Dinner At TA Resort & Spa

TA Resort & Spa (TARS) used to be known as Tanjung Aru Beach Hotel, back in the days when it first opened and Hub and I had our wedding reception. Of all the hotels in KK, western tourists love this hotel the best. It is more cosy and natural (less concrete with a beach of its own and the Tanjung Aru beach nearby) than its closest contender, the Sutera hotels of Magellan and Pan Pacific. I do feel the difference everytime I step out onto their beachside walkway. I am told repeatedly that TARS' service and hospitality are incomparable.

Last Saturday was my umpteenth birthday and I decided to check out Peppino at TARS since its re-vamp. When you get to my age, there's no longer a need for candlelight dinners and playing footsie under the table. I decided that from now on I will always bring my mom along when I celebrate my birthday because she went through hell giving birth to me at home.


Ma & moi.



(Btw, my bro Clive and his wife Lena welcomed their first child, a son, at 9.08 pm last night--10/11/08--in Singapore, after 8 years of marriage. Thank you God! Bring out the ice wine!)

TARS has a sister hotel in Pantai Dalit, where the Coast Restaurant I blogged about last month is. After the disappointing dinner at Coast, I needed to check out Peppino to see if there's a general decline in TARS' food quality. I am happy to report a "No". However, be prepared to wait at least 40 minutes for your food (not including the 10 minutes for your table). Still, the friendly and knowledgeable waiter made it more bearable. The funny thing was he was very attentive and very courteous until the end when he asked if the food was okay and I told him what I thought of the steak. He muttered that he'll tell the chef and scurried away, never to return. I wonder if the chef shot the messenger.


Assortment of (free) freshly baked bread.

You have to request for the pesto sauce. Thumbs up for all these: the pesto was fresh and full of herbal scent, the butter was extremely smooth and the bread tasted fresh from the oven. We were the typical free-loading Asians, filling ourselves up with 4 rounds of the bread.


Wey's osso bucco with saffron risotto.

I thought the portion was pitiful, since for RM89++/US$25++ I could cook a pot of this, but Wey loved it, especially when he found at the end that there were loads of buttery marrow inside the bone:


All gone.

"Mom, which part of the lamb is this? Can you buy some soon?"


Sauteed cod (forgot the fancy description on the menu), RM85++/US$24++

Mom enjoyed it although Wey said he prefers cod cooked in Chinese restaurants--more tender and flavorful.


Veal chop with an herb crust, RM78++/US$22, and a ramekin of baked mozzarella.

I thoroughly enjoyed my thick (albeit it being not so flavorful, since it was veal) chop although I wished it was slightly less done. I had asked for medium rare, not medium. The fresh sun-dried tomatoes were sweet and tangy, very refreshing.

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Mushroom and duck ragout risotto, RM48++/US$14++

Yi said her choice was clearly the best among all our orders, and I have to agree although I thought the risotto could be better with more olive oil and cream/cheese. The duck ragout was surprisingly pleasant without a strong ducky flavor.


Australian rib eye steak, RM128++/US$45++.

The asparagus & leeks and tiny potatoes on the side were separate orders of RM12/US$3.40 each that Hub had to order because his RM128 steak came naked with just a sprig of rosemary, parsley and thyme! Even if the potatoes and asparagus came with the steak, I' d still stay away from this order. Look at that. Have you seen rib eye that color, like it was ham? And to me, any good satisfying steak must be at least 2.5 cm thick, juicy and tender with lots of flavor and grilled or charred with burnt bits of caramelised meat and juices. But this rib eye was less than 2cm thick, dry and flavorless. It wasn't tough or exactly tender, just chewable. It wasn't worth eating even if it only costs RM20! Aiyayaya.

Yi and Wey knew I wouldn't eat any bakery cakes and so they surprised me with something they had driven around town to find: wild jungle durians. Quite a unique birthday 'cake', don't you think so?