Conveniently located in the heart of KL centre along Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, this quaint restaurant is happily "hidden" behind Tony Romas. Because she's happily hidden, she remains nicely quiet and peaceful away from the hustle and bustle of KL city yet being nicely nestled in the middle of KL city. Don't take my word. Come visit and have a meal (open for lunch and dinner but during the night it feels like I am back in a kampung). Coupled with its warm ambience, this makes the perfect place for your business meal or in my case I had a lovely time dining and chatting with pals over some wine (Thanx Tony for the lovely dinner and company).
Started off with Aneka Pembuka Selera while we waited for our other dishes to arrive. This platter consist of cucur udang, kepak ayam, popiah goreng and tauhu sumbat. However we opted to replace the popiah goreng with pegedil. I've always loved pegedil and this is one of the yummiest I have had for a long time. Here the pegedil is a mixture of potatoes and minced chicken.
Vegies are always a must. We opted for pucuk paku goreng which was a lovely stir fried with shallots, chilly and garlic. Although for the strangest "I don'y know why" reason, I thought I actually tasted desiccated coconut in it. I must ask Tony the next time I swing by Songket.
And if you love meat, the 2 must eat here are the rusuk panggang and the kambing panggang.
Rusuk panggang is a well marinated chargrilled ribs served with pegedil. Served with a house blend of a spicy soy sauce and sambal belacan, I still preferred the ribs on its own with its own marinate. Because it is chargrilled, the meat retained its juice.
The kambing panggang is so sinfully yummy that given the chance (I was recovering from my bad throat then when we ate at Songket), I would have requested for another serving of this awesome chragrilled leg of lamb. Dip it into the peanut sauce served with it although I still liked the lamb as it was. The marinate was subtle yet the "lamby" taste wasn't overpowering.
I am not much of a coconut person. So I normally stay away from curries that contain coconut milk. However this dish of Kari Udang Raja had me wanting more. The natural sweetness of the king prawns and coconut milk blended superbly with the choice of spices.
With such lovely dishes, it is hard to not carbo load here. Rice does not stop at white rice here. So we opted for the nasi lemak pandan and the nasi minyak. The nasi lemak pandan is rice cooked with coconut milk with a delightful pandan aroma. It is served with some anchovies (ikan bilis), peanut and sambal. Nasi minyak is spiced rice served with some acar (tangy crunchy pickled vegetables) on the side. Was quite tempted to try the nasi kerabu and nasi goreng kampung (my all time fave). However will leave it for another time.
Done with dinner, we opted to rest our stomachs a little. Took a walk around Songket.
Finally we were all ready for dessert. There was 8 items to choose from so we opted for the unique ones such as the durian tiramisu and the tapai pulut. The durian tiramisu is made with fresh durians. I asked Tony what happens if its not the durian season? And at Songket, the durians are kept frozen in the freezer. Honestly, this is a good idea. At least you have durian rather than no durians or worse still places that resort to durian essence or flavourings.
The tapai pulut is a sweet dish of fermented glutinous rice served with a scoop of ice cream. Absolutely delightful, the fermented glutinous rice was easy and light. And it did not give me any heartburn (which I normally get after any glutinous rice meals).
Sago gula melaka is a common dish found in many places. Here at Songket, you have fun playing with your sago melaka. The chilled sago is in a mini pool of coconut milk and palm sugar syrup (gula melaka). You stir the coconut milk and gula melaka together controlling the amount of sweetness or creaminess of coconut milk as you like.
I was a happy girl that night. My dinner of the lovely Malay dishes, delectable desserts and wine drove my flu and sore throat away:D Now to plan my next trip to try the other dishes.
• 29 Jalan Yap Kwan Seng (behind Tony Romas)
50450 Kuala Lumpur
• +603 2161 3331 (advisable to call for reservations)
• Business Hours - Mondays to Fridays 12pm - 3pm, 6pm - 11pm
- Saturday, Sunday & Public Holidays 5pm - 11pm
If you like Malay food go try Bijan Restaurant on Jalan Ceylon. They were the pioneers of fine Malay cuisine in KL and it is from them that Songket copied their ideas and menu. Best Malay food in KL. www.bijanrestaurant.com
ReplyDeleteInteresting sharing. I will give it a try to be a judge for myself. Afterall one man's meat another man's poison.
ReplyDeletehaha....self praise is no praise
ReplyDeletecan't agree more, well, let me kenalkan saya to you all, saya bawa mat salleh kawan saya dgn isteri kami ke bijan satu bulan yang lalu, my mat salleh kawans enjoyed it very much n r very happy, the next hari the same kami when to songket (to make comparison la, kan) and kami were very very impressed by it all...bijan is ok but songket is a level above bijan or mungkin lebeh...kenapa gua say tis ya...the food memang lebih sedap....environment tip top..the penarian is at international standards, dari comment yang pendek ...is a perfect total package. my mat salleh can't wait to makan again at songket...terima kasih songket..u made the difference for sure
ReplyDeleteme n my family dine at songket at least 5 times a week sinced the day we were introduced by our good friend 3 weeks ago. Yes, we don't cook at home, my wife, children and my maid we eat out all the time, while saying this, I am sure the people at songket can identify me if they were to read this comment and likewise for the others, I am a prominent business man of Malay race. I would not want to over say that Songket is the best but Songket does makes other restaurants look average or ordinary especially when comes to Malay food. NO one can claim who pioneers this famous dishes as they are being eaten by all Malays especially, even before the birth of our nation independence. Some might argue that songket copied others, I am sure, others would have copied others too before songket's time. As food is forever a subjective issue, I can only say, me and my family just loves the food at songket restaurant, the friendly service staffs and the environment. Terima kasih Songket.
ReplyDelete