Showing posts with label Crab Factory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crab Factory. Show all posts

October 13, 2015

Brolly @ Menara Felda, Platinum Park Kuala Lumpur


Feast Big with 9 Sensational Experiences!


Good Golly Miss Molly! There’s a new kid in town and its BIG… a haven for foodies looking for a feast. Brolly is the name and 9 experiences is their game. Seek out Brolly at Menara Felda in Kuala Lumpur along Persiaran KLCC. Brolly represents all 9 kitchens under its umbrella. Foodies are tempted with so much different cuisines all neatly married under one roof!



It’s the perfect place to dine, wine and enjoy with family, friends and business associates as there is plenty for everyone in choices of their menu. Going the extra mile, Brolly takes foodies around the world with a little something from American cuisine, Italian cuisine, and Japanese cuisine to our very own local cuisine. It’s a place that will guarantee that you leave with your belly full for sure.


The owners at Brolly decided that it’s time to share the best of their own experiences during their travels and Brolly was born in September 2015. One should not miss Brolly with its striking red bus placed strategically in the front of the place along Persiaran KLCC. With plenty of personality and charm, Brolly’s interior takes on a whimsical play on groovy gas station cum car garage. The whole place is sectioned off and decorated with lots of various inspired eras’ of the garage concept. We loved how funky and eclectic the décor is.



An old Datsun is strung upside down over their pool table. Private rooms with wall panels covered in shiny hubcaps where one would never think that there are private dining rooms on the other side of the wall. More working tools splashed all over another wall. The seating are well-spaced out too so there’s lot of space. An eye catcher in the room would be the pillar that is covered in exhaust pipes, side mirrors of all shapes and tires with copper insert that acts was a wash basin with petrol pump pipes. Pretty cool right?



A huge black bar sits in the middle of the dining space, flashing with neon lights of the various kitchen logos.The other sections also has unique touches. A red wall is covered with black records, echoing a retro vibe in the room. There is also a foosball table besides the long wood table. Another section is decorated with lots of steel, grey cabinet with more tools and herringbone wood flooring. It is really quite the funky and fun place to unwind your day.



Bang Bang Baller Bar

If there is one thing to really kick off the stress, its Brolly’s Bang Bang Baller Bar and their menu of beverages. No ordinary bar, this one is housed in a red bus located at the front of the restaurant.

There are some really awesome signatures at Bang Bang Baller Bar. We checked out quite a few of their signatures of Beergaritas and High-Ballrus. The Beergaritas are huge mugs of beer and cocktail blends with fruity flavours such as Classic, Green Apple, Maracuja, Passion Fruit, Pineapple and Peach whereas their High-Ballrus are whiskey with soda and fruit so take your pick from Classic (Whiskey & Soda), Green Apple, Wild Blueberry, Passion Fruit, Maracuja, Peach and Pineapple.


I had the Pineapple Beergarita (RM30) and Passion Fruit High-Ballrus (RM30) together with another mocktail of Passion Blueberry Pu-Er Ice Team Mocktail. Super refreshing but go easy as these can really be addictive and yet packed quite a hit. My favorite has to be the Beergaritas so make sure you order a few!






We were in awe at their dining menu. There are 8 eateries under Brolly – Moley’s Oyster Bar, vari.EAT.y, My Wing Man, Nove9 Pizzeria, Ember & Bara BBQ, Crab Factory, Raksasa Mirai and Sweet Endings. One might need several visits to try them all or round up your foodie gang and share for more options just like we did.


Moley’s Oyster Bar

The aphrodisiac bar that oysters lovers like me would flock to for succulent briny and sweet oysters. Carrying two of the highly favored oysters, one can have these au naturel or dressed up as well as shooters. If you are going in all the way, order the Mumm’s Champage to indulge in the ultimate pairing of champagne and oysters.



Both oysters are different and utterly divine in their own flavours and textures. Fine de Claire No2 Oysters (RM 144 per dozen) from France have a solid balance of clean briny saltish and sweet notes. The squeeze of fresh lemon juice heighten the flavours beautifully in a refine way.



Kelly's Gigas No4 Oysters (RM 96 per dozen) hails from the cold waters of Ireland. These are gorgeously plump with a pale creamy outlook. I recommended again just with the squeeze of fresh lemon juice as it really enhanced the oyster flavours nicely. This one is my favorite as it has a luscious creamy salty note of the sea.



My Wing Man

With wings like these, who needs to stick to the norm! My Wing Man takes flight in various Asian and Western flavours from Old FashioN BBQ Coffee, Old Fashioned Spicy Chocolate and Peppery Brown Sauce to Spicy Korean Bean Paste, E&B Sambal, Tomato Tango, Kung Fu Kung Pao, Japanese Curry and Cencaluk.


Our wings of the evening were Cencaluk Chicken Wings (RM18) and Tomato Tango Chicken Wings (RM18). No ordinary wings, the flavours on these sounds funky but rest assured, they are yummy. The Tomato Tango Chicken Wings have a similar note to tomato salsa, a little tangy and fresh with tomato flavours. The Cencaluk Chicken Wings were more piquant with a heavy and saltier note from the fermented shrimp. I would have love to try all their other flavours too, especially the Old Fashioned Spicy Chocolate!



Vari.EAT.y

We moved on to vari.EAT.y, a fun take on all the various good stuff that is perfect for snacking. Quite the mix, these nibbles are inspired from a journey on the Silk Road. Diners can munch on Grilled Skewers, Fried bites, Grilled items or Soup.


There’s a whole list of yummy dishes that diners may not be able to resist and we started with Onion Flower (RM 18). A blooming golden beauty at sight, the super large onion was cut to resemble a bloom with its onion petals evenly battered and fried to super crispy. Well-seasoned, I can taste the spices in the batter. Dip these in the side of brown sauce for extra goodness!


Calamari Tentacles (RM 18) and Prawn Popcorn (RM 23) are just meant to be with Beergaritas. Savor these crispy battered seafood with them awesome beer or Beergaritas for a light bite while chilling out or having some pool time.


If you’re looking to amp up the poshness, Brolly even has escargots! Morsels of escargot are served a la Cajun Escargots (RM 24) or Garlic Escargots (RM 24). These are baked with spices or lots of garlic bits. Ok so make sure to order some garlic bread to go with these babies.


Soup lovers seeking comfort soup will love their Short Ribs Soup (RM 35). This is such a soothing and heartwarming dish of our local version of ‘sup tulang’ but with more refinement. The tender pieces of short ribs still has a good bite while the spiced up earthy flavours of the soup had me kept spooning and enjoying the soup happily.


From the ikazaya of the streets of Japan comes the Kushiyaki (3 skewers per order). Skewers of meat, seafood and all its glory with some vegetables makes great snacking. We had their Chicken Softbone (RM9), Chicken Heart (RM9), Seafood Tofu (RM9), Quail Eggs (RM9) and Spring Onion (RM9). Never would have pegged me for a Chicken Heart fan but I’d admit to being hooked on this one as there is a good firm bite to the heart. I spied Smoked Duck, Cubed Striploin, Baby Octopus, Lamb Shoulder and Tiger Prawn for my next round…



Nove 9 Pizzeria

Brolly took 9 of their pizzas and made them green! Well green spinach dough that is… so one can enjoy your pizzas and others can get a little green with envy. You won’t want to order the classics because there’s the adventurous flavours of Lambogarlic (RM26) and Thai Beef Guava Salad (RM28).


The Lambogarlic is potent enough to keep some vampires away and yet gave you the satisfaction of superb garlicky and creamy notes. The pieces of lamb sausage and minced lamb made the pizza meaty and filling. Both lamb and garlic sauce seemed to match well in flavours.


The Thai Beef Guava Salad takes on beef with fruit. Pretty unusual pairing of beef, guava and mango but it seemed to taste pretty delicious and aromatic. Tender beef slices with a peppery note is offset by cubed crunchy guava and sweet ripe cubed mango. The creamy melted cheese with tomato sauce wrapped up the whole bunch of ingredients together while finely shredded ginger torch completed the local touch on this pizza.



Ember & Bara BBQ

Ember & Bara BBQ is hot, flaming hot dishes from the charcoal grill. It’s also East meets West and features a whole lot of seafood and meat cooked Asian and Western style. The menu let diners choose their meat or seafood for single or double portions and then choose a sauce from the list to prepare the dish. The sauces are really unique with four Asian and four Western sauces of Old Fashion Coffee, Old Fashioned BBQ Spicy Chcolate, Tarty Tropicana, Classic Chamalla, E&B Sambal, Tomato Tango, Kung Fu Kung Pao and Fragrant Tamarind Coconut. Then there are also vegetables and sides to go with all the grilled and baked meat and seafood too.


First to show up was the huge bowl of BBQ Small Yabbies (RM60 – 1kg)! Boy, were these so scrumptious! Yabbies are definitely hard to find here and we are just glad Brolly takes care of importing these live and kept in tanks till orders comes in. Then they are bbq over the hot coals to give them a lush smoky charred note and intensify their sweet meat and juices. It may take a little work to get to the meat but its worthy effort as the meat is sweet and tasty.




We went will over the seafood cooked a la Asian. Fish, crabs and prawns are baked in foil with sauces over hot coals and served with side of shredded cabbage. We had Meat Crab in E&B Sambal Sauce (RM 65), Meat Crab in Tomato Tango Sauce (RM 65), Prawns in Fragrant Tamarind Coconut (RM 25), Prawns in Tomato Tango Sauce (RM25) and Seabass in E&B Sambal Sauce (RM 50).


The E&B Sambal Sauce is fiery and packed quite a heat punch while the Tomato Tango Sauce was mellow, sweet and lightly tangy. I really enjoyed the aromatic, creamy and spiced Fragrant Tamarind Coconut flavours with hints of tangy touches.


Next up, the Western grilled meat was paired with the Western sauces. We seemed to have order quite a fair bit of this lot with steaks of Chilled Sirloin with Old Fashion BBQ Coffee Sauce (RM 34), Chilled Ribeye with Tarty Tropicana Sauce (RM 60) and Chilled Tenderloin with Old Fashion BBQ Coffee Sauce (RM 70). Make sure to tell the waitstaff how you like your steaks cooked. My favorite of the lot was the Chilled Ribeye with Tarty Tropicana Sauce.



We also enjoyed their Spring Chicken with Classic Chamalla Sauce (RM 45) and Lamb Frenched Rack with Old Fashion BBQ Spicy Chocolate (RM 120). A whole spring chicken split flat and smothered in a lovely spice marinade and served with a piquant Chamalla sauce on the side. The chicken is juicy and so moreish. The Lamb Frenched Rack was superb. Gorgeous French trimmed lamb that was so juicy and tender and smothered with a rich BBQ sauce with hints of chocolate won many hearts that evening.



With all the meat and seafood, we knew we needed some greens. We chose Grilled Watermelon & Pineapple Minty Salad (RM 15), Grilled Caesar Salad (RM 15) and Spinach & Feta Melon Salad (RM 15). I like how the grilling on the fruit or greens evoked a subtle hint of smoky and earthy notes in the salads. It’s hard to choose any favorite here as I happened to enjoy them all individually.





Crab Factory

Now Brolly happened to share the same owner as Crab Factory in SS2, hence it’s a no-brainer that Crab Factory is also available here. Showcasing New Orleans’ pride and joy, diners can enjoy the full list of Crab Factory’s menu here. Choices of seafood from the lavish King Crab, Lobster, various Crabs, Prawns, Yabby, Scallop, Baby Octopus, Japanese Snails and Mussels vie for your pick against Louisiana famed Po Boys, Southern Chicken & Waffle, Hush Puppies, Gumbo and more.

Our eyes stared in amazement at Crab Factory’s Po Boys! Bulging out of the long buns are a series of crispy battered seafood and meat with lettuce, tomatoes and onions before being smothered in classic remoulade sauce and served with heaps of thick cut fries.



We had their Fried Prawns Po'Boy (RM 22), Fried Softshell Crabs Po'Boy (RM 22) and Pulled Beef Brisket Po'Boy (RM 18). My personal favorites were the prawns and softshell crab with their full-on crispy and juicy seafood cooked well. The remoulade was creamy and very tasty, lending its magic on the seafood and bun. Besides what we had, there are also Calamari and Chicken Strips. I hope someday, Crab Factory would offer the New Orleans classic Oyster Po Boy here!! That would be a bomb for sure…

More serious seafood hit our tables and these are the lavish Neptune’s treasures of huge Brown Crab and Spanner Crabs. The seafood are priced by the grams depending on the type of seafood. Both our Brown Crab and Spanner Crab are RM19 per 100gm. As mentioned earlier, one can catch these seafood in the tanks at the back of the bar. It’s as fresh as it gets!


Brown Crab in Jamba Jamba Sauce (RM 247 – 1.3kg). It’s a very meaty crab with chunks of sweet flesh. Since we love heat, we went for the Jamba Jamba Sauce. Even at Medium Spicy Level, the heat was quite a punch. Thoroughly addictive, we even ordered Garlic Bread (RM8.90) to mop up the sauce.


I have never seen a Spanner Crab that big in my life!! I had tasted small ones that are poached, chilled and served but these hardly had much meat it in. Now the Spanner Crab here are dead serious huge in size. We opted for Spanner Crab in Garlic Butter Sauce (RM 237.50 – 1.25kg) and Spanner Crab in Signature Southern Bang Sauce Medium Spicy Level (RM 266 – 1.4kg) with added on Buddies of Button Mushroom Bag Buddies (RM 8.90). We all truly enjoyed our first experience of Spanner Crab this size. There were lots of sweet chunks of crab meat that made us oohs and aahs over it that evening. If you have never tried it, you should because Spanner Crabs this size is utterly gorgeous and truly worthy of a taste… Super shiok!





Raksaksa Mirai

Rice lovers will celebrate at the sight of Raksaksa Mirai’s menu. Name inspired by yesteryears of watching the famous Japanese animated Ultraman fighting the monsters, Raksaksa Mirai serves contemporary Japanese inspired dishes served with various rice and Japanese curry sauce.

There’s plenty of choices of meat, seafood and even a vegetarian option of dishes cooked differently and served with rice of your choice. Go for the white rice at no additional charge or go for the creative flavoured rice with a small additional charge.


We had the Tori Garlic Mayo (RM23) in Traditional Curry Sauce with Signature Rice (RM 2.50), Hotate Scallop Eryngii Omelette (RM24) in Traditional Curry Sauce with Garlic Shallot Rice (RM2.50) and Salmon Katsu in Coconut Curry Sauce (RM25)



Generous portions of everything served on a pool of your choice of Traditional or Coconut Japanese Curry Sauce is a perfect filler for big eaters. Another plus point is that the curry sauce leaned towards the savory rather than the sweet. Enjoy all these hot as it does get a tad salty when cold. The Tori Garlic Mayo was creamy and moreish while the Hotate Scallop Eryngii was buttery, savory and earthy in flavours. The crisp Salmon Katsu went well with the creamy curry sauce too.



Sweet Endings

With all the food coma we had with all the various kitchen dishes, we knew we had to go all the way and end our experiences with Sweet Endings. Our sweet treats are served in large mugs or baked in foil. Choosing can be quite a task since the list of desserts look and sound divine on the pictured menu.


In the end, we settled for Chunky Peanut Butter Granola (RM 16), Creme Brulee (RM 16) and Grilled Montel Banana Parcel (RM 16). Chunky Peanut Butter Granola was O.M.G. delicious! Lots of peanut butter crumbs with granola are layered with vanilla ice cream and blueberry sauce made my day. These are so nutty, buttery, sweet and fruity with a lush creamy note. A Must-Order please…


The Crème Brulee is also decent with all the usual creamy and smooth flavours and textures. Another treat to end the evening would be the Grilled Montel Banana Parcel. Two large Montel bananas are baked in aromatic cinnamon and other spices with butter and served with large dollop of whipped cream. So tantalizing in aroma and flavours.




Despite us working our stomachs through all the above, we barely touched half of the menu at Brolly. There’s a lot of reason to pay Brolly a visit. One gets 9 delicious experiences from all the various kitchen concepts from the menu, beergaritas to-die-for, sumptuous fresh seafood and an ambience like no other! Oh and please bring an empty stomach or round up your foodie gang for a big treat of feasting…


BROLLY
Ground Floor, Menara Felda
Platinum Park
Persiaran KLCC
50088 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2181-4122


Business Hours: 11.00am-11.00pm

November 14, 2014

Crab Factory, Original Louisiana Boil: A Thanksgiving Extravaganza Lobster Feast


An Oceanic Thanksgiving






Thanksgiving holidays are just around the corner for those who celebrate the festive abroad in Western countries. I love Thanksgiving holidays. It has the warm autumn feel of festivity that echoes the Christmas holiday coming soon. Living in the states for a good six years, I spent six precious Thanksgiving with my sister and her family. It is indeed a big affair and just like our traditional Malaysian holidays like Chinese New Year, Hari Raya and Deepavali, all families head on home to gather for the festive holidays. Traditional Thanksgiving is celebrated with a big fat juicy roast turkey and trimmings. Well this Thanksgiving, you might just want to bend the rule here…


It’s my first visit to Crab Factory, Original Louisiana Boil at SS2, Petaling Jaya. Taking a spot facing the McDonalds in the famous SS2 square, Crab Factory is the brainchild of T.Y. Ooi. After taking a holiday in the states, T.Y. and her pals came back and got excited in bringing a taste of Southern Creole and Cajun flavours with seafood to Malaysians. Developing the recipes, snagging quality seafood from reliable suppliers and the rest is history as they say in the makings, Crab Factory was born.


Walking into Crab Factory, one is immediately at ease with its modern industrial décor from brick walls to cool grey walls and flooring, lots of decorative wheels, chalkboards, industrial lightings and wood mixed steel furniture. Right away, one knows that we should all just leave our prim and proper manners out of the restaurant.


At Crab Factory, one should feel like you are at someone’s home in the States where many would gather for a big seafood feast of crawfish boils and lobster boils. It is only fair that one should also dine like how it should be for every seafood boils back in the southern states to get the full experience. So be prepared to dine with your hands (your best tool definitely!) and the fact that there is no plates and utensils available in the restaurant except for small paper trays and plastic bags. Once the seafood appears, pour out all the seafood in the bags onto the table and dig in…


Ordering is simple, pick your seafood and then pick a sauce. Throw in some sides and bag buddies and get downright dirty delicious with your hands! Oh… put on the Crab Factory apron if you’re worried about your clothes but hey, let’s not sweat the small stuff for great food…








Since its Thanksgiving week, Crab Factory has been running their Thanksgiving Extravaganza Canadian Lobsters promotion. A big sweet treat, this Thanksgiving Extravaganza feast priced at RM145++ offers two Canadian Lobsters (1KG) steamed with King Mushrooms, Potatoes and Corn in a glorious Garlic Butter Sauce.

What a treat! This certainly makes a nice change from the usual turkey for the festive so I am pretty sure many will also attest to this since we are after all Malaysians and we do love our seafood.


The two lobsters are very good in sizes and when the bag was opened, a wharf of garlicky buttery aroma filled the air with much deliciousness. The lobsters are gorgeously succulent and cooked well. The oceanic sweetness coupled with the tender meat brought me back to memories of my sister and friends backyard seafood escapades where we would try and whipped up seafood boils and just literally dive into seafood oblivion. I enjoyed the lobster also because the garlicky butter sauce didn’t mask the lobsters but rather enhanced the sweetness of the crustaceans.


Check out the amount of lobster roe in this crustacean! Feeling rather smirk at the sight of such indulgence…

The bag buddies of potatoes and corn is quite the standard for any lobster boils and the addition of the firm king mushrooms added a nice local touch. After a good soaking, these bag buddies are buttery and yummy.






Now if lobsters aren’t your thing, then surely there is plenty of seafood to keep you happy. Crabs, meat crabs to be exact, comes in several sizes with its own price tag based on market price. Ours was steamed drenched in Crab Factory’s Signature Southern Bang sauce with a medium heat level. There are four levels of heat so choose your poison from Mild, Medium, O’ly Crab and Death Valley. Death Valley is pretty much suicidal if you can’t take spicy at all…


Our crabs looked ferociously spicy and red. One taste of the sauce and I can feel a little sweat starting. I happen to love spicy food and thinks my heat level is pretty good but this medium heat level is pretty much a kick in the heat sense. So make sure to go slowly and choose wisely if you cannot take too spicy. The sauce is pretty much addictive. The more you savor, the more you are hooked. I find myself going nuts about the meaty sweet crab with the knock-your-socks off Southern Bang sauce. The sweating goes off once your flavour sense adjust to the heat and that’s when pleasure comes in. I should go braver once day and take on the two higher heat levels in my next 3kgs of crabs…

Besides just being spicy, the richness of the sauce has a lovely lemony tang and lots of peppery notes. It’s piquant and simply moreish too. Corn was the bag buddy for the crab and it is a great one because the sweetness of the corn goes really well with the spicy sauce. We enjoyed the sauce so much, we jokingly ask for bread to mop up the sauces.


No plain bread but Crab Factory has Homemade Garlic Bread (RM7.90) available which we ordered to mop up the crab sauce. Pretty satisfied as the toasty garlicky bread matches the spicy sauce heavenly!






Next up, 500grams of Prawns in Jamba Jamba Sauce on medium heat level was pour out all over our table. The prawns are firm and bouncy with a very delectable hint of sweetness. The Jamba Jamba sauce is a tomato based sauce and has lovely sweet, sour and spicy flavours. Ok so I lost count of how many prawns I devoured that day but who could blame me as these were just irresistible.


We also took on 500gms of Australian Yabbies in Garlic Butter Sauce. The contrasting bright red with the sunshine yellow butter sauce is so pretty on the table. These yabbies were of a good size. As I plucked off the head and proceed to suck out all the divine flavours, I was telling myself how much satisfaction I was having right there at that moment. The sauce allowed the yabbies to really showcase the natural sweetness and also enhanced the creaminess of the yabbies. This one was RM88 but truly worth the price tag because I have never tasted such big and sweet yabbies here in Malaysia.








Other sidekicks we tried, golden crispy Fried Baby Squid (RM10.90) and Hush Puppies (RM8.90). Absolutely flawless, the crunchy lightly battered Cajun flavoured squid is super yum. When I saw the Hush Puppies on their menu, I literally beg for it. I had a few good ones back in the States and have missed this so much. Not many know how to appreciate these golden fried oatmeal balls but I really enjoy these here. I can taste some spices in the Hush Puppies and these have a medium dense oaty texture. Try it because who knows, you might like me!







Crab Factory has plenty more to offer than what I have tried. There are 17 types of side dishes from Southern Chicken & Waffles, Fish & Chips, Prawn Remoulade, Southern Heartwarming Gumbo Soup, Fried Okra and more… all the comforting Southern dishes. Seafood list goes beyond our normal expectations from the hefty priced King Crab to Slipper Lobsters, Amaebi, Japanese Snails, Baby Octopus, Mussel, Scallops and more. Don’t forget to add on more bag buddies to the seafood. During lunch hours, Crab Factory serves up quite a few variations of pasta with seafood. To complete all the seafood, Crab Factory has a long list of beers available to keep everyone happy!


So if you’re thinking of a Thanksgiving celebration with a seafood twist, head over to Crab Factory to check out the value-for-money Thanksgiving Extravaganza Canadian Lobsters promotion available from now till 30th November 2014! Burp…



CRAB FACTORY
21, Jalan SS2/64,
47300 Petaling Jaya
Tel: +603-7865 5850


Business Hours:
Mon, Wed & Thurs: 3.00pm - 11.00pm
Fri, Sat & Sun: 11.00am - 11.00pm
Close on Tuesdays