Nasi Padang. “Field Rice”?

Potato Will came to visit KL couple of weeks back from Washington for work, so a few of us get together for dinner and drinks. JL planned the whole itinerary for the night – dinner in Ampang, followed by drinks with the KL skyline as background and clubbing near KLCC.

JL asked me if there are any nice place for dinner in Ampang… I’m clueless except for Nong & Jimmy at Taman Cahaya. I texted Tummythoz but she replied that she seldom eat in Ampang too. So, back in square one, we search high and low of the makan blogs and we concluded to drop by Sari Ratu at Ampang Waterfront which serves Indonesian-Malay cuisine and nasi padang.

To heighten your “drool sense”, first, feast your eyes on the dishes on display at the counter. The choices were not as much as I expected but enough to make you hesitate… “Should I get this or that one?” “This one look pretty good too…” “My favourite rendang! Wait, I already picked another beef dish earlier!” Anyway, the helpful and friendly staff will recommend some of the dishes to you and basically, you can’t go wrong with their recommendation. The Gulai Masak Nangka was pretty good, very lemak with chunks of jackfruit, cabbage, long beans and other veggies in a not-too-spicy gravy.

Dendeng Daging which is made of fried thinly-sliced beef and serve with pounded chillies. It’s not the usual crispy type and although the texture was a bit chewy, it still taste good nonetheless.

I tried a good version of Pergedel at Enak KL before, thus Sari Ratu’s version lack the “oomph” with lesser minced beef, more potatoes and spices. The outer crust was a bit soggy too.

Aubergine aka eggplant/brinjal wasn’t my favourite veggie but this simple dish of stir fried aubergine with pounded chillies tastes marvelous, not too greasy and went well with rice.

This is the first dish we ordered, Chicken Pop. We ordered 4 pieces of this to be shared among the 8 of us and all of us like it. Served with tapioca leaves and a dark and thick sauce which resembles rojak sauce (tastes a bit salty and sweet at the same time), the chicken lightly fried, thus retain the juicy, succulent meat.

We love their Rendang a lot; tender beef chunks cooked with spicy and thick gravy. We ended up ordering 3 servings of this and literally flood our rice with the gravy. Potato Will, not really into spicy food, agreed that the dish was great too.

And some Kerepek (tapioca chips) to end the satisfying meal.

For drinks, I had the Alpokat juice that came in a tall glass, filled to the brim with blended avocados and chocolate sauce. It’s so thick, it filled my stomach really fast but from my opinion, it tastes rather bland.

The colourful Ais Teler is another recommendation – akin to our local ais kacang; shaved ice, avocado pieces, coconut flesh, palm seeds and pink sago in a pinkish syrup that looks like bandung.

I reckon the next time we come here again, shall order some their fish, vegetable dishes as well as the beef rendang. The guys also ordered something which they said is a cow’s brain *shudders* and it looks like a piece of mashed, mushy vegetables (no picture on that). If Ampang is not your usual playground, you can drop by their other outlets too which might be nearer to you.

We then adjourned to Look Out Point at Hulu Langat (with JL as the navigator) and we were surprised that the place is so packed, they doesn’t allow us to drive up to the restaurants. Instead, we had to park our cars down at the main gate and take the stairs but the view is really worth it. So, if you planned to come here on weekend, remember to come early.

Restoran Sari Ratu
No. 26, Ampang Waterfront,
Taman Kosas, Ampang,
Kuala Lumpur.

GF 42-2, Jalan Sultan Ismail,
Bukit Bintang,
Kuala Lumpur.
(same row as Pizza Hut and Izzi)

No. G26-G28, Jalan 4/76C,
Desa Pandan, 56100
Kuala Lumpur.

Web: http://www.sariratu.com/

Other flogger’s opinion:

• Masak-Masak