Mezze Bistro & Bar, Jalan Kasah, Medan Damansara

When Mezze first opened last year, it created a furore of food-citement among the food bloggers in KL. Some were invited for a tasting session, and their glowing reviews flooded the web. The lamb was outstanding, proclaimed one. The lamb pilaf is out of this world, shrieked another.
I was the unfortunate, un-famous, un-invited one & had to endure reading all that and drool. LOL!

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Well, where’s there’s good food, I would be there of course. Naturally I made plans to go, and was getting together a group of friends to join me.

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One year later, I still haven’t made it there. Ah well, you know.. work, new outlets opening, location, etc etc…

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Note the leg of the Iberico Pig on top of the counter.

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I finally stepped into the famed Mezze few weeks back. Mezze, recognised more for its liquor and for dinners, has now launched a lunch menu, with some items available on request from the dinner menu as well.

And it is here I finally found my favourite Nicoise Salad.

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Admittedly, it was that big slab of beautifully seared on the outside, moist & pink  tuna that caught my approval initially. However, subsequent bites wow-ed me over and I’m totally in love with this salad now. The vinaigrette dressing was of the right piquancy and all the elements of a good Nicoise was present – FRESH tuna (brownie points for not using canned ones!), anchovies, french beans, OLIVES, hard-boiled eggs and potatoes.

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It helps too that I’m a salad fan. And I love my salads with plenty of varying ingredients and in good-sized portions. Mezze’s salads are exactly such. Hence I’m of total approval of the next salad too – how could I not be? Cameralised onion rings, poached eggs, with pork bacon!
Ingenious combinations…. —  I love how each dish in Mezze is a amalgamation of interesting flavours and textures, and how it all came together harmoniously in a plate.

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The pizzas are beautiful as well, with the requisite smoky thin crust & pasta sauce made from scratch in Mezze’s kitchen. Oh love!  😉

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We’ve got wonderful mocktails to accompany our lunch. Of course we could have sipped wines and cocktails; as Mezze has a mind-blowing menu for such.  But we opted for the thick, no added sugar or water mocktails that came in an interesting variety of combinations instead as all of them sounded so good when we read it off the menu! Have I told you before that I’m a sucker for variety? Well, now you know!

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croquemonsieur .This is pure delightful comfort food. If you love bread, you’ll love this. If you don’t like bread, you’ll love this. LOL! It’s that good! But then, I could have been biased as I’m a hardcore bread addict!.

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It is simple yes, but only if it’s done right. And Mezze has got it perfected.
The texture of the fresh bread was wonderfully soft yet it is not empty fluff as the kitchen cleverly used wholemeal, effectively providing it with a bit of “body”. The dressing was just a light spread so it was overly “saucy” and hence it doesn’t get messy as you bite into it. The whole ensemble was buttery fragrant & sinfully delicious!

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We were fed another sandwich with thick cheese and premium ham (name & price to be updated soon, I’m missing the press release!). It’s good but it paled in comparison to the croquemonsieur.

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At this juncture, you’ll probably have realized that most of the food is above surpassable even by my fussy standards. I certainly hoped that it’s not due to the fact that this is an invited review. Still I would like to share with you on Mezze’s Food Philospohy. Mezze was born out of a love for good food and a desire to serve food in a relaxed environment. Datin Shantini Sabapathy, Culinary Director of Mezze (she didn’t allow us to snap a shot of her so you’ll have to visit Mezze if you would like to meet her 😉 ) set out to create was a modern bistro serving the kind of food one might find in a modern bistro in Paris or a tapas bar in Barcelona.

“Mezze food is unpretentious but big on flavour. There are no gimmicks and no frills. Nitrogen foam has no place in our cooking. Instead the emphasis is on serving good honest beautifully flavoured food using the best ingredients we can find.”

If you use good quality ingredients, the food will speak for itself – that has always been our philosophy. – quotes Datin Shantini Sabapathy.

And I’m not one to refute that! All good things starts from the fundamentals, and excellent food starts from each ingredients that goes into it.

Below: More food we sampled over lunch. Thank goodness I’m a bottomless pit! 😉

The Vegetarian Quiche. For vegetarians, this is sure to satisfy. I certainly was, and would happily repeat order for this if I’m ever going vegetarian. Ha.

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Chunkful of zucchinis, potatoes & tomatoes. I reiterate again, I love food in hearty portions, no measly small dices of vegetable/meats in my pies please!

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The ham & cheese quiche. Equally good. Thin flaky pastry, rich filling.

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We were told we absolutely have to sample ONE (1) pasta dish though we were bursting at the seams. I chose the Oxtail Papardelle cos it says on the menu “Braised for hours..”. Lovely, I thought. Anything that’s braised for hours develops flavours that permeats right into the meat and it also meant total tenderness in texture.

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Well, I’m happy to report that the oxtail papardelle was all that and more. I certainly didn’t expect those huge chunks of oxtail on the plate! My previous experiences with anything Oxtail was one or two bony oxtails, with some shredded meat in sauce on a plate.

Finally we managed to move on to desserts. We had their tarts of the day – Choc Pecan Tart & The Banana Tart.

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Both were equally splendid, but my pick would be the banana tart as I’m partial for anything bananas.

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Their signature Sticky Date Pudding. A closely guarded family recipe.

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Prior to desserts, we were taken for a short tour of the lounge upstairs.

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Mezze Lounge hosts Jazz acts every weekend and here’s the timetable for the month of April. Be sure to catch these jazz talents live accompanied by the renowned Michael Veerapan (Malaysia’s foremost jazz pianist, who is the musical director for Mezze Lounge) on piano.

DATES Performancers
1st & 2nd April
Amir Yusof
8th & 9th April Junji Delfino with MJV Trio
15th & 16th April Julian Chan Quartet featuring Wei Lee on Vocals
22nd & 23rd April Deanna Yusoff with the MJV Trio
29th & 30th April John Dip Silas Group featuring Marques Young on Vocals and Trombone

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Moving forward, Mezze Lounge aims to host wine tasting session, whisky appreciation nights and perhaps more musical acts/events  on a more frequent basis. Their bar boasts of brands and bottles of whisky that are mostly not available elsewhere. They have an in-house wine sommelier as well and the wine selection is pretty impressive with some labels primarily exclusive to Mezza Lounge only as they import directly from wineries/suppliers from overseas.

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Below: Almost all the liquors you can drink.

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Executive Chef Yves. The man responsible for all that glorious food.

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Website: Mezze Bistro & Bar
No. 132,
Jalan Kasah,
Medan Damansara
50490 KL Malaysia.

Opening hours:
Bistro – Monday – Saturday : Lunch Hours: 12pm – 3pm; Dinner: 5pm – 1am
Lounge – Monday – Saturday : 12noon to 1am
Closed on Sundays.

All pictures are:
rebeccasaw-samsungnx100

This Post Has 12 Comments

    1. Rebecca

      Beautiful textures and flavours. the leaves were slightly bitter, the tomato paste sweet, the cheese rich and savoury.

  1. Baby Sumo

    You had me at nicoise salad… what beautiful colours!

  2. Sean

    Ooh I haven’t tried most of these dishes that u sampled (but the egg-&-bacon salad one sounds like something I’d love). I gotta say though, the thing about mezze that I really like is not the food (even though it’s good), but how the people here make a genuine effort to make u feel at home. I could sit here for hours 😀

    1. Rebecca

      Oooohhh! That’s exactly their philosophy – “wholesome simple food that they serve in their own homes. It is this sharing of plates of great food, wine and company in a great atmosphere with great soul that led
      to the name of our bistro.”

  3. Isaac Tan

    Omg, you really do have a bottomless pit for a stomach! Lol!

    Medan damansara, let me figure out where’s that at. Lol.

    btw, I like the way you do these food reviews. On top of the beautiful pictures, you do give a lot of information to boot! Very cool

    1. Rebecca

      Aww. . thks Isaac! U made all the effort of writing worth it! I’m gonna sleep w a smile now!

  4. Caroline

    I have to say this. The foods all look one of a kind! especially the pizza and pastas! 😉

    1. Rebecca

      I love the salads & desserts so far. Hope to try the lamb that’s everyone’s been raving about soon.

  5. lotsofcravings

    looks like the chef and decor has changed since i visited when they first opened!

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