Ante@1-Utama

It was a Saturday and my brother and I had planned to go to Serai. Yup, I wanted to eat at Serai again because I loved the food and wanted to feature it in my blog. But sadly when we got there, they were closed for a private event. Arrgghhh!!!

So how now? I suggested to my brother why not we go to 1-Utama and try the newly opened Ante? I read about Ante (the one in Solaris Dutamas) in Kris' blog back in 2015 but I couldn't remember if Kris gave it a good review or otherwise. I did not refer back to Kris' post because I wanted to go in fresh without any expectations.

We got there just before 12:00pm and got a table quite easily. The menu is quite sparse, there are not many choices. It took us quite a while to decide. I suggested the Sweet Belly (I remembered Kris ordered this but I can't remember if she liked it) for sharing and both of us ended up ordering the Big Breakfast. For drinks, it was a Caffe Latte each.

Though the restaurant was not that busy, it took some time for our drinks to arrive. When it came, I noticed that mine was spilled.

My brother's had a broken heart hah...hah...

But it was good. We enjoyed our Cafe Latte without sugar. Then we waited some more.

There were 8 pieces. We took one each and then
I suddenly remembered I forgot to snap a pic. Drat!

Ah! The Sweet Belly finally came. Eh, this looks like siew yoke and we each took a piece. It came to the table piping hot and the skin was very crispy. We chewed in deep thought.

"It doesn't taste as good as the siew yoke from the chicken rice shop", I remarked. My brother agreed. But it all fairness he said, the seasoning is different. True true.

The pork was juicy and the cracking crispy and we shouldn't be complaining. But we couldn't help comparing because we are so used to our regular siew yoke. As for the scant sauce on the platter, it didn't make much of an impression. It was just....sweet.... Next dish please!

The Big Breakfast. It's not big in size, that's for sure. We both settled for poached eggs. My brother's eggs looked better than mine.

Mine looked like it was soft boiled eggs, where they just cracked the egg and dug out the contents.

And I noted that the yolks were overdone and they were sort of congealed. But I still managed to perform the customary egg porn shot.

The best thing on the plate was the bacon. It was a decent slice, thicker than the regular bacon that we buy or usually get on a platter like this. It was smoky, salty and tasty like what good bacon should be. The sausage was ordinary, while the mushrooms and salsa was just alright.

You are probably wondering why didn't we go for the pork steak or even the ribs. I don't know, those mains didn't seem very enticing to us. 

After I was done with my meal, I asked my brother if he had room for dessert. He gave me his cheeky smile and the paiseh-paiseh look. Of course there's room for dessert. No need to ask lah!

I have never eaten a Mille Crepe, so I chose the  Vanilla Mille Crepe and Valrhona Chocolate Delice for us to share.

The Mille Crepe arrived first. It was topped with a generous sprinkling layer of icing sugar. I don't know, I found this so lacking in taste. Discounting the icing sugar, the Mille Crepe was bland and not sweet enough. I am very sensitive to sugar and if I say something is not sweet, you better believe me it is not sweet.

It was dense and dryish (too long in the chiller?) and there was hardly any taste of vanilla. It was milky instead. I'm sorry, I am sure Mille Crepe is amazing but not this one.

Next up was the Chocolate Delice. Thank God this was good! It was a tiny serving, we later realized why because it is very rich and a big serving would have made us feel "jelak" (sorry, don't know the English word). It was slightly bitter on the first taste and then the chocolate comes through with the next bite. 

We enjoyed this very much. The crunchy toppings added flavor and texture to the creamy Chocolate Delice. 

The total damage RM162.80.

The only thing I enjoyed was the bacon from the Big Breakfast and the Chocolate Delice. Will I be back? Maybe, for the Deep Fried Poached Eggs on the brunch menu. But seeing how my poached eggs were presented, errr....maybe not...see how....

When I got back later, I looked up Kris' post and I was kind of relieved (hah..hah...) that she too found that the roasted pork was not better than the ones from the roasted meat stalls. Then I read on and in a way I was glad that I chose the Big Breakfast.

Anyway, I am glad for the experience. Never try, never know. And it proves to me that we have to trust our own tastebuds and not be drawn into something just because of the hype or as the case with Ante, it was voted Best Place for Meat by Time Out Kuala Lumpur's Food Awards 2015.

Anyway, after leaving Ante, my brother and I had to do something. We had to have our first taste of macarons.

This was my brother's treat. Cost him a small fortune of RM3.18 each. Well, maybe this was not the best macaron around and no, we were not impressed. But at least we gave it a try :)