Pork and Gulden at the Pigs & Wolf, Pavilion KL

With a restaurant named Pigs and Wolf, you'd probably have an inkling of what sort of food's served up: Pork, pork, and more pork.

The restaurant's located on the 7th floor of the Pavilion KL shopping mall, on the opposite end from Tokyo Street, sharing a little cubby with a half dozen other new(ish) eateries.


Decor is decent but functional: You wouldn't bring a companion here for an anniversary celebration. But for a gathering of friends, family, or colleagues after work it's perfect. The darling and I are here on a Sunday afternoon, so what better to wake us up than a couple of Lattes? (RM 9 each)


We're tempted by the breakfast platters that Pigs & Wolf serves til late on weekends, but we decide instead on more 'lunch-ey' items: Starting with The Wolf's Favorite (RM 31). What this is, of course, is a spaghetti carbonara with a heaping of bacon. The pasta's nicely al-dente, the cream has a nice consistency and is pretty well flavored. I personally prefer my bacon chewy rather than crispy, but that's just nitpicking in the grand scheme of bacon-laden things.


Next up: the Mighty Piggy Burger (RM 30). A comment, first, about that salad in the background. It's laden with about ten times as much vinaigrette as is necessary and is therefore too sour to the point of being inedible. The burger's pretty good, though. Juicy, flavorful, substantial. Fries are decently crispy too.


So where does the wolf in the name come into the picture? If you were expecting some gulden dishes you'd be disappointed - no wolf meat here (yes, wolf meat is called gulden, and yes, I had to look it up for this blog post).

With a final bill of close to RM45/person after service and taxes it isn't exactly cheap. But then again, I suppose that's pretty par for the course for KL eateries these days. Pigs & Wolf opens 7 days a week; Reservations probably aren't necessary but you can dial +603 2110 4438 to make sure. Non-halal.

At time of writing, 1.00 SGD = 3.03 MYR.

Pasta & Pizza with a Japanese Twist at Cafe Takahashi

A little while ago, Pavilion KL opened up a corner on the top floor named Tokyo Street, with a bunch of shops, restaurants, cafe's and stalls selling predominantly Japanese stuff. One of the restaurants here, which seems to be a local start-up, is named Cafe Takahashi and aims to serve up Pasta and Pizza with a Japanese twist. How good is the food, though? Let's find out!


We started off with the Takoyaki, which at RM7.90 was sort of on the pricey side. It wasn't really that good, either - we much prefer the ones sold by Gindaco. In all fairness, Gindaco does specialize in them octopus balls.


Beef Bolognese (RM20.90) comes with toasted nori (seaweed sheets) and an onsen tamago (hot spring egg). I thought it was a pretty decent effort, with nice, thick and meaty bolognese sauce.


If you're not a pasta lover, perhaps the Salmon Cream Pizza might tickle your fancy for rm26.90? The darling and I were mixed on this one - she thought it was "OK," but I thought the salmon was dry and the cheese was a little ... chewy.


For slightly over rm30/person, we feel that Cafe Takahashi serves up some decent food for the price, especially considering the surroundings (even the food court in Pavilion will easily set you back rm10+).

Pao Xiang BKT (Bak Kut Teh) - Porky goodness in Pavilion, KL

I'm a huge Bak Kut Teh (BKT) lover. To the darling, not so much - she's less of a carnivore than I am :). To me there's just something special about chowing down hunks of meat drenched in savory soup, and then washing it all down with cup after cup of hot refreshing Chinese tea. And so it's kind of a bit odd, perhaps, that I've only got two posts about BKT.

Time to rectify that though - today, with a 3rd post about Pao Xiang BKT. We've seen and heard about this 'chain' in a few shopping malls, but never got round to trying it. I mean, BKT is supposed to be eaten in hot coffee shops, so how good can a clean fancy air-conditioned one be, right?


The Pavilion outlet is big, clean and bright, and nicely decorated with lots of teapots.


It's very pleasant to eat in a nice restaurant, of course, but it does initially cause a bit of unease as to how big a hit the meal will be to the wallet - particularly as Pao Xiang is on the top floor in Pavilion smack in the middle of that upmarket restaurants area.


Hot tea to start off the meal - and to end it later.


Rice and you char kway (油炸鬼) - the you char kway is a bit interesting in that its' texture is quite a bit more 'buttery' than normal.


On to the good stuff though - the meat! Every other BKT shop I've been to in KL is of the 'mix everything in one huge claypot' variety. In Pao Xiang, though, you order by small bowls of whatever kind of meat you want - one bowl is MYR15.00 and roughly feeds one mouth.

Advantages of these mini bowls is that you have much more control of exactly what meat cuts you want, but of course you take a hit on variety if you're just dining for two. I liked how the bowls were served with heaters below them to keep the soup hot.

Speaking of the soup, I thought it was pretty good. I'm a fan of this variety of more gravy-like soup, not the clear/herby kind. Meat was OK but my order of 'half fat lean' turns out to be 95% lean. Healthy? Yes, perhaps ... but I like some fats on my pork :D


Finish off with some oiled vegetables just so we don't feel so guilty about not having any veg.


Verdict? For about RM25-ish per person, I think it's very reasonable given the overall price of food in Pavilion KL. And it tastes pretty good too - definitely recommended if you're in Pavilion and have a craving for BKT

(I wouldn't say it's good enough to purposely drive all the way to KL city and pay exorbitant parking rates just to eat here, though).

Angus House at Pavilion KL

Saturday night dinner & movie! Went to Angus House at Pavilion for some meaty steaky goodness!


For such a fairly upper class restaurant, the decoration is pretty plain. White tiled floor and non-descript furniture. The waiters/waitresses were polite and friendly, but the darling commented on a lack of skill when actually serving our food. Nevertheless, the steaks are grilled in full view of the dining area which is nice :D


We start off with Consommé a la Angus House (MYR14.00). The clear broth with bits of tomato and brocolli was, in my opinion, rather plain and unremarkable, but the darling assures me that the soup was in fact, "pretty good." Quick search on Wikipedia reveals that "consommé has maintained its place as one of the most highly regarded and appreciated soups in the world" so I'll put it down as just me having limited experience in the world of fine dining :)


Moving on to what I do know how to appreciate, is a 300gm Charcoal Grill Rib-Eye ($97.00). I have mine Medium-Rare; the darling has her 200gm rib-eye Medium (MYR75.00). This was an awesome steak; no fancy sauces necessary and just the perfect flavor and juices of a great slab of meat. Definitely miles above the $20 black pepper steaks you get in normal restaurants, and in my opinion worth every ringgit.


Surprisingly, Angus House turned out to be much better value for money than I expected, especially when you consider that adding $20+ to your steak buys you a "set meal" of starter, soup, salad, bread and dessert. Would definitely come back again - we're eyeing the Master Kobe Wagyu Sirloin. Needs to be a special occasion though, 200gm of that is MYR280.