Ever since a very fulfilling dining experience at The Press Room @ Pavilion some time ago (read my earlier review here), I had always wanted to return to try their Josper Oven (JO) specialities and finally did (one Saturday evening) for dinner.
The JO is a traditional, Spanish closed barbecue that uses high quality charcoal for its cooking. With its precision temperature control, it's able to offer the authentic taste of barbecue indoors.
Its elegant combination of a grill and an oven (with its high operating temperature and grilling quality) makes it highly sought after by many steakhouses.
The first JO speciality that is a must-try is the JO Tenderloin or any other cut of beef like Rib-Eye (or Prime Rib if it doesn't burn a hole in your pocket) served with your choice of sauce and one side dish. Your sauce choices are Blue Cheese, Green Pepper, Bearnaise or Porcini Mushroom while the side dishes are French Fries, The Press Room Mash, Ratatouille, Mixed Green Salad or French Beans.
This is a close-up pic of my JO Tenderloin (200g) @ RM88....that's a meat lover's dream right there! Even the smallest of details, a clove of roasted garlic, added further flavour to the meat. If you're not a beef lover, fret not for you can opt for other JO options like rack of lamb or spring chicken.
Not only was the meat cooked perfectly to medium rare (as requested), it was well rested before it was served. This is evident when you cut into the meat as no meat juices flowed out from the meat, an indication that the meat was perfectly rested. Resting allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat resulting in a piece of meat that is moist, tender and juicy.
What a 'handsome looking' piece of meat.....just look at the beautiful sear on the tenderloin and its ultra juicy meat that was perfectly seasoned as well. The meat was good enough to eat in all its 'naked' glory (but sauces are provided if you need them) and I liked the fact that they serve it on the side (giving you the option of how much or how little sauce you want to put on your steak).
Although the wait staff recommended Bearnaise to go with my tenderloin, I decided to go with my gut, the Porcini Mushroom Sauce, which ended up to be an excellent choice. [#Note: Bearnaise sauce is a sauce made from an emulsion of clarified butter and egg yolks and is considered to be a 'child' of the mother Hollandaise sauce, only difference is Bearnaise is further flavoured with herbs.]
But the porcini mushroom (probably a mixture of fresh and dried porcini) was an excellent sauce to go with the meat...it had a nutty, smoky, intense mushroom flavour that I really liked. It was so good that I almost finished the sauce when my tenderloin was only half consumed. The wait staff was very attentive and asked if I would like more sauce...of course I would =) and brought me another hot serving of porcini mushroom sauce...how's that for customer service!
I also did not opt for any of their 5 choices of side dish but instead requested if I could have Roasted Vegetables instead as the thought of vegetables roasted in a Josper Charcoal Oven was just too tempting to resist. And they obliged....yay, further testimony to their flexible (and great) service! There were pieces of broccoli, eggplant, carrot, zucchini, squash, bell peppers (red, orange, yellow and green) and sweet baby corn...it was a beautiful (almost) 'rainbow coloured' plate of roasted vegetables.
Our next JO option was the JO Salmon @ RM40 served with herbed oil and your choice of one side dish. When the dish first arrived at our table, it was smaller than I envisioned but (thankfully) 'big' in taste!
The salmon skin had just the right browning on it and was rendered to crispy perfection. The salmon flesh was again cooked to perfection...just the right tinge of rareness (and not those overly done salmon we get at some places). But, most of all, you know it's a piece of quality salmon as it was really fresh and tasted really good.
My son's choice (of course) was French Fries. A bite of the fries immediately tells you that these are freshly made and not the low quality type of pre-packaged fries from a store. The freshly cut potatoes (with skins on) did not have that powdery taste that is so apparent in store-bought fries. They were soft on the inside and crisp on the outside...fresh, simple and perfect!
To end the meal on a high, you may want to sample a trio-of-desserts (err, a little bit of everything-lah), so choose the Cafe Gourmand @ RM18 which comes with a mini creme brûlée, a sorbet and a chocolate brownie and finished with a cup of illy espresso.
The 1st item in the trio-of-desserts was a sorbet. [#Note: A sorbet is a frozen dessert made from sweetened water with (typically) a fruit juice flavouring and is usually served to cleanse your palate after a meal.] I was told by the wait staff that it was a vanilla sorbet, but the tartness of the sorbet made me believe that (probably) lemon juice played a part in it. Whatever it was, it was certainly a lovely palate cleanser.
The 2nd item in the dessert trio was the mini creme brûlée (topped with a blueberry) to reveal a brûlée with strawberries (I asked) when the sugary top was cracked. The custard was silky smooth, the strawberries inside (which looked more like raspberries to me because of the size) provided some acidity to the sweet custard while the cracked caramelised top added further sweetness and crunch to an incredible dessert. It was deliciously decadent!
The 3rd and final item in the trio-of-desserts was the rich and fudgy chocolate brownie that would appease any chocolate lover.
And what better way to round up the trio-of-desserts than with a tiny cup of illy espresso. The highly concentrated espresso, with crema on top (a foam with a creamy consistency), would appeal to coffee lovers who like their coffee really strong and bitter. It was (however) too strong for my palate but (then again) I've never really liked espresso to begin with.
Our drinks for the evening were:
A Chilled Fruit Juice of Pink Guava @ RM11 which is a favourite of mine because I love the taste (of guava) and the colour (pretty in pink).
The Lychee Iced Tea @ RM16 (with the mint garnish omitted as requested) was a lychee & watermelon refreshment...err, very refreshing?...it's the only thing I could think of to describe it.
My Personal Opinion
It was yet again another very satisfying dining experience, one that I wouldn't mind having over and over and over gain.....it merits many revisits!
You have to come and try their Josper Oven specialities. The perfectly grilled meat is the 'piece de resistance' and resisting this sensational masterpiece is a futile, hopeless and doomed attempt......at least for me!!
Prices here are above 'middle-of-the-park' (around RM100 per person) but it's definitely worth it because the excellent cooking, at the hands of very able chefs, produces phenomenal food.
I'll be back ;)
The Press Room Bistro
C3.10.02 Level 3 Connection
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
168 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur
The JO is a traditional, Spanish closed barbecue that uses high quality charcoal for its cooking. With its precision temperature control, it's able to offer the authentic taste of barbecue indoors. 
Its elegant combination of a grill and an oven (with its high operating temperature and grilling quality) makes it highly sought after by many steakhouses.
After reading your review, I feel like going there to eat immediately. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteYeah, when I introduced this to a friend of mine, she loved it too! The Josper Oven specialities are really good here...it's a 'must-try'. If not for the price, I'll be coming back ever so often.
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