Anne Elizabeth The Deli Restaurant @ Taman Segar Cheras

Meat Up at Anne Elizabeth!

Tucked away in the bustling area of Cheras is Anne Elizabeth The Deli Restaurant. A truly hidden foodie gem, I wasn’t even sure how this restaurant never got on to my radar for the last five years since its opening. Perhaps Cheras was never my usual food haunt but then again, I would have gone to the end of the earth for food that is worthy of travel.

Anne Elizabeth, owned by a dynamic duo husband and wife team, Jacob Fong and Sandra Lee had the foresight to take a chance with introducing ‘Select and Order from The Deli’ concept to diners five years ago in the location where they lived. Jacob hails from Brunei and has been a chef for more than 20 years specializing in European cuisine. When asked to elaborate, he specifically named British, Italian, Spanish and French as some of his main signatures.

Parking can be a problem in that area as it is located on one of the rows near Cheras Leisure Mall. However, this has never deterred the restaurant’s loyal fans from dining at Anne Elizabeth as it is always crowded throughout the day and especially on weekends.

The two-storey restaurant is located on a corner lot, catering up to 80 pax of diners per floor. One simply cannot miss the bold black and white signage of Anne Elizabeth. The owners decided to use their favorite religious names of Anne and Elizabeth simply because it felt more personal while echoing a lovely name together.

The restaurant décor is rather simple as the owners wanted the food to speak for themselves. A minimalist décor that echoes European minimalist with a deli counter and a bar, Anne Elizabeth has an easy-going vibe that makes dining casual and comfortable.

Sandra admitted that she enjoys running the front dining space while Jacob handles the kitchen and the deli. Both shared that their concept truly allows them to always have a personalized service with every customer and made sure that their staffs are trained well on this concept too. Business is brisk and constantly heavy during the day and so the owners have lots of staff trained to provide solid and fast service to customers.

Prawn Dynasty @ Taman Shamelin Perkasa, Cheras

Seafood Fantasia

A newbie on the block, Prawn Dynasty aims to take crustacean dining to a whole new level of sumptuousness. Barely a few months old since its opening in January 2019, the restaurant is in a bustling area in Cheras.

The ambiance is decent, typical of a Chinese restaurant with no frills. Standard white wash walls, red table cloths and live fish tanks. Bright and not too bad in space wise, Prawn Dynasty opted to focus on their food. There’re also private rooms available for a few tables with karaoke option. Parking is limited inside the restaurant compound, but one can also park just outside the vicinity area.

Needless to say, prawns are their signatures, especially 大头虾 or big head prawns. Foodies can get their prawns prepared in various ways and sauces. Fear not if some of your dining companions are not into prawns as there are plenty of other Chinese seafood and meat dishes in the menu.

Rolling of the menu list, there are more than 20 ways of the big head prawns available such as Dynasty Steam Prawns, Baked Prawns with Cheese, Salted Egg Prawn, Milky Prawn, Cantonese Style Garlic Chili Prawn, Braised Claypot Prawn with Special Fish Soup, Curry Prawn Indonesian Style, Stir Fried Prawn Vietnamese Style, Dynasty Salt & Pepper Prawn and more.

Foodies will be glad to know that prices for the freshwater prawn or big head prawn here are very affordable. The restaurant serves one standard size for Big Head Prawns at RM39.90 per portion prepared in your choice of sauces. A plus point so one can opt to order as many portions depending on your number of diners as well as a chance to savor few flavours of the crustaceans without having to burn a hole in your pocket.

We tucked in three flavours of Kam Heong Butter Milk Prawn, Prawn with Salted Egg Sauce and Black Pepper Prawns. Each one has at least three big head prawns cut in half depending on the sizes.

The Kam Heong Butter Milk Prawn was served in a claypot. Bubbling upon arrival, the pot of prawns is deliciously aromatic. A luscious thick orangey sauce with lots of aromatics of curry leaves, onions, dried shrimp and spices paired well with the fresh sweet prawns. Best eaten hot, the kam heong sauce is lip-smacking yum, so much so that you’ll end up sucking the prawn shells for every bit of that sauce.

Prawn Dynasty offers two version of Prawn with Salted Egg with one being saucy and the other being the dry version. Our saucy version looked divine at sight! Generously sauced up, the prawns are drenched in that thick and unctuous salted egg buttermilk sauce with dried chili and curry leaves. Its not a spicy dish but the dried chilies gave the sauce a nice boost of underlying flavour to offset the richness of the salted egg. Also best savored piping hot for best flavours…

The third dish of Black Pepper Prawns had a good dose of black pepper and is great if you are a fan of that hit of pepper. The dish was decent though I personally felt it didn’t let one enjoy the natural sweetness of the big head prawns. For those who enjoy the natural sweetness of the crustaceans, the Dynasty Steamed Prawns would be another good option to consider.

Prawn Dynasty is one of the few restaurants that serves Orange Roughy fish. A deep sea fish, Orange Roughy is said to be a fish that has so much nutritious values and can be hard to find as it is not a common fish. We opted for the Ginger and Spring Onion Steamed Orange Roughy Fish (RM8.80/100g) and was extremely pleased with this choice of cooking and flavours.

The flesh of the fish is gorgeous. Medium firm with a sweet and smooth tenderness that goes so well with the classic soy sauce, ginger and ginger mix. Truly a masterpiece and Prawn Dynasty Chef Mak Kok Bah did justice to the fish… a must order!!

I don’t know what to expect when I read the dish named Claypot Excited Clams (Small- RM20.00). Nevertheless, the pot of well-cooked clams in a buttery pale-yellow broth laced with a good hit of Chinese wine and some chili padi heat was so delicious that we made sure to enjoy all the broth along with the tender clams.

The 3 Cup Chicken (Small – RM20.00) was sufficiently satisfying. A well-cooked dish, though nothing to shout about, had all the passing marks of tender chicken braised in soy sauce, wine and sesame oil along with some basil for aroma.

What was much in favor of everyone at our table that lunch was the Claypot Salted Fish Pork Belly (Small – RM25.00). A faultless pleasure, thin sliced pork belly, utterly juicy and glistening with caramelized glaze of aromatic salted fish with soy sauce and dried chili heat makes one polishes of bowls of steamed rice without a mere thought.

The Saliva Chicken (Small – RM40.00) was mediocre since I am used to the pungent Sichuan chili version more than this non-spicy version. Others enjoyed it for the lovely firm poached chicken meat made more aromatic with a generous dousing of soy sauce and fried garlic bits.

A first pairing for me, the Stir-Fried French Beans with Seaweed (Small – RM18.00) turned out to be so yummy. Even the little ones enjoyed this…

While the Crab Meat Bean Curd (Small – RM18.00) was ordered for the little ones, the house made bean curd was lovely with a crowning glory of crispy fried enoki mushrooms.

Check out Prawn Dynasty, especially if you are a fan of big head prawns and seafood. The place is bound to do well with plenty of choices of seafood and meat dishes to cater to foodies of all ages.

PRAWN DYNASTY

26 Jalan 6/91,

Taman Shamelin Perkasa,

56100 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: +603-2856 0765

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prawndynasty/

Business Hours:

Lunch          10.30am to 2.30pm

Dinner           5.30pm to 10.30pm

Spasso Restaurant & Bar @ MyTown Shopping Centre, Cheras

Modern Italian and Spanish Delicacies

For authentic Italian and Spanish cuisine with a modern touch, look no further than our very own shore at MyTown Shopping Centre at Cheras. Spasso Restaurant and Bar opened in April this year at the new shopping mall located next to the new Ikea Cheras.

No stranger to the dining scene, Spasso is under the umbrella of Outto Dine group who also manages other popular eateries such as Limoncello, Svago, Weissbrau, Aka Chochin and Pascucci. Spasso offers modern European cuisine set in a casual ambiance.

 

At sight, Spasso has a smart casual ambiance set in lots of dark colours mixed with shades of wood. The restaurant is spacious and offers a nice bar as well as glimpse of the open kitchen. One can also see their wood oven in the kitchen, another plus point for pizza lovers.

Spasso is helmed by Spanish Sous Chef Iker Fernández Caballero who hails from San Sebastian. With over 20 years of culinary experience in Michelin-starred restaurants and luxury hotels globally, Chef Iker is aiming to garner swine lovers’ palate by putting together a sumptuous menu filled with porky delights as well as classic Spanish tapas to go with the wine list it Spasso has.

The menu is pretty solid with a good list of All-Day Breakfast, Salad or Soup, Tapas, Pizza, Pasta or Rice, Sandwich or Burger and Dessert. Since Outto Dine carries Pascucci coffee in their group, Spasso also serves Pascucci coffee and tea as well as a list of wines, champagnes, liqueurs as well as non-alcoholic beverages.

We started our lunch with coffee. Both of our Latte (RM13) and Iced Caffe Latte (RM15) was decent with quite perfect for our palates in terms of coffee aroma and flavours.

From the All-Day Breakfast list, we tried the Spanish Omelette (RM10), a potato and onion frittata that is popular in Spain. Light, fluffy and easy to enjoy, the omelette is packed with creamy soft potatoes and sweet onions. Served with side salad and toast, this dish even comes with free coffee or tea if you order this before 12noon.

We opted for Spanish Salad (RM15), simply because we saw it listed with poached egg. Crisp greens paired with ratatouille, olives and tomatoes in light tangy dressing, the salad was definitely made better with that beautifully poached egg with a flowy egg yolk center and crispy potato straws.

Moving on to the Tapas menu, we literally wanted to order almost everything because the list looked very enticing. Settling for Iberico Ham (RM23), it was certainly a great sharing platter when the dish was placed on our table.

Gorgeous cuts of Spanish Iberico ham is served with toasted sourdough bread and a light tangy tomato sauce. The ham literally melts-in-the-mouth with a luscious salty finish. Its quality cured meat at its best!

The next tapas of Garlic Prawns (RM38) already won brownie points when placed in front of us. Served in a hot stone bowl, the aroma of the sizzling prawns is tantalizing. The dish is one of our top favorites that day and is literally bursting with fireworks flavours of garlic, chili and herbs. Damn shiok, we were wishing for more toasted bread as well as another order of this succulent garlic prawns. A Must-order!

The Mussel Marinara (RM16) fair decent in my book. Nothing to fault but it didn’t leave us that firework of flavours like the Garlic Prawns. It is still cooked well with each tender mussel nicely smothered with lots of tomatoey goodness and served with toasted bread.

If there is one pizza to order, the Iberico Pizza (RM39) is your best bet. Beautiful thin crunchy crust smothered with deliciously flavourful tomato sauce and crowned with Iberico ham, fresh rocket leaves and generous sprinkling of parmesan cheese, it’s a pizza with classy flavours.

Another dish drool-worthy is the Seafood Paella (RM56). Best for sharing, the paella is served traditionally in the paella pan and comes with generous helpings of large prawns, mussels and clams with rice cooked in saffron laced seafood broth. Rice cooked al dente and beautifully moreish in flavours, we just couldn’t resist polishing this off happily. The seafood was fresh, succulent and cooked just right, elevating the dish to much satiation.

For lunch option, the Pork Secreto Sandwich (RM28) is a hearty and bulky sandwich for big eaters. Focaccia bread sandwiched with slow roasted pork loin, smoky and sweet grilled peppers, onions, tomato, lettuce and blue cheese is bound to make any foodie swoon. Comes with a side of crinkle cut fries, this is one sandwich to be taken seriously!

For vegetarian option, one can opt for the Vegetable Pesto Risotto (RM28). Risotto rice cooked al dente and well flavoured with cheesy and nutty pesto sauce, there’s plenty of vegetables such as broccoli, zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes and more to give the dish a healthy dose of greens.

Spain is famous for their dessert of Crema Catalana (RM8). The version here is sublime. Utterly luscious and creamy baked custard with a thin layer of caramelized top, the Crema Catalana is the perfect sweet ending to a meal at Spasso.

SPASSO RESTAURANT & BAR

MyTOWN Shopping Centre,

G-038, Ground Floor,

No.6 Jalan Cochrane,

Seksyen 90, Cheras,

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Website: www.out2dine.com.my

Facebook: www.facebook.com/spasso.mytown

Business Hours:

Daily 10am to 10pm