La Juiceria Superfoods @ Verve Shops, Mont Kiara

Scrumptious Superfoods!

There are many definitions to the word ‘Superfood’ and they are basically referring to food considered to be beneficial for health and well-being. Healthy food often mislead people into thinking that these food are bland. Superfood usually consist of fresh ingredients, more vegetables, fruits and beans, accompanied by protein. These are usually also prepared with minimal cooking and heat to retain its nutritional value. If prepared well, superfoods won’t be bland.

A recent visit to La Juiceria Superfoods at Verve Shops in Mont Kiara has also reiterated what I mentioned. Known for their cold-pressed juices, La Juiceria Superfoods is their latest café from the group offering healthy superfood dishes at affordable price. There is also its sister café called Goodness Greens in TTDI that serves similar healthy dishes.

La Juiceria Superfoods is spacious and bright. We were there one fine day for lunch and the ambiance was cozy and eclectic. There’s the main air conditioned dining area as well as a large alfresco area. One orders at the bar at the end of the room and your food will be sent to your table.

The food menu offers all day breakfast, soups, soba, wraps & pastas to superbowls, supersnacks and signature salads. The drink menu is just as long as the food menu, offering cold-pressed juices, smoothies, smoothie bowls, coffee, tea and raw desserts.

Our smoothies of Acai Berry (RM10.99) and Cream & Cookies (RM10.99) were thick, luscious and deliciously satisfying.

At La Juiceria Superfoods, every order of coffee comes with Chlorophyll water for detox, including this Americano (RM9).

Lunch started with a decent Truffle Mushroom (RM10.90) soup. Chockful of earthy mushroom flavours, the soup was creamy and velvety. Laced with a wonderful aroma of truffle oil, we polished this off happily.

La Juiceria Superfoods has a tempting all-day breakfast section, so much so we had to order one to try. Truffle Omelette (RM18.99) looks absolutely drool worthy with the sunshine yellow of fluffy omelette stuffed with sautéed veggies and mushrooms. It also comes with a side salad. Such a happy looking and delicious platter and certainly a great one to start the day with…

Nasi Lemak Wrap (RM21.90), power packed with flavours and a healthier version of our favorite national dish. Tender grilled chicken, kampung boiled egg, quinoa, lettuce, cucumber, tomato all wrapped in flour tortilla and served with side of sambal and crispy anchovies with peanuts summed up the wrap. It’s yummy and easy to enjoy but the best part of this is that it doesn’t leave you with a heavy note after savoring it.

Soba, made from buckwheat, is a healthier noodle option than the regular noodles. La Juiceria offers a few dishes served with soba and one of them is a scrumptious Teriyaki Chicken Soba (RM18.90). A yummy combo of charcoal soba noodles topped with teriyaki chicken thigh, soft boiled kampung egg, crisp greens and shoyu sesame dressing proves that healthy food can be very tasty when done right. The soft boiled egg makes the noodles extra silky smooth.

We moved on Superbowls of salads and first one up, the Protein Power Bowl (RM18.90). Protein packed with brown rice, chickpeas, pumpkin, almond, mushroom, tofu and more, this one is served with a creamy and lightly nutty dhal curry sauce on the side. When mixed together, it’s surprisingly delicious. Love the light spices and heat of curry as it makes everything more appetizing too.

The Tofu Garden Salad (RM17.90) was decent too. Tofu itself is pretty bland but when paired up with turmeric roasted cauliflower, roasted sweet potato, steamed broccoli, red cabbage, fried tempeh and maple balsamic vinaigrette, this bowl of salad isn’t as bland as it sounds. I was particularly happy with the fried tempeh as it gives the salad a nice nutty flavour.

If you’re pickier like me, I highly recommend the Build-Your Own Gourmet Salad (starts from RM16.90 onwards).

I went for the Grand with 1 Base + 5 Mains + 2 Supplementary + 1 Dressing + 1 Protein (RM24.90 – Grand + RM9 - Salmon). Mine had Norwegian Salmon Fillet with mixed salad leaves, beetroot, grilled mushrooms, roasted pumpkin, sweet corn, almond flakes, smashed avocado and Green Goddess dressing. Generous large piece of salmon nicely grilled and the Green Goddess dressing is sublime!

There’s even dessert to end your meal. La Juiceria offers handcrafted raw desserts by The Honest Treat. Select from lots of various flavours from Banoffee, Raspberry Chocolate, Minty Chocolate, Orange Chocolate to Raspberry Dream, Berry Banana and Tropical Surprise. These are pretty decadent and tasted fudgey, fruity and chocolaty. You might as well order their cold-pressed juices to go with these for a sweet and guilt-free ending!

LA JUICERIA SUPERFOODS 

G-2, Level G, VERVE® Shops,

No. 8, Jalan Kiara 5,

50480 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: +603-6280 6381

Website: www.lajuiceria.com.my

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/La-Juiceria-Superfoods-Verve-Mont-Kiara

Business Hours:

Daily 8am to 10pm

Bmon Café @ Kota Damansara

A Dreamy Bmon Café

The moment I stepped into Bmon Café, I knew I would have a great time. It’s the aura that Bmon Café projects through its utterly dreamy and cute interior that greets everyone comfortably. There is just so much to see at Bmon Café. It’s like walking into a world of comical cuteness with much happiness in the air.

Located in the less bustling area of Kota Damansara, Bmon Café is the brainchild of brothers Roy and Travis. The café is named after a cartoon character Bmon created by Roy. Roy is also the talented artist that is responsible for all the paintings of Bmon in the café. Based on his favorite cartoon DoraEmon, Roy created Bmon which in chinese means 必梦. It means that that everyone should have a dream and go after it to make it come true. If you want to find out more about Bmon, check out their FB here.

Bmon Café is quite discreet in location. It is located above the rows of shoplot at The Strand Kota Damansara. As soon as you enter the café, you will be amazed at how cheery and bright the café is. The café is very spacious with only handful of table seating.

There is an area for sofa and low coffee table to chill out or there is another section where one can simply hangout on the floor seating at a very cozy room filled with pretty cool painting of Bmon and his friends. The floor has lots of pillow for comfort and there is even a swing chair which our kids enjoyed so much.

There is another section with two chairs and a wall painted with a tree hanging with lots of Bmon framed pictures. Lots of adorable knick knacks added charm. There is a long bar facing that room together with a chiller for cakes and cold desserts. I also liked the brick wall behind the bar with the Bmon logo on the wall. There is a lot of décor everywhere but it jives beautifully. Bmon Café makes everyone want to hang out there.

The menu at Bmon Cafe is also fairly simple and very affordable. There are plenty of food and drinks to keep many of us adults and kids sufficiently happy. I like how all their hot beverages are served in their own super cute mugs completed with coffee art. You can actually buy their mugs and I was certainly tempted too!

Hot beverages include coffee, tea and other beverages. We had their Ruby Mocha, Bmon Plants (RM13), Hot Chocolate (RM10), Green Tea Latte (RM11) and Honey Milk (RM9). I stole a sip of my little one’s Hot Chocolate and boy was it yummy with a good balance of cocoa and milk.

For tea lovers, there are also flower teas and we all had their Purple Rose Tea (RM12 per pot). The gentle flowery aroma was soothing in the tea mix.

Since we were there during Christmas, we got to try their Holiday Beverages – Iced Ruby Mocha, Godfather & Lulu Berry. I don’t have the price for these but I do appreciate the creative festive drinks. Other cold drinks include Lemon Ice Soda (RM8) and my Iced Macchiato (RM8).

The owners are really smart to offer simple housemade food. For now, there may be a limited menu but Travis and Roy is working on to add more later. Our salad of Fruit Mayo (RM10.90) is pretty good. It has lots of crisp greens with some vegetables, fruits, croutons and raisins all dressed in a light sweet mayo dressing.

The All Day Breakfast Set (RM16.90) is delicious! For that price, it is certainly a hearty breakie of sausage, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, baked bean, hash brown, toast and a side of greens. Everything is well prepared and though there is nothing special about it, I would be happy with this plate anytime. It is just good classic prepared well.

Bmon Café also has wraps and sandwiches to cater to those who enjoy light meals. Mushroom Wrap (RM12.90) and Tuna Wrap (RM12.90) are a lighter version since the tortilla wraps is less heavy than regular bread. The sautéed mushrooms is scrumptious with its soft earthy flavours while the tuna is creamy and tasty. One can opt for croissant for these and so we also tried their croissant sandwiches of  Tuna Sandwich (RM13.90) and Turkey Ham Sandwich (RM14.90). I like the idea of using croissant as there is the added bonus of buttery pastry with the fillings.

Pizza is also available and Bmon Café’s pizza uses tortilla as the base. Our Mushroom Pizza (RM13.90) and Hawaiian Pizza (RM13.90) are thin and crispy with a light tomato sauce, filling and sprinkling of cheese. As one can see, they are pretty generous with the filling. I thought the tortilla was a bit too thin to hold all the filling and I miss the bread base but its not significant since the filling is very delicious.

Though Bmon Café does offer many choices of pasta but what they offered are classics and always everyone’s favorites.

For less than fourteen ringgit, one gets a generous portion of hearty Chicken Mushroom Carbonara (RM13.90) and Chicken/Beef Bolognese (RM13.90). The pasta was cooked al dente to my liking while the sauces for both are light and hearty. I can taste the element of homecooking here. Enjoying this pasta won’t leave you with heaviness as the sauces are flavourful and light. The sauces also have lots of meat so the dish is quite filling. I would order the pasta here for its light and comforting notes.

Hippo In a Pool (RM14.90) was one of my favorite dish that night. Serving only limited portions a day, the cutely coined dish is actually a crumbed and deep fried potato croquette served with hard-boiled egg, ham, crispy crab stick, corn, chicken floss, greens and a special cheese sauce.

Looking deliriously fattening, I didn’t mind this one bit and tuck in happily. I really enjoyed the whole dish except for the egg which I felt was a bit odd in the dish. The creamy potato croquette went very well with the cheese sauce and I kept going back for more.

Desserts it seems are also Bmon Café’s forte. We had their Waffle with Ice Cream & Fruits (RM12.90), Waffle Sensation (RM14.90) and Chocolate Mud with Ice Cream (RM10).

The waffles are good! If you wish to come here just for coffee and waffles, I would highly recommend it. The crisp waffles are eggy and aromatic. There are quite a few toppings so pick your favorite. Ours was good with the ice cream and fruits. The chocolate mud with ice cream is also very good and comes with a chocolate painted Bmon!

Bmon Café is truly one of a kind! I like their concept and the sheer simplicity of what they serve. Both Roy and Travis obviously made lots of effort in the décor. It’s a perfect place for hangouts, fun parties and certainly a good place for dessert and drinks! Plus points for Bmon Café include 10% discount for students and there is no service charge.

BMON CAFÉ

No 8-1, Jalan PJU 5/20b,

Kota Damansara,

47810 Petaling Jaya,

Selangor

Tel: +60 3-6158 9993

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Bmon-Cafe

Business Hours:

Mon to Wed & Fri: 12:00pm – 12:00am

Sat & Sun: 11am – 12am

Closed on Thursday