Food Trail: KL ? Free Range Chicken Rice & Ribs by Vintry

After reaching KL from Penang, we headed to Rocket United for a very late dinner and call it a day, last night. Today, we had skip breakfast to get some work done. For lunch we had quick and easy one somewhere around Desa Petaling, chicken rice was what we had. I don’t know the road name but here’s the coordinates to the place.

The chicken rice shop/stall that we had our lunch was call ‘Sang Kee’. They serve poached and roasted chicken, ’suen choi’ or sour vegetables soup and ‘char siew’. The chickens that they have are quite big in size and very meaty, plus customers can choose from either farmed chicken or free range chicken depending on your preference.

On that hot Friday afternoon, we only had desire for poach free range chicken and ‘char siew’ with a side order of ’suen choi’. The poached chicken skin was yellowish in color similar to those seen on Hong Kong serials, ‘wong yau kai’ or direct translation yellow oil chicken. The last time I had chicken that looked like this was last year in Setiawan and Pangkor Island while attending wedding dinners of relatives. The poach chicken at ‘Sang Kee’ was quite meaty but a bit bland for my taste buds. The skin was firm and rich though.

As for the ‘char siew’, it had quite a good ration of lean meat and fats, and the taste was above average with a sweeter after taste. A must have for me, if we do go back again.

I can’t speculate about the ’suen choi’ for I was afraid that my stomach acid was acting up again, but from Gill’s feedback was that it also have an above average taste.

The chicken rice was normal, it had a very light seasoning with chicken essence which some may not have even tasted its presence if he she is accustom to out side food.  And the accompanying broth was very light, clear and sweet, with a hint of cabbage flavor in it…very comfortable soup. And that was all we had for lunch.

To sum up our experience at Sang Kee Chicken Rice:

Taste & Texture: 3.0/5 (Chicken was slightly bland and the rice was just mediocre)

Money Value : 3.0/5

Service: 3.0/5

Cleanliness: 3.0/5

Atmosphere: 3.0/5

In the early evening we had attended the AFC preview party at NEO, after which we headed Jalan Kasah for ribs at Ribs by Vintry. We have been to that area for Italian food, but not to either Ribs or their sister restaurant Vintry.

We were told ribs, be it beef or pork, were their specialty at  Ribs by Vintry, so for our mains we ordered 2 variations of pork ribs. One was their ‘Saute Butter Cream Sauce Ribs’ and the other was their BBQ pork ribs. And for desserts we shared their, also specialty, ‘Tiramisu’.

Gill was praise for the ‘Saute Butter Cream Sauce’ which was different, or fusion in taste. This variation of cream sauce was surprisingly fresh with the usage of some Asian herbs (lemon grass and some hint of orange peel) and not too overwhelming in terms of the after taste. The accompanying sautéed potato was equally tasty and creamy with a fluffy texture, but not much could be said about the side vegetable salad. Ribs wise, my only complains are that there were not enough meat on them and there was a hint of that ‘frozen’ meat taste left in the ribs. I was told that the ‘frozen’ meat taste was the effect of importing the ribs from Europe to acquire the the cut and taste that the chef wanted to present to their customers. Local pork ribs could have been sufficient, but then it is hard to get consistent supply of the cut and texture that the chef want. We too also have found that same cut of pork from different pork sellers in different areas have varied taste and texture. This may be due to the feed, age and condition of the pigs reared in.

The BBQ pork ribs also shares the same ‘frozen’ taste problem and insufficient meat on the bones. Taste wise, it tasted similar to the common BBQ ribs offered else where except the extremely smooth potato mash that was hidden at the bottom of the ribs.

The ‘Tiramisu’ was at first the most criticised item we had for the night at Ribs by Vintry. The ‘Tiramisu’ was bland(no cheesy richness or taste), no liquor taste and the biscuit was already soggy. This biscuit actually reminded me of water soaked dry corn cereal(Nestum). And it was one of the reasons or products that gave us a better insight of the confidence and responsibility of the staffs of the restaurant. After we made our complaints known on paying, we were assured that our grievances will be looked into. And immediately the cashier, Edmund, went into the kitchen to look into our feedback and brought another glass of their signature ‘Tiramisu’ for us to reevaluate. We tried it and it was a lot better than the glass that we paid for. The cheese taste was richer, there was a stronger hint of ‘Kahlua’ flavor and the biscuit was still firm.

To sum up our experience at Ribs by Vintry:

Taste & Texture: 3.3/5 (The pork ribs were slightly hard in texture and lack meat, but the fusion type sauce was something refreshing to our taste buds)

Money Value : 3.0/5 (not a whole lot, but sufficient to last out the whole bowl )

Service: 3.9/5 (not much attention during our dining due to under staffing, but the effort to answer our complains were main decision maker in our grading here)

Cleanliness: 3.5/5

Atmosphere: 3.5/5