merely a formality.

Blackmore Wagyu Special at Prime (Le Meridien KL).

OK I know, I haven't reviewed that many restaurants & eating places, and here I am posting about Prime for a *third* time. This time is special, though! Prime's July special is Blackmore Wagyu - in their own words:

"AWARD-WINNING BLACKMORE WAGYU

Highly demanded and only sold to the best restaurants worldwide, the Blackmore Wagyu Beef is finally here! For the very first time, it is available in Malaysia only at Prime. Directly airflown from Australia, this premier beef is intensely sweet, delicate and persistent in flavour. You have never experienced 'melt in the mouth' goodness until you try this 100% fullblood Japanese Wagyu.

Be the first to discover perfection..."

How to resist after reading that? Hehe. Anyway, having learned that ordering two mains usually results in us over-stuffed, the darling and I decide to share. We add on a Diced Kobe beef and porcini ragoût in twice baked Idaho potato (MYR45.00), one of the house specialty starters. It's delicious - tastes not unlike a Shepard's Pie, only more tasty. I think the Crab Cakes are the better choice, though.


Moving on to the main "star" of the night - the Blackmore Wagyu Set Menu ($528.00). We choose the 80g Thinly Sliced of Blackmore Wagyu Oyster Blade, Double Beef Consommé Flavored with Asian Spices, Sesame Sauce (MYR60.00 ala-carte).


This. Dish. Is. AWESOME. The thinly-sliced wagyu is served raw in a bowl before the servers pour in the beef consommé which cooks the meat. Using chopsticks, we pick out pieces of beef, dip it in the soy sauce-based sauce, and add noodles, tofu and mushrooms to taste. The slices of meat are exquisitely tender and are full of melt-in-the-mouth goodness. Was so good we contemplated ordering a second helping.


* Oyster Blade is derived from the blade or chuck and is the wedge shape muscle remaining after removal of the bolar blade from the whole blade.

The alternate starter is Inter Costal 140g Blackmore Wagyu Braised in Homemade BBQ Sauce, Soft Mascarpone Polenta with Truffle Oil (MYR58.00 ala-carte).

Moving on to the main: Here's the Charcoal Grilled 170g Blackmore Wagyu Cube Roll - Medium Rare (MYR488.00 ala-carte). I'm a little disappointed that the steak doesn't look anything like the advertisement, and I do feel it could've been served a little more warm, but no complaints on the taste. It's an awesome cut of meat - supremely tender, exceedingly tasty and with a buttery & fatty goodness. You could probably eat this steak even if you had no teeth.


The set comes with sides of Truffle Mashed Potato and Grilled Mediterranean Vegetables. The Mashed Potato is superb as usual - creamy and light with the great taste & smell of truffle oil (though I wouldn't know if the chefs used an Olive Oil substitute instead). The vegetables were a bit on the oily side though.


The dessert of Fresh Wild Berries, Light Whipped Cream, Evian Water (MYR40.00 ala-carte) was a bit of a miss though. For starters, of the 6 different berries here I can only name the Strawberries, Raspberries and Blueberries. No idea what the other 3 are. In any case these berries are sour! Not able to say if they are supposed to be sour, but the darling and I had a lot of trouble finishing this off.


Final damage was about MYR330 after charges and tax and the 50% Starwood Privilege discount. Was most definitely worth it; though in hindsight we would have probably given the baked potato a miss and added on an additional Blackmore Wagyu starter instead.

Previous posts:
Prime at Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur
Prime at Le Meridien KL - Trip #2

Prime at Le Meridien KL - Trip #2

New blogpost for a new month! Will be a short and sweet one. Our second visit to Prime we decide to go for appetizers instead of soup and settle for Australian crab cakes, chili flakes, garlic sauce and mango salsa (MYR55.00).


Verdict? Absolutely delicious! The crab cakes are the perfect blend of crispy on the outside, and moist and delicious on the inside. The mango salsa provides a great-tasting garnish, and the sauce complements the crab cakes well.


For our main courses we stick to Australian Black Angus - 200 days Grain Fed Rib-Eye. 12oz/340g (MYR160.00) for me ...


... and 8oz/220g (MYR120.00) for the darling. No sauces, just fresh ground black pepper. Absolutely heavenly.


Steaks are always best eaten medium or medium-rare - if you eat it any more cooked than this then you're missing out on the flavor and juices of the beef!


MYR192.00 for two (after SP discount) seems steep, but it really is very worth it - Prime is by far and away the best steakhouse in Malaysia.

Previous Links:
Prime at Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur.

Latest Recipe buffet dinner at Le Meridien KL

This post will be different! Latest Recipe being a buffet-style restaurant, there's so many different choice of food that it would take ages to list down everything I tried - so it'll be mostly be just pictures, pictures and more pictures :)

So anyway, rounding out the 3rd restaurant in Le Meridien, the darling and I take a trip to Latest Recipe. The first thing you see when you walk in the door are the three chocolate fountains.


There's a raw seafood bar with oysters, mussels, and some sort of shellfish (I'm great at this, aren't I? Ha ha).


Some chinese dumplings. For some reason we totally forgot about trying this so we have no idea if it's a starter, main course, or dessert.


The indian food corner! Briyani is nice and so is the spinach with cottage cheese. I also liked the lamb masala, but the tandoori lamb was a bit dry.


Japanese corner - sushi. Limited choices, but the fish are very fresh.


Japanese corner - teppanyaki. We order a portion of scallops and cod fish. The cod fish is much delicious, but I don't really like the cream sauce that the scallops came drenched in.


Malaysian corner. Didn't try any of the dishes here this trip due to limitations of the stomach. Next visit!


BBQ corner. Lamb and sausages are great, but the beef steak was a bit dry and tough.


Noodle corner. Didn't try anything - the spirit was willing but the stomach was full :P


Roast beef corner. Roast beef! Haven't had it in ages. Was yummy.


Chinese food corner. Judging from the two unmolested chickens I'm guessing I'm not the only one who skipped Chinese.


Dessert & Tapas corner.


Other dessert corner. In my opinion the dessert table is the most disappointing table in the restaurant. Not much choices, and none of the desserts really appealed to me much.


Chocolate fountains were fun to play with though. Here's the darling enjoying herself ^_^


To end the night we have teppanyaki ice cream. Basically you choose your ice cream, choose your toppings from these ... drawers ...


... and the chef minces and mixes everything up for you teppanyaki style. End product looks disgusting but tastes delicious.


At MYR108++ (comes up to about MYR124) per person, the buffet dinner at Latest Recipe isn't exactly cheap. But the sheer variety of the dishes and the above-average quality for most of them make it decent value, even compared to more popular buffet joints (example Jogoya). With our Starwood discount it's MYR62/pax which makes it a steal :)

Latest Recipe is in Le Meridien KL, in KL Sentral.

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 :)

Prime at Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur

A warning to all vegetarians: This blogpost is not for you. For those of you who eat your steaks well-done: This blogpost is also not for you. But otherwise, read on!

Took the darling to Prime at Le Meridien KL (in KL Sentral) last night:


The dining area is nicely dimly lit & classy, and I like how the kitchen is in full view.


Once we're seated we're presented with two half-loaves of bread: white and walnut, and three types of butter: regular, chili and garlic. The bread was fragrant and fresh, and the darling and I just love the garlic butter.


Orders are made, and I start off with Pacific Clam Chowder (MYR40). The chowder was great and was full of clammy taste, although personally I prefer my chowders a bit more creamy/thick.


The darling starts off her journey with Lobster Bisque (MYR45). This is Prime's house specialty soup. The soup itself is great tasting with chunks of lobster meat, but I didn't especially care much about the "golden crust" (as per Prime's menu) as it didn't taste all that special.


Having finished all the bread (mistake on our part) and the soup (generous portions) we're already half-full, so note-to-self is to order smaller main courses next visit :). In any case the darling has Simply Lamb (MYR125) which is:

1. French cut lamb cutlet with rosemary flavored tomato fondue.
2. Charcoal grilled lamb noisette on wilted spinach.
3. Skewer of lamb loin with garlic cream and roasted baby potato.

The cutlet and noisette are grilled to perfection, and without an overpowering "lamb taste." Skewer of Lamb Loin was quite a bit less enticing, but that could be because we got to it last and were stuffed by then.


I go for Simply Beef (MYR270) - a trio of 4oz (110g) steaks, ordered Medium Rare (if you have your steak any more cooked than Medium, you're doing it wrong):

1. Australian Black Angus gourmet pasture fed beef ribeye with Chimichurri sauce, sea salt and green asparagus tips.
2. Australian Black Angus 200 days grain fed center cut filet mignon with Grain mustard sauce, grilled tomato and porcini salad.
3. Wagyu sirloin with Béarnaise sauce and roasted baby potato.

Three steaks, three different cuts of meat, three different cows reared three different ways makes for a superbly incomparable meaty steak journey. My least favorite (which is a bit like saying which would be my least favorite car in a Ferrari showroom) is the filet mignon. The meat is very tender and tasty, but also a fair bit too lean for my tastes. The other two steaks are a tie - the wagyu sirloin is by far the tastiest steak, but I also love the more fatty rib-eye cut. Wagyu rib-eye for the next trip? Haha.


Despite being stuffed we finish off the evening with a Rich hot chocolate cake, chocolate sauce and stracciatella ice cream ($30). Hot chocolate cake with generous chocolate sauce melts in the mouth and is complemented nicely by the cold ice cream.


Prime came highly recommended as a steakhouse and grill and it didn't disappoint. Price isn't too bad either (courtesy of 50% discount from my Starwood Privilege card). Already eye'ing the 340g 200 days grain-fed Australian Black Angus Rib-eye (MYR160) for my next visit. And maybe cut off the soup and dessert in consideration for my wallet ^_^