Archie De Corner

Black pepper sirloin steak.

Archie De Corner has been around for quite a while, serving local western food such as chops and steaks. Right now located at Kedai Kopi Sin Hing Fatt in the Taman Cantek shoplots (behind Lido), the restaurant is the typical plastic chairs and tables non-air-con coffeeshop with bright fluorescent lights and menus stuck on the wall. Not exactly where he should take you for a romantic dinner, but perfect if you feel like greasing your tummy with the most unhealthy but cheap and tasty western food. I say unhealthy because the meal is greasy, with your chicken chops and fries deep-fried in over-used oil that looks as black as soy sauce, there's no fresh fancy veggies with your orders but canned baked beans and pineapple (both very sweet), and the salt and sugar levels can push you into a stroke or diabetic fit before you've even finished your meal. Having said all the negative, now let me show you the positive about Archie:


Chicken chop, RM13/US$4

The two biggest pieces of chicken wing-breast portions I've ever seen, battered to absorb all that black oil. Wey could only finish one piece of chicken.


Sirloin steak with black pepper sauce, RM25/US$8.

This tasted nearly like those American steakhouse steaks: nicely charred outside and quite flavorful (but don't expect too much; this must be frozen meat) considering the price and the fact that at about 3.5cm thick, it was the thickest steak I've ever eaten in KK. I've eaten much smaller and less flavorful (by that I mean the meat, not the sauce) steaks in fancy hotels for more than twice the price, so this is quite something. It was tender, a little too cooked inside (although we asked for it to be done medium) and therefore dry, and the black pepper sauce was good but too salty for us. I asked that they spare us the fries.


Grilled lamb chops RM14/US$4.40.

Again, these are the thickest (nearly 2 cm) lamb chops in town and I love that they're not pathetically 1cm thin like everywhere else. This is Archie's best item, hands down. The chop was tender and so tasty so that even though the mint sauce was too sweet, Archie's forgiven. Fries were waived at our request, price remained the same.

When you consider the fact that only the meat is worth eating, the price is still very reasonable. The only thing that stops me from eating there more than once a year would be the thoughts of clogged arteries and hospital bills. If you aren't bothered with that, this place is pretty good especially the lamb chops.

Note: On a return visit, we found Archie's pork belly chop very very delicious (but salty)!