16 Jan
The Red Beanbag @ Publika, Solaris Dutamas
With stylish new cafes popping out by the dozens since late last year, Publika @ Solaris Dutamas is my current (f00d) playground. This time we found ourselves at The Red Beanbag, a modern contemporary Australian-inspired café situated same row as our favourite French Bistro – Nathalie Gourmet Studio.
The Place – This café interior has a striking combination of contemporary lines, clean, warmth and rustic charm. Adding to the cafe’s rustic flair, a number of bean bags imprinted with words like “play”, “passion” and “creative” adorn the walls.
The Menu – Printed on a corrugated cardboard, the menu item is created with quirky names such as The Nutty Professor (tiramisu), Shroom Shroom (mushroom fettucini), Beef Me Up Scotty (grilled beef fillet) and many more. Apart from serving all day breakfast, there’s also main meal such as pasta and burger.
The Food -We stared with the RBB Signature Breakfast (RM 19.90) with poached, fried or scrambled eggs on toasts, sauteed mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, beef/chicken sausages, beef bacon, baked beans and hash brown(RM 19.90). Everything was decent (but not exceptionally good) except for the rubbery and tasteless scrambled eggs. I am secretly hoping for pork bacon too; but The Red Beanbag is a pork free eatery. Savings grace came in the form of Egg Benedict (RM 15.90). The perfectly runny yolk surrounded by nicely cooked egg white is the greatest part of the pleasure of Eggs Benedict. We poked through the yolk and enjoyed the runny hot mess. RBB’s Specialty Baked Eggs (RM 17.90)was pretty good too; with eggs cracked into a baking dish of lamb bratswurst, sundried tomatoes, potatoes and cheese, baked to perfection and served with crusty bread.
The piece de resistance is Classic French Toast (RM 13.90) coated with almonds, served with seasonal fruits and maple syrup (RM 13.90). It was so soft and fluffy! The almond coating gave it a nice, pleasant crunch too. However, RM 13.90 for ONE piece of roti is quite a steep price to pay.
Since there were 7 of us, each of us picked a dish and somehow Shaun is craving for risotto. Don Scallopino (RM 24.90) is seaweed risotto served with seared scallops and seaweed. A generous hand with the scallops but the risotto were on the bland side. My Crustacean Cousin (RM 27.90) on the other hand; was quite good. With tiger prawns and mixed seafood served with freshly pressed pasta, I felt like having lobster bisque with pasta. The lobster/prawn gravy was probably the key to this delicious seafood pasta. We don’t quite like the Shroom Shroom (entree RM19.90/main RM 24.90), creamy mix of mushroom and beef bacon bits on a bed of creamy fettucini. Those mushrooms and beef bacon bits had appeared for the third time (first & second time in our order of signature breakfast & egg benedict) and we find the pasta to be bland tasting.
Like for all caffeine oriented antipodeans, the key to a treasured breakfast haunt is the coffee. No complains! I also love how the barista tried to create coffee art for everyone around our table.
How do we like The Red Beanbag? It was a tough call. We loved the ambiance, the service (which was way beyond excellence), the vibe but the food was somehow disappointing. Don’t get me wrong. Food was actually decent, but it was a case of setting our expectations too high after reading some of the rave reviews.
p/s: will revisit for the Classic French Toast though.
p/s: still think Antipodean Cafe serves best breakfast
THE RED BEANBAG
Lot A4-1-8, Solaris Dutamas
(opposite Publika’s open space/Ben’s)
Jalan Dutamas 1,
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603-6211 5116
Tue – Fri: 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
Sat – Sun: 9:30 am - 6:00 pm
Pre-booked dinners for functions available.
http://www.facebook.com/theredbeanbag
