May 2, 2011

kl: sunday roast at the ritz

the sunday roast is an english tradition for sunday lunches made up of roasted meat, potatoes and other sidings. i forgot how i came across the ritz carlton sunday roast. but from the reviews i have read, i was immediately lured. glad that i have foodie friends willing to spend 160RM for this treat. anyway, here are the food items i had - the same things that made me want to go to this roast buffet to begin with.


echire butter, claimed to be one of this best in france. why does it look like lard/shortening. i mean, is great butter supposed to be liked that? not creamy and flavorful but looks like a well whipped milk fats? i was not impressed.


some appetizers (top center - clockwise) seedless grape in cream cheese rolled into toasted almonds - i like; pumpkin tartlet with mushrooms - forgettable; roasted mushrooms, peppers, zucchini - flavorful, i like; dunno what to call the piece of meat with a mustard sauce of some sort - so so; whole smoked norwegian salmon covered with dill is heart.


fin de claire oysters from france. hmmm...i'm torn on this one. it has this thin texture which i like not the thick gooey kind that we are used to. but it's too salty, it's like tasting the sea literally. i am not sure whether freshness got something to do with it. i mean, if you eat it in france once it's harvested whether the flavors would be different. still, i can say i ate oysters from france hehe.



freshly prepared caesar's salad. tossed in a parmesan cheese wheel with whole anchovies, freshly shaved cheese and garlic slivers??? well the reviews mentioned that this caesar salad has truffle in it which made me really excited. and when i requested for one, i didn't see any truffles :(. nothing spectacular, the fresh cheese didn't even made a difference. the dressing was definitely freshly made but not enough to keep me excited.



after i took a picture of my salad, i pushed it on the side and filled it with other items. our table was so tiny it was overly crowded even the towel "plates" we had to get rid of. i got a shrimp and half a lobster which were fresh. also tried salmon and octopus sashimi just so i can put the tricolor caviar on my plate hehe and some pickled ginger which i love.



and for the mains, there's a menu actually. you can choose between the beef, lamb and salmon. of course it wouldn't be a roast without one.for me, it's cooked just right, i am squirmish with "rare" steak still. it's too pink to be medium well though...i dunno i am not much of an expert when it comes to steak but i like mine medium well all the time.


you get to choose between several sauces like mustard and horseradish plus 3 types of gravy. i had the rosemary jus i think. i forgot. there's no mashed or baked potato, the yorkshire pudding is so dense which i reckon should not be the case. and there's was only some roasted veggies. the thickness of the beef , i don't even think is substantive. based on the blogs i have read, they only have one roast which is supposed to serve only 18 people so if the guests are more than that...do they ran out of it or they stretch the meat and give thinner slices?



i'd rather get the steak at suzy's corner if it will just boil down to this. oh my this was supposed to be the star of the meal and it wasn't impressive. the roasted beef and yorkshire at the marriott was more worthy i mean you get unlimited servings! and that buffet costs less than 100RM.



good thing the desserts weren't a disappointment. they made good pastries. i was just sad that the creme brulee isn't big and has been put in that lonely spoon, the small amount i think made it "overcooked". the cream puffs were the best, it has a nice custard in it - and of course because it has caramel the puffs were part of the croquembouche. the picture above is a totally different cake but with a cream puff too.

anyway, it was an ok meal. it doesn't have an extensive selection when it comes to the buffet but it's complete. i didn't get to eat anything from the cheese section because i was too full. but reviews said the quality of the choices makes up for the relatively smaller selection of food items, i think not. basically, i'd rather have a degustation or full course meal in a restaurant.



ritz - carlton
jalan imbi, kuala lumpur