Black Canyon Restaurant, Alamanda

We went to Alamanda last night for dinner. After having a cup of double-scooped ice cream at Baskin' Robbins, we decided to have a heavier meal at The Chicken Rice Shop. Unfortunately, we saw 'someone' that mummy does not want to bump into. :P

While wandering at the Rasa Food Court, daddy pointed to this restaurant and we decided to give it a try. Black Canyon's excellent reputation is based on serving coffees of the highest quality, with the best aroma and taste, made from 100% fresh coffee beans imported from around the world, as well as those grown in Thailand under Royal patronage.

Black Canyon coffee houses also serve an extensive food menu. The menu combines Western dishes such as soups, salads, pasta and French fries with Eastern favorites like fried rice and noodles; and Thai specialties tom yum, som-tam, etc. A unique feature of the menu are the "fusion" dishes which combine East and West, examples of which are spaghetti with green curry sauce, fusilli noodles in tom yum soup, spaghetti with red panang shrimp sauce, etc. Read more..

budak-budak yang kuat makan pada malam ittew..

Black Coffee Champ Iced Coffee

The black coffee tasted great and refreshing. Nasib baik masih bisa tidur dengan lena selepas itu.. May be it was not strong enough for me.

Vegetables Spring Rolls with Sweet and Sour Sauce
(tangan Khayra yang tak sabar-sabar nak makan)

The spring rolls were crispy and tasty! Khayra liked it very much. Cuma carrot dipotong agak panjang that Harraz thought itu cacing. Hehehe..

Stir-fried Seafood and Curry Powder with Rice

This dish's name would suggest it to be spicy, but since I wanted to share the meal with the kids, I requested them to make it less spicy. Tapi budak-budak tak makan pun kuahnya. Otherwise, the taste was okay, walaupun hasilnya jadi tak pedas langsung. The taste blended well, with the prawns, cuttlefish and fish in generous amount. The rice was savoury and soft, and the kids liked it very much.

American Fried Rice

The American Fried Rice had an ordinary presentation, but daddy liked the taste of the fried rice. Rasa macam nasi tomato pun ada. I assume the additions of fried egg, sausages and chicken justified its 'American' name, but the chicken was a bit tough.

When we were about to leave, the family who sat next to our table gave us two slices of Secret Recipe's Choc Indulgence. They were celebrating one of their family member's birthday. And, owh.. they were actually from Brunei, taking a night's transit in Putrajaya before continuing their flight to Australia. Huu.. bestnya jalan-jalan. All the way from Brunei, must be very rich people :)

So, give Black Canyon a try, you must try the coffee.. and another thing, their menu presentation was bright and colourful too, kind of enticing you to order everything on it. Well, there's always next time..

TONY ROMA'S Restaurant, Mid Valley City

Sometimes it is quite unfortunate that when we pay a return visit to a particular restaurant, it turned out to be not as tasty as the first one. This happened to us at Tony Roma’s (The Gardens), we enjoyed our first outing there but were disappointed upon our recent second call.

My significant other ordered Tony Roma’s chef recommendation, the Bountiful Beef Ribs. Expecting the meat to be tender, juicy and dripping off the bones, we instead got a dry and over-grilled rack of ribs. The marinate sauce left a strange after-taste too. Perhaps it was meant to be that way. Pictures below show before and after effects of aforementioned ribs. Hey, no sense in wasting. 

Meanwhile I took my chance with the Sirloin Cheddar Grille, which was "tender sirloin sliced thin and piled high on Texas Toast and topped with cheddar cheese, tomato slices, crisp onions and BBQ mayonnaise". What a waste of words, let me sum the dish up for you: bland, dull and uninspiring while the cheese just didn’t blend with the meat. Thankfully the restaurant’s smokey sauce saved the day.

My mother had the Grilled Marinated Chicken with Rice and it was quite good. The rice was soft and plenty, the chicken grilled almost perfect and the portion was right.

Anyway, perhaps you should lower your expectations when you visit a restaurant for a second time. Tony Roma’s do have great food and excellent service, perhaps we left our taste-buds at home that day. Well at least Tony’s better than the much-hyped TGI Friday’s anyway. My daughter will testify to that. 

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