Kakatoo, The Starling

Oh dear, three more restaurants closed at The Starling. All three I have visited.

The Embassy. A place with nice ambiance but sadly the food fell short.

Teppanyaki. The food was all right but not that great.

Kim Zen which I visited once and only once.

And then there was Kory which is now replaced with Kakatoo.

A place specializing in nonya and local cuisine.

The menu looks promising.

Oh by the way, the Chinese New Year decorations are up at The Starling.

Eh? Aren't those Christmas trees from the recent Christmas deco?

Indeed! heh..heh... the decorators decided to recycle the Christmas decorations. Behold Christmas trees adorned with Mandarin oranges! Quite clever I must say.

Even the bus got recycled.

Now back to Kakatoo.

I decided on the Nasi Kerabu Signature Combo which comes with Butterfly Pea Flower Tea and Gula Melaka Sago Pudding.

The place is still very new and the service staff were standing around awkwardly. They could do with a bit more finesse by placing themselves a little bit more discretely.

The Butterfly Pea Flower Tea (bunga telang) is so pretty but tasteless (and a little tart from the lemon), hence the packet of sugar provided. I took only a few sips. 

Look at that! The Nasi Kerabu Signature is so very loaded. There is the rice in the center surrounded by one whole fried chicken leg, acar, raw cabbage/long beans, toasted grated coconut, raw cucumber/carrots sticks, a samosa, half salted duck egg, beef rendang, two sticks of satay and keropok.

The rice is pale blue, a good sign that it was tinted with natural Butterfly Pea Flower. It was topped with sambal tumis. To me, the strength of a nasi kerabu lies with the sambal tumis and this one is not bad at all.

Of all the accompaniments, the most outstanding was the beef rendang. It was delicious. The satay lacked charring but it was nice in its own way and I shall not compare it with regular satay that we get at satay joints. As for the fried chicken, it was simply fried chicken.

I thought the samosa was out of place but it was nice, filled with mashed curried potatoes. If there is one thing I could add, it would be great if finely shredded herbs like daun kesum/kemangi were added to the raw vegetables for extra fragrance.

Portion wise, I give this nasi kerabu the thumbs up as it was massive and even a big eater like me struggled. The highlight of this meal was the Gula Melaka Sago Pudding.

The sago pearls were soft and the santan was fresh and thick, topped with an adequate amount of Gula Melaka. I loved it! If I were to return, I'd have this dessert again.

Service was lacking in warmth and staff could have been more attentive and alert. I waited for some time and had to signal that I was done and for my dessert to be served.

Would I come back? Of course. In fact I have been back to try the Nasi Lemak. It did not disappoint. I shall tell you about it next time.