AMPERSAND BY CULINARY REBELS- DINING & DIVE BAR @ UPTOWN, DAMANSARA UTAMA
Ampersand by Culinary Rebels………….
The
name itself is already enough to arouse my curiosity to dig in further the
stories behind this humble, quaint café that is unexplainably drawing to me. Rebranded
from the previous Ecole P, the founder has since graduated from the alma
mater and is now embarking on a more adventurous culinary bandwagon to
stimulate your ever discerning palate further with its unostentatious
presentation but embodying a greater depth of gustative acumen that surely
bewilders you.
It’s the Endless Possibilities!
That’s the spirit embraced by the team behind Ampersand where passion for food knows no boundaries over here, but instead solely depends how far your inner zest leads you to, as the manifested imaginations is simply infinite.
The
gastro-café interior is kept simple and understated with ornaments of whatnots
potpourri set within a casual and airy environment during day time, while
warm lighting ambiance emerges as twilight falls, turning it into a perfect
place to chilax especially towards the late evening.
Expect
scrumptious choice of hot dishes and coffee during the day and alcohol
(Carlsberg, Erdinger Dunkel, Hoegaarden, Kronenbourg Blanc, Asahi or Savanna)
with ingenious desserts when night falls, hehe.
Although
Ampersand is more food centric essentially, a decent array of drinks such as
coffee is also available from the counter too.
FLAT
WHITE (MYR 8)
Aromatic cuppa from the blend of Brazil and Columbia.
Embarked
unorthodoxly 2 weeks ago during our visit with the bold reconceptualization of
the local fares, the team behind Ampersand creatively serves up a rather
interesting rebel (as aptly touted) that nicely merges different culinary world
into a singular presentation that coalesces well entirely.
Breakfast
and brunch perfect venue of playfully but tastefully fusing our favorite Asian
cuisines that we so familiarly grown up with. And as such, we
are instantly excited upon seeing what’s dished up in front of us for the
special Brunch Menu that uses Banana Leaves, and no, it’s not your usual flooding
banana leaf curry rice but rather a much better and healthier option I would
say.
These
XXXL Breakfast and Chicken Feast are only available during the weekend and
ideally caters for 2 pax each. Of course, the portion could always be tailored
to your needs where the usual serving is up to 4 pax.
XXXL BREAKFAST (MYR 58 – 4 pax)
Generous
portion of scrambled eggs, crispy grilled bacon, tomato relish, grilled mixed
mushroom of Portobello, button and shimeji, jumbo grilled bratwursts to down
with mildly toasted buttered herbed roti (a.k.a buttered chapati)
My
palate is definitely astonished with all the good quality ingredients as part
of the feast. The tomato relish is tremendously alluring with its sweet
sourness that used fresh cherry tomatoes blending in with special recipes, that
pairs really well with the rest of the breakfast components. Smooth scrambled
eggs, fragrantly stir-fried assorted mushrooms (my fave), chunky huge brats,
crispy buttered toasties and chapatti with the superb zesty sauce, it certainly
makes up a perfect breakie selection to me.
The
tomato dipping is one brilliant ones that got me so addictive that can’t help but
to relish more in it- even on its own is already really good enough. I must say
that their homemade dippings are executed exceedingly well and they are really
good at this, especially the luscious pate(coming up next) that is so convincingly
appealing to someone like me who usually not so keen on innards chucks. Truly
thumbs up!
CHICKEN FEAST (MYR 36- half bird, MYR 64-
full bird)
Brined
for 24 hours with signature ingredients and roasted to tenderness, this dish is
served with braised phoenix claws, seared chicken necks and gizzards before
spiced up with pickled herbed purple cabbage, carrots, daikon, carrots, onion
jam and creamy liver a pate accompanied with lightly toasted bread slices.
Juicy and tender chicken meat that is grilled and pan seared before roasted, doused with freshly chopped chives for added aroma. I enjoy the saporously flavoured poultry meat by itself, even without any sauces but its natural sweetness.
As
the food is only prepared ala minute upon order, a waiting time of 30 minutes
are needed.
Two
types of homemade relish are served here, the chicken liver pate and sweet
caramelized onions. The pate was an all rounder- entices your palate with the
suave richness, where the ferric taste that usually occurs in any liver
serving, got handled very well by whisky that helps to iron that tricky part
out smoothly with some subtle sweetness entails behind.
For some nibbles, some
healthy fibre intake perhaps?
SWEET POTATO (MYR 6.50)
Sweet
potato, cucumber and ulam.
The
sauce using the yogurt as the base, before mixed with chopped julienned
cucumber and other greens, making it so intensely refreshing that nearly
tricks me into thinking it as mint sauce (=
For
ribs lovers, you surely would like to check these out!
FENNEL RIBS BY THE BUTCHER
Fennel
and paprika spice rub pork ribs served with special spiced tomato sauce and
house pickled vegetables.
MISO GCJ RIBS BY THE MAGICIAN
12
hours miso gochujang marinated pork ribs with miso gochujang glaze and apple
chutney and my fave kimchi! Daebak!!
SAMBAL RIBS BY RAYMAN
Equally
thoroughly marinated for 12 hours, this Indonesian-inspired sambal marinated
pork ribs has been added with some interesting Asian twist- Kelantanese budu
sauce and served with winged bean salad.
After Chocolate Burger encounter (which I thought it’s
already provocatively on the extreme side), now we have Chocs & Ribs!
Yes,
you heard it right. Choco-infused ribs! Welcome
onboard (=
CACAO RIBS BY RAYMAN
Varlhona
Cacao and chili spice rub with balsamic chocolate glaze and pickled vegetables.
Varlhona
Cacao and chili spice rub with balsamic chocolate glaze giving it a light crispy coat, acompanied by pickled vegetables and
ulam. Meat is tender and thoroughly marinated. Fret not as it won’t be a sweet,
chocolaty ribs but a cleverly fluxed hint of savory-sweet aftertaste.
Splendidly smart as a whip teaser! I’ll certainly be back for this again (=
All
the ribs have been marinated for 24 hours before cooked sous vide way for
another 12 hours in order to lock up all the juice.
Each tantalizing ribs are
served at MYR 26 for half or if you have a bigger appetite
then a full rack of ribs at MYR 48 is just perfect!
Wondering is there any
pasta? Yes, you want it, you got it!
SPAGHETTI AGLIO OLIO (MYR 9.90)
Spaghetti
stir fried with shallots and garlic and chili flakes. For added taste, simply
top up with bacon and mixed mushrooms at only MYR 3.50 and MYR 6.90 each. Love
the peppery taste and homey to my heart. It might appear simple but the lingering
scrumptiousness of it is suffice to left me yearning for more, awesome!
CREAMY KIM (MYR 10.90)
Creamy
Kimchi Pasta that is served fuss-free but tasted stellar!
An
honest treat with a blend from the Hallyu region fusing spaghetti, kimchi and
cumin cream in this enticing East and West marriage. Aju masshisosoyo, joah!
Some snacks do sound good,
don’t it? =)
WINGS PLATTER (MYR 45- 10 PCS)
5
flavours in a service! 2 pieces of each flavor with mystery sides!
Choose
from Thom Thom Wing, Devil Wing, CCB Wing, Siracha Buttermilk Wing and Sinful
Wings.
THOM THOM WING
Stickly
glazed with garlic sauce and drizzled with garlic chips and pegaga.
DEVIL WING
Spiced
up with charred scallions, lemons and topped with Szechuan pepper oil before
garnished with Szechuan peppercorn on the crispy skin
CCB WING
Chicken
Coated with Belacan! ^_^
Belacan,
shrimp paste, palm sugar marinated wings with pegaga.
SIRACHA BUTTERMILK WING
Brined
wings with buttermilk, mustard, served with sriracha sauce and pegaga.
SINFUL WINGS
Spiced
wings, nestum sprinkled, crispy pork lard and pegaga.
Some optional suggestion; CCB and Garlic wing to go with lime and Devil with lemon.
New
dessert creations in the house!
Expect
not the usual effortlessly liquid molten lava but also with a textured body as it
comes with different dimension too, wow!
Saw it? Some Tom Yam crumbles and kaffir lime leaves- curious what are they doing here? ^^ |
KILLING ME SOFTLY (MYR 20)
Varlhona
peanut butter molten lava cake served with chocolate sand, Kapiti vanilla ice
cream and crispy bacon!
LOLITA’S REVENGE (MYR 20)
Lemon
scented white chocolate molten lava cake inventively crafted with Thai herbs
infused lime panna cotta, spicy sand and Kapiti Vanilla ice cream.
With the impatient foodie with a knife behind, indeed living up to its name, "Lolita's Revenge"! Haha........ |
Both
lava indulgences also comes with a buttery and light squarish stroopwafel that is
already a joy even by itself, yum!
Well,
those dessert creations are just a tip of the iceberg for you could expect more
inventive recipes to surprise you during your every visit! One of them is this
beautiful salted egg dessert that we are able to try earlier during the R&D
stage. But for now, deconstructed lava confectioneries are there to tickle your
taste buds first (=
For
added indulgence, savoured your scoop of molten lava together with the
salted-egg infused white sauce that wrapped it up with a bang.
And right now, even before
my first dining experience has been imprinted in my Carpe Diem blog, I’ve
returned to the captivating enclave to fix my craving again, hehe. And they’re
none other than Cacao Ribs and Chicken Wings, slurps! Now you know what my
personal favourites are (=
So head over here soon to
whet your palate with the fascinating array of earnest repast that this enthusiastic
squad got to offer and I already unfeignedly looking forward to more enthralling
dishes and what’s coming up next in the pipeline of this imaginative
establishment. Kudos to the team again!
Am.&er.sand
“Imperfection of a broken infinity is what makes it
perfect”
Location: 19A,
SS21/37 (1st floor), Uptown, Damansara Utama
Contact: +603 7732 9711
Business Hours: Mon - Fri: 11 am - 11 pm
Sat & Sun: 10 am - 3 pm & 5pm -
12 pm
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