Asian Havana Cafe
I only came to heard of the name Asian Havana Cafe when my editor told me about it. I was required to write a write up on the cafe but due to unforeseen circumstances, it was being postponed again and again. Anyway, recently, Allison accompanied me to check out the place first before I make my “official” visit.
The lighted sign board supposed to be “Asia Havana Cafe” but my camera is not a dSLR and without an external flash, I can’t take the picture.
A very typical cafe tucked in a quite secluded place in the new Melaka Raya business area, with yellow lighting and a bit noisy atmosphere. Seatings are slightly packed and chances of you over hearing the next table’s conversation is indeed possible. There’s a weirdly placed plasma TV where only a small amount of patrons will be able to see what is showing. They opted for the open kitchen concept and you can see the chefs in action.
After 15 minutes of thinking what to order, we settled for a main course, two side dishes, a slice of cheese cake and two beverages. I had the Lavender Delight, lavender tea with a zest of orange flavoured soda water (I think.) while Allison had the Apple Berry.
Our main course was the Havana Chicken Cordon Bleu, which deep fried chicken breast meat wrapped with ham and served with spaghetti napolitana, basil herbs and tomato sauce. Every thing was nicely cooked and it tasted far better than I had expected. The chicken meat was a little dry but that was due to chicken breast meat.
Japanese Teriyaki Beef Roll and Trilogia di Salmone were our side dish. Not-so-thin thinly slice beef meat wrapped with julienned vegetables and mushrooms, with thick and sweet teriyaki sauce as its gravy. The gravy didn’t taste like teriyaki sauce, it tasted more like sweet and sour plum sauce. You know, the gravy that you always eat when you order your chee cheong fun or yam cake. It was a little thick and hard, according to Allison but it seemed to be fine for me. Not only the sauce tasted sweet, the meat and its filling tasted sweet too. Inside the rolled beef meet, there were the golden needle mushroom, carrots, spring onions and etc. giving its juicy and sweet flavour. One roll per person should be just nice, anything more than that is going to taste awful.
As for the Trilogia di Salmone, it is a dish where not-fresh fresh salmon is served in three different types of sauces, mainly the beetroot with lime sauce, the capers with lemon and dill sauce and the extra virgin olive oil, lemon, chives, salt and pepper sauce. One word to describe it all, sucks.
Our dessert was a slice of cheese cake. I tell you, the cheese cake from Asia Havana Cafe can put Secret Recipe’s cheese cake to shame, or at least, that’s what I think so. The cheese is nothing but cheese, pure cheese. The moment you sink you teeth into that 3cm thick layer of cheese, you know its good stuffs.
The bill came up to approximately RM70. Not really cheap, but since the food they served are towards the fine dining style, it is still reasonable. Apart from its price, be careful or less adventurous with the food you are about to order. For that amount of money, there’s no need to risk it to try something that you never heard or seen before.
Asian Havana Cafe,
No.2&4, Jalan Melaka Raya,
Taman Melaka Raya,
75000 Melaka.
Map by Yen Mei of “s.H.R.u.G.s.S“.
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March 1st, 2007 00:45
argh cheese, promise to bring me there jason!!
March 1st, 2007 07:01
地图你画的？ ;p
March 1st, 2007 07:14
whoa! this is like a map drawn by a three year old! LOL! :P
March 1st, 2007 09:12
wow..finally I saw a map in your food post…:’)
March 1st, 2007 11:34
Food review… photos of food… contact infos… drawn map…
very familiar…. Ahhh…isn’t that what KY of kyspeaks.com is doing?
Dude… please get your own idea :P
March 1st, 2007 14:22
fuiyoh. the map dem cun la. :)
March 1st, 2007 14:58
I like how the map is drawn … by you?
March 1st, 2007 23:50
Bhind my shop there rite ?
Pernah eat the fried rice there. Not bad lo.
March 2nd, 2007 11:42
Tze Shan : Come Malacca first!
Emily : 没看到我写 “Map by Yen Mei of “s.H.R.u.G.s.S” 么? :P
Egghead : The map wasn’t drawn by me.
Msaufong : That’s because I remembered Yen Mei drew the map for her own blog before, so I just copied it over. If you want me to draw, dream on loh! Haha!
Eeek! : Well, you are applying to every blogger who blogs about food then. Just because a blogger, Yen Mei drew the map for her own blog and I decided to use / copy it, it doesn’t mean I am doing what KY is doing. Anyway, anything that suits you.
Simon : Yeah, I quite like it too.
Splashmilk : Nope, I thought I wrote there drawn by Yen Mei?
Ellone : Yes, behind your shop. Wanted to try their pineapple fried rice but didn’t.
March 2nd, 2007 23:52
i find havana to be better the first time i went. i went for the sec, it kinda merugikan coz they cut the fries.the cheese cake mmg sedap.
March 3rd, 2007 12:42
the foods looks yummy ler, expecially the Trilogia di Salmone. I like cheese cake, this cheese cake must be very good.
unluckily the cafe is too far from my place..:)
March 3rd, 2007 13:04
Yen Mei : My friend said they have changed the chef, so that could be the reason in the change of taste.
Irene : You didn’t read properly, the salmon totally sucks ler. Hehe! But the cheese cake is superbly good though.
March 4th, 2007 01:16
another place to check out in my next visit to Melaka. Thanks!
March 4th, 2007 01:43
Tekko : Yeah, try their cheese cake. Totally rawks!
April 23rd, 2007 23:17
Heys, i read your post regarding Havana some time ago, and i gave it a try.
I’ve been there twice. some dishes were mediocre but some were…well, not so great, but well worth recommending.
Anyway, Havana is having a buy one free one lunch promotion. Meaning, you get a main course, and you get another main course for a lesser price free. The catch is, the offer is only valid for selected items and is only applicable for diners more than 4 people.
So here’s the thing.
Me and my friends ordered the fish and chips, the chicken chop and the Vietnamese noodles. I must say the fish and chips were good. Kinda reminds me about Manhattan’s fish market’s fish and chips. The chicken chop, skip it. I find it too salty and too Asian’ized. You know, tomatoes and lots of soya sauce? Totally not my kind of food. The Vietnamese beef noodles, they’re not too bad for rm7(if I’m not mistaken). You can get a better bowl at Secret recipe. But that was ages ago when they first came to KL. Now, Secret recipe is one of the worse cafes I can ever think off. The Thai Pineapple Rice, man….the PINEAPPLE RICE!! Its awesome~~~ I just can’t describe the taste. Its spicy and a little sour and sweet too. Due to the pineapples I guess. It’s served in a pinapple and well, there were raisins, pineapples, few slices of cuttlefish and 2 prawns. LOL! I know i suck at describing the contents! It definitely taste a whole lot different from the normal Yong Chow fried rice. Its 8.50 a plate. But if you go for this lunch deal. It’ll be worth it.
As for the drinks, my friends ordered the mocha affagiato. not very good, i think its quite a bit diluted but they liked it. I ordered the hot mocha (btw, i’m a coffee junkie). And i must say that I’m quite impressed. No offense Malaccans. I just can’t find a good cafe that serves good coffee over here. They were all let downs. But this hot mocha I had was RICH. Not of the best chocolate in town. But they were indeed very generous with the chocolate. For 13 bucks, the hot mocha and the fried rice send me home feeling satisfied. And like all typical Malaysians, I took a nap after that.
April 23rd, 2007 23:21
Len Jin : Actually, their specialty is the pineapple fried rice. I didn’t try that time because I went there with a full stomach (after some seafood dinner). Hence, we just wanted to try their food and we didn’t order their pineapple fried rice. Hehe. I am not a coffee lover, more for tea. If you want tea, I do know where you can get them though. Try Nadeje Patisserie if you are interested. Search for the post in my
blog and let me know what you think of, ok? Thanks for visiting my blog.