Siu~V: palate palette for pris birthday

A friend's birthday is approaching and more often than not, the question bouncing off each other is always "eh, where to eat ah?"

The following question "er when want to eat ah?" makes this first question much easier to answer. When one can only afford to have lunch on a weekday (the time when most are available), choice of restaurants has to be in close vicinity due to time factor.

Unless it's the boss' birthday you're celebrating :)

If dinner is preferred, this means more chillax time instead of spending every minute glancing at your watch. And a bigger budget perhaps? However, not everyone in your original name list will turn up due to various reasons that I've managed to compile over the years :

- not free la, want to go 'pak-tor'
- got to fetch kid from tuition/ school/ babysitter;
- wife/ husband never 'stamp passport' for night outing;
- p.m.s/ migraine/ diarrhoea (the easiest ailments to 'fake').....ok la i'm not saying they were bluffing
- too much work in the office..no choice but to work till midnite!
- nobody to fetch me back la after the dinner
- response from the invitee is "whose birthday are we celebrating again?" (means 'we ain't so close so not interested, get it?')

Taking all into consideration, the office bunch chose to treat Priscilla to a birthday lunch this year. And a mighty fine place we took her too - Palate Palette (Jalan Mesui, KL).

A cosy and humble-looking restaurant and bar that serves Western with a twist of creativity in dish presentation and twang to its flavour.

The different type of chairs add to the uniqueness of this place - Goldilocks would have a field day if she ate here!

There were 10 of us comfortably seated right at the back of the restaurant. See the small rectangular counter behind us? That's the kitchen back there. Nice mural paintings too.

And a whole lotta mags and travel journals for our reading pleasure. As usual, Moon and his keen display of intellect here never fails to impress (the girls).

Their interesting menu design reminds me of my 'buku latihan' (exercise book) during schooling days.

And this is everyone studying hard.

Lots of games to keep customers preoccupied while waiting for food to come / food to digest I suppose.

Beware though - they S-M-E-L-L!! Not the customers, but the game pieces, including the boxes they came with. Imagine how many times these game props have changed hands....ewww yuck.

Birthday girl Pris explaining the rules of 'Congkak' to a very blur-looking Choy Phyll and Vanessa.

I'm with Moon, Ngow Yong, Choy Phyll and Edward (my 'newbie' :}) and let me just say, it really isn't our intention to promote a certain company here.

Throughout lunch, Pris was mostly looking like this...

Coz she has CAMERAPHOBIA.

which basically might have her saying

'I don't like to be photographed because...

- I am not photogenic
- you have the power to make me look bad and you do not have Photoshop in your PC

- I am badly scarred from my stricken past of being caught nude on camera before!

- the camera is like some dangerous weapon shooting at me..and dun get me started on those SLRs and their humongous lens

- I look too damn good on camera that I'll just make the rest of you look like baboons and I wouldn't want to hurt your feelings like that'

Well Pris, you can forget all the above coz I caught you looking juuuuussst FINE here!

The 'privileged' people with the 'celebrity of the day' were Edward, Ngow Yong, Fong and Ivy.

Then came our food!

Everyone started off with this nice warm bun and mini butter ball.

Then the restaurant owner surprised each of us with a small shot of lemonade with gin (I think) on the house.

Choice of Starter :

Choice of MY Starter :

Choice of Drinks :

Long Black Coffee

I forgot what was this. Iced Tea ... with plenty of green in it, I suppose?

My choice was the house fave - Asam Boi.

Extremely sour - just how I like it ;P

The main dish was truly something else. Nothing like your typical stereotype Western menu.

What kinda upset me was there were only 2 types of main dish ordered, despite there being 10 of us.

Hence, there isn't much variety for show here except for the tasty honey worchestershire marinated

"Lamb and Onions".

or in Pris' case, just 'Lamb'.

oh my onions!

I think about 7 of us ordered the "Fish & Chips".

The potato and yam chips were excellent!

No birthday cake as we were all stuffed by the end of lunch, but we managed to order for Pris the highly recommended 'Ginger Creme Brulee'.

I love anything ginger so I definitely am giving my two thumbs up for this lovely dessert. YUMM!!

Overall, you can look forward to a good hearty meal here. Just hope that my food and drink could be served faster. Especially when it's part of their Set Lunch.

For only RM 20++, you get yourself a

1. Starter (Potato Wedges/ Chicken Lollipops/ Cup o'cream Corn Soup/ Mushroom Cappuccino/ Potato Salad/ Shrimp & Avocado Salad)

2. Entree (Japanese Curry Chicken Stew/ Chicken Lasagna/ Oxtail Shepherd's Pie/ Fish & Chips/ Grilled Vege Medley/ Lamb & Onions

3. Drink (Hot or Iced Tea/ Long Black Coffee/ Soft Drink/ Asam Boi)

On a strict budget?

Then, go for their Lunch Sandwich Sets at RM 15++. I just might do so one day, when I find my lunch companion.

Lunch sets only available from Tues - Fri, 12 to 3 pm.

I suggest you make table reservations earlier if your group is big as seats are quite limited and customers may tend to linger here long after they finished their meals. Why not? This place is spacious, cool and nicely decorated.