Café Italiano : Baci Cafe

A unique concept of serving Italian coffee the Starbuck way, Baci cafe, one of the pioneer at Citta Mall, Ara Damansara is a fantastic place for a tête-à-tête session. Sandwiched in between Gourmandis and Wondermilk, this place also serves food at a price between its two neighbors.

Indoor dining area, cosy much?

The shop has two area for dining in. The indoors and outdoors. Many would prefer to take a sit indoors not only because of the air conditioner but also due to its appealing comfy furniture arrangement. U can choose to devour your food with your knees fold up the Japanese way, or sit in normal chairs tucked in a table for four or even have group meetings on long tables and couches!

The counter

This is a self service cafe. U have to order at the counter where you also pay for your food.

We went there on two occasions, and managed to try quite a number of dishes that sounded alluring.

Our second attempt was specially thanks to someone special for treating us to a delightful dinner.

The beautifully displayed sandwiches and your choice of loaf.

Introducing. . .

Chicken lasagna , RM 16.50

This dish had everything right and in place, the flavors where charming and cheesy, nothing to shout about or complain :) 

Hawaian Pizza ( Large) , RM 18.50

This contemporary thin crust pizza have Alfredo sauce for the base which creates a rather unique flavor, however, the ham has a foul smell to it, we wonder if its suppose to be that way or something went wrong  during preparation :O 

It would be nice to get one to chew one if you are having a light chat session for it is so thin, the large one couldn't fill up both of our stomach!  

 

The pasta was al dante. Flavors were delicious probably due to bacon. In Just-incredible's world, bacon makes everything right. But for this dish, Petite-Mei had to agree. Probably its the best of all dishes we've tried. But theres a catch to ordering the pastas. A basic price is imposed to choose your choice of pasta and sauce which is at RM 9.50. Another RM6.50 will be included to add on your choice of topping. Works great for under budget and over budget customers!  

Grilled Salmon, RM 27.50

 The fish was nicely done. Fresh and perfectly complimented by the pesto sauce and pepper bits. The skin  still has a crisp to it although the meat was soft. 

Minestrone Soup, RM 7.50

This is one soup we wouldn't recommend you to splurge your money on, unless u have extras, we still think that charity deserves it better. The soup was tad and so watery, it gave the impression that no effort was paid into making this dish. A big NO- NO. 

 

We would say that they have a lot more to catch up in terms of brewing a nice cuppa or making Frap. All the drink we tried taste more like water + a dash of coffee flavor. Infact the ice cold mint tasted like cough medicine, YUCKS. 

Overall, this place is perfect for a quick meal if you are in a rush, or meeting sessions because if the person you're seeing is someone interesting, it'll take your mind of the food while you enjoy its cosy ambience. We will give this a place a try again someday, probably to head over and study.

 Anyways, its a amateur cafe, it wouldn't be fair to judge. 

The Daily Grind : Carnivores Stop

Hidden at the basement of Bangsar Village shopping mall ( old wing) , The Daily Grind has been deprived by the attention it ought to receive. For the quality of the ingredients and the timeless effort they put onto the customer's plate, only the one taking the bite will know. And he or she will definitely come back for more. 

We were once among the ignorants who underestimated this eatery, thought it was just another American food outlet.
  Same old fries and burgers. 

However, when we did an in-depth research ( you know, being food junkies), we were surprised to find out that this place specializes in their burgers, GOURMET BURGERS!

  At this point you might think that duh, its AMERICAN FOOD! 

But don't be too quick to judge, just so you know The Daily Grind produces their own, lets see, patties, bread, ketchup, chili sauce, bacon, fries, etc etc. Whatever that is derivable raw will stay unprocessed, meaning NO CHEMICAL. Even the cheese in the burgers are au naturale. 

They made these themselves!
But we prefer the artificial in- store ones,  SORRY!

The spotlight of their concept are on the patties, derived and grind from 100% real meat! 

Where else can you find this is Malaysia!? 
FYI, most Malaysian burgers spells scam.

Upon digesting these info, we quickly made a date with each other and went there for lunch. 

Petite-Mei decided that treat will be on her this time :) 

 We finally settled on The Triple Stack Burger and also TDG's Steak Sandwich after contemplating for a long time, because everything on the menu just looked so mouth-watering! 

The alluring menu

Triple Stack Sandwich,  RM37

That's three 100g beef patties,
 top with a fried egg and two slices of TDG 's own turkey bacon.

Just-incredible said his burger was so juicy. Served with TDG's own burger buns - sprinkled with oats and goodness, the patties was succulent with a typical cheese burger flavor, only better.

 The half cooked egg yolk adds extra moisture to the already luscious stack. 

To top it all, the dash of tomato sauce perfectly garnishes the entire dish. It is really a gusto feat!

TDG's Steak Sandwich , RM 28

However,  the TDG's steak would be a total disappointment for anti mustard-ians, as appealing as it may look, Petite-Mei would prefer it with other sauces. The mustard had too much attention to itself. And the requested medium cooked beef slice turned out to be well done. It was too dry to chew on. 

Info : Petite- Mei is very particular with her beef.  

Thank God there's the yummy coleslaw from the sides to save the day.

On a brighter note, the overall portion was really hearty. Healthy in a way. A piece of steak, accompanied by varieties of greens that seem to be a whole salad on its own, sandwiched in between two slices of wheatgerm / sour dough looking bread and some pan fried mushrooms to taste. Organic, organic, organic. 

It would be a lie if we say that we won't come back of more, we'll definitely return for its burgers. Afterall, they are the only shop in town known to serve patties of good fresh pure meat, 

and we are health loving people, only with a very ferocious tastebuds ;p
(And hence we made a second visit to the shop but this time with more people,
 meaning, more orders !!! continue reading below.)

Like all other good food outlets, TDG has its own list of regular customers. During our one an a half hour lunch date there, many customers were seen to just drop by to catch a quick bite or take away their protein packed meals.

 How do we know? Well, they don't survey the menu and then hesitate to order like us. 

They just know their business :D

Pictures shown below are from second visits to the restaurant, told ya we love 'em food!

My Big Fat Greek Burger , RM 29

This is a MUST TRY.
 The combination of spices and yoghurt made it taste almost like arabian food.

It was all praises on the table that night, shinning above other burgers that we had ordered. The lamb was nicely grilled, and there was no weird mutton stench, so no worries lamb-a-phobic eaters ! Besides the aromatic flavors, it is also oh-so-healthy considering that theres no other additional fats, even the carbo is to the minimum, only two thin pita slice :) 

Classic Beef burger with Cheese , RM 28 

This is a rather small burger with a fat ball-like patty, topped with the usual wholemeal bread garnished with butter, nothing really special here. We ordered it with cheese and that cost an additional of RM 4.  Of course with a promising beef burger flavor, this would be a healthier choice compared to those sold in other restaurants.

Italian Mozza burger, RM 35

The interior 

This burger was ordered mainly because cheese lovers like us were attracted to the word MOZARELLA.  After enquiring, we got to know from the staff that the burger includes a beef patty too. However, we were very shock to find out that the beef patty turned out to be so HUGE. Its so thick, we have to admit that it sort of lost the flavor. Tasted more like sausage instead. The presentation came like an open sandwich as usual with one bread off the top, but for this burger, so much leaves were folded with a scoop of pesto lying in the midst of greens. We had a tough time figuring out how to take a bite with everything in one mouthful. It was the chillies piled below that gave the entire burger its character. A very mexican taste, sorry italiano folks! 


Our second visit there was during dinner time on a Saturday evening, the place was more crowded than in the afternoons, however, it was easy to get a table for 5.
So, we recommend you to scoot on over for a casual family dinner if what you have in mind is just good food and great company! 

Lé Trianon : Eat it like Kings and Queens

It was just another trip to Citta Mall at Ara Damansara during an ordinary evening when we stumbled upon this wondrous shop situated at the basement of the mall. 

Its front look gave an impression of a beauty salon, but what gave it away was the crowd gathering around the shop and the display slides on the LCD tv. They were MEN, kids and of course women sitting/ standing eagerly waiting for the arrival of something, and on the tv, it was pictures of CHOCOLATE CAKE!

 Ok, now we are interested :D Teehee ! 

Our nature of being meddlesome drives us to join the crowd, and you know, maybe to get info!?  

We were told by the ONLY shop assistant, probably chef in disguise that his shop actually specializes in chocolate cakes. But guess what, theres only two, yeshh, ONLY TWO types of chocolate cakes available. They are :

1. The common chocolate cake ( sandwich frosting)

2.  French Royal Cake ( THE BOMB, explanation below!!) 

This shop is called Lé Trianon, also the name of cake number two as per mentioned above. 

Lé Trianon (or Gâteau Royal or The French Royal Cake) is a dessert originated from France. 

The cake itself comprises of three layers, it is a very detailed chocolate art in the French's patisserie.

The very bottom layer is called the marcaron base, consisting of biscuits ( as what we're told of),

the middle layer consist of pure praline : almonds and other nuts; 

and the final/ top most layer is pure Belgian chocolate ganache with NO ADDED SUGAR, just purely chocolate. 

Oh yeah ! What you just read is exactly what we're told, a whole cake with QUALITY ingredients, its worth the try, ain't it? 

We bought one slice at RM8.90. 

Initially, there was a tiny bit of disappointment because when we opened the box to take a look, it was rather a tiny-mini-baby slice. seriously. 

But what comes after is pure satisfactory !

After our fiery enthusiasm to take the first bite, our tastebuds went in shock mode for a minute.

IT IS THAT GOOD ! 

The cake was has a smooth chocolatey taste, no hint of artificial add ons, there were right amount of crunch to compliment it. The best part was, its not sweet! 

It is Ferrero Rocher in a cake form. Only better. Way better. 

We can literally taste the cocoa aroma, the creamy ganache texture, followed by crispiness similar to Kellogg's Rice Krispies and a very mild biscuit base to balance out the two attention stealers.

How can we tell what is going on behind the TRIANON wall?

The classy looking Box 

                                                         

 Pretty but very small :/ 

 Ta-da ! Hold and Behold the Royal cake

Width : 3 cm

Breadth : 7cm 

Height : 5cm 

Approximate measurements, no intentions here!

Its that BABY!

Anyway as little as it may seem, we recommend you to try it out!

 It would be like treating yourself to a taste of heaven. 

Self-pampering moments. 


p.s. nobody in the business world would run a shop with only two product choices available unless the confidence is there :) be your own judge, my friend.

To know more about Lé Trainon bakery , visit their Facebook page .

If you couldn't get enough of it but don't want to hurt your pockets, try this recipe . 

"There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate. "- Linda Grayson