The Morning After, Pavilion

The deal: RM30 for RM60 cash voucher for food and drinks at The Morning After

What we got:

In contrast with TMA's other outlets in Jaya One and Ativo Plaza, the one in Pavilion, KL wasn't a proper restaurant per se, but rather a counter-cum-kitchen with tables surrounding it. Perhaps it was because of there was no proper cooking area, that the food did not turn out as good as expected.

Wild mushroom soup (RM9.90)

TMA's wild mushroom soup supposedly came with 'hints of truffle oil', but we didn't taste any, not in the slightest. In fact, the soup came really bland, lacking even the basic taste of regular mushrooms. 

Pumpkin soup (RM9.90)

Although the taste of pumpkin in the pumpkin soup was more discernible than mushroom in the mushroom soup, it still wasn't one of the better ones we've tried (my favourite is still the one from Opika).

The American Dream (RM19.90)

The American Dream a.k.a. the big breakfast, with your typical egg, beef bacon, lamb sausage, roasted cubed potatoes, cherry tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms and buttered sammie, i.e. TMA's version of a bagel. The lamb sausage, potatoes, cherry tomatoes and mushroom were good, but the bacon was rather dry. The egg, too, was overly cooked, and so came out dry and, for lack of a better word, flaky.

Mexican Baked Eggs (RM17.90)

The Mexican baked eggs came topped with baked beans, with a filling of cherry tomatoes, peppers and chicken chunks. These eggs also lacked flavour and seasoning, and the one-dimensional taste of overly-done eggs and cheese resulted in us not finishing this dish. As with every dish so far (yes, including the soups), this came with buttered sammie. We found the texture rather tough, and while it tasted all right, our mouth got tired after a while.

All in all, we were not impressed by the food at TMA's Pavilion outlet. It could be that food at its other outlets (with a proper kitchen?) may fare better, but based on this experience, we are not likely to revisit.

Tax: Service charge of 10%

How much we paid: RM32.25

Mono Sushi, Solaris Dutamas

The deal: RM16 for RM30 cash voucher for food and drinks at Mono Sushi (the RM30-for-RM60 vouchers were sold out by the time we decided to get the deal)

What we got:

Mono Sushi prides itself on its 120-variety of sushi; 10 interpretations each of 12 different main ingredients: aji (horse mackarel), ika (cuttlefish), hamachi (amberjack), suzuki (sea bass), tai (sea bream), hotate (scallop), ebi (shrimp), unagi (eel), salmon,  managatsuo (butterfish), tako (octopus) and maguro (blue tuna). Prices for the sushi range from RM1.80 to RM10.80. 

Left to right: salmon belly (RM2.80), butterfish (RM1.80), sea bass carpaccio (RM3.80), mentai butterfish (RM2.80), spicy blue tuna (RM4.80) and mango eel (RM6.80)

Ume shiso sauce sea bream (RM3.80) and nama su sauce sea bass (RM2.80)

When presented with so many choices, it can be hard to make a decision - so what we did was to decide what seafood we wanted first, then move on to how we want it prepared. As you can see we kept it safe the first order round, before venturing into less familiar territory with the last two sushi. 

The fish/eel were generally fresh, but we weren't a fan of the rice; it was too wet/mushy and the taste required tweaking (for us, some of the better conveyor-belt sushi chains may fare better). 

Chicken teriyaki and sushi bento (RM23.80)

Mono Sushi's bento box came with the usual chawanmushi and miso soup, but no fruits. Portion was a little small for our liking (though it may not look it from the picture; that or we were just really hungry) and we didn't really enjoy the sushi (the centre is cucumber, not fish as you would expect). In terms of taste, it was just average.

We also ordered a glass of cold green tea, which costs RM1.80.

As a whole, we'd say Mono Sushi was worth a try, 

Tax: Service charge of 10%

How much we paid: RM32.50

Muugu, Jalan Jati

The deal: RM55 for RM100 cash voucher for food and drinks at Muugu

What we got:

Muugu is one heck of a place to find. We spent a good 10 to 15 minutes circling the Jalan Jati / Jalan Delima / Jalan Inai area before finally giving up and gave the restaurant a call. A good landmark is Villa Inai; take a left turn right before the condo block and you should be able to see it.

Complimentary bread

Twisty tomato (RM13.95)

Described as 'classic tomato - with a flying kick', Muugu's rendition of tomato soup does indeed have that extra zing to it - we suspect, with an addition of chilli, but just the right amount as not to overwhelm the natural flavours of the tomato fruit.

Truffle fries (RM11.95)

Ahhh, truffle fries. Although Wiki tells us that most truffle oil is actually not made of real truffles, that doesn't change the fact that the bowl of fries we had were wonderfully aromatic and absolutely addictive. So good we paid scant attention to the dipping sauce that came with it.

New York strip (RM39.95)

Muugu called it steaks 'award-winning', so how could we not order them to try? We got the 220g New York strip, which came with sides of ratatouille and mashed potato, and our choice of sauce (we opted for the red wine). We wouldn't necessarily call it the best we've had, but pretty decent as far as steaks go. The mashed potato was a little bland, but we loved the ratatouille. Yums!

Mixed seafood fettucine (RM27.95)

Our other main was the mixed seafood pasta - choose between the penne, fettucine, linguini or spaghetti, tossed with prawns, squid and mussel in a tomato base. Again, a fairly well-executed dish.

What we liked at Muugu, besides the service, was the rather affordable price tag relative to the location. For a restaurant housed in a bungalow a stone's throw away from the Golden Triangle, we expected prices to be on the higher side, where soups would cost somewhere in the mid-twenties and mains probably somewhere near forty (steaks would be in a different price bracket, of course). We really wouldn't mind revisiting.

As was the case with our Black Market vouchers, we got free RM25 credit, so we ended up only paying RM30 for RM100 deal value. 

Tax: Service charge of 10%

How much we paid: RM33.20

Black Market, Kampung Pandan

The deal: RM50 for RM100 cash voucher for food and drinks at Black Market

What we got:

First of all, apologies for the pictures in this post. As we're only using our phone cameras (no DSLRs!) and the lighting at Black Market wasn't ideal (it was not well-lit enough for proper pictures), the pictures are pretty dark and low-quality. 

Garlic butter scallop (RM16)

We started off the meal with an appetiser of garlic butter scallop. The amount of scallop more than justified the RM16 price tag. Enjoyable, especially for those who love the fragrantly stinky bulb (this dish was loaded with 'em!).

Black Market's grilled chicken (RM25)

Black Market's grilled pork shoulders (RM38)

We wish we could say we were wowed by our mains (we wanted so much to be) but sadly we can't. While the chicken was succulent, the pork turned out tougher than expected. The sauce for both also tasted rather similar, in that both were quite overwhelming and salty. Save for the different meats used, we couldn't really taste much difference between the two. Truth be told, I regretted my rather ordinary pork order (which costs almost RM40 before service charges). I'm not saying the mains were bad, but I suppose we had higher expectations of the food, especially after seeing how many people were raving about the place in their blogs.

Red velvet cake (RM13)

Our dessert of red velvet cake was quite forgettable. 

Our dinner at Black Market worked out to be  a very cheap (relative to the place, that is) meal for us. Because the group discount site was running a campaign where you could get RM25 off any single purchase of RM50 and above, we only paid RM25 for a voucher worth RM100. After taxes, we only had to top up RM1.20 so our entire meal at Black Market only cost us less than RM30. You can bet we were pretty happy about that!

(We weren't happy that parking cost us RM5 though.)

Tax: Service charge of 10%

How much we paid: RM26.20