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Tuesday 8 January 2013

Food Review: Meatworks, Citta Mall, Ara Damansara

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We recently bought a Living Social voucher for a 4 course meal at Meatworks in Citta Mall.  The voucher entitles 2 person to a 4 course meal plus drinks - Soup, Starter, Main, Desert and Drinks - for RM53 nett.  Pretty good value I thought.





We went on a Tuesday around 1230pm.  The place was practically empty.  I was like oh-oh...  It has a nice and relaxed ambience, with a deli section on the left, although the shelves were rather sparse, and selection was very limited.









When we go for set meals, hubby and i would usually choose different items so we get to sample as many things as we could.  Here, they give you two choices of Soup and Starter, and 5 choices of Main.  No choice for Desert and Drinks - it was Strawberry Caramel Icecream and Lemon Tea.



I went for the Mushroom Soup and hubs the Oxtail Soup.

My mushroom soup was quite nice.



But the oxtail soup turned out to be sup ekor lembu - hellooo, that's NOT the same.

Flavourful, but quite oily and we actually wanted Western oxtail soup..


Our starters were Caesar Salad and Flatbread with Tomato Salsa and Olives Dip.  Both were pretty good, although the salad was a tad plain.  The essential ingredients - beef bacon bits or anchovies were missing. 






For the mains, I went for the Linguine Marinara and hubs upgraded his main to a Sirloin Steak for RM10. 




The pasta looked good, but the taste fell far short of expectations. It lacked depth, with a very shallow tomato puree taste. It also did not have the garlicky kick.  Very so-so.  You get 2 scallops, 2 mid size shrimp, 1 squid ring and 1 mussel.

Hubby's Sirloin steak was supposed to be medium rare but turned out to be well done.  I almost wanted to ask them to change it, but hubs said never mind.  The meat was well seasoned though.  Tasty, just not done the way we wanted. 




The sides were nice though.  The brown sauce was awesome. 




By this time, the place was abit more lively, with about 7 other tables occupied.  Most of the customers came in with their vouchers.  I spied some good looking burgers. 

The dessert again was not what was stated on the menu.  Strawberry Caramel Icecream turned out to be Strawberry icecream with a piece of chocolate sponge cake soaked in espresso.  The combination didnt work for me.  I felt like I was eating some weird tiramisu that didn't quite turn out.  What happened to the caramel?!





Dig at the bottom and you will find a piece of coffee soaked chocolate sponge.
 

Maybe I'm a bit picky, but i thought it could have been a very nice meal if they had stick to what they stated on the menu, and cooked the food as requested.  It is already doing the other things right - nice ambience, beautiful food presentation.  If this offer comes round again, I might give it another go and try the burger items. 

And if weird strawberry icecream coffee is served again, I WOULD ask for an exchange.

Total damage : RM10 due to the upgrade.

PS Just in case you are wondering, yes, Meatworks is part of the infamous "Cow" corporation.

16 comments:

  1. Oh wow that ice cream looks good! By the way, I've moved to a new blog because of some tech issues. My new blog is at www.eatapieceofcake.blogspot.com.

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  2. I thought the serving size looked rather small. Am not supporting that cow corporation :) Esther, you want meat, go to El Cerdo. Loads of porky stuff if you are into oinks.

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    1. Hi PH, the serving sizes are actually quite sufficient, although they did check w us in advance that the sirloin piece would be quite small, but since it was only for lunch, we didnt mind. Yes i did ask that question myself and even hubs raised an eyebrow when i told him where we are eating heehee. El Cerdo? Is it in DJ?

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    2. Esther, it is in KL. They don't open for lunch on Saturdays. If you go around 12pm on Sunday, it is still quiet. For weekend dinner better phone to book. The address - El Cerdo, 43 & 45 Changkat Bukit Bintang, 50200 Kuala Lumpur, Tel : (03) 2145-0511

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    3. Ok, thanks for the info PH. Will certainly keep EC in mind.

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  3. Hi Esther! Your hubby was so kind to accept the steak... Medium rare and well done are poles apart! I would not have accepted it... :)

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  4. Sigh...Alvin, you are absolutely right. I am kicking myself now :p but at that time we thought since its only lunch and its a good deal, we didnt want to be too fussy about it. Must assert my consumer rights more next time!

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  5. Ugh it's horrible when u get one of those group voucher things. Always have to be very careful when I buy them cos they do sound like good value for money.

    Dislike it when they overcook the steak.... we would have sent it back!

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    Replies
    1. Yea, these voucher things can be a hit or a miss. We've gotten quite a few great ones, but also some duds.

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  6. We went to Meatworks at Solaris Mont Kiara and the steak was really terrible. A waste of money.

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    1. Ah really?. Thats no good...so much for having their own cow farming,,,guess that doesnt necessarily translate to better steaks on the table!

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  7. Hi Esther,

    I do agree with you that this place looks really good with an open space concept. Sad that some of the dishes didn't turn out to be what you expected. At least that you didn't have to pay full prices for these.

    Zoe

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  8. What's sup ekor lembu? I just assume it wasn't oxtail... It's probably "okay" food but you cook so well that your standard is quite high. I think that's the problem of food bloggers. We always read about food, cook food, study food... it's sometimes hard to satisfy our tongue! That's why we only go to the same restaurant and very skeptical about spending some money and get disappointed lately... kind of bored to go to the same restaurants all the time but we have been disappointed at a lot of restaurants...

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    1. Hi Nami, oxtail soup translates into Malay language is sup ekor lembu, but this is definitely a case of lost in translation because those two soups are worlds apart! Actually, you are right, i do think that nowadays my criteria is higher when it comes to food haha! Even my hubby now is says things like "hm....you can cook this better!" High expectations indeed!

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