Sep
21
2011

ZEST Cafe & Restaurant, Bangsar South

After test-driving the New Myvi 1.5L Extreme in the vicinity of Bangsar last Sunday, we got a call from a friend to meet up in Bangsar South for dinner. We have never been to Bangsar South before so we are all game to explore. We headed to The Sphere and the chosen dining venue is ZEST Cafe & Restaurant.

ZEST Cafe & Restaurant

8 Jalan Kerinchi

59200 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2242 0389


The place to relax, dine and be yourself. I can be a submarine! :P

Our table. See the BIG boss’ special blue cutlery :D

ZEST Cafe’s food philosophy, “No MSG, low salt, low sugar, low cream, no deep-fried food, no margarine, 100% olive oil”

After reading this, I wonder if we’ll like our dinner tonight as most of the times, when everything ‘sinful’ is omitted, the food always turn out a dismay…

My lemonade, Darling’s orange juice and Ethan’s watermelon juice

Earlier while waiting for the rest of our friends to arrive, we went down to Carrefour and got Ethan a toy kitchen set. Here he is entertaining himself cooking meat balls and that was what he did for the next 3 hours! :D

Pumpkin soup

We started our dinner with pumpkin soup. The savoury thick broth is surprisingly delicious.

Mushroom soup

I don’t really fancy the mushroom soup though as I prefer my mushroom soup to be creamy and this is not the creamy type. However, you can really see chunks of saute button mushrooms in it. Ethan was sipping it happily when we asked him if he loves the soup. His reply, “Not nice Mommy, soup no need to bite one but this one I have to bite!” LoL. Kids!

I find this soup to be a bit bland but Ethan finished the entire bowl of soup in the end so that just proves that it is actually good! :P

ZEST Salad Prawn

We had salad next and I must say this is one of the better salads that I’ve tasted so far. A colourful healthy mixture of coral salad, grilled zucchini, pumpkin and eggplant in balsamic dressing.

From here on, we are going to have like more than 10 main dishes. That is the advantage of dining in a group of close friends, we can sample each others’ food!

Prawn Spaghetti Pesto

The spaghetti with pan-fried prawns in pesto sauce is one of their best seller and I don’t see why not. The spaghetti is cooked al’ dante and the herbs and spices used makes this dish a memorable one indeed.

Rosemary Half Chicken

This is another one of their best seller. The chicken is very tender that it ‘melts’ in your mouth. It is tenderly roasted to retain its moisture and aroma. I have always been a fan of rosemary chicken and even tried roasting them before but of course mine did not turn out as delicious as ZEST’s!

If you are like me who loves to roast/grill your own rosemary chicken you’ll definitely experienced what I’ve encountered before. I bought several sprigs of rosemary just for this dish and after that found that I have some left and I just know that I won’t be using it again so soon so how do we store them?

To store fresh rosemary, wrap sprigs in a barely damp paper towel and place in a sealed plastic bag. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to five days. And if you prefer grilling your chicken rather than roasting them in the oven, moisten a few springs of fresh rosemary and toss onto the hot coals just before grilling for added flavour :D

Okay sorry, got side-tracked a little there. Rosemary chicken just got me super excited :P

Aglio Olio Seafood

Aglio olio is something that is very easy to cook but difficult to perfect hence it is very rare to find good aglio olio. But the one we have tonight is good! They put just the right amount of salt for the dish to turn out perfect and not bland nor too salty. I bet they had the fire just right to bring out the best of the fragrant garlic and olive oil flavour.

 Vegetarian Spaghetti

This is Ethan’s favourite. Homemade spaghetti in vegetarian sauce – mushroom, aubergine, zucchini, capsicum and black olives. We have a choice of having it pure vegetarian or with anchovies but we opt to try it purely vegetarian and we love it!

Potato Carrot Kofta

This is purely a vegetarian dish. It is garlic and onion free. However, garlic and onion is available upon request. It is topped with cheese and served with saute button mushroom. I love the mint-yogurt dip that comes with this.

Pan Grilled Lamb

The lamb is good. Served with humus, yoghurt, mint sauce and ratatouille (not the mouse :P) this is not bad but what comes next is BETTER!

Ribs of beef

Oooooh this is seriously GOOD stuff! Very recommended! There is just something about the spice used to marinate the beef that we just can’t figure it out but it is GOOD! We had to ask and were told that instead of the common method of using tenderizer to soften the meat, they marinate it overnight instead. Not many eateries do that anymore these days.

We just can’t have enough of this. I kept soaking the beef in the gravy as it is very tasty. I’ll come back for THIS!

Spiral sausage

One bite at this foot long spiral chicken sausage served with mash potato and saute onion on lettuce  and we noticed how firm the casing of the sausage is. That is because they used only natural casings for the sausage.

Skewers-on-rice seafood

We also have the grilled skewer served with almond raisin rice. I love the rice as it is simply moist, tasty and the almond and raisin give it a very interesting bite and flavor. Ethan had an entire bowl of this rice, he just loves the raisins and almonds!

Ethan and I enjoying our skewer meal <3

Pan Fried Garoupa

This is one healthy meal. Pan fried garoupa served with tomato couscous and pesto dressing. Believe me or not, this is my first time trying couscous and I love it! What can I say, I just love anything pasta! And you know how much I love fish! :D

Rib-eye beef

We are such big eaters that we still have place in our tummy for the rib-eye beef. The rib-eye beef is juicy served with butterhead lettuce, saute asparagus (my favourite) and capsicum and garnished with creamy peppercorn sauce.

Portobello with spinach

The portobello (mushroom) with spinach is amazing. Best taken while still hot, the juicy portobello is simply delicious and spinach is good for you so this is GOOD!

Seafood fettuccine

By now I’m already bursting at the seams but there is still this one last dish that I MUST try! The fresh home-made fettuccine with seafood in white sauce is nice but my favourite is still the Vegetarian Spaghetti :)

Gelato

Finally we are at the end of our meal with home-made gelato as our dessert. I love this as it is not too sweet yet very flavorful. Coupled with danish, this is the perfect ending to a hearty meal.

ZEST Cafe & Restaurant

It’s amazing how they don’t use chicken stock in their cooking. They use vegetable stock instead with the basic carrot, leek and celery. They also uses only olive oil and all eggs are Omega-3 eggs!

My verdict for this eatery that serves top Mediterranean western healthy food? Very GOOD I don’t believe I’m eating healthy!

As for the price of our meals, the range are as follows:

Soups RM6.90-RM8.30

Salad RM18.80-RM19.80

Pasta RM13.90-25.90

Poultry, Marines and Meat RM16-RM38 (except ribs of beef at RM52)

We saw good crowd that night with TWO birthday celebrations taking place! I’ll definitely be back :)

29 Comments + Add Comment

  • //

    Food looks great…and even though the sausages look eyewwwwww, I'm sure they're real yummy!!! I love sausages…big, big and long sausages. Muahahahahaha!!!!

    • //

      hehe.. it's no secret that u do STP! :P

  • //

    hm,y my comment didn't show up?

    • //

      which comment did not show up Aki?

      • //

        naah.. oredi show up sis.. :-)

  • //

    Hm,always end up laughing reading people's comment.. btw,Ethan's meatball is the best.. Then wanna try the Rosemary Roasted Chicken and see if I can cook em.. Ho ho ho..

  • //

    haha, are you sure those colorful balls are meatballs?? hehe, really very creative and imaginative hor?? i wonder in the real world, if one would ever eat such colorful meatballs on their spaghetti?? :D

    • //

      ahh SK, u don't know how many 'meatballs' da daddy got to eat that night. He was forced to 'swallow' them! haha..

      I wont eat real colourful meatballs unless they are made of peacock! :P

  • //

    wah!! A LOT OF FOOD there!! only three of you, or there were other guests?? hmmmm, mediterranean western?? so that's a fusion of the mediterranean and which western cuisine?? anyway, the prize is quite reasonable, not too expensive for they are going the healthy way..

    • //

      There were 7 adults and 1 kid. Impressive eh the amount of food we can consume? Yeah, the price is really reasonable no wonder it is one of the most crowded eateries in The Sphere..

  • //

    the sausage looks weird la :P

    • //

      :P

  • //

    Such huge meatballs Ethan cook.. haha!~

    • //

      He now inspires to be a Chef!! :D

  • //

    Overall nice place to hang out…

    • //

      Oh yes, seriously a nice hangout place. Best of all is it is kid friendly :D

  • //

    Drooling….. what more can I say?? XD

  • //

    Mmm yummz.. the food you ordered were quite special!

  • //

    Looks like a good place. Will need to head in there since its so near to home!

    The pumpkin soup and salads look brilliant. Perfect since someone is now on a diet.

  • //

    All food make me hungry, price is reasonable.

  • //

    Really can't get enough of that rosemary chicken!

  • //

    Oh my the rosemary chicken does look good~ looks juicy and tender yet full of taste.

    the pan grilled lamb and ribeye beef.. yummy~ beef steak looks thick and juicy too. making me hungrier now haha~

  • //

    Yes! I love ZEST's foods! Will be back for soup & salads!

  • //

    Very nice write up! Love the food at Zest!
    The salad n Rosemary chicken is amazing… Yummy!!

  • //

    There are lot of other items too…lasagna…smoke duck…chorizo soup …..yumyum….

    • //

      Lasagna? Omg why did not i order dat? I'm a big fan of lasagna! *i'm related to da big fat Garfield so u know how much lasagna means to me :D*

      • //

        The new Smoke Chicken is amazing…..u won't regret ….and u know what satisfaction mean after having it!!!

  • //

    I just went tonight and had the fettucine seafood. It was truly horrendous! The pasta wasn’t al-dente at all..it was as if they had precooked the noodles, then just reheated in the microwave prior to serving. The texture was all wrong, such a waste for RM22.50…even the pasta in food courts are cooked better. How difficult is it to boil up a pot of water?

    Thought of sending it back, but the service from this waitress called Meck was so rude, I was afraid the staff would spit in our food if they sent out a new one. Will NEVER go back and won’t reccomend this place to anyone either.

  • //

    SeafoodFettucine? We tried, I can accept it and my kids love too! U r rite, the texture is unusual. According to them, it’s handmade! So cant compare w food court. Overall, the food there r healthy and unique too. I will sure go back for their aglio olio, smoke chicken, salad….. n many more….

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MeHome is where MY heart is.
I am a mother to two boys; Ethan and Ayden and a wife to Darling William. I'm a stay at home mum who blogs to break the monotony of life and to avoid feeling jaded. Would love to get to know all the Super Mommies and Daddies and Babies or Singles out there with the hope that we can learn more from each other. Most of all, I am a happy person, and I hope YOU are too.

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