Cottle Coffee Malaysia, SS21, Damansara Utama (Uptown), Petaling Jaya (PJ), Malaysia

Address:
15 Jalan SS21/60, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Mon:
8:30 am - 10:00 pm
Wed-Thu:
8:30 am - 10:00 pm
Fri:
8:30 am - 12:00 am
Sat:
9:00 am - 12:00 am
Sun:
9:00 am - 10:00 pm

Time Visited:
Wednesday (Public Holiday), 10:30am

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Quinoa Salad and Magic

It was a public holiday and I intended to make a little bit of extra side income and then spend the afternoon with a friend but the play part never came at all. So I just drove around whole day to clear my mind until I was more than exhausted.

Anyway, I initially wanted to have breakfast at Village Park but the crowd was too much and so I decided to walk around Uptown a bit. Strolling along, I discovered why there was quite a jam in the area and that was due to a fire that broke out at one of the bookshops and the Firemen had just finished putting out the fire where the entire shoplot both on the upstairs and the downstairs were entirely soaked. There's police over there to poke their noses in to determine what was the cause of the fire. So I walked on further not having a destination in mind. I then came across Cottle Coffee which I remember seeing it once passing by but ended up I went to The Culture Pot instead.

So this time around, I ended up opening it's doors and stepped on in. The place was bright with rays of sunlight penetrating through the place even though the weather was cloudy. It's enough to give an aura of natural sunlight into it. The place was quite cluttered on one side with many things on display and the various types of seating with their tables while the other side sits the counter for ordering and things like that. I went for the quinoa salad and initially thought of Flat White but I spotted something called Magic and asked what was that. The guy who attended to me responded that Magic is actually Ristretto Flat White, ie double shot espresso with milk. So I went for that one instead. After all, that is the coffee I need to help me get me on my feet.

Immediately when I sat down, they instantly brought a glass and a bottle of water for me. Very good service on that. The salad came after followed by the coffee. They were very quick to provide for me as well so I would say their service is excellent. The Quinoa Salad was very pleasant nicely tying it up with the Rocket Leaves and Apples for sweetness. The apple was a delight to munch on and got me addictively sticking some quinoa and nuts onto it's natural juices before plopping it in my mouth. It's such a delight to be had.

The coffee was alright but I'm still reeling from the delightful Hong Kong coffee which I wish the coffee here were as creamy as that. But of course, it's alright. Some moderate coffee taste infused into it with the right temperature having the right amount of milk in it to be deemed as a Flat White.

All in all, it was a wonderful and nice cafe with a relaxing ambiance but the gloomy weather and the non-response from a friend had got me a little under the weather.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM31. RM13 for the coffee, RM18 for the salad. No service charge, no GST. Excellent.

Final Verdict:
7/10.

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Philtre Coffee, SS21, Damansara Utama (DU) aka Uptown, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
44, Jalan SS21/35, Damansara Utama (DU) aka Uptown, 47400 Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
It's not finalized yet but at the time that I visited, it was 8am - 12am, Daily with the prospect of Monday being an off day.

Time Visited:
Around 9:45pm, Friday night. You can call it a sobering up session since we stumbled upon this place after an alcohol tasting event.

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
My friend had the Piccolo Latte while I had a Flat White. Two slices of cake were ordered and they are Lemon Curd Cheesecake and Salted Caramel Macadamia

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience.

After an eventful night with me feeling ecstatic and kinda high, me and my friend decided to go and grab some proper food since the event that we went to earlier only served light food.

We first wanted to go to Epicuro for dinner but surprisingly, they said they were closing even though their closing time was supposed to be at 11pm. "Oh well." We thought. And headed for the interesting looking place that does not contain any signboard yet. And that turns out to be Phitre Coffee. They still do not have a signboard up because they're newly opened, haven't officially opened and were still testing the market there. The owner coincidentally was there right at the entrance and seeing our curiosity getting the better of us as we look at their chalkboard outside, he invited us in to try out their stuff and provide him feedback on whether do we like it. Since we've already decided to do so without him encouraging us, we stepped on in.

Philtre Coffee takes on the approach of a Kampung Village sort of appearance with a lot of wooden structure and decor that were made from pallet, pallet woods, window grills and window doors which adds the charm of a homely setting. The place has a mixture of bright and low lighting area and has a huge space span inside. We settled at a place where it's near to the counter where the cake display case is also there. On top of it lies a simple menu where one of the items caught my eyes and that is the Charcoal Croissant. Although that piqued my interest, we just went ahead and ordered 2 cakes instead. One being the Lemon Curd Cheesecake and the other the Salted Caramel Macadamia. To drink (and sober up for me) she partook the Piccolo Latte which they said is to be their signature while for me, I just went with the Flat White.

Philtre Coffee have 2 versions of coffee house blend, one is the normal one while the other has a more concentrated coffee taste which they call it the Supreme. The Supreme currently consists of 3 types of beans, Brazilian, Honduras and Papua New Guinea. As much as I'm game to try the Supreme, they offered us to start off with their normal house blend. Once the picture taking finishes, I get to finally sit down and sip on my cup of java.

To me, their Flat White tastes a little too weak for me. The coffee taste is so mild that having the milk in it dilutes it further which I'm not really fond of. But what I do like about the coffee profile is that it has a nutty and chocolatey taste to it at the end and easy on the throat and palate to wash down. They said that they use medium to dark roast but I tasted far from it since it's so mild. Anyway, they said that their Supreme is the more stronger coffee profile but we didn't give that a go so I'm unable to judge on that.

As for the cakes, the Lemon Curd Cheesecake contains a sourish lemon taste but just the right sourness for me to tolerate and consume that eases into a vivid sweetness. Texture is dense and compact and the size shows that too. But of course I preferred the Salted Caramel Macadamia. The caramel melted away from the cake quickly though when time passes by at our very prolonged photo taking ways exposing the chunky big macadamia nuts lodged in between the precipice and embankment of the cake. Just as well too. The caramel proved to be too sweet for my taste but since it melted away mostly and were only tasted as I scooped from the plate, it's now at a more balanced moderate level. As for the macadamia nuts, I'd prefer if it were of smaller chunks because the big ones such as theirs are sometimes a little of a nuisance biting on it though I still need that crunch feeling there. The chocolate was superb as it takes up as the wrapping taste over the macadamia and the salted caramel; compounded brilliantly with it's companion ingredients to masterfully tone those two down.

We soon bid our farewell to our warm and friendly host as the night crosses over into the next day.

Total Wallet Damage:
I can't remember. I just remembered the cakes costing RM13 each. I also remembered that their coffee price was a wee bit on the higher side like inside a shopping mall too.

Final Verdict:
6.5/10. The ambiance is great. The place is spacious the cakes above average. It's just that I wish the coffee to produced a more stronger coffee taste.

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Outback Steakhouse - Nu Sentral, Nu Sentral Mall, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
LG27 & LG 28, Nu Sentral Mall, No. 201, Jalan Tun Sambanthan 50470 Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Opening Hours:
Daily, 10am - 11pm

Time Visited:
Close to 7pm. Dinner time on a Saturday night.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Sirloin and BBQ Beef Ribs and a Long Island Iced Tea

I love a good steak. I'm a very avid meat eater and it shows from my visit to Hacha Mecha and Monte's.

So I decided to head to Nu Sentral Mall and search out for Outback Steakhouse which is a franchise outlet but there's only 2 in Malaysia at the moment including this one at Nu Sentral Mall. The first outlet which was the only one before Nu Sentral Mall came into existence is at Low Yat Plaza.

Outback Steakhouse restaurant is only accessible at the outside portion of the Nu Sentral Mall where it's facing the main road of Jalan Tun Sambanthan. The staff there were really on top of their game and friendly. As I was walking past restaurants at the stretch over there, I made it seem as if I was just passing by. But the maitre d at the front immediately welcomed me as if already knew that I was gonna enter already. I requested for a table of one and she ushered me to my seat. Seeing that the walkway path was congested towards the table she was gonna show me too, she immediately change directions and asked if I would like to be seated over at another table instead which I didn't mind. Quite quick thinking and excellent work there. Throughout the evening during my dining experience there, I got nothing short of great service all the way. Everytime I signaled for somebody, they would rush over immediately to attend to me. When I asked for the WiFi password, the guy ensured that I was connected before walking away. Everytime they brought me something, they would explain it to me. "Here's your Long Island Iced Tea, sir." "Here's a napkin for you to wipe with, sir." "Your sirloin and BBQ Ribs, sir. Enjoy your meal." And they were also quick to clear my finished plates too but always asked before proceeding to do so."

I'm totally impressed with their excellent service. Definitely worth the 10% service charge I paid for. In addition to that, I'm a one man band as well but treated me just the same as any other patrons even though I'm taking up a four person table. There's only one small thing that I would like to point out and that is when I was seated, I was introduced the Christmas menu which clearly indicates for 2 person. LOL. I mentioned to her that it's for 2 person, right? And she laughed nervously realizing her mistake. But of course, that isn't a problem. In fact it's quite amusing. After all, how many lone diners would've walked in here to dine, right? Therefore, it's understandable that she rattled off her procedure because after all, 99% of the patrons consists of families and at least 2 persons. This reminds me of the time where I walked into Wendy's for my own meal and the person recommended me the 10 pieces of chicken. LOL. That was totally unacceptable.

First thing that came was the alcoholic beverage I ordered - the Long Island Iced Tea. It comes on a cool curvy glass so if you're seeing it straight, you're probably drunk. LOL. The Long Island Iced Tea consists of Vodka, Rum, Gin and triple sec with a slice of lemon on top. It was mentioned that it contains a splash of coke but I couldn't taste it. Probably was that blackish substance at the bottom of the glass which tasted a bit sweet. The drink although was laced with many various different kinds of alcohol, yet I could barely taste it. But it is there enough to give me a buzz. Just that the taste of anything in it is rather weak and all I could ever taste is the lemony feel of the drink.

They also served a whopping bread at the beginning. To be exact, it's a French loaf that's about 1/5 of it's size? It also has a scoop of the cream cheese (I think) to go with the bread. The bread was hard on the exterior but soft on the inside. Having that knife stuck at the middle of it and served in a paddle was a great way of presenting it. Totally loved the idea.

It didn't take long for them to serve my meal, probably around 10 minutes for it to arrive. The steak was perfectly cooked which I requested for medium well. Well, not exactly perfect but it's medium well alright. With a little bit of a red color at the center. It just screams out gorgeous. The meat of the sirloin was rougher than what I'm used to but tender enough to consume and succulent enough to eat on it's own. It may not be as juicy as how I got at Monte's or Hacha Mecha but it's a fine enough steak to eat. I also adore their spice sauce that they serve. It has a unique flavoring to it. A little spicy, a little sweet, a little salty and very Mexican-like taste minus the spiciness. It goes very, very well with the sirloin steak and definitely elevates the meat to a better flavor. The Aussie fries were just as good giving me a good feel of the potato flavoring in my mouth with the nicely seasoned salt and pepper to it. As for the BBQ Ribs, it works very well for me too. I can easily separate the meat away from the bones which I hate that kind of hassle so it's good for me. The BBQ sauce upon the meat was spread very evenly. Every bite of the BBQ Ribs is sure to have the BBQ sauce on it without any effort on my part. Although the sweet BBQ sauce makes the ribs a very delicious meat, dipping it into their spice sauce produces another fine unique taste as well. It sort of blends in with the BBQ sauce to create a new unique flavor. All in all, a very satisfying dish that's well worth the RM64.95 (excluding GST) for it. I just wish I had more of the Aussie fries in there too but I don't think the plate will fit. LOL.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is vibrant and family oriented with incandescent lighting to set a more relaxed mood. Chairs weren't too bad on it's comfort level but I would give it an average. Table were huge for me but comfortable in spaces in between other customers. But the walkway path may be a tad too narrow should the restaurant fills up due to it's big tables but I think it's not much as a problem if you compare it to Eat@J's.

Total Wallet Damage:
All in all, RM108.35. It is to be expected with the steak but the alcoholic cocktail seems a little bit pricey. There's also 10% service charge incurred and 6% GST.

Final Verdict:
7/10. Loved the staffs' service and loved the lovely meal. Their own sauce is really a delight to go with the meat. Alcoholic beverage could be further improved lots more especially with that kind of price.

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