Ombrellos

We visited Ombrellos on Sunday, 30th July. It was pretty good. I was disappointed that we got the brunch menu instead of their lunch menu, but I think that may have been because we went on a Sunday. People usually have brunch (as opposed to lunch) on Sunday don't they? We'll have to go again so we can try their lunch menu. The brunch menu wasn't vast. It had mostly 'breakfast-y' items and just a few lunch items.

We were there at 1pm. I didn't feel like paying $15 for breakfast items. I wanted LUNCH. So I ordered the lamb shanks. B, Sc and S ordered the eggs benedict (pictured at the top of this post), the 'fry up' and the chicken salad (pictured just below) respectively. Sc wanted to order the shanks too but he has this thing about not ordering what anyone else is having. Well too bad, because when the food came Sc and S were envious of my order! Muahaha...

Ombrellos is described as having 'a cafe style menu with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences' on the restaurant's website. I concur, but I must confess that my experience with Mediterranean/Middle Eastern food is, at best, limited. My lamb shanks (pictured just below) came slathered in a very nice chunky tomatoey sauce. I want to tell you what the chunky bits in the sauce were, but I cannot. I was too busy wolfing the food down. And even if I did stop to examine the contents of the sauce, I probably couldn't tell you much. Tomatoes, garlic, probably onions, probably lots of spices. I don't know.

The lamb was good. And I don't usually like lamb. The meat on the inside was nice and moist but I particularly liked the well charred, crusty bits of meat on the outside, combined with the sauce. Had a nice bite to it.

All in all, a decent meal. Good portions. Okay prices (for lunch). Definitely deserves another visit!

TBD

[Edit 6 August 2006: I've just added pictures to accompany this post. Pictured just below is the lamb main that B had.]
We had heard good things about the food and desserts at TBD. We had expectations. We were disappointed. Not because the food was bad. The food wasn't bad at all. It was worse than that. It was mediocre. At least if the food was really bad, we'd have something to talk/complain/bitch about. But the food being just 'so-so'/mediocre leaves you with nothing to say except, "BD? Meh..."

I had the beef medallions (pictured above), which were basically little round steaks served with brown meat sauce, a baked potato topped with sour cream and steamed carrots, brocolli and cauliflower with a drizzle of mayonnaise (I think) on the side. I ordered my meat 'medium' but it came a tad overdone for 'medium'. I find this annoying. I don't like my steaks overdone. The meat becomes tough and dry. But I've had this happen more than once, at different places, and I've come to the conclusion that either; 1) every restaurant has a different standard of what is 'well done', 'medium', and 'rare' OR, 2) this place sucks.

I tried a piece of the prawn entrée (pictured above) that R ordered and found it a bit odd. The prawns were fried and the coating was sugary sweet. Quite odd. Not a pleasant tangy sweetness that usually complements savoury foods quite well. But a candy, icing sugar type of sweetness. Odd.

I also tried a bit of S's seafood marinara pasta (pictured above). It was fettuccine with a creamy tomato based sauce (or should I say 'tomato-y cream based sauce - there was more cream than tomato), scallops and prawns. Not good. Seafood will be seafood, but good, fresh seafood should never leave you with the dreaded 'fishy' taste or smell and this dish did. The best seafood marinara pasta I have ever had is still at Pizza Uno in KL which comes with a nice, tangy, pure tomato based sauce.

To be fair, I did not get to try any of the desserts at TBD. R and some of the others ordered some but I left before the desserts arrived. I doubt that I'll go back there, but if I do, I'll try the desserts and we'll see if they live up to the hype.

My meal cost about $32 and S's pasta was $20 and the prices of all the other main courses were within that range. Pretty pricey in my opinion, for food that was only 'so-so'. I don't mind paying high prices for excellent food. But if the prices are high and the food is just mediocre, forget it.

Dining Out

Last week on Friday while we were having a lovely dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, India Garden, we decided to do something about the fact that there are all these restaurants that we keep saying we want to try, but never actually get around to visiting. I can't recall who said it first, but we decided to come up with a schedule for dining at all the restaurants we want to try. And naturally, yours truly (the crazy organizer freak), was nominated by everyone (including herself) to be the person who draws up the schedule.

So over the weekend I set up a schedule for the next six months and fitted in all (almost) the restaurants we want to try on weekends and birthdays. We are now officially scheduled to try/visit three places a month (1 new/fancy place + 2 regular places).

First up was The Black Dog. It was initially scheduled for next month, but because R's birthday was this week and she picked The Black Dog, I did a bit of re-arranging and we visited The Black Dog on Tuesday.

I will try to write a review for every place we visit, but I can't promise that I'll be inspired enough to write a significant piece for every place (if I'm even inspired to write ONE significant piece).