Tony Roma's in Citta Mall

We were bidding farewell to 2 dear colleagues - Razali and Trixie. Ganesh organised a dinner for them and the place he picked was Tony Roma's at the Citta Mall. The mall is quite near to our office. And with the small participating crowd, it gave me a good opportunity to feature a variety of dishes that they offer there.

Tony Roma's took over the location where Gourmandis used to be in the Citta Mall. Gourmandis, unfortunately has closed shop here. The last time I visited Tony Roma's was a long long time ago, probably even before I started this blog. I did not have great expectations of the place. I have learnt not to expect too much from American chain restaurants with experiences in the likes of TGIF, Chicago and Bubba Gump.

The Citta Mall is in Ara Damansara, PJ and is accessible from the Subang airport road (a.k.a Subang airport car park in most times of the day). It is fast becoming a popular hang outs among PJ and Subang Jaya folks as evident by the number of cars there. It used to be that we were spoilt for choice on where to park. Not any more. I believe this is attributed to the large number of eateries there. Where there is food, there will be people.

Tony Roma's in the Citta Mall is quite a big outlet. They have an open alfresco dining area.

And the more popular indoor air-conditioned comfort. In view of the current heat wave, it is difficult to imagine why people would want to dine outdoors.

When I arrived at the restaurant, the waiter was already doing his round taking orders. There were more than 10 of us in the group. As the food arrived at our table, each one graciously offered their dish to me to photograph - for this blog. I managed to take pictures of all the orders. But there was no way I could remember what they all were, least of all the names of the dishes. But I will try. If I cannot remember, just enjoy the visuals.

My first shot was this pasta dish. I think it was the salmon carbonara.

This was grilled salmon with garlic butter scampi. It was served with rice and broccoli. Kevin, who was seated beside me, had this dish. From where I was, I could detect the fishy smell of either the salmon or the shrimps. I don't know if they were absolutely fresh. But Kevin did not complain.

This was the ribeye that Razali ordered. It was served with mashed potato and beans. Razali ordered a medium rare. It turned out to be very well done. The waiter was summoned. No questioned was asked. The waiter took back the steak and later returned with another - medium rare.

I honestly am not sure what this was. I believe it was another steak. But it was topped with some kind of a chilli sauce? Well, somebody ate it.

Three dishes of ribs were ordered that evening. The first was this rack of lamb. There was a choice of 2 side dishes. I have no idea what the side dishes were. Looked like baked beans and scrambled eggs. Nah... cannot be.

This was the "bountiful" beef ribs. I believe Ganesh had this. His choice of side dishes was a jacketed potato and cold slaw.

The final rib dish was this almost unrecognisable black slab of meat. I can only guess that this was another rack of lamb. Was the chef overzealous doing this one?

The shrimp scampi pasta certainly looked very good. I only hope the shrimps were fresh.

I believe this was the mojo chicken, served with rice and vegetables.

And the filet medallions - also with rice and veges.

Finally, my choice was the grilled lamb chops. It was 3 portions of succulent lamb, very nicely grilled in a marinade. The meat was delicious. I opted for french fries and cold slaw. I think I made an excellent choice. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

We ordered 2 portions of triple desserts to share. Each portion comprised a red velvet cake, a mini cheese cake and brownies and ice cream. They told us they ran out of ice cream, and served just the brownies. What a lame excuse. There was a big supermarket Presto just one floor below the restaurant. They could had just ran down and grabbed all the ice creams they wanted. Anyway, the desserts were a total failure. The brownies were like stale bread. Kevin kept reminding me to write how bad the desserts were. And indeed, they were way below par.

The evening was more than just about food. There were brief speeches, a good bye gift and plenty of hugs and photo shots. Perhaps a few tears too.

Good luck Razali and Trixie. Don't forget to come back.

Chicago

Crystal bought a couple of Chicago pork rib meals from Groupon. As with all Groupon offers, it was supposed to be a good deal. So off we went to Chicago. They have only 3 outlets in Malaysia. One of them is in Penang and the other in Cheras. We picked the most logical one - in 1-Utama Shopping Centre, which is located on the 1st floor of the new wing.

One of our nieces from Sungei Petani was in town. So Crystal gathered a couple more of their local cousins and we had a party of 8 people. The restaurant did not allow advance booking. When we arrived there, there was already a waiting crowd outside.

After a considerable wait, they called Crystal on the phone and led us a joined wall-side table. The place was not all that big. It had a typical American diner decor - rather characterless.

Grilled pork ribs is apparently their speciality. They had big signages on their walls to declare so.

Their kitchen or grilling station looked hot and smoky. Inside, workers toiled to prepare our meals.

Crystal was in charge that evening. She did all the ordering. I sat back with my bottomless iced lemon  tea in anticipation of a good meal.

First on our table was this seafood spaghetti. The flavour was good. There were generous portions of shrimps and squid, and the herbs mixture was not bad at all. But the pasta was soggy and over cooked. It definitely lacked the al dente of a good pasta.

Likewise, the chilli pork bolognese. The sauce, herbs and minced pork were all flavourful. The spaghetti was soggy and disappointing.

Then they served the highlights - grilled pork ribs. To me it was a total disappointment. The ribs were served in half-racks. They were engulfed in an overwhelming red thick BBQ sauce which tasted too sweet and a little "artificial". The meat slipped off the rib bones like an oversized glove. It was too easy eating it. There was no "challenge" that required you to hold them in your fingers to nibble and to tear the meat off the bones with your teeth. The meat was soft and flaccid. It was like eating boiled ribs in BBQ sauce. The flavour of the meat was almost non-existent. It was all over powered and masked by the awful BBQ sauce. How could this ever be a signature dish?

The ribs came in 7 choices of side orders, of which you could select 2. We had 6 of them. None of them was great.

The grilled lamb rack was a much much better rib. Only we didn't get the a rack, just a couple of ribs. The ribs were very well done. Unlike the pork, it was not inundated with the sweet BBQ sauce. The meat was firm and well marinated. We tasted the full original flavour of the lamb. Why couldn't they grill the pork ribs the same way?

We shared 2 of these "oriental" salads. It was lettuce and tomato tossed with a silly mixture of almond and peanuts in a lime dressing. A good try, but it did not work.

This was bacon wrapped sausages, grilled in the same BBQ sauce. It was so-so. I thought the bacon was the saving grace.

And then we shared 2 pizzas. The first was the pork pizza. It was minced meat covered with Italian cheese. It was nothing to shout about but I liked it. I found the pizza bread crisp and nice. The meat was generous.

The seafood pizza was not as nice. Same pizza bread, but the flavour of the whole thing was not as good as the first.

The Chicago is not a great dining place. It is in the same league as Chilis, TFIG and Bubba Gump, which to me are all mediocre American style makan places. They are definitely not my choice for a good meal. Like all things American, I think they are simply over-rated.

Memphis Bistro

A friend mentioned this place to me. I had no idea it existed even though it is quite near to where I live. It was my wife's birthday and we decided to give the place a go. A couple of days before that we drove around the area looking for the restaurant. It took us awhile to find it.

The Memphis Bistro is located in the Pusat Perdagangan Dana 1, on Jalan PJU 1A/46 in Petaling Jaya. The address can be just mumbo jumbo, for it is not easy to locate. If you drive along the Subang Airport road, in the direction away from the airport towards Subang Jaya, you would pass Citta Mall after going over the flyover at entrances into Ara Damansara and Saujana. Drive a couple of hundred meters from there and you would see PAWS (the dog sanctuary) on your left side. Just before PAWS, turn left. After several hundred meters, you would see some shop lots on your right side. That is Pusat Perdagangan Dana 1. Turn right into this quiet, almost dead commercial centre. The restaurant is in a remote corner of the centre.

Inside, it was quite vibrant and crowded. It is apparently a popular place. It was fortunate that I had made prior reservation. It was her birthday, and I had to ensure nothing went wrong.

However, our experience there was not without hitches. Soon after we settled down, a small cockroach crawled across our table. My wife and Crystal almost became hysterical. The boss lady came over and apologised profusely. By then the roach had been swept down to the floor. She took off her shoe and dully smashed it to smithereens. I do not know if she washed her hands. She certainly handled food and served the customers after that.

No Memphis would be without Elvis. And sure enough, he was there.

We made our menu selection. There was one thing good about birthday meals. There was no inhibitions. We went for the best. We started with half a dozen of garlic baked French escargots. It was served with 2 tiny slices of garlic bread. They could be more generous on that. The escargots were rather dry. They did not look very appetising but the flavour was not bad at all.

We asked for fresh oysters. The boss lady said sorry, they had just sold the last lot to the customers in another table. OK, never mind... A short while later, she rushed back to our table and excitedly told us she still had four more. Did we still want them? But of course. She said one of them was rather small and she would only charge us for 3. Why? Was that supposed to be compensation for the cockroach?

Anyway, the oysters were absolutely marvellous. They were super fresh and look at the size of them. I wondered where they had imported them from and how they manage to keep them so very fresh. These were some of the best fresh oysters I had in Malaysia. They were cold and felt so nice in the mouth. Brilliant.

This was a plate of crispy squid nuggets, served with salad and topped with remoulade dressing. It was supposed to come with jicama (sengkuang) slaw. But they were apparently out of sengkuang and substituted with salad. The squid nuggets were very good. They were crispy outside, yet not over-done inside. The squid were not at all rubbery. They were soft and succulent.

This large single grilled portobello mushroom stuffed with tomato, garlic, herbs and mozzarella cheese. I did not find it to be fantastic, but Crystal loved it.

We also had a plate of their house salad with a French dressing.

After finishing 5 starters, we were ready to share our entrees. The first one was a grilled chicken with "wild southern sauce". The southern thingy was actually chilli mustard paste and BBQ sauce. The thigh of the bird was rather overdone. The french fries accompaniment was somewhat basic. There should had been some salad to moisten this quite dry dish. Still it was quite tasty.

The spaghetti was very good. It was supposed to cooked with mussels. But they were also out of that and substituted with seafood - shrimps, squid and some pieces of fish. That aside, the pasta was really very nice. The texture was good. Perfect al dente. The flavour was chilli, herbs, garlic and olive oil.

Our final dish was a pan fried tooth fish. I really do not know what is tooth fish. This was the first time I had heard of and savoured it. I googled and found 2 different types of tooth fish - the Antarctic tooth fish and the Patagonian tooth fish. I have no idea what this was. In any case, the fish was very good. It was very fresh. The meat was sweet and tender. It was cooked in a white creamy sauce with some spinach as accompaniment - a very good combination indeed.

The fish and fresh oyster were not offered in the menu. They were the "Chef's specialties" - written on a wall board and subject to availability. I heard they serve a very goat soup. It wasn't available that day.

I wondered what they had to offer for dessert. But we were too full. We decided to skip. In any case, there was a birthday cake at home. Perhaps next time. It most certainly will be a next time. In spite the various hitches - cockroach, being out of this and that - this was really a very satisfying meal. The food was good. The oysters were difficult to forget. And the price was decent. Once in a while, we find a good bargain like this.