Friday, February 1, 2008

Sweet Chat Café

Sweet is potent.
It makes you beg, it makes you crawl.
Like the taste of your first kiss, it brings you down on your knees.
Masochistic, yes.
Face it, you can’t help but fall in diabetical love with it.

I, for one, am not a sweetie (sour at times, even).
I prefer my Hokkien mee with lard crumbs.
Unromantic, I know.


But with a name like Sweet Chat, I’m sure sweeties will be tempted to, well, at least look at the menu. My friends did. Created by the people who brought us The Chicken Rice Shop, this café serves a wide variety of Hong Kong-style dishes with emphasis on desserts. And did I mention it was halal? Now, that really got us intrigued.

One of the sweetest noodles I ever had. The Spicy Oriental Spaghetti (RM8.90). The sauce tasted like an elaborated version of the char siew marinate. The julienned carrot and cucumber strips sided the salad-like ensemble. Interesting but sweet. Do they ever serve this in Hong Kong? Mou tai gor leh (I've never seen this before in Cantonese).

Not quite a MOS burger, the BBQ Burger (RM9.90) was basically a slab of grilled chicken breast sandwiched between a halved, warm burger bun. The taste was, well, you've guessed it. Sweet. Another char siew-like sweet marinate. The mayonnaise provided a slight tanginess to the breast, chicken breast. The accompanying tortilla chips were tad soft while the salsa was bland. We'll do just fine with flavoursome potato chips, thank you.

By now you would have guessed how the last main dish tasted like, right? Bingo! It was sweet. The BBQ Chicken Meat Toast consisted of char siew (again) flavoured minced chicken meat topped with a layer of melted cheese. Despite the sweetness, the toast was quite good as it was soft and warm. The cheese provided a much needed savouriness.

The toast, with a bowl of Sweet Potato Soup and a selected drink cost RM12.80 under the Toastie Set. Not quite soft, the potatoes were forgettable. However, I was surprised that they included ginger in the sweet soup. "A" for effort.

The Pulut Hitam (black glutinous rice) and Mango dessert (RM5.90) was a dish that could do without the mango, I think. When it comes to mango, the accompanying ingredients should be on the bland side to etch the flavoursome characteristics of the mango. The pulut hitam and coconut milk ensemble was already sweet and rich by itself. A distraction (I think). Less is more, sometimes.

Wait a minute. A Hong Kong dessert? I came to my senses as I tasted the pandan (screwpine) flavoured jelly strands of the Sago Cendol (RM4.50). Perhaps the only dish that was appropriately sweetened that day. A huge portion too, I'd say.

I heard the Durian Pancake is rather good. But durians and I, well, are not on talking terms. I don’t like fruits with body odour. So, do check it out if you like durian desserts.

The food was commendable but there should always be a certain level of appropriateness when it comes to taste. The desserts were sweet, as they ought to be. No complains. But to inject extended sweetness to savoury dishes, I’d say no, no, no. Exploitation of sweetness. Diabetical love gone bad.

Throughout the meal, the discussion was mostly on the sweetness of the dishes. "Sweet chat" indeed. Perhaps that was the hidden concept of the cafe. Now, pass me the Hokkien Mee. Faster, please.

Sweet Chat Café
Mid Valley Mega Mall
1st Floor, South Court
Tel: (+603) 2287 2798

25 comments:

ekeng said...

Ok...let me try the durian pancake on my visit :)

Hazza said...

interesting concept .. .a restaurant serving sweet food, not just desserts, but main meals too. It does sound really limiting and I would be interested to hear if the place will still be there in 2009.

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

hahaa..sweet food eh? n whats with halal char siew.?? that is just so wrong!

Alexander said...

Wow! Looks like great food! The desert looks very better.
Lovely photos.

Alexander
Alex's World! - http://www.kakinan.com/alex

Xiu Long Bao said...

So not convincing...
You claimed that u dun hav a sweet tooth and yet u had starwberry ice on monday, nougat parfait on tuesday, truffle ice cream on wednesday and black sesame ice cream on thursday :p

~Christine~Leng said...

I just went here today! :)
was busy shopping while my bros and dad went here for tea. By the moment I arrived to join them, they finished my shares! sigh... ;P

LianneK said...

sweet stuff! aiyooo ... thought we had enough diabetic in the country liao :-(

ai wei said...

errr... i tot mango went well only with white glutinous rice?!

JOjo said...

Haha, i think they serve all the food sweet with the same Char Siew Flavour to save cost!!! =p
The spaghetti looks like "Za Jiang Mian" la,got the strips of cucumber and carrot. Only using Spaghetti.
The Pulut Hitam is heavily coated with santan, sinful leiz...Haha..

HairyBerry said...

ekeng: great! do try it out and let me know how it tastes like...from what I saw, the thing was quite soft and sweet-looking.

hazza: haha! my thoughts exactly! i think the selling point here are not the desserts nor the mains, but the fact that it’s halal. a much wider market.

joe: no lar, the char siew sauce only. Similar to teriyaki chicken. it’s be even more interesting if beef is incorporated with the “multi-purpose” sauce…haha!

alexander: thank you, thank you. to me, the food was..ermm..sweet! haha! if only the mains were left “unsweetened”…

xlb: I object! (hk tv style, hehehe)…u forgot to mention that I also took big bowl seafood ramen on mon, beef burger on tue, superbig bowl of babi ramen on wed, babi katsudon on thurs…so, more salt than sugar…

christine: yeah, I saw a few parents having tea there…the children joined them subsequently…guess location is an important factor, huh? Haha!

lianne: I agree! Like us (foodies), we should know how to balance our diet. Easier said than done, right? Sigh…no pain, no gain lar… :)

ai wei: ya lor! glutinous rice is bland, that’s why the mango flavour will be enhanced. the sweetened coconut milk just killed the mango taste. So sad…

jojo: save cost? hhmm…never thought of that. Perhaps it’s true..hehehe! omg, haven’t had za jiang mian in a very long time!

Lyrical Lemongrass said...

You don't like durian?
How to be my friend?

(2 line rhyme for the lazy)

HairyBerry said...

Lyrical Lemongrass:

That's no rhyme
More like a crime
I love my pork
I know it'll work

ling239 said...

RM12.80 for fan shu tong shui ? o_O
can buy more than 1kg of fan-shu d leh.... XD

ling239 said...

Nic ~ Happy CNY! ^_^

Anonymous said...

hahaha! everything seems to be sweet. i never really tried any sweetest noodles before, they tend to be spicy. lol

Lyrical Lemongrass said...

Pork and work
May look the same
But rhyme they don't
Your poem's just lame.

I'm focked
And shocked.

Try harder
Bugger.

But I'll forgive ya
Cutie pie
Coz in rhyming
You're still the guy.

HairyBerry said...

ling239: no lar, RM12.80 includes the toast, the fan shu tong shui and a drink. If RM12.80 for the tong shui only, I’ll throw some fan shu at them already! Haha! Happy CNY to you too!!! Hope you had some good yee sang this year! Remember to post about it, ok?? Hehehe…

ladyironchef: yeah, you have a point! Sweet noodles are usually spicy. Never realized that. Perhaps sweetness kinda soothes the spiciness of the sauce. Hehehe…but why have sweet noodles when you can have bak chor mee in Singapore, right? Hehehe…I love that stuff!

lyrical lemongrass:

That fruit makes me gray
How could we bond you say
It’ll work, I found a way
In pork we saw our ray.

You poem enlightened me
More careful, next time I’ll be
To not let you down so easily
Or follow my heart so blindly.

;-)

Jason said...

The name sounds so familiar and then one corner of my brain pops "Mid Valley!" Heehee...

Happy CNY Nic!

fatboybakes said...

"i dont like fruits with body odour". HAHAHHA, what a classic line.
roll eyes at lemongrasses lyricalness.

HairyBerry said...

jason: i pass by this place everytime i go to mid valley and yet, i have just recently gave it a try...haha!

happy CNY to you too! and a safe journey too!

fatboybakes: dunno lar but i just cant stand the smell. perhaps it smells more like fart than body odour but then again, fart is temporary but BO is forev...ermmm, not easily removed, i mean..hehehe

durian lovers everywhere: please dont throw durians at me, ya. it's just my imaginative mind talking. the author respects the king of fruits but chose to stay in a faraway land (neighbours include Shrek) to keep the smell away..hehehe...

fatboybakes said...

so you'll be in town (as in KL) for CNY? maybe we can meet up with Lemongrass.

HairyBerry said...

fatboybakes: yupe, will be in kl...ok, will work something out. see ya!

Sugar Bean said...

I ate there once quite some time ago. Yeah, the food was ok there but the dessert was a bit too sweet. The durian pancake is nice!

HairyBerry said...

wenching & esiong: the dishes were sweet, right? hehe! well, glad you guys enjoyed the pancake...i can only watch from far..hehe

Unknown said...

i've eaten at sweet chat and the durian pancake is phenomenal. it's got pure durian flesh instead of the usual durian puree. my friends say it's comparable with the one at Mandarin Oriental but i personally haven't tried the one at MO. i also had the BBQ chicken burger - i'm quite sure it was a whole slab of chicken chop and NOT CHICKEN BREAST. i wouldn't have eaten it if it was chicken breast. We were able to try quite a few desserts since there were a few of us in the group. some thought it was too sweet, some thought it was just nice, some thought it was not sweet enough. so i guess it depends on individual taste - guess you can't please everyone eh! ;-p