Le Garden cafe, probably the latest eatery in Dataran Pahlawan, is definitely the rising star and popular place for good food among students recently.

Nothing fancy about the contemporary interior design. Just some oval shaped ceilings and warm lighting to give the restaurant a warm fuzzy mood. Although the spaces between each table could have been wider to avoid the cramped feeling and able to dine in comfortably.

Malacca lacks of decent buffet places. Seoul Garden at Mahkota Parade? Horrendous. Carry On at Melaka Raya? It used to be THE place but it has outlived its glory and era. Its been operating since my secondary schooling days and the food are still the same old same old even until today. Hence, the move to introduce buffet in Le Garden cafe is just the right time and definitely money making.

For RM25, you get to eat all you can eat steamboat buffet.

Of course, we (Allison, Jun Hao and I) weren’t there for the buffet. They have a la carte menu, serving both western and local dishes. We were there for that, in the name of food review write up. Heh! I love my job. *gloats*

Anyway, beverage wise, we were served with the fantasy series. White Fantasy, made using ribena syrup, vanilla flavoured ice cream and shaved ice. A recommendation came from the floor manager. As for Sunrise, its ribena and orange juice.

I had the Fantasy, also mixed with ribena syrup but with lychee and peach syrup this time. Seriously, very refreshing and unique indeed. Why nobody thought of that before? I didn’t take any picture of my drink though.

Kicking off our free lunch was the bruschetta. Cold and thick tar tar sauce mixed with chunks of smoked salmon fish, carrots, spring onions and bla bla bla, topped on lightly toasted crunchy bruschetta. Finger licking good, it was seconds later after I finished my first one when I hurriedly grabbed the last piece. I sure hope the amount of tar tar sauce on the bread doesn’t decrease greatly in my next visit.

Rendang chicken, a very popular dish in Malaysia and goes along very well with almost any dishes at any given time of the day. As normal as it sounds, the chef didn’t screw it up and tasted pretty well.

Lamb shank, the portion is a little huge for most average person but still manageable. Unlike most lamb shank served in other places, theirs is more on the dry side. You don’t see overflowing gravy and sauce poured over the lamb. The meat was tender and somewhat juicy, due to the natural fat in the meat itself and full of flavours. It was served with portions of potato wedges and sauteed vegetables. Yes, broccolis and cauliflowers, how I hate them.

I never like udang masak lemak. That’s because I never like the sourness that the pineapples give to the food, especially when I taste more sourness / pineapple taste than the curry itself. They got the sour and curry taste ratio just right (or maybe just the way how I like it to be), not overpowering each other. However, the prawns used weren’t that fresh that day else it would have been a great dish. I should have ordered white rice.

“This city deserves a better class of beef steaks.” - Jason Lioh.

Yes, this line sounds very familiar if you have watched the latest “The Dark Knight“’s trailer.

In this historical city, its close to impossible to get an affordable and decent enough steak. I am talking about real juicy, thick and tender beef steak, not those over cooked, thinner than a piece of A4 paper beef slices served in most cafes. Apart from Rock & Roll Blues Cafe, I can now add Le Garden Cafe as another place to have beef steak.

The chef is a proper chef and I am sure that he can cook it just the way how you want your steak to be. We had the beef sirloin, a huge slab of beef meat with less fat, although I still prefer my rib eye. Again, it is served with potato wedges and some greens. Maybe they should give the customers to choose between potato wedges or mashed potatoes, better still, baked potatoes. Oh, and I noticed they really like to use alfalfa to garnish the dishes too.

Lady fingers with belacans, a classic Nyonya dish. It was very sour due to the lime juice but Allison said she didn’t taste any sourness in it. Preparing the lady fingers is the easy part, its getting the right taste of belacan that is difficult. There are so many brands of belacans out there, made by different manufacturers, but which one is the best, I don’t know but I do know that I have tasted better ones. Although not perfect, its decent enough. I like my belacans to be spicier and slightly saltier. for your information.

We also had clay pot asam fish head, which we didn’t touch and save it for the kitchen staffs. Well, we didn’t really know how to eat and enjoy fish head like most elderly would. Instead of “dirtying” it, we left it for the kitchen staffs to finish them. How nice of us, right?

Udang goreng asam jawa. Whatever it is, its another Nyonya dish, if not mistaken. Most of the time, my mum would cook big and fresh prawns in this style. Unlike the previous udang masak lemak, the prawns used in this dish were fresh. It tasted pretty nice but it would be even better if some chopped cili padis are added, which my mum would do.

I found myself taking one after another one with my hands, and the whole plate of prawns were finished in no time. Come to think of it, I wonder whether Allison and Jun Hao managed to try this dish.

The salmon fillet with spaghetti and tomato based sauce were really good too! The big, really big, slab of salmon fish were nicely pan fried, sealing the natural sweetness of the white meat in it. Spoonful of brown sauce spread across the meat to give the extra flavouring. The spaghettis were cooked al dente and mixed together with the slightly sourish tomato sauce, and voila!, you get a really delicious main course.

For mozzarella cheese lovers, this is the errm… appetizer that you should order. Two thick slices of mozzarella cheese sandwiched between three slices of bread, then dipped into some flour liked mixture before being deep fried. Crunchy bread on the outside, melting cheese on the inside. To avoid too much cheese aftertaste, they have the slightly sourish pizzaiola sauce at the bottom to offset it. Black olives for garnishing. We even ordered another one to eat.

Well, that was our food review. Although a few of my friends said their buffet weren’t that good, from what I have tasted, their a la carte dishes were absolutely above average. They weren’t disappointing and I might be returning to Le Garden Cafe for a decent western food.

I didn’t manage to look at the price list, but from the food and decoration, it should be on the high side for Malacca’s standard. However, for the price you are going to pay, it is definitely more worth it than the so-bad-until-I-didn’t-want-to-blog-about-it Taro Restaurant.

Hmm… Makes me wonder why the name Le Garden.

Related posts:

1. Asian Havana Cafe
2. East Garden, Melaka Raya
3. Asian Havana Cafe, Again
4. Dutch Harbour Cafe
5. Asian Havana Cafe

Tags: Cuisines, Dataran Pahlawan, Eating..., Eating... In Malacca, Fine Dining, Food, Le Garden, Local Food, Malacca, Nyonya, Restaurant, Salmon, Spaghetti, Steak, Western Food