Leonardo’s Dining Room and Loft, Bangsar

‘I am absolutely famished after that session in the gym.’

‘Yeah, let’s have dinner, how about Leonardo’s?’

‘Great idea, I have heard some good reviews.’

And that’s how we found ourselves at Leonardo’s Dining Room at Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar.

Leonardo’s is located on the 1^st floor and has a really cosy ambience. It was buzzing on a Friday night and a reservation would be recommended.

As we were starving, we decided to get straight to the food. =)

Basket of Bread

*We were served a complimentary basket of bread with olive oil and vinegar.

Shiv: A bunch of unappetizing looking bread rolls arrived to our dismay! Disappointing, as you would expect something a tad classier in a place like this. We even had to request for butter, as the rolls simply did not pair well with the olive oil-balsamic dressing.

Gaj: The bread was alright, pretty standard buns.

Kav: This was not bread meant for an olive oil and balsamic dressing, more like buns from a kopitiam that would pair well with butter and a cup of black coffee. Shady!!!

Scallop Wrapped with Bacon, RM32

Shiv: Whether you consider this artful presentation or the creation of a mad scientist, the loud trimmings were there for a reason – to distract from the awfully stale scallops. It was rubbery in texture, and the dish was not even flavoured adequately. A waste of a beautiful ingredient!

Gaj: The dish had so much potential, but alas the scallop was not fresh. The accompanying garnishing was really good though.

Kav: How can you serve stale seafood at RM32 a plate!!! Unacceptable!!!

Grilled Pork Chorizo Sausage with bacon, potato and apple rosti, RM38

Shiv: The piquancy of the chorizo was too subtle and the dish was just not savoury enough for me. The bacon and potato topping did little to impress me, although, the apple rosti did surprise me with its deliciously rich taste.

Gaj: The pork sausage was just alright. I would have thought that the apple rosti would have made the dish too sweet, but it was really good and complemented the dish really well.

Kav: Average pork sausage and as a whole the dish was rather bland (shocking, as we are talking about pork sausages-hard to imagine anything going wrong). The apple rosti was quite scrumptious as it was not too sweet, and in fact it added a little oomph to the dish. Not enough to save it though. =(

Pizza - Mamma Mia, jamón serrano, mozarella, rocket, RM35

Shiv: Not the best cured ham pizza I have sampled, but tasty nevertheless. The crust was way too thick and a tad underwhelming, but there was a strong porky flavour that came through and the abundance of mozzarella supported the dish well. The taste may have been escalated further had they used jamón iberico instead. Oh well…

Gaj: I enjoyed this pizza, the jamón serrano was delicious, and though the pizza was lacking in flavor, I still enjoyed it.

Kav: Pizza lacked flavour and the ham used did little to help the pizza. To top it off, the crust was thick and chewy. ‘Dear chef, please STOP trying to make pizza, you’re killing me.’

Ranjit’s Pasta, mushroom, bacon, chilli padi and garlic, RM33

Shiv: Deliciously savoury and the combination of ingredients used was genius. The flavours blended well, with no one flavour overwhelming the other, and the resulting dish was spectacular! Yummy-in-my-tummy!

Gaj: The best dish of the night, without a doubt! The combination of bacon, garlic and mushroom was good. Generous amounts of bacon served as well.

Kav: Alas, a dish I can call decent in this place. Pasta was flavoured well, with savoury bacon that was a good contrast to the earthy flavours from the mushroom and sweet garlic.

Verdict: WOK OFF!

PRICE: Expensive. RM160.10 for 4 dishes (3pax).

AMBIENCE: Cozy and comfortable – perfect for entertaining clients or simply a quiet dinner with family. There is a bar and lounge upstairs, with a louder and more energetic vibe.

SERVICE: Average. It was a crowded night and we had to wait long for our orders to be taken. Also, it can be difficult to get the attention of the staff at certain, less strategic tables.

FOOD: Mediocre. Some of the dishes were below par, whilst others were average.

LEONARDO’S DINING ROOM AND LOFT

61-1, JALAN BANGKUNG,

BUKIT BANDARAYA, BANGSAR

59100, KUALA LUMPUR

Tel: 03- 2096 2226

Opening hours:

5PM-1AM, DAILY.

Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf, Bangsar Village I, Kuala Lumpur

Being pork lovers, we didn’t have to huff and puff our way to Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf at Bangsar Village 1, tucked neatly outside Village Grocer.

As its name suggests, the menu boasts primarily of pork, so if pork is your thing, read ON!

There’s a pretty cozy waiting area, adorned with a sofa and posters. Patrons can opt to dine in the outdoors too, there are wooden furnitures and it can be quite fun if the weather is not too hot.

Let the indulgence begin…

For starters, we had Garlic Roast Pork, sautéed with oriental sauces till caramelised (RM15).

Shiv: Good flavour, and the meat was tender and moist. Plus points for not being overly sweet too!

Kav: Really good. Love the fact that it was not too sweet, like most other places. The garlic flavour was just perfection with the pork!!!

Gaj: This was definitely the best dish of the night! The pork melted in my mouth and the accompanying sauce was sooo good. I was all up for seconds!

For salads, we ordered Grilled Pork Salad, with avocado and garden greens tossed in balsamic vinaigrette dressing (RM22).

*We were initially served the Roast Pork Salad with garden greens and walnuts, drizzled with honey mustard dressing.  We had a few bites of this before we realized that it was the wrong salad. We sent it back and they subsequently served us the supposed Grilled Pork Salad, but without the avocado. Once again, it was sent back and finally returned with the avocado.

Shiv: An obvious sign of teething problems, as the kitchen staff couldn’t put together a decent bowl of salad. The dressing was not what was stated on the menu, and the entire dish ended up tasting a tad sweet yet bland. The only saving grace here was the pork.

Kav: What a waste of some good ingredients… Salad was below average and even the pork could not save this dish from failing. To top it off, it returned with the same honey mustard dressing (hate this dressing!!!) which was not stated in the menu. Shame!!!

Gaj: I did not taste the difference in flavour between the Grilled Pork Salad and the Roast Pork Salad. I could not taste the balsamic dressing, instead it tasted quite strongly of the honey mustard dressing. On hindsight, it tasted a lot like the house salad served with the burger (continue reading below). Regardless, it was very bland and very bad!

We couldn’t visit a porky establishment and not have a pork burger. We decided to try the Mighty Pork Burger, juicy pork patty, cheese, tomato, greens, fried egg, herbed mayo sauce, served with chips and house salad (RM24).

Shiv: The patty had a strong porky flavour (in a good way) and the topping of egg was genius, I thought. Enjoyed it, however, it is certainly not (and far from being) the best pork burger in town.

Kav: The patty was savoury and juicy. Sadly, the other elements failed to enhance the burger to the next level. The egg, I thought, masked the delicious patty and overall, the burger was mediocre.

Gaj: The patty was good, very good. I did not enjoy the egg in the burger, as it overpowered the patty and added an egg-y taste to the burger. Was an alright burger for me – was NOT jumping for joy! :-(

The name of the next dish was too enticing for us to give it a miss. Presenting the Alien Invasion, long-legged spaghettis cooked creamy style complete with button mushrooms and sausage (RM26).

Shiv: Not too heavy handed on the usage of cream, and the flavour of the button mushrooms along with the pork sausages infused the sauce well. As a non-enthusiast of creamy pastas, this one was not too shoddy.

Kav: Have never enjoyed cream based pasta and this one was no different from any other. The pork sausages were yummy though.

Gaj: The pasta was just alright, I am not a big fan of creamy pastas and this did nothing to change my mind. The cheese made the dish a tad salty.

Next up, we decided to try another pasta, Grilled Pork Pesto, spaghetti cooked in our homemade pesto, topped with chunks of grilled pork (RM23).

Shiv: Did not hit all the right notes that pesto pastas usually do. The flavour of the pork wasn’t enough to carry this dish, and a bland, almost insipid dish resulted. On a side note, both pastas were done al dente.

Kav: I am a tough critic when it comes to pesto pasta as I love the earthy basil flavour and therefore it’s one of my favourite kinds of pastas. Nowadays, almost every other restaurant serves pesto and sadly most of them never get it right. This one was no different as the flavour of the pesto was dull and just not up to mark. The pork was a little chunky and did not do the dish any favours.

Gaj: I was waiting in anticipation for this dish as it combined my two favorite things, pesto and pork. I was sorely disappointed as the pesto was too flat and the pork could not carry the dish on its own. I felt like they should have added pine nuts for a zing!

Verdict: WOK OFF!

PRICE: Reasonable.

AMBIENCE: Cozy and comfortable, with the option of outdoor dining.

SERVICE: Bad. The waiters got our order wrong more than once. However, the establishment was relatively new when we visited and we are not sure if these were merely teething problems.

FOOD: Below par. Most of the dishes were disappointing and it felt like there was a general lack of quality in the ingredients. A lot more thought should be given in making the end product taste better.

THREE LITTLE PIGS AND THE BIG BAD WOLF
LOT G1A, GROUND FLOOR, BANGSAR VILLAGE 1
JALAN TELAWI SATU, BANGSAR BARU
59100 KUALA LUMPUR

Tel: 603-2283-2270
Website: www.facebook.com/PigsAndWolf

Opening Hours:

Daily, 10am to 10pm

Vintry, Wine Bar and Restaurant, Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur

When you enter the restaurant, on your left there are high tables with high chairs, a very bar like concept and on your right are rows of wine bottles segregated by country. The wine cellar-like ambience and the cozy lighting only added to the charm of this place.

We started the meal with a bottle of wine, which we chose from their wide selection. We decided on their Felsina Chianti Classico Riserva 2007, a Sangiovese from Tuscany Italy (RM277).

Kav: Loved this wine, it was of medium body and had a bit of a smokey, fruity flavour to it.

Mien: Good wine…. not too heavy!

Shiv: I’ve always wanted to try a Sangiovese, and this was my first experience. Absolutely loved it! Light and made for a perfect starter wine to a meaty meal.

For starters we had Sautéed Mushrooms, which were sautéed button mushrooms with garlic and basil (RM16).

Kav: The mushroom and garlic pair was earthy and packed a punch. The sweetness of the Basil complimented the dish perfectly. Loves!!!

Mien: THE BEST DISH OF THE NIGHT…. just enough garlic… and the touch of the basil… amazing…

Shiv: Wow! Really good. They were super generous with the garlic, which I loved, and the mushrooms were flavoured really well.

Gaj: Probably the best dish of the night! The garlic complemented the mushroom really well.

We also had the Vintry Roast Pork, which is their signature dish roasted and crackled with their traditional home-made recipe (RM 8/100g).

* We requested for condiments of chilly sauce and mustard.

Kav: Liked this. The crispy edging and the fattiness of the succulent pork was delish. However, I have tasted better roast pork.

Shiv: It’s hard to get roast pork wrong, and this place didn’t, thankfully. Liked it a lot, and was left wanting for more.

Gaj: The roasted pork was fair, was NOT jumping for joy, which is my usual reaction to roasted pork.

Since we were having a whole load of pork-y goodness, we decided to order a vegetarian pasta to cleanse our palates. We ordered a Spaghetti Aglio Oglio, pan-fried with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, basil, pine nuts and chili flakes (RM20).

*This dish was chosen from the Ribs by Vintry menu.

Kav: The garlic-y flavour with the earthy pine nuts was really good. It was a very minimalistic pasta with simplistic flavours.

Mien: They actually ordered this cause of me :-P... hmm not flavoured well.. bland!!! Loved the pine nuts... but could have done with a bit more garlic and chilli flakes.

Shiv: Was not flavoured well at all, and there was a pool of olive oil at the bottom of the bowl when we were done (sickening!). Would not order this again.

Gaj:  I did not enjoy this pasta, was too bland and the pasta was not al dente.

Our next order was a full on pork dish. Braised Pork Ribs, braised in their red wine herb sauce, served with rosemary baked potatoes and grilled asparagus (RM49).

*This dish was chosen from the Ribs by Vintry menu.

Kav: OMG, the best ever dish of the night!!!!! It was a burst of flavours in my mouth. Sweet, savoury, and sour flavours which complimented the pork brilliantly. The gravy was so good that I use it to eat the fries and also put some on the burgers. Yummylicious!!!!

Shiv: What a dish! A must try for all you pork-lovers out there (you know who you are). The sauce was perfection, and the ribs were succulent and flavoured really well. The ribs were meaty, and they managed to retain the juices somehow. Sheer brilliance!

Gaj: Amaze-balls! The sauce complemented the dish very well, must be the red wine =). The pork ribs were cooked to perfection!

Our love for scallops prevailed and we decided to order their Sautéed Scallops pan-fried with roasted capsicums and bread crumbs (RM39).

*This dish was chosen from the Ribs by Vintry menu.

Kav: The scallops were stale and not juicy. It lacked flavour. Disappointed!!!

Mien: STALE… STALE… RUBBERY… STALE… YUCKS!!!

Shiv: Un-fresh! Un-flavoured! Unsatisfactory!

Gaj: NASTY! The scallops were not fresh!

We almost named our blog Banging Bangers, so what can we say, we love ourselves some good ol’ sausages. Thus, our next order of business was Three Musketeers, a platter of pork sausages on a bed of mashed potatoes and sautéed cabbage (RM39).

Kav: This was probably one of the worst gourmet sausages I have tried. Three out of the four sausages were sweet. Only the white sausage was nice, it had an herb like savoury taste to it.

Shiv: Ok, seriously, it takes little to impress me with gourmet sausages, but for a porky place, Vintry serves absolutely crap sausages! The skin lacked the ‘snap’, and the filling was so bland. And honestly, who makes sweet mashed potato?!

Gaj:  Totally unimpressed by their sausages. The sauce was sweet, yuck! The cabbage tasted like sauerkraut. Not a big fan!

Next up we tried their Piri-Piri Pork Burger, which was a minced pork patty with grilled aubergine and tomato salsa, topped with almond picada (RM25).

Kav: The patty was very ordinary and the salsa was not well flavored. The chips were dry and not crispy.

Shiv: The pork burger here was so disappointing. The patty lacked juiciness and the only thing that made this palatable was the fact that we used the red wine herb sauce from the braised pork ribs dish to ‘re-season’ the burger.

Gaj: Again, unimpressive! The patty was just not up to par! The mediocre salsa and aubergine did nothing for me or the burger.

We also tried another burger which was their Blue Cheese Pork Burger with piquant Blue cheese sauce, topped with fried pork bacon (RM26).

Kav: I love blue cheese, however the blue cheese sauce was just cloying and I felt like I was eating a blob of cheese!!! Dislike!!!

Shiv: The cheese over-whelmed the lackluster patty – not because it was too pungent, but because the lack of meatiness of the pork failed to cut through the strong cheese.

Gaj:  I usually don’t mind blue cheese, but this was a tad much for me. The sauce was disgusting and the fried pork bacon did not save the day.

The last dish we ordered was their Cereal Chicken, crispy chicken slices topped with crunchy cereal, curry leaves and cili padi (RM18).

Kav: This tasted like a sad excuse for Chinese style butter prawns except that in this case it was chicken. POOR!!!

Mien: NESTUM chicken more like… Just plain sweet and bad!!!

Shiv: Wow – what an epic failure! I could hardly taste the chicken as there was way too much cereal, and the whole thing ended up tasting floury.

Gaj: I was looking forward to this dish as I love cereal chicken, but it was so disappointing.

By the time it came to desserts, we were already stuffed silly. However, we decided to go for two desserts.

The first one was an Affogatto, a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a rich coffee espresso with whipped cream and cocoa powder (RM12).

Kav: Delish!!! The ice cream was good and the coffee was divine, and both flavours were perfectly balanced.

Mien: The best dessert of the night! Good coffee and ice cream result in a good Affogatto!

Shiv: Can’t go wrong with Illy (yes, I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record!). This was surprisingly one of the best affogatto’s I’ve tried, and I liked the fact that they brought the espresso shot separately – so  it was still hot when we poured it in. Perfection!

Gaj: Very very good! The coffee was amazing and the ice cream was of good quality.

For the second dessert we tried their Tiramisu, a blend of Italian lady finger biscuits soaked with Mascarpone cheese, liqueur and coffee (RM15).

Kav: At first when I had this, it felt like I was eating a whole load of cream. Then we asked them for a shot of espresso to be added into the dessert. I liked it after the additional shot.

Mien: NOT TIRAMISU… more like cheese cake, without the base… honestly all freaking mascarpone cheese… and NO SPONGE BISCUITS!!! NOT TIRAMISU… SO ANGRY THINKING ABOUT HOW PEOPLE MAKE TIRAMISU WITHOUT THE BASIC TIRAMISU INGREDIENTS!! ANGERRRIIIIIIIINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!

Shiv: Agreed that Tiramisu shouldn’t be called so unless it has all the necessary elements! Thank god we had that extra shot – made it taste actually good. (Otherwise, Mien might have had a coronary!)

Gaj: After the shot of espresso, this became more edible! Not bad – but request for a shot of coffee!

Verdict: WOK OFF

PRICE: Expensive. (Total = RM586.96 for 11 dishes & 1 wine bottle – 4pax)

AMBIENCE: Chilled out, cozy, wine cellar-like ambience which is perfect for a get together with buddies.

SERVICE: Could be better (waiters/waitresses were sparse and some were unfriendly).

FOOD: Below average – certainly did not warrant the hefty bill. However, their wine selection was good.

VINTRY DAMANSARA

130, JALAN KASAH,
MEDAN DAMANSARA,
50490 KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

Tel: +603 2094 8262

Email: sales@vintry.com.my

Website: http://www.vintry.com.my

Opening Hours:

Mon-Sat: 12.00pm till late. Kitchen closes from 3.00pm till 6.00pm.

Closed on Sundays and on certain public holidays.