Maricosa ~ Hawaiian dining experience

There's a new restaurant in town, well, it's not really that new, but I've never been there and have wanted to try out their menu.

This happened on the 5 Jan 2013. It was more of a New Year lunch celebration, as I was oncall on the 1st of Jan. Nevertheless, I got to do New Year's count down and makan-makan on the 31th Dec 2012 :))) so lucky!

Back to Maricosa, where we all had lunch...

 Very well themed, the restaurant is adorned with murals of coconut / palm trees, pineapples, hula-dancers and the waitresses and waiters all wore floral almost-like-batik shirts/dresses. The ceiling fans also were fan-shaped and chairs looked like pineapple-looking backings ~Awesome!

They have set lunches which cost RM32.90 ++. THis is inclusive of soup of the day, main course, and a choice of dessert or drink. I thought the choice of coffee/tea or dessert was rather odd, as most set lunches offer both instead. Anyway, we took desserts over drinks.

The soup of the day was cauliflower soup, served in a huge plate-cum-bowl.

Next-up was our main courses.
Barbaque Huli Chicken. THis was really tasty!! I liked the barbaque sause very much. Not quite sure what the Huli meant, but it came with a pineapple salsa. The chicken was tender and well seasoned. This main course came with a bun, pineapple salsa as mentioned, and fries.

The main that I ordered was the Pesto Prawn Spaghetti.
I was quite disappointed with this dish although initially I was happy to be greeted with 3 huge prawns.
The pesto spaghetti was rather bland. Probably the chef forgot to add salt to the dish!!! Sigh, if only it was not so tasteless, the dish would have been a great one as there was enough prawns to go by, and garlic and pesto to accompany the spaghetti. Unfortunately, the dish was tasteless :((

I had to request for more grated parmesan cheese, hoping the cheese would bring more taste or saltiness to the dish. ~ didn't do the trick.

Lastly, the dessert. As I did say before this, I found it odd that drinks were not offered with the dessert considering the size of the dessert was really small. It's the size of a glass of whisky shot. I later found out why a whisky shot glass for dessert was more than enough.

The dessert of the day was Chocolate Mousse.
And it was thick, rich and creamy!! The strawberry sauce that accompanied it simply complimented the chocolate mousse well...
And being thick and rich and creamy, you wouldn't was more than the amount of a shot glass. The quantity was just right.

I found this place a pleasant one. But honestly, it's a bit pricey...although they offer set lunches

So, all in all, I got to finally try out this restaurant and what it has to offer... If you have time, and happen to be around Straits Quay, have a try out yourself :)



 

Italiannis @ Gurney Paragon ~ recurring visit!

 Italiannies is fast becoming one of my favourite dining outlets, especially since they brought it up North to Penang. I must say, they have good food on their menu, abeit the rather slightly high pricing of their dishes. Well, I guess with good quality food comes an equally as good price :)

One of my favourite must-order items is the stuffed mushrooms!! O.M.G these are sooo good especially to go with their free-flow of bread & vinegar... Tender meat and soft mushrooms topped with cheesy sause - ah, my mouth is watering as i type!

Next-up, we ordered the Fettuccini Carbonara and Seafood Risotto. We wanted a good variety of pasta so one noodle and one rice. Both dishes were tasty and filling. And I mean... really FILLING!

We were so full by the end of the meal it was hard to take another bite... but... then this kind waiter came-up to our table and offered us a taste of their yet-to-be-on-menu dessert on the house!
How can anyone turn-down dessert especially if it's on the house! Ás they say, there's always room for dessert!

The surprise dessert was bread pudding with vanilla cream sause. Simple yet delicious! It was really good! This dessert was served freshly baked out of the oven;  with the sweet smelling vanilla and cinnamon all rolled into one....



 



Italiannies @ Gurney Paragon

Italiannies has finally opened in Penang! Ever since my Uni days in KL I, when I was first introduced to Italiannies by my close friend, I've been hoping for them to open one outlet in Penang....

Yes, yes, they finally came to their senses and did...at Gurney Paragon.

I'm been busy all this while and not wanting to get caught-up in the usual jam at Gurney drive (believe me, holiday or no holiday... gurney is always jammed with cars) I had been postponing visiting this newly opened restaurant since it opened this year.

At long last, I said it's time to have some dinner at Italiannies!

So, today's just under RM100 dinner was at Italiannies. We ordered 1 appetizer, and 2 main courses. Drinks were sky juice (hehe..) plus their complimentary bread to add to the stomach-stuffing agenda... hehaha...

The appetizer was their signature stuffed mushroom

One beef lasagna - to me it was different and interesting as it was served in a (what i assume to be) cast iron pot!

One shrimp & mushroom linguine... This was the BEST of the rest! So tasty and full of flavour!

You can imagine how packed the place was when I went that day...but nice interior work, don't you think? :)