I do love Iranian food but sometimes they can get quite expensive in KL. This is one humble restaurant that serves authentic Iranian food that is surprisingly cheap. There's no frill about this place, just good honest food that is hearty and comforting. Not surprisingly a lot of my Iranian friends frequent this place so this actually came highly recommended to me.

After browsing the menu, I decided to go for something that sounds really interesting to me: an Eggplant and Lamb stew. Of course, it has my favourite vegetable in it and I was sure it would taste good. Kinda shocked to see that mountain of basmatic rice. For only RM10, the Stew actually comes with the rice. Unbelievable.
I absolutely loved the stew. It has so much flavours, tomato-ey with soft yellow split pea and tender pieces of lamb. The silky soft eggplant was the best part. This goes so well with the rice. Delicious. My friend ordered the Lamb Koobideh (Kebab) and that was really good too. The lamb was very tender with good smoky flavour. A squeeze of lime helped to cut through the richness. This was only RM14 and also comes with rice. I was suitably impressed.

If you are in Cheras and would like to try authentic Iranian food, be sure to check this place out! The service is very polite and it has a very homely ambiance. The food also arrives super quick (within 3-4 minutes of our order). Highly recommended.

After trying their starters and mains, it was time for desserts. We were quite full so we had 2 desserts to share among 4 of us. Zucotto
This is a Liqueur dome cake filled with chocolate & vanilla cream with almond, hazelnut & chocolate bits, quite a traditional Italian dessert. Chocolate lovers will definitely enjoy this with the nice textural contrast and the wonderful dance of flavours. Panna Cotta with strawberry sauce
But this would definitely be my pick. The panna cotta was textbook perfect with a telltale wobble when it hits the table. Creamy and smooth, complemented by the slightly tangy strawberry sauce. I enjoyed this very much.

So the desserts have indeed saved the day! Will I return to La Risata? Probably not likely given there are still plenty of Italian restaurants for me to check out, but overall the visit was pleasant enough. By the way, they do have a good selection of wine and beers too.

After our delicious platter of starters, we had pretty high expectations for the rest of the meal. Unfortunately it was a little bit of hits and misses but the first dish was pleasant enough and probably my favourite of the day. Pollo Facito

Very lovely presented was the deep fried chicken breast stuffed with ricotta and spinach. Sounds like my kind of dish! Considering it was chicken breast, I was surprised how juicy and tender the meat was. The spinach stuffing was my favourite part. Light flavours perfectly executed.Spaghetti Alla Risata: Mixed seafood in a hearty tomato sauce & baked in foil

This is definitely a comfort dish. The seafood was sufficiently fresh and the pasta sauce has a great depth of flavour with a touch of ocean. We took a little too long to get to the dish though so the pasta has softened a little bit by the time we tried it. But nonetheless pretty good pasta dish.Wood fired oven roasted beef ribs in a reduction of red wine sauce on a bed of mashed potato

And here comes the red meat! I am kinda on a no red meat diet so only tried a little bit of this. The meat wasn’t tender enough for my liking but the mash was good. I think the brown sauce is also a little one dimensional for me. But my lunch companion enjoyed it.Stinco D’Agnello: Wood fired oven braised lamb shank in a rosemary sauce on a bed of
mashed potato

Hahaha what does Stinco mean in Italian? Anyone knows? I'm not a fan of lamb and this lamb shank was quite gamey although the meat was quite tender. The brown sauce looked and tasted very similar to the beef dish though. Pizza Frutti Di Mare Mixed Seafood, garlic, basil, tomato & mozzarella

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of their pizzas because the crust was too fragile to handle. Basically it just breaks into small pieces when we try to get a piece out. Otherwise, the toppings tasted alright.Pizza Vegetali RM27 – Grilled eggplant, roasted cherry tomato, pinenut, pesto, ricotta cheese, tomato & mozzarella.

To cater for the vegetarian (Frank) we had the Pizza Vegetali which had a pesto base. It was much too oily for his liking though. Also, same problem with the fragile crust.

So will the dessert be good enough to save the day? Stay tuned!

La Risata has been on my radar for a while because they have been nominated several times in the Timeout KL awards. The branch at Medan Damansara is also very convenient for us to get to. Situated right next to Vintry, this place has a lovely ambiance with attentive service staff. They offer a good range of Italian delights to suit everyone's tastes. And once we placed our orders. The bread basket arrives with something that is quintessentially Italian: Olive Tapenade. The Olive Tapenade was made well with good fruity flavour, perfect topping for the fluffy bread.

Before long, our platter of very impressive starters arrived on our table. Carppaccio di manzo, frittura di calamari, funghi alla griglia & pate di fegatini con crostini

What a sight to behold! The aroma of the sauteed mushrooms and fried calamari rings hit my nose first. But it was that liver pate that attracted my attention straightaway. Indeed. It was rich, creamy with that signature metallic taste I love and paired so well with the garlic crostini (the crostini themselves were tasty enough, I mean, just look at the luscious golden hue! Another view
The beef carppaccio was tender and with a touch of Parmigiano-Reggiano and raw mushrooms, this was an explosion of flavours. I didn’t mind the fried calamari rings, they were cooked well and quite tender. The mushrooms were also lovely with a hint of herbaceous note. Delicious.

The Library at Midvalley is not famous for their food, but they do offer pretty good happy hour prices for their beer. I have only been there a couple of times and while it's not my favourite spot to hang out. It's not too bad during happy hours. Last week though while we were hosting an event there I didn't have time to head out elsewhere for dinner so we ordered some snacks to go with our beer. Cheesy Nachos.

On first glance it's promising with some melted cheese top. However, the cheese was only on the surface. The bottom layers were dry and uninteresting but luckily they provided some salsa to dip in and that tasted decent (probably store bought, who knows). But since we were there for the beer, at least this was pleasant enough to snack on.

The service at The Library is pretty good though, and it attracts decent crowd. But I just wish they would play better music. Hehe.