Review: Cakes at Swich Cafe, Publika

We dropped by Publika Shopping Gallery for dinner and was walking around just to exercise a bit when Capt'n Hook declared that he would love some cake and coffee. Boi Boi and him likes to have dessert after their mains. We stopped by at the information counter and browsed the shops around and looked at the leaflets and chanced upon one that mentioned Swich Cafe's opening just a few days before.

Swich Cafe is no stranger to me, not when I have Lyrical Lemongrass plus a couple of other non-blogger friends who kept posting the utmost delicious offerings especially the out of the norm cakes by Swich Cafe on their Facebook timelines. Made me sounds as if I've known the proprietress, Lim Cheng Cheng, for ages haha. We have tried their offerings during Bangsar Shopping Complex's Epicurious Brunch and was looking for more but the first location at HP Tower doesn't seems to have a very ideal opening hours hence I guess a lot of us out there would think the Publika outlet is really Heaven sent!

When we dropped by, Cheng Cheng was there and oh boy we really does seems like we have known forever! Lol it was especially so when Capt'n Hook, Cheng Cheng and myself were in the same line of business. As the industry was quite small, there were many names exchanged in the conversation. We did that over a slice of Hummingbird Cake (RM10.00) and a Latte (RM8.00).



Capt'n Hook likes moist cakes with lots of nuts and this Hummingbird Cake fitted the bill when the crunch came from the toasted coconut flakes. The cake was packed with banana and pineapple with a nice hint of spices. The coconut cream frosting is a nice compliment without being very sweet.



Boi Boi as expected chose his ever favourite chocolate cake but this is no ordinary chocolate cake but one made with Valrhona Chocolate (RM12.90). The cake is moist with the right amount of sugar and you'll know good quality chocolate is used when the taste can be exquisite and luscious to the mouth plus it was so well made that the ganache shined like a mirror under the bright lightings.



So far business has been picking up and Cheng Cheng hopes to sell more if their savoury dishes but then again she's not helping it when she keeps coming up with so many ingenious desserts using out of the ordinary ingredients like jackfruit, mangosteen or even avocado. I can also vouch that the savoury dishes are not your typical stuff but do expect a married of East and West such as butter prawn or even sweet and sour chilli crab pastas! Can't wait to dig in more of these and we're going to pop by at Publika soon.

Note: There's a 10% service charged on the total bill.

Swich Cafe
Level G3 Publika Shopping Gallery
Solaris Dutamas
Kuala Lumpur
Business hours: 10.00am - 10.00pm (Mon - Sun)


Mezzanine Floor, HP Towers,
12 Jalan Gelenggang, Bukit Damansara,
Kuala Lumpur
Business hours: 10.00am - 3.00pm (Mon - Fri)
Tel: +6018 599 5152
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Swichfinefood/

Review: The Bee @ Publika

**Pork-free as alcohol is served**


We have been to The Bee at Jaya One for burgers and Last Polka ice creams but this time we managed to sneaked into The Bee at Publika for burgers after we were a tad too early for Fat Boy Burger's opening.



This outlet is huge as compared to Jaya One's. Loved the high ceiling that creates an airy ambiance and it wasn't way too crowded for us to enjoy our burgers. Just as they advocate that they're a neighbourhood hang out, and they really do fit into that category with a relaxed atmosphere.



The mish mash of furnitures add on a little quirkiness. I've noticed quite a number of the furniture pieces are a piece of art on its own and I believed they're made from recycled items to fit into Publika's tag to make art a part of daily life. There are many nooks and corners plus alfresco dining to suit your moods. Eating alone? No problem, pick a tall chair and watch the world goes by, by looking out onto the alfresco dining area...



Catching up with friends over coffee (they serve artisanal coffees btw) and cakes over these comfy sofas and arm chairs. Just take your pick from the many arrangements.



Since it's casual dining, don't you loved how the cutleries are plonked into a very old school enamel mug. Noticed enamel wares are slowly creeping into cafes these days? Before plastics were made popular, I remember each of us has a smallish enamel mug for us to rinse our mouth after brushing our teeth when we were kids!



For drinks, I had The Bee's Freshly-Made House Lemonade (RM6.50). Nice and refreshing, yes made from real lemon juice, not the cordial kind. Capt'n Hook stick with his Stewart's Fountain Classic Root Beer (RM8.50) which is root beer, key lime with cream soda. Not overly sweet, suits my taste bud. Pssst they have the float version in case you're craving for a root beer float :p



This was how Capt'n Hook's Bee Burger (RM19.50) looked like. In between the toasted sesame seeds buns, there is a nicely done (Capt'n Hook requested for well done) thick beef patty, a slice of cheese, beef bacon, thick slice of pickled cucumber, lettuce and a house made aioli. No tomato as seen since he had requested not to have any due to his GERD. Even though the patty was made well done, it still retained it's juiciness but Capt'n Hook couldn't helped raving about the juicy chicken burger at Uncle Chilli's Bar @ PJ Hilton lol!



BoiBoi and I have a Cheeseburger (RM15) each! We can't share much these days since BoiBoi's appetite has grown tremendously o.O. This Cheeseburger has the same works as Bee Burger except for the beef bacon slice.



Both burgers were served with a bunch of not too thin, not too thick fries which surprisingly I liked and walloped the whole lot of my share. Kinda rare since I'm not fond of deep fried stuff. Don't be shy for ask for condiments like chilli or tomato sauce, mustard etc.

There are many other choices of burgers here to suit everyone, ranging from French Burger; Australian Burger, Hawaiian Burger (that has an additional slice of pineapple); Japanese-styled Ebi Fry Burger and Tori Katsu Burger; Chicken Burger and there's even a Falafel Burger for the vegetarians! Some of these burgers reminded me of Bergs Burger in Singapore, oh so yummy!

If burger is not your cup of tea, they do have other stuff like hot dogs, pastas and pies. Since we were all stuffed up, so no desserts, otherwise we would have gone for the Last Polka ice creams.

There are so many eateries springing up here in Publika that it's very hard to catch up especially for us who stay so far from this area! Hopefully we'll get to try out the rest soon, very soon! So far, we loved the non-halal hawker center Eat Food Village for the varieties.


The Bee
36B, Level G2, Publika, Solaris Dutamas
Jalan Dutamas 1, 50480, KL
Mon - Thurs: 9am - 12am
Fri: 9am - 1am
Sat: 10am - 1am
Sun: 10am - 10pm
Tel: (+6016) 6736 142


2A-G, Block K, Jaya One
72A Jalan Universiti, 46200 Petaling Jaya
Opening Hours:
Mon - Thurs: 9am - 11pm
Fri: 9am - 12am
Sat: 10am - 12am
Sun: 10am - 10pm
Tel: (+603) 7960 2160

Review: Eat Food Village @ Publika

**Non-Halal**




Following the heels of Lot 10's Hutong, a non-halal food court that houses a host of famous street food stalls around Kuala Lumpur, Publika, the "mall" located at Solaris Dutamas did the same by hosting a different selections of popular hawkers at their Eat Food Village. It's a rejoice for non-Muslims to be able to enjoy quite a number of famous stalls within a clean and comfortable environment. Not only that, being able to savour different items all under one roof instead of driving all over town just to taste one by one!

Eat Food Village has lesser stalls as compared to Hutong BUT there's one thing I enjoy very much here is the great ventilation system. In Hutong, even though it's air-conditioned but when I emerged out of there, the smell of the fumes actually cling on to by clothes and hair. There is an advantage though... I could actually smell the nice aroma of the stir-frying and deep fried lard :p in Hutong, pretty authentic element of a normal food court.

On the Saturday afternoon we were there, it was packed! A good sign indeed to keep the food court going.

I ordered a single serving of hokkien mee (fried thick noodles RM7.90) from Sentul Ah Yap. I was given a beeper which will beep when my noodles are ready. No wonder there isn't long queue here :D Loved the super dark noodles from this stall that maintained the wok hei (breath of the wok). There were bits of crispy lard peppered the dish. No regrets and the person who helmed the wok when I was there was a Chinese man. As for the price, just a little higher from normal coffee shops pricing between RM4.50 to RM6.00 but the portion is pretty huge.



Given every opportunity that he can, BoiBoi will order Char Koay Teow (RM9.90) and I did just that at Lorong Seratus Tahun Authentic Penang Cuisine. I also ordered Penang Chee Cheong Fun (RM6.90) from here. Pricing here is pretty high IMHO but if they tastes good in such a comfortable ambiance, why not?

The Char Koay Teow (stir-fried flat rice noodles) really fall short of my expectation. It did looked good but the wok hei is just not there. Since I'm used to low sodium diet... this plate of noodles are really bland. Just a note though, this version is without chilli. Also noted that the cooks and handlers are all foreigners. Authentic taste lost in transition?



The uniqueness of Penang Chee Cheung Fun (rice noodles) is instead of the normal bean paste sauce, hae koh (har koe in Cantonese or known as shrimp paste) is used together with chilli sauce. This is not too bad but got a little jelak as we delved further. Pricy in my opinion for plain chee cheung fun.



As for drinks, we just can't get enough of ChaTime (a popular bubble tea outlet) which has an outlet inside Eat Food Village! The queue wasn't long here which is a great point. This time round I tried the wintermelon tea with pearls whilst BoiBoi had mango smoothies. I loved the pearl milk tea but now trying to cut down by asking for non-dairy tea with zero or less sugar. I tend to forget to ask them to cut down or omit the sugar... would love to see that the person who is taking the order to ask customers of their liking.



Other than these 3, you can find the yummy chilli pan mee from Kin Kin; BM Yam Rice; Fishing Village Yong Tau Foo; Hoong Kee Wan Tan Mee; Lorong Seratus Tahun; Yeoh's Bak Kut Teh and so forth. Check out the list here.

I'm so in loved with Publika for the art pieces all around, quaint cafes and shops, plus every food lover's supermarket - Ben's Independent Grocer. In there, it houses a number of small sections of cafes and outlets under BIG umbrella. We did have a meal in there and will blog about it in another post.


Publika
No 1, Jalan Dutamas 1
Solaris Dutamas
50480 Kuala Lumpur

Map