Readers of my blog would have noticed that lately, I’ve been consistently posting generally raving reviews of places I’ve patronised. I still occasionally experience those “not -so-great -dining moments” of course, but that has become an accepted dilemma as I have pretty fussy tastebuds. However, they were never so bad that it spurred me to write a negative review.
The oh-s0-not-great Sashimi Platter that cost us RM99++.
As the blog gets more popular, I try to skew towards positivity, as I have been criticized before for my harsh reviews & oh-called unobjective opinions. I still cared shit for what people think, but hey, sharing delicious desserts & food are so much more satisfying compared to a whiny post.
But today you’re getting a whiny post. Whiny because I paid a chunk of my currently carefully proportioned out-of -work budget on bland food, and to top it all off, I was sorely disappointed as this was supposedly my celebratory dinner after discharging from the hospital for ailments that till today the doctors are not able to pinpoint.
Arroz con Pollo. (RM25+)
Wikipedia: (“rice with chicken” in Spanish) is a traditional dish that is common throughout Latin America and The Caribbean, especially in Cuba, Colombia, Panama, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. Common ingredients include rice, beer, stock, sofrito (a mix of vegetables and fresh herbs), chicken, and saffron or more authentic and commonly annatto.
That was from Wikipedia. Now let me give you my description.
This is the bland-est chicken rice I have ever tasted. Which is surprising, as research on the net pretty much portrayed this dish as extremely flavourful, with the rice cooked in flavoured stock, plus addition of beer or wine. Since all 4 of us concurred on the taste, I guess I’m safe from getting sued for my description of the dish.
Now let me get back to the RM99+ Salmon Sashimi (Tiradito aji amarillo) (raw salmon marinated in yellow pepper sauce or something) dish.
What irked me about this dish is that for RM99+, I would have been served top-notch sashimi cuts (of a few varieties even!) in a reputable Japanese restaurant, or RM99+ could have bought me an all-you-can-eat buffet in town that pretty much let me stuff myself with unlimited sashimi. Here, for RM99+, I got a plate of salmon that could, or rather SHOULD have been fresher & more succulent. Well, at least the sauce was errmm.. interesting.
Lomo saltado. (RM25+)
Wikipedia: Lomo saltado is a Peruvian entree that has Asian influences (chifa) consisting of strips of sirloin marinated in vinegar, soy sauce and spices, then stir fried with red onions, parsley and tomatoes. Served traditionally over white rice with homemade french fries.
Now, don’t we all wish all food tasted like how it was described in wikipedia. The dish was served pretty much as described, but we would like to ask the Chef to perhaps be more generous with the whatever “vinegar, soy sauce and spices” that’s supposedly to be marinated with the sirloin, and pretty please too while he was at it, to ensure that when the sirloin was served, it remain tender & succulent instead of tough & chewy.
We have finally come to the last dish of the night.
Ceviche Mixto. (RM35+)
A nice big platter of fish, clams, mussels, prawns, squids & flower crabs. We thought it was weird that thick slices of sweet potatoes were found swimming in the sour dressing of the ceviche.
Anyhow, we were too disenchanted to worry about some sweet potatoes by then. While there were no complains on the portion for this one, we all opined that the seafood should have been fresher.
The shellfish were the worst. Leon suspected that it was not thawed properly prior to being prepared. I didn’t test his theory, as my recent stint in Assunta Hospital was still too fresh for comfort.
Chef came by our table at the end of the meal & all feedback as per what you are reading on the blog were duly given. His reply? The food wasn’t supposed to be as described. Well, by then we pretty much had all the dishes cleared so I couldn’t ask him to sample them himself. A pity really, I would have loved to really know if Peruvian food was truly as our experience above.
Ok, let me attempt to end this post on some positivity.
Have I mentioned that the coffees here were VERY GOOD? Well, at least the Guinness Coffee (RM12+) & the Latte (RM5+) were met with approval from Jo & Leon.
What? You want positive feedback from me?
Errmm.. my Mixed Berry (smoothie) was decent. 
Hehe…
Our bill. *ouch* 🙁
Email: [email protected]
Ristretto Cafe
Unit 3A @ 10 Mont Kiara
Jalan Kiara 1, Mont Kiara
50480 Kuala Lumpur
All pictures are:
It’s common to find Ceviche served with Chilled Sweet Potato and Corn (on a cob) in Peru, but the seafood has to be super fresh. I would be appalled if it wasn’t.
Yes there was a lot of corn! Hehe..
But yea, ceviche = utmost freshness for the seafood. Haizz..
U been to Peru?? Oh my…
LIKEsss
🙂
i love their coffee, only
Have you tried anything else??
I don’t think i have the taste bud to be a good food critique. hehehe
Hahah, dont be. cos then I won’t be as often disappointed as I am! 😛
Hehe well, the thing about ‘slightly bad’ places is that it’s not worth the effort to blog about. Even the average ones also I kind of like think … ‘why bother?’ … bad ones must blog though, so that other people no need to suffer the same culinary injustice!
Average ones yes, but bad ones i totally agree, have to highlight to all !
eeks! sorry to hear the get-well dinner didn’t turn out too well. besides the a la carte menu, i think i recall seeing some desserts on the counter front which looked OK. mainly cakes 😀
oH YES ..the cakes did looked more promising ;P
But we were really disinterested by then 😛
i like the way you described everything in detail, good or bad. That’s what makes your post interesting.
You just came out from the hospital? oh no 🙁 hope you’re okay Rebecca.
This phrase below cracked me up 😛
” What? You want positive feedback from me?
Errmm.. my Mixed Berry (smoothie) was decent”
For roughly RM60+ per person, I can imagine your disappointment.
Thanks fr the nice words Isaac! you been a great supportive friend!
Hhaha.. u like that part didn;t you 😛
the rice with chicken looks a little sad…
Hhmm, while I don’t care fr the presentation as much as taste, yea..everything was a little sad!
Hi rebeccasaw,
Kindly be informed that this post has been reprinted on JoinMe.com.my, thanks. ^^
P/S: We have put your name and link credit back to this article.
Rebecca first time seeing you so ganas wei :). The look itself is not that appealing actually. Especially the Shashimi. Anyhow, glad that the coffees were not too bad.
Yea, their coffees are really good apparently. A great place for snacks & coffee & ambiance!
Actually I prefer to read this type of reviews. Every blog post from the whole Malaysian blogosphere about food seems to be positive to a point where I don’t trust it anymore. This is refreshing.
HAha, do note that I don’t purposely write negative reviews. but this one was really disappointing. Anyhow, unlike tech, food is so subjective. And sometime different timing, cooks, etc produces different results. I would however, be inclined to support those who are consistent!
Sorry to hear you had a lousy experience here. When I was there, the food was really salty. I guess the chef went to both extremes. o_0
Hope you’re feeling better!
Oh my, so the food has been consistently not good, cos I got so many comments on FB etc about how lacking the food was. Ah well.. hope they improve or we wait for another Peruvian restaurant to open up! Haha.
Thanks babe.. I’m on my feet again. 🙂
actually all of the dishes look sad now thats fine if the food is above par but hey it wasnt even close. thanks for the review. and yes judging by aesthetics, again, the drinkas look good.
Yups, head here for coffee but not so for the food!
This is a really badly written review. Even sarcasm takes flair of which this piece is sorely lacking.
Thank you for even leaving a comment! 😀
Just to update everyone, I have just went to Ristretto recently and the coffee prices have gone up by about 50%..my Latte Macchiato was RM7.50. And my friends and I found it very much lacking in ambience, and we were all sweaty on a Sunday afternoon. Coffee was decent, but certainly not so attractive after the price hike! The cafe people couldn’t come up with a reason for the price hike as well, which disappointed us greatly.
Oh dear..the only thing we liked about it was the coffee.. and the increase doesn’t seem justified.
Well, all the best to them.. heard their BBQ nights are decent though.I haven’t been back since so I’ll withhold comment.
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I have lived in Peru for 5 years and my wife is Peruvian. I can say without a shadow of doubt that the food in the pictures is a terrible impersonation of the cuisine. We regularly cook most of the dishes above at home and it is a shame that a truly fantastic and unique cuisine is so poorly represented.
Hi Chris!
This post was a while ago 🙂
The same chef is at Pisco Bar on Changkat now and many, many people had said the menu and food is superb.
I haven’t visited the place myself, hope to do so soon and then I can write about it too! 🙂
I hope to have a positive experience !