Many would reckon Renoma as branding for clothing but when the Renoma café gallery opened not too long ago, the menu was mind blowing and breath taking when offering very extensive choices. Also a pull factor for them is the décor and the ambiance inside the café. What appears enclosed and ordinary from the outside is sophisticatedly stylish on the inside. During night, the place is beautifully lit with lights to create a comforting ambiance but the day’s natural sunlight was obviously warmer.
There are displays of racks filled with books and mannequins with fashionable outfit as well as accessories at every corner of the café. The outdoor is displayed with chic design of lounges suitable for a chilling meal or romantic dates with the lover. There are high glass panels with tall ceilings which allow natural sunlight coming through and beautifully light up the place which would otherwise be dull and dim.
When the sun sets, the lights and chandeliers light up the café while the alabasters create beautiful lighting to dinners. The clever use of black colour as theme colour to match the décor and the table cloths are simply giving a mystical scene to the interior of the café.Recently, they promoted their high tea set which I happily tasted and enjoyed the savoury bites if not the sweet ones. The coffee or tea is refillable but at the same time the sweet items were short to please the high expectations. The choices of tea are within the range of St. Dalfour Tea which includes the English breakfast, Peppermint, Darjeeling, Earl Grey, Lemon and Ceylon.The Freshly Brewed Premium Coffee includes Macchiato, Espresso, Double Espresso, Long Black Café Latte, Café Mocha, Cappuccino, Vanilla Coffee, Macadamia Coffee, Caramel Coffee, Double Mocha, Choca Coffee, and Nutty Hazel Coffee. Tea was fine while the Latte was really fresh so coffee lover should not miss it. The set is good for two and was a good way to spend the afternoon. The savoury choice includes a 4 piece set of assorted sandwichs, while the sweet choices came with assorted French pastries and Tartlets. On top of that, there are scones served with fresh cream and strawberry jam. Tea time is best when served something sweet and accompanied with hot tea. The sugar in the delicate bite sizes seemed even more amazing during late afternoon especially when sugar level is low in the body. That was also the time when these little beauties assured a greater satisfaction to the palate. Most tea sets for two would come with pairs of everything but this one makes it difficult for the dinners to pick when every different pieces came solo. On top of that, the colourful mix did appeared so pretty, girls would normally be very pleased with it. Therefore, that was the prefect time to embrace ''sharing is caring'' with your high tea partner. Instead of the usual sandwich or croissant, the savoury bites here were beautifully served with flavourful ingredients like salmon, mushroom, rocket leaves, duck meat slices and pretty garnishes like ebiko and melted cheese. These bite sizes were perfectly done but was definitely not the best I have had.The scones came from a good recipe but ultimately still falling far from expectations. Good food comes from good recipe via fresh ingredients and most importantly, is to be served fresh. These scones might appear attractive, but it doesn’t score the palate satisfactory when it comes to freshness. While I retrace the familiar flavour of sweet desserts, the presentation once again took my breath away and the creativity in it was beyond the imagination. Each piece was delicate and really pleasurable to viewing so I really appreciate the effort in this. The taste and flavour was palatably decent and not disappointing and I especially love their Chocolate mousse with that perfect bitter sweet ratio.The Panna Cotta did left quite some impression that I would remember to ask for this the next time I dine in. The creamy gelatin had the perfect texture and the mildly creamy flavour accessorized with some tangy sweet and served nicely in matching utensils. While the lovely flavour roamed and linger after it melted in your mouth, the tart pastries was contrarily flat in texture and essence of flavours. Of course we can expect quite a bit of sophistication but it certainly didn’t vouch a guarantee return just for this given its hot spot in Bukit Bintang.Availability of parking bay sure is promising but the traffic would be real tedious for anyone to visit, especially on weekdays. So I suggest weekend unless if you happened to be around that area.

Apart from sharing the many festive and cultural celebrations, one of the best ways to also demonstrate the harmonious of plural society in a multiracial country like Malaysia is through food. Food brings people together without distinctive feature of creed or ethnicity and colour of skin. Ramadan is the fasting month for the Muslims worldwide and is considered the sacred month of the Islamic calendar. The non Muslims embrace with the opportunity to savour the Ramadan feast when break fasting with the Muslim friends.
Opened since September 2012, the gazebo huts and private dining rooms with few being equipped with karaoke sets appears as their pull factor to the otherwise common features.The buffet was offed during ramadan but on regular days, can be ordered as ala carte meals.
Be ready for Chicken Wing Skewers, Fried Bee Hoon and Fried Rice with some choices of Squids, Mussels, and fresh Prawns. I suppose some of these dishes like fried rice and fried bee hoons are only available on buffet menu. The choices of dishes comprises of both of those that are profoundly spiced and flavoured as well as those which is bland and best at its own distinctive flavours. Despite being a buffet dish, the fishes will be served whole. The immense flavour to this fish comes from the gravy and is perfect to go white rice.The seafood is obviously fresh and this enhances the flavour and quality of their dishes. Poultry selection might not be their forte but is still one that is worth admiration when the chicken of two kinds are nicely plated into one and served with beautiful garnishes for photography purposes. Deep Fried Crispy Chicken with Thai Sauce and deboned chicken with mango, onion and carrot julienned and tossed with Thai style chili sauce was amazingly tantalizing and appetizing.Also on the list is the Lamb Chops where we explored both style and concluded that seafood is still the best choice of dishes in the buffet line up.Speaking of which, the seafood is inevitably in the spotlight when visiting a seafood restaurant. Polishing huge carapace all the way to the chelipeds and pinchers, is a blissful joy to savour the fresh Crabs.Fresh Oyster lovers would find these heavenly. Chilled and superbly fresh, enjoy either raw or Cheese baked. If not, then please the palate with the Deep Fried Battered Prawns and Grilled Skewered Prawns bigger than the length of my entire palm.BBQ Japanese Sama Fish is almost exceptionally intense with immense flavours slightly charred while enhancing the sweetness of the fish.

China Court Holdings Sdn Bhd probably one of the worst Chinese restaurant I have ever been. Called me brutal, but I have got to be really honest with the dimsum . How so that it suck like that? And coming from a restaurant? That really is rather peculiar how they could have maintained so far. But I should be a bit more fair to them. Honestly, I was only there for the dimsum and roast duck which they are strongly pushing it. Apparently its their current promotion. But really, I wouldn’t want to offer a second chance to try out their other dishes on the menu. A friend told me, “give them a chance, you might not know that lunch and dinner maybe extraordinary”. I gave it a five seconds thought,…..and ,nah…I’m least likely to do that. Well probably if I am ever invited to a wedding dinner held in this restaurant then maybe. But other than that, na-ah….never.
They start of with several fancy appetizers. Chilled appetizers. And not a single one is palatable.Then came deng chai zhuk (porridge), peanuts and fish porridge. If I guessed it correctly, it taste like the nuts or the fish is just being stirred into the same pot of porridge just right before they served it. I mean, both the porridge taste really similar to me. Next is some common dimsum we normally order in any dimsum restaurant or hawker centre. From left to right: loh bak kou (carrot cake), siew mai (steam minced pork), har kao(prawn dumpling), jeng pai kuat(steam pork), oh kok(yam), chee cheong fun char siew and har (steam rice flour with roasted pork and prawn), hor yip fun (lotus leaf rice).
Let’s see carrot cake is all flour and no carrot, steam minced pork for some reason is hard. Needs more fat choices of meats. The prawn dumpling…don’t even get me started with it. Although I must not forget to mention how incredibly fresh is the prawns. Almost crunchy when chewing it. The rest was nothing impressive and if any readers just needs to go dine in this place. Please skip the lotus leaf rice. I questioned if they re-use the leaf? And if they picked the rice before they cooked it? I can practically taste some harder rice grains in it. As for the leaf…opps..what leaf? There was no leaf fragrant in the rice.
Having to run a restaurant, surely there are some nice things on the menu. Of course there is. I recommend the char siew pau. And the egg tart.Forget about the Shanghai xiu long pau. Its true what they said, a picture is worth a thousand words. Which in this case, comes in really handly. But to be very honest here…I kind of ran out of vocabulary to describe what went wrong.Then there is some other fancy stuffs which I probably give credit to the innovative attempt to be creative. But if you ask me, if a basic siew mai is not yet great, no harm to just leave the creativity part out huh?Just for the sake of finding something worth writing and recommending, I also tried the jeong sau mee (longevity noodle). Apparently handmade, and to be honest not too bad either. I quite fancy the texture of the noodle.Last but not least, is the promotional dish which they recommended-the roasted goose. And I say, it was no biggie…good but not enough to remind customers to go back for more.

กรุงเทพฯตอนเย็นดี……Too much Thai restaurant claiming authenticity on their menu. Good evening Bangkok is nonetheless one of the many. When visiting the restaurant, I decided to invite a Thai friend along. According to her, dishes here was not great, raather palatable.We really look forward to the tom yum soup for she has been claiming that Malaysia lack lots of chili and spices in their soup. True indeed, the soup we ordered burns my throat as it travels down my oesophagus. Malaysian style tom yum lack a little of that sensation. Nothing from when it’s in the mouth, but as it travels down your stomach, you feel the burning sensation.There is a fair ingredient inside the soup. Prawns, fish, squids and mushrooms. To my disappointment, lack freshness. The squids and fish may not be too obvious to consumers but prawns are obviously soft . But I have to say, the soup was really rich in milk. Creamyly spicy. Lots of serai giving lovely fragrant. They were finely chopped, I suppose to increase surface area to mass ratio. Hence, it’s quite annoying to some point when drinking the soup with finely chopped substances in it.When ordering, almost 70% of dishes on the menu were hot and spicy. So we figured that we should order at least one dish that is not spicy. Therefore, we ordered sweet and sour chicken in yam basket. I supposed the chicken were not freshly made upon ordering, but prior to that. It was coated with flour, thick coating of flour and that really gives a hard texture to the chicken. The sweet and sour sauce was delightfully rich with lots of chopped garlic. There is capsicum, carrots, baby corn, green pea,cashew nut and grapes. Yes, grapes in sweet and sour chicken. Rather peculiar combination, but the tangy combination with the sweet and sour gravy is amazing. It was a pity that their chicken was coated with thick flour. Gives a bad texture to the chicken.Next is the fish. We ordered a chef recommended dish, the pla gao sam rod. That is a deep fried garoupa with Thai three flavours sauce in English. The sauce is indeed savoury. Fish is very fresh. However, to my disappointment the deep fried took a little longer than required. Resulting in, a very dry texture of the fish. After a about a quarter serving, I got a little tired having to chew so hard on the fish. I guess they tried a bit too hard making the fish crispy. Or maybe they coat it a little too much with flour.Finally, the best part of every meal- dessert. All time Thai favourite, the water chestnut in coconut. Chestnut coated with colouring flour, with nangka strips in coconut and ice. Chestnut was chilled before serving. Chilled and scrumptious with mild natural sweetness from chestnut alongside nangka makes this dessert delightfully appetizing.Lastly, not forgetting the beverages. They serve a wide range of beverage, nothing out of the extraordinary. But as always, jasmine green tea…my favourite.

Whenever I’m sick or feeling like I am losing my appetite, I always have craving for porridge. I guess porridge became a staple food for those without any appetite to eat. Decent ones are difficult to locate, but recently I found one I thought was pretty decent and palatable. It was served as individual claypots and the porridge texture was thick and not too diluted, just the way that I like it.I ordered the Teng Chai porridge, and I requested to add on salted egg, and you tiao. They have got other stuff like the red bean bun, glutinous rice bun, and the ma jiao. But I didn’t order those because I didn’t felt like I could finish my food.The ingredients in the porridge were really generously served. Lots of century egg as well as crab stick. I thought it was genius to have raw crab stick slightly stirred into the porridge instead of cooking it in the porridge. That’s why the texture of crabstick somehow remained chewy. I love the salted egg in the porridge. Most places won’t have such generous amount of salted egg.If porridge alone is too bland, do try the fried fu chuk. Amazingly appetizing due to the crispy outer layer. Fish paste wrapped in it was a little brine when eaten alone, but it complimented the porridge well.Lastly, I finish the meal with a cup of Cham ( a mixture of tea and coffee). Smooth milk tea with a slight touch of coffee makes a perfect Cham. Since I am not so much of a coffee person, I like it a lot because this is a slightly softer and smoother version of coffee.The Teng Chai porridge cost Rm 6.50, with Rm 1 extra for additional salted egg. You tiao is Rm 1.40, and fried fu chuk cost me Rm 5.50. So the total price I paid for the meal was almost Rm 18 including service tax. I thought it was okay, and I definitely will come back to them the next time I feel like eating porridge.