London's Park Plaza Riverbank - The Club Lounge

The Park Plaza describes its Club Lounge restaurant as the following...

'The Club Lounge serves a modern European menu with dishes to suit all tastes. It also features expertly prepared daily specials and children's meals.'

The menu featured rich exquisite filling dishes - some of which, I have never heard of before!

My starter was a simple mini seeded bun with butter.

Drinks ordered were the Virgin Mojito & Virgin Momo. Yummmy....! I simply can't get enough of these... particularly the Virgin Momo...

Onion rings was my side dish. Slightly salty, but otherwise, the texture was great - soft inside and lightly crispy on the outside. Not so greasy as well =)...

My main dish was the 'Wild Mushroom tortellini with spinach and vanilla cream sauce'. This was delicious! I'll be keeping a lookout for any restaurants that cook this dish. It's my new favourite pasta dish... very filling, satisfying and yummmmy!! (It took me by surprise...!)

This was the 'Prawn & Crab cocktail with mango, avocado, tomato & melba toast' starter....mmm...

And finally, this is the 'Catch of the Day - Pan fried fillet of Salmon served with mash potatoes, baby carrots, spinach & bearnaise sauce'; elegantly presented and simply delicious.

To read about this hotel's bad, click here. To read about its room, click here.

Jom Makan - Malaysian Restaurant

I found this restaurant about a year or so ago. It was a mini hidden treasure for me, mainly because I like Malaysian food (the fusion of Indian & Chinese food go well together), I love coconut in dishes AND all the food are halal (no pork and alcohol too =D), so this remains one of my favourite restaurants.

I headed there not long ago this week for lunch; as usual, it didn't disappoint.

That day they didn't play any music, which was unusual. Normally they do have a light random mix of popular music in the background. The lighting is great. The restaurant is spacious. The staff are helpful as always.

The only thing about this restaurant I would improve is the design. It seems to me that not much about it says it's a Malaysian restaurant apart from the art picture of the Petronas Twin Towers.

'May I have the Apple & Lime Juice please?'

'And for me, may I have the Melon, Lychee & Mango Juice, please?'

'As always.... some prawn crackers for starters...'

These prawn crackers were spicy. A great twist to the normal prawn crackers. Try these if you haven't already... They're yummy appetisers (as long as you don't order more and more!).

'May we also get the vegetable potato samosas for our side order...?'

Quite greasy for my liking, but otherwise the mild curry taste was gently spicy for the taste buds.

'Add the salad to our sides please.'

I don't really know how to describe this salad. Just think of normal salad, with a slightly odd dressing (either you like it or you dont =P)!

'For the mains, we'll have... the Ayam Percik (Chargrilled marinated chicken coated with sweet spicy coconut sauce)'

This was yummy... I like the balanced spices, the coconut... delicious!

The only thing that I have to criticise was the chicken. Okay, so I'm picky with meat, and I know it's very hard (but not impossible! KFC can do it...) to cook meat thoroughly, i.e. no red/slightly brown bits in its meat... so this was the only thing that I didn't like about it.

'For me I'd like the Nasi Goreng (Chilli spiced stir fried rice with prawns, chicken & vegetables).'

Check out this restaurant here. 2 stores are now open in the UK - one in Trafalgar Sq & the other, at Westfield (this is the newest one).