Humbly hidden on one of Plaza Damas' least-traveled corners, Bistro Fiore deserves to draw devoted disciples of Italian comfort cooking or Japanese soul sustenance _ or better still, both. Patrons can make pilgrimages here for lunch and dinner, but the afternoons are exclusively blessed with a divine deal: set meals that cost slightly north of RM20+, kicking off with crisp salads, pure and simple with vinaigrette dressing. Come fry with me: snatch a seat at the counter and watch the cooks toil in saintly silence with their pots and pans in Bistro Fiore's open kitchen, plating bite-sized cuts of chicken with potatoes and peppers to whet customers' appetites. The starters don't stop: soups that runneth over with spoonfuls of mushrooms and veggies. Forgot to confirm whether sets are served on weekends, but let's hope some Good Samaritan will check for us. Note that Bistro Fiore is closed Mondays; if the counter level is full, customers can find salvation in more seating upstairs.

Humbly hidden on one of Plaza Damas' least-traveled corners, Bistro Fiore deserves to draw devoted disciples of Italian comfort cooking or Japanese soul sustenance _ or better still, both. Each set features one main course: the mentaiko pasta is the most miraculous we've had in many moons. Deeper within, there's sufficient roe to smother every strand of this spaghetti with a precious lusciousness. Like manna from the sky. Everything else might be less heavenly but remains worth worshiping, like the thick-crust pizza, its tangy tomato base creamily topped with a holy trinity of poached egg, tuna and cheese. Enough for two to share; the calories in this seem too much of a cross for one person to bear. Squid-ink risotto, a shrine for seafood but a surefire spark for carb comas. Bistro Fiore is a pork-positive restaurant; temptation of Biblical proportions lies in the chunky belly curry, savory but not spicy, so satisfying with the soft, omelet-enshrouded rice. Luckily, we can spell 'steal': these sets come with coffee or tea, hot or cold. Complimentary crusty bread is thrown in too to complete the culinary communion, but changing water into wine requires RM20+ per glass.

Forgot to confirm whether sets are served on weekends, but let's hope some Good Samaritan will check for us. Note that Bistro Fiore is closed Mondays; if the counter level is full, customers can find salvation in more seating upstairs.

Witness the mad science of burger-making engineered into an art form _ the men behind MyBurgerLab opened their long-awaited outlet this week, cracking the code for between-the-buns masterworks. There's no Nobel Prize for the physics of patties, but we'd back MyBurgerLab for beefy brilliance; this precisely graded "A+ Burger" (RM15) sparks culinary chemistry with sharp cheddar, caramelized onions and shiitake and enoki mushrooms. Safety goggles and gloves not included.
pontaneous combustion is possible in a burger like the Spicy Hawaiian chicken concoction (RM14), featuring fowl with red sauce, pineapple and mozzarella. Biologists haven't learnt if the chicken or the egg came first, but we hypothesize this chicken would come together nicely with some egg to moisten it further. It doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that a vegetarian component completes MyBurgerLab's patty-rific table of elements. Try the "Bella Luna" (RM14), which boasts an explosively juicy grilled portobella mushroom with cheddar and a secret sauce. MyBurgerLab experimented for months to nail the formula for which buns go best with what patties, sauces and toppings; even the fries were subjected to strict scrutiny, assuring an alchemy of crisply succulent savoriness in each herb-sprinkled strip of potato. MyBurgerLab will create more monsters in the months ahead (though we think these are more the Mona Lisas of burgers than Frankensteins), including a possible beef-banana-peanut butter-and-beef-bacon extravaganza to have customers all shook up. If cryogenics had kept Elvis alive, now would be the time to wake up The King.

Guinea pigs galore (we're guilty too!) lined up as soon as MyBurgerLab's doors were flung open (business hours are 5pm-11pm for now, Tuesdays through Sundays). Speaking of pigs, this is a pork-free outlet, but try not to complain; a beef burger done right beats a so-so pork one. MyBurgerLab sold over 200 burgers in its first six hours of business; survival of the fittest will determine its long-term fate in the cutthroat cafe scene, but the bugger-all burger inventiveness here makes us hope it'll evolve from cult favorite to smashing success.

From an obscure cafe to a needs-no-introduction one: Fun is afoot at Wondermilk, which recently launched a range of handmade "Lola Cakes" available in both one-kilogram and smaller sizes. Not all eleven varieties of the Lola cakes are always available at Wondermilk's Publika branch, but at 9:30pm on a weeknight, we were fortunate to find the Caramella (RM15), lined with caramel and butterscotch frosting, still in the chiller. Skinny Devil, a cute-moniker moist chocolate cake that's healthier than the norm, thanks to the absolute absence of butter in it, but still rich-tasting, mercifully. Other Lola cakes include this Foxy Red Velvet (not bad at all, brilliant for two to share), Coconut-Lime, and chocolate-cherry Cherie Amour.

House of Croissant (not 'Croissants,' unfortunately) is an oasis of calm, a ten-minute drive from Bukit Jalil, but its off-the-beaten-track location off Sungai Besi might baffle some GPS navigators. True to the cafe's name, the specialty here is croissants, including savory stuffed versions. Filled with steak, beef bacon, creamy egg and cheese, this one's pretty enjoyable. Besides croissants, there are also house-made chocolate-packed rolls ... ... as well as ones laced with cinnamon and vanilla. Worthwhile treats, prepared with TLC by the husband-and-wife team who run this unassuming cafe. Lavazza roasted almond latte and iced hazelnut latte. Not bad for a neighborhood hangout that's so far from Ampang, Mont Kiara and Taman Tun. House of Croissant's neighbors include mamak eateries, Secret Recipe and Pappa Rich; we popped into Tutti Fruitti for a double dose of Red Velvet and Death By Chocolate-flavored frozen yogurt before fleeing.