Sunday, July 13, 2014

New Zealand Natural @ The Curve


New Zealand Natural has recently being transformed into a café offering not just only ice cream but also waffle, sundaes, smoothies, pastries and others! The comfortable and relaxing dining environment is made better by pastel colored sofas and simple wood floors. Now you can buy your favourite ice cream and sit down by reading some books and magazines provided. A simple setting like this is very ideal for friends and family gatherings.













We started our sweet Friday night with Waffle Dazzle (RM9.90)- Classic waffle & a scoop of creamy ice cream. Better to be eaten while it’s warm, it has slight crispy edges with fluffy texture yet firm enough to provide satisfying bite along with some vanilla extract aroma. Pair the warm waffle with generous amount of almond flakes, chocolate drizzle and tempting ice cream, it was a plate of happiness and satisfaction.



Old Fashioned-Doughnut (RM2) with additional ice cream topping (RM6.90 per scoop).

Simple little pastry with soft yet firm texture goes great with our choice of Cookies & Cream ice cream.


Banana Split (RM19.90)- Chocolate Ecstasy, Boysenberry Dream & Vanilla Classic Ice Creams with bananas. The intense chocolate flavoured ice cream will definitely please most of the chocolate lovers out there, being the most memorable one in this dessert.


Yoghurt Pudding Sundae (RM11.90)- Mango Yoghurt ice cream with Mango Pudding. Fantastic combo bursting with non-artificial mango freshness along with refreshing yoghurt aftertaste. Absolutely love this and I will be back for more!




Triple Chocolate Muffin & Wild Blueberry Muffin (RM6 each)- Huge warm muffins perfect for breakfast and tea time! The earlier was very sinfully chocolate-y with gooey center while the latter was just decent. These soft muffins are easily kids and even adults’ favourite! Now I know where to get chocolate muffin fix after a stressful long day at work.





Chunky Double Chocolate Cookie & Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin Cookie (RM4.50)- With such a large piece of cookie with great taste and very affordable pricing, I would say it’s a steal! Crunchy, not too hard yet rich flavours- these make ideal on the go snacks. Besides from the rich chocolate muffin, the generous raisins in the latter was a plus point that gave sourish sweet tinge.  

Moving on to sweet and savoury pastries...






 Toasted Almond Bar (RM3.50)

 Chicken Rendang Puff (RM 4)

Spicy Tuna Puff (RM4)

Average tasting and reasonably priced. Do check out the pastries counter shown below for daily offerings.





I scream for ice cream!





 Affogato (newest flavour to date)


Superfruit Sorbet- All natural sorbet, combining the zest of pomegranate with blackcurrant, Goji berry & passionfruit. All in all this is a super yummy, zero fat and healthy ice cream. Exactly not too sour yet full of Vitamin C goodness!



Mango Sorbet (top) & Durian Durian (bottom)- Consistent durian flavor yet too strong.

Smoothies (RM9.90 each)- All smoothies also contain Banana, Lychee and crushed ice.



Apple Berry Blush- Red Apple Juice & Berryfruit Sorbet. Great combo and very refreshing.




Melon Spring Time- Watermelon Juice & Passionfruit Sorbet.


Illy Coffee



Espresso (RM5.90)




Mocha (RM7.90)- Balanced coffee and chocolate taste. Decent cup of Joe but could be better with some nice coffee art :P


Tea (RM6.90 each)- Dilmah Tea



Organic Rooibos Tea (top)
Pure Chamomile Flowers (bottom left)
Moroccan Mint Green Tea (bottom right)


                                                                

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New Zealand Natural can be found at branches stated below:

Branches


  • The Curve
  • KLCC
  • Sunway Pyramid
  • Tropicana City Mall
  • Setia City Mall


Wifi: Yes (all branches)


Website: www.nzn.com.my

Facebook page: New Zealand Natural

Monday, July 7, 2014

Crave Cafe @ Oasis Ara Damansara

Cafe hopping on a beautiful Sunday along with good company- perfect day! Situated just next to or around Citta Mall, Oasis Ara Damansara is a fairly new area with various food and beverage establishments.










Prominent brick wall, comfy sofas, wall paintings- makes overall a decent and comfortable cafe setting.





Crave's Big Breakfast (RM22)- A hearty platter consists of beef bacon, chicken sausages, sunny side up, sauteed mushrooms, baked beans, roasted tomato, toasted wholemeal ciabatta.  While the other ingredients were rather decent, we liked sauteed mushrooms the most. Here, they use fresh mushrooms instead of canned ones. It was very well flavoured with butter and little herbs.  




Pancakes with Caramelized Bananas & Maple Syrup (RM10)


Fluffy pancakes stacked on top of each other, along with bananas, sprinkle of nuts and generous drizzle of maple syrup- it was almost a perfect pancake for breakfast yet can hardly go wrong with this combination. The pancake had great texture, paired with moreish ripe bananas. The nuts definitely provided extra crunch and flavours. Gone within seconds! 



Salmon Scramble (RM15)
 

While the scrambled eggs had a wonderful soft and creamy texture, the smoked salmon was a letdown as it was rather bland without the 'smoked' taste. If they could find a better supplier for this I'm sure this dish will please customers even more. 





Beef Bacon, Avocado, Feta Cheese, Eggs on Toasted Bruschetta (Price: N/A) 

This is a new item not introduced in the menu yet. The avocado mash still had fine pieces to munch on, fresh with minimal seasonings brings out the original taste of avocado. Definitely a healthy plate of breakfast to kickstart the weekend.






Chicken Parmigiana (RM22) - Generous breaded chicken breast meat served with vegetable ratatuoile & sliced potatoes. The chicken meat still retain its juiciness and soft texture while crispy on the outside thanks to the not overly thick layer of breadcrumbs. The tomato based sauce had a rather monotonous taste, but could be good for some customers who like non-overly seasoned tomato puree. 


Pesto Carbonara Chicken Fusilli (RM18) - A creamy pasta with light pesto flavours and sliced chicken breast meat. Could have stronger pesto element to give refreshing taste for those who really prefers pesto, with less cream. But this overall was alright for me.


Seabass in Spicy Cream Sauce (RM15)

I liked the crunchiness of the batter which was non-greasy and thin as well. Encased within was Barammundi fish which still has freshness attached but could be done with more marinade like salt and pepper as the accompanying cream sauce was rather lacking in sodium as well. This resembles Chinese style Butter Fish Rice. The rice here has rosemary mixed in it to provide extra aroma, it has a strong black pepper taste too.


Nutella Mille Crepe (RM10) - perfect layers of cream and crepes with just the right ratio, making it easily melt in mouth. Sadly the nutella flavours was disappointing as the flavours were seriously lacking and yet overpowered by peanut butter.


Chocolate Salted Caramel Cake (RM10)- While the chocolate ganache was smooth yet adequately sweet, I prefer a rather firm chocolate sponge cake.




Oreo Mille Crepe (RM10)- just decent.




Carrot Slice (RM7)- wonderful burst of flavours from carrot strips, various nuts and cinnamon powder. Would have been perfect if the texture wasn't dry and crumble easily, also cream cheese frosting could have been better if more cream cheese was incorporated.


 Mocha (RM10)

Balanced coffee and chocolate flavours, just like how a decent cup of Mocha should be. Backed up by strong body of coffee, it did give an aromatic coffee aftertaste. Not the best Mocha but enough to satisfy cravings temporarily. 



Dirty Chai Tea Latte (RM12)- Seldom come across cafes that offer this type of beverage which is usually popular among ladies. This essentially comprises chai syrup, milk and Toby's coffee being one of their selling points. It has a distinctive cinnamon taste close to hint of gingery kick, paired with coffee and tea was actually not bad at all. A great option other than the usual latte and cappucino.


Espresso (RM6) & Cappucino (RM9)


Fruit juices (RM6 each)- Guava, Orange & Apple.


Crave Cafe

Address
BG-03 Oasis Square
Ara Damansara
47301 Petaling Jaya
Selangor

Contact Number: 017- 252 8568

Opening hours
Sun-Thurs (8am-8pm)
Fri-Sat (8am-11pm)

Facebook page: Crave