Serai (Closed)

This is a bit of a fancy place for Malay food, yet their satay is still true to heart. Both chicken and beef are tender, despite my initial apprehension against it. The satay sauce was super nutty and aromatic - more so than most places. The larger-than-average size is also very pleasing, and I thoroughly enjoy the fact that the satay is mostly without that offending chunk of fat that usually comes standard.

I'll get straight to the point - Serai's lamb shank is the absolute best I've ever had.First, the meat is super tender... like, literally fall-off-the-bone tender. The sauce is reminiscent (and inspired by) a Moroccan-style lamb shank sauce. The sauce is tomato-based, and tastes lemonny, and really goes very well with the lamb. There's a bed of hidden mash under there, which soaks up the sauce and dripping lamb fat very wonderfully.

The chocolate cake in Serai looked pretty promising. The dark brown colour seemed to indicate that it is made from bitter chocolate. I thought that the cake was a bit dry. The chocolate topping was also a bit hard. It was sweet, but not overly so. Quite ordinary, nothing to shout about. Definitely need a cup of tea to wash this down. Priced at RM14.80, it was a decent amount to pay.

I always like a good tiramisu cake. To me, it is one of life’s enjoyments to find a good piece of tiramisu. I have found it in Alexis, and I was looking forward to having the tiramisu in Serai, as they look pretty similar. The caramelised almonds were very nice, crunchy and nutty. The layers of cake are moist and fluffy. I couldn’t detect any alcohol taste, which was a slight letdown. Overall quite nice, though I would still go for Alexis if I am in Bangsar area.

The oreo cheese cake in Serai is quite delectable. Full of oreo flavour of chocolate and cream, the oreo cheese cake is a delight. The bottom layer is made from the crunchy oreo biscuit, while the middle has a very cream cheese flavour. Not too sweet, slightly heavy on the stomach. Good to have with a cup of tea. Priced at RM14.80 a piece, it was well worth the amount paid.

While taking the escalator from the Paradigm Mall car park, I saw this huge poster on the wall depicting a scrumptious looking piece of cake from Serai. I vowed that I must visit Serai one of these days to sample it. Last week, wifey and I were in downtown KL to run some errands, and we saw that in the ground floor of Life Center, there was a Serai restaurant. Since it was teatime, wifey and I decided to go in to have some cakes due to our light lunch. I now know that the cake is called pavlova.

Honeydew Blast. We were seated at the "uncovered" area that will kena the sun a bit. This condition made our place a bit hot to dine. The honeydew blast came to the rescue the body temperature. It was a honeydew blended with ice and a piece of lime was stuck on top of the glass. This lime added some sour and tanginess to the drink. The honeydew blast was sweet and thick.

Sirap Bandung. Although the restaurant was quite full house during lunch time, the service was attentive too and the staff was polite. That afternoon, I felt like drinking a heavier drink, so I ordered the sirap bandung. This sirap bandung was thick with the milk and strong with syrup flavour. The drink was quite sweet but I was fine with it since this drink is supposed to be sweet.

Beef Noodles. The beef noodles consisted of beef slices, spring onions and parsley. The broth was good, nicely flavoured with beef essence. It was slightly peppery spicy and not too salty. The beef slices however were not too tender as it was being boiled in the hot soup for too long. The aroma of parsley and spring onions brought out the taste further. A decent beef noodle.

Seafood char kuey teow. For the price that they charge as compared to normal restaurant, Serai does provide a piece of big prawns together with some small prawns in the char kuey teow. The ingredients consisted of egg and beansprouts. The beansprouts were crunchy. The char kuey teow, overall was not too oily, acceptable. The taste was slightly salty though.

Satay. The satay came along with cucumber, onions and pulut cubes. Not forgotten the peanut sauce too. The chicken satay was not grilled nicely though, as I find the satay a bit too fair for me. I would prefer my satay to be more burnt actually. The chicken satay marination however was good, it has some spices taste. The peanut sauce was thick and heavily laden with aromatic peanut.

Seafood marinara. The seafood marina was a big portion. It consisted of prawns, mussels and squid. The prawns were big, fat and succulent. The mussels were fresh and not fishy taste. The squids were springy. All the ingredients absorbed the marinara sauce very well and they were all flavourful. The marinara sauce was slightly sourish and with some peppery taste.

Serai Platter. This came with a bowl of rice, fried chicken, honey squid, acar and asam pedas. The fried chicken was slightly burnt which was not presentation, but the skin was crispy and the meat was tender, slightly salty. The honey squid was springy and nicely coated with honey, sweet. The asam pedas has a tangy taste and it was quite spicy. I love the whole combination.

Nutella Ravioli with ice cream. The presentation looks like fried dumpling skin with nutella. It was an unique combination: ravioli wrapped nutella deep fried to crispiness. I love this combo! It was indeed a refreshing taste. The nutella was sweet and slightly melted and the ravioli was golden brown albeilt slightly salty. Eaten together with ice cream, I love this very much.

Nasi Kerabu with ayam percik, solok lada, salted egg, keropok and ulam. The presentation of this dish was good. I don’t fancy ulam but when I mixed the ulam and some sauce with the rice, it was so flavourful! It tasted slightly salty, spicy yet fragrant at the same time. The ayam percik was slightly burnt, but the coating was slightly crispy and salty. The chicken meat was tender. Although I was full half way eating, but the flavor was so addictive and I managed to finish all.