Review: Showcase Lunch @ LaFite, Shangri-la KL

I confess that I share a rocky relationship with my baby sibling but as we grow older, we inch closer towards each other. I felt that our relationship improved the most when we were in overseas. Without our parents by our side, we were forced to grow up and behave maturely. No more yelling and screaming over the little-est things. Everything must be dealt with serious calculation and contemplation. Words must be spoken with reservations. Egos must be put aside. Apologies must be made after each party has said something wrong.

I guess this is the key to a good and lasting bond. 

Therefore, before year 2011 come to an end, I would like to sincerely apologize to all the nasty things that I have done to you, Panda. I may have done/said some pretty bad stuff in the past but I hope that you will forgive your Astronaut so that our bond could flourish. :) 

I hope that this short confession did not sound too corny. Hehe. 

My baby sis is about to leave Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne. In a way, it is a bad thing because this means that she won't be around to harass me at 4 am in the morning (She would jump on my bed and wake me up while I would groan away....) or tell stupid jokes that would crack me up without fail. 

In a good way, she will be able to collect my offer letter that was sent by my bloody uni to my Melbourne address - my uni knew that I was in Kuala Lumpur but they still sent the offer letter to my Melbourne address!

So, before she returns to Melbourne all by herself, we decided to spoil her shitless. Baby Panda wanted to have lunch at LaFite. So to LaFite we went. 

Astronaut and Panda

The timing cannot be any better as a new chef that hails all the way from the States is now in the house! Each time a new chef arrives, I just fall in love with LaFite all over again! :)

There are three options for lunch at LaFite: Showcase lunch, executive set lunch and business set lunch.  I highly recommend the showcase lunch. At RM 88++ per pax (If you are the Prestige Platinum card holder, you're entitled to discounts!), one gets to enjoy an appetizer buffet, one main course of your choice from five options (or was it four...) and one dessert of your choice from three options. 

Bread basket

 Things started off pretty promising. The offerings from the bread basket and the rather interesting winter butter satisfied all of us. All three types of the bread, from the multi-seed roll to the baguette, were lovely in their own way. The crispy baguette was good to mop up any soup or jus. The dusky rye roll and aromatic seed loaf are great for those who indulge in complex carbs.

Winter butter: Apricot, Figs, Maple Syrup in butter

However, the bread basket would not be that special without the winter butter. I find that each time a new chef arrives in the kitchens of LaFite, the butter changes. From the days of Kevin Cherkas right up to this present chef (Too busy munching to the point I forgotten to ask for the chef's name), I felt that this winter butter was the best thing that ever happened.

The butter was salty at first but segues into a sweet, fruity taste. In the end, there was a tart aftertaste. Pretty intriguing. It was especially good with the rye as it brought out the earthy taste of the rye.

Each of us were given a small serving of butter, which was a nice change from having just one huge slab of butter in the middle. In the end, each of us had half of the butter remaining and three rolls of bread left. Probably the first time we had that much of bread and butter since the truffle butter incident (Chef Campbell once presented us with truffle butter and my mom walloped the whole basket and the truffle butter cos' the butter was just so good).

A range of appetizers: Spicy duck roll, Tuna loin, foie gras in rye bread, pan seared scallop, caesar salad etc. 

The awesomeness continues in the appetizer department. There were a range of things catering to different palettes. If you're a cheese person, there's the cheese and melon. If you're a foie gras person, there's the foie gras with rye sandwich. Fancy some seafood? There's tuna, cured salmon and scallop options. There are also tropical fruit shooters that come in handy as palette cleansers between courses and potato leek soup for soup lovers.

Should I add that there is also a fruit platter that comprise of sweet rockmelon, perfectly ripened pineapples and lovely papayas?

Loved the delicate details of this salmon with horseradish 

 All of the appetizers were well-executed. We found no flaws in any of them. All of them tasted pleasant. We also loved the amount of detail placed in the appetizers. No sloppiness detected.

Ocean trout, pearl barley

 If appetizers were awesome, the mains were impressive. The ocean trout mains was nicely executed. The barley, which was so creamy that it could be mistaken as a risotto, was a perfect match with the ocean trout. It had this nutty quality to it that complimented the sweet ocean trout. Speaking of the ocean trout, it was prepared just right: Very moist and juicy, and you can still flake the whole fish in spite of that.

Overall, this was one dish with a wow factor.

Cod fish

 This dish was pleasant to the eye - few pinches of red and green in the pearly white was effective in jazzing the entire dish. Like the ocean trout, I expected this dish to taste pretty rich but it was actually pretty light. The sauce that came with it was not too creamy, which was a good thing. Fish was incredibly sweet and juicy.

Beef short ribs

The beef short ribs was the star of the day. My sister, who ordered this, finished it in less than five minutes! Usually, she takes her own time with her meal but I guess this is too tasty to resist. According to her, the beef short ribs tasted like pork. Upon hearing her description, I decided to steal two bites. It did taste like Chinese pork stew - there was the subtle flavours from star anise and cloves in the beef.
Texture wise, it was smooth but with a bite.

Lamb loin, polenta

Nevertheless, I felt that the lamb loin shone as well. I asked for mine done medium rare and it came out beautifully. There was a nice bite to the lamb. Taste wise, it was adequately-salted, which brought out the sweetness of the red meat. No traces of blood were seen. The jus was pretty strong, but I felt that together with the other components, it was perfecto.

Mont Blanc 

We actually argued over which dessert to order because three out of four people on the table wanted to have the black and white forest just because it was called the black and white forest. ><

In the end, my sister offered to have the Mont Blanc, which had chestnuts as its main component. While my sister ended up having my dad's black and white forest (he disliked it), my dad stated that the Mont Blanc was pretty decent. I had a bit of it and agreed. It was nutty with a refreshing aftertaste thanks to the combination of chestnuts and fruits such as kiwi, pineapple and clementines.

I would rate this as the second best dessert among the three we had that day.

Apple tatin, cinnamon, apple granita, caramel

Nobody wanted the poor apple tatin except for me. My mom did not think that this will be an interesting dessert but it turned out that the apple tatin was incredibly fun to eat.

The caramelized apple was not too sweet and had a tart flavour infused with the spiciness of cinnamon. Surprisingly, the airy, vanilla infused cream was great to go with the cooked apples. I actually had the apple granita separately as I was too pre-occupied with the apple tatin. On its own, the granita was pretty sour. Every bite was green apples. I actually enjoyed this whole concept of an apple tatin. :)

Black and White forest

The black and white forest was my least favorite. As a dessert, it was pretty rich even though the chocolate mousse at the middle was delightful (Good chocolate was used). My mom and sister enjoyed this but I preferred Senses' Black Forest over this due to the lack of kirsch? 

On the whole, my family and I enjoyed our lunch at LaFite. We felt that this was one of the better Showcase Lunches we had.  Our lunch this time around renewed our love towards LaFite and made us pretty excited to have dinner at LaFite. Can't wait at all!

Little things: 

-Ambience: It was pretty quiet that afternoon. Probably, everyone's still in the mood for holidays. 

-Service: This time staff were actually very attentive and explained what we had. :D

-Portion: If you're still not stuffed by the end of the meal, you can always head for the fruit section to grab some fruits. :)

-Budget: RM 88 ++ per pax. 

-More information: Click here