One day after a business meet-up with a client, I decided to take a moment out of my workday to have lunch on my own at Ben's. It had been a long while since my last visit to the restaurant so I thought why not indulge in a nice plate of pasta for the day. 

As always I was greeted with the restaurant manager that led me to my table almost instantly. I asked for a nice quiet corner where I can enjoy my latest read while I dined and thankfully the man was accomodating. Something I really like about Ben's is that the staff (based on my visits) have been polite and friendly which puts me in a good mood to enjoy the food.

Once I sat down, I took a glance through the simple menu and placed my order within a minute. Before I entered the restaurant, I already knew what I wanted which was my favourite order of Pesto with Spaghetti. A simple plate of pasta was priced at Rm20.90. An option of grilled chicken breast is available but I decided to just have this without the protein. 

From the previous time I had this dish, I remember it being very nicely creamy without being too cloying and incredibly flavoursome. The in-house made pesto was very fragrant. However I was slightly disappointed by my current trial as the entire dish lacked the punch that came with a strong pesto and it was not creamy. In fact, watery would be the correct way to describe my plate of spaghetti. 

I assume that this time around, a pre-made pesto was used which explained the lack of oomph and also blandness.

Although I had my fix of carbs like I initially wanted, I was left disappointed as it was no longer the same plate of Pesto spaghetti that I was craving for. Though the price is reasonable, I feel like the taste left little to be desired of my meal so I did not finish it. Which is a surprise for a pasta lover like myself. 

Soul'ed Out has been a favourite of my family for a long while. We have dined there since we first discovered about the restaurant way back when they only had one branch in Hartamas.

Now that they have opened another in Ampang which is significantly nearer to my parents' home, it was easier to bring them there for dinner without worrying about traffic. Although there have been some mixed reviews regarding this branch, we still went there to try as mom was in the mood for their food.

As a treat for mom, I decided to order two of her favourite things to share. The first being Soul'ed Out's Grilled Sirloin Steak cooked to medium rare doneness because that is what we prefer. The temperature was more towards medium so I wasn't too pleased about that, though thankfully the meat was still tender and juicy. 

For the price of Rm48, I guess it was alright. But the black pepper sauce was quite bland and watery plus the sides of wedges and steamed vegetables was nothing to shout about. As much as I enjoy dining at this restaurant, I'd suggest that you forego their steak and try other things from their menu which I believe to be more promising. We also ordered their Char-Grilled Chicken Leg. This is another favourite of my mom because I sometimes make it for her at home, but since we're out she wanted to order it too. Honestly I was expecting it to be really good going off of the description that was on the menu.

But I was disappointed in the taste because the entire thing was bland. Although the chicken skin was nicely crisp from roasting, I couldn't get over the fact that I was reaching for the salt almost the entire dining time. Even the black pepper sauce that came with could not save it since it's the same one provided with the steak.

All in all, I still like dining at Soul'ed out, just not going to order these dishes from the menu again. That is for sure.

Ever since I've had a not too pleased experience with the sub-par food at Delicious, I told myself that I wouldn't be back there anymore. However a friend wanted to have some dessert and especially those that she could get at Delicious. So I followed along but refrained from ordering anything even if they did catch my eye off the menu because I've been fooled before and was not falling for that again.

The service at Delicious at Midvalley's branch is significantly better than the one at Bangsar Village. However with that being said, we paid a visit during tea time so there weren't too many people dining there so it wasn't too hectic which gave the wait-staff ease in serving the patrons.We ordered the Caramel Milkshake to share. I didn't really like this because ever since I've been cutting down on sugar, any sweet drink just tastes like a mouthful of sugar to me which is off putting. Which is exactly how this drink tasted and it felt like there was a whole lot more milk/cream than anything else. 

Though my friend who has a really big sweet tooth enjoyed it.For cakes we ordered this Pineapple Carrot Cake with Walnuts. I have never really been a fan of carrot cakes but this was alright, just a little bit on the dry side. It's more of the kind of dry where it's been sitting in the fridge for a while than anything else. We didn't finish this.We also ordered the Berry Pavlova because it's one of my favourite desserts. I like the berries that come with it, super tangy to counteract the super sweet meringue. But then I wasn't too happy with what I got at Delicious because it was just mountains of whipped cream and super scarce amount of strawberries.

I ate almost half and then gave up because it was just too much cream.

For lunch, the colleagues wanted something western for lunch so we made our way to Dome's cafe to grab some. I remember visiting this establishment when I was younger cause it was a family favourite, especially the pies and dessert. So I was definitely hoping to get the same kind of food that I did many years ago.

As always the service at Dome's is pretty good. The wait-staff greets you at the entrance and leads you to an empty table with a smile. No sour-faces to be had anywhere, plus they were all very attentive despite the place being quite crowded due to the lunch hour.

We ordered our food and I was slightly disappointed by what we got. Quality wise. A friend got the Egg Hollandaise with ham. It sounded promising and the paoched eggs looked good when it arrived, especially napped with the creamy hollandaise sauce. Though one egg was way beyond overcooked which was off-putting especially when it's supposed to have a super runny egg yolk. After that, my friend barely finished this dish because the sauce was apparently bland so she was sorely disappointed with this as a whole. Another colleague got the Creamy Seafood Pasta. At first I was thinking of ordering this too, but since they got it I decided against it so we can try more things. Though when the dish arrived I was secretly glad that I hadn't ordered this or else it'll be such a struggle for me to finish.

The seafood was scarce and tasted a little bit like the frozen kind. The sauce was WAY TOO CREAMY which made this dish so cloying that taking more than two bites felt like torture. Plus it was lacking in any sort of flavour other than those that came from the heavy cream that was used to cook the pasta in. 

But that's just me I guess, cause the colleague thinks that it was still alright and managed to finish it. As always, my go-to order is the Chicken Pie. This just brings back so many nostalgic memories of my mom feeding me this while I continued reading my book. So imagine my excitement when the dish arrived and it looked exactly the way it did in my memory. 

The puff pastry was really good, crisp and buttery with every bite especially good when dunked in the stew inside. However we come to the not so pleasant part which was the filling in the pot. Not only were the chicken bits and other ingredients rather less than what I am expecting, especially considering how much I am paying for this dish. But the sauce was so watery that it borderlined soup rather than actual chicken stew.Disappointing because I was really hoping that this will be as good as I remembered it to be. Knowing that I can make something much better at home without the price tag, I was even more disappointed.

Perhaps standards have lessened a lot over the years. But I think I would just stick to their sweet drinks like the hot chocolate rather than ordering their meals unless it improves. 

One day my mom decided to bring the family to this new place for lunch. She had heard reviews from a colleague that the food here was quite good. I was a little apprehensive because sometimes the food ends up being somewhat disappointing. This time however, I was on the fence a little bit. I can't remember exactly what salad this was. But I remember that I really did not like it because of the fried stuff which I believe was a mixture of shallots and something else. That just made the salad super greasy and gross which one would not ever think would happen when it comes to a salad. After one piece of lettuce, I just turned away and so did my mom.To share we ordered the mushroom carbonara and.... It left little to be desired because the pasta was dry as anything without so much as a hint of cream sauce - at least it wouldn't be too cloying. However there was no flavour save for the tiniest bit of sprinkling of fake cheese on the top. Plus for the price that we paid, the portion was really quite small.The saving grace of our meal was this grilled/roasted half a chicken. The sauce was sweet and also slightly salty which reminded me of teriyaki sauce a little bit, but maybe just a touch bit burnt. It was alright, nothing too much to should about especially the cold fries that came as a side. Though in comparison with the previous two horrible dishes, it was almost like a salvation dish.

It is safe to say that after our terrible experience, food and service wise, we would probably never return. Not only was the food we got sub-par but the wait-staff were just poorly trained and constantly looked like they were constipating or something. That just made everything so much more worst.