Gourmet Garden

The Food Loft at Gurney Plaza has come and go. The lots are now being occupied by a new tenant by the name of Ko Fu Loft. When we were driving past Gurney Plaza and while looking to the vacated lots, I told Gill that if it were up to me, I would have occupied the vacated lots with a Dim Sum restaurant. Not long later, we got news that a dim sum restaurant would be opened to replace The Food Loft. There are numerous reasons behind the idea; the location, the type of crowd and potential customers, and the competition, but I won’t go into that here may be in my other blog.

I have yet to interview or have much information about Ko Fu Loft and their operations to provide a clear write-up of this place. Thus, it would be more of a pictorial post with focuses on the people, the atmosphere, the food and experience during the invited review that was held on last Sunday’s late afternoon (7th July 2009). Basically Ko Fu Loft took over the setup left by The Food Loft and made some minor renovation to suit their concept.

Let’s start with the people! This review saw some new faces that we have not personally met other than reading their blogs. We were overjoyed to have the opportunity to persanally meet up Christy from yumyumbites.blogspot.com, Cheryl from nuttyeve9.blogspot.com, L K Low from food-4tots.com, Eunice, Siew Ying & Iris from foodpromotions.com.my, CW Chan from noweating.com, and Chef Khoon(blog is still in the works) for the first time after reading their blogs for so long. In some way, the review was an occasion and opportunity to meet other persons that also shares the same passion for food.

Some how or rather, the majority of the food bloggers that attended the functions are women. Many would think that food bloggers would be like a 2 ton truck like me but you would be amazed to see many of them are like a SMART cars, petite and attractive to the eye. Other than having a smaller circumference, each and every one of these beautiful human beings are very approachable and easy to be with. They would be great companions to have at the dining table. We shared many laughs and ideas at the table, and time seems to fly by when there is great company amongst. Three hours seems like 3 minutes.

As we shared our laughs we also shared some pointer is photo shooting when the dishes were served. The moment the food was placed on the table we were all like bees to honey. Each one was trying to get the best angle and shot for our blog readers to feast on. The management and kitchen of Ko Fu Loft had generously prepared 14 types of dishes and a dessert for us to sample that range from appetizers and dim sum to ‘Poon Choy’ and fried noodles.

K o Fu Sesame Seed Ball(RM 10.90), the presentation was quite unique, one ball in a spoon. It is exactly like the suggestion that we gave to Haven Delight for their Chicken Bom. Taste wise was average, the sesame seeds were not fragrant enough and the stuffing was slightly dry.

Crystal Spring Roll Skin Stuff with Vege & Chicken Meat(RM6.90), the presentation was average similar to many other restaurants that offered this kind of Vietnamese summer rolls. Taste wise it wasn’t appetising or refreshing as we have better experienced in Miss Saigon & Young Heart . This may be contributed by the powdery texture chicken meat and the vegetables that lack sweetness.

Steam Fresh Prawn Dumpling or ‘Har Kau’(RM5.50), taste and presentation was standard and comparable to some traditional dim sum restaurants.

Pork Dumpling with Fish Roes or ‘Siew Mai’(RM5.50), presentation is pretty standard in the bamboo steam basket and taste considered quite standard. But Gill found that the minced meat was slightly rougher in texture, but depends on what do you personally prefer.

Minced Squid with Crab Claw (RM5.50), Gill gave this dish a good rating for presentation and taste. But I personally do not fancy this dish, may be because the texture was a bit too smooth without any contrast in texture. To me it felt and tasted like there was too much flour mixed into it.

Signature Steamed Custard Creamy Bun ((RM5.50), with one of the buns cracked opened it looked pretty nice golden yellow custard cream flowing out. But then was it supposed to be presented in this way? The buns were average in texture and taste except for the custard cream. The custard cream wasn’t smooth in texture; it felt sandy like an inclusion of duck egg yolk in the cream.

Deep Fried Yam Paste with Mince Pork or Wo Kok (RM4.50), it should be more like pork chunks than mince pork. The out look seems appetising and pretty standard. For taste it was a bit too sweet more like ‘char siew’ feelings than the normal stuffing used in old traditional ‘wu kok’. Yam is already heavy, couple with the over sweet feeling it won’t be appetising.

Deep fried Pandan Lotus Paste or ‘ chin toi’ (RM4.50), basically looks standard but the skin, when bite, was too thick and chewy. And the pandan lotus feeling tasted like it was made with pandan essence.

Szechuan Aromatic Duck (RM18.90), presentation average taste texture was below average. The duck slices were coated in some sort of batter and deep fried. But it may have been over cooked, thus the duck meat slices were dry and the lacks any aromatics and tastes. The accompanying egg wrapper was similarly dry and lacks that eggy taste.

Jingdo Pork Rib (RM14.90), presentation was average and for taste it was more like black pepper ribs than’ jingdo’ ribs due to the overwhelming pepper taste. In addition to that, there was a slight taste of soda on the surface of the ribs.  But of all the dishes that were served it seems that the ribs and the following deep fried Calamari were my favourite as they have got some taste in them.

Deep Fried Five Spice Calamari ((RM13.90), it had a light batter coating which was infused with five spice powder which was quite alluring. The contrast in texture and taste was also one of the attractions to this dish. The batter was fluffy and the squid was tender and crunchy. For taste contrast, it was exotic and salty on the out side and juicy and sweet in the inside.

Deep Fried Homemade Bean Curd (RM12.90), looks appealing due to the golden colour of the batter coating but the taste was bland. The bean curd or tofu did not have that unique earthy and nutty taste of the soya bean in it.

All in 1 Roasted Meat with Vegetables or ‘Poon Choy’(RM19.90), was not what we expected to be. If you have read our ‘Phoon Choy’ post you would know the difference. At Ko Fu Loft it is basically various types of roasted meat and prawns placed in a clay pot based and topped with vegetable and prawns, then immersed in their starch up soup stock. Most of the ingredients were not fresh especially the prawns. And from tasting from different servings that we provided with, we found that the taste was not consistent. Some tasted like broccoli, some tasted like white cabbage, while some tasted like oyster sauce was used.  Then what we expect from RM 19.90 for a ‘Poon Choy’?! The one that we made roughly cost us jus for the ingredients was nearly RM250.

Fried Seafood Emperor Noodles (RM12.90), was nothing royal about it. It’s looks average and tasted below average. The noodles when served were already dry and taste was very bland. We had to resort to look for soy sauce to make the noodles appetising.

Lastly we were served with their dessert of the day which would cost RM3.50 per bowl. I do not what to call it as no name was provided. The sago was over cooked and soft. And the water chestnut had no sweetness in it although it was crunchy. The coconut milk used didn’t have that nutty creamy taste that it would usually have. I guess they were using boxed coconut milk.

And on average I would grade Ko Fu Loft:

* 3.0/5 for value (ingredients used are not the best but we have to consider the location of the restaurant)
* 2.7/5 for taste & texture (taste was inconsistent and the was nothing particularly attractive)
* 2.5/5 for service ( there were particularly not much service, we had to clear our own tables and search for service)
* 3.0/5 for cleanliness (average but we had to ask for service to clear the table)
* 3.0/5 for atmosphere (typical like the Food Loft but with some enhancement, but to my point of view is waste of precious seating area)

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