Vanilla Sky @ G Village, Desa Pandan

The only Vanilla Sky I know is the movie starring Tom Cruise until I discovered (from eatdrinkkl's blog) that there's a restaurant called Vanilla Sky @ G Village, Desa Pandan which I just had to try out since it was located so near to where I'm staying.

The small and cosy restaurant is housed in G Village, a comprehensive one-stop centre that will house 26 retail units of retail shops over two floors (occupying 60,000 sq ft) to serve the specific needs of the residents of G Residence.  Coming here more than two months after eatdrinkkl's initial visit, I noticed that the retail shops were still not opened yet except for a few new F&B openings joining Vanilla Sky, namely PappaRich, Baskin Robbins and Brunch & Munch.

According to their Facebook Page, Vanilla Sky is an Asian-French restaurant serving modern comfort food with local flavours.  Their menu highlights soups, salads, sandwiches & burgers, pasta & noodles, sides & snacks and mains with a few notable Sarawak-inspired dishes like Sarawak laksa, Borneo salad, Borneo wild rice and daging masak hitam.  [#Note: However, you would be pleased to know that the menu prices (as listed in their Facebook) are not the current prices as most have been reduced though some have been increased.  Also, some of the dishes are no longer on their menu while some may not contain the specific ingredients as stated in the menu.  I suppose they're still tinkering with their menu and prices.]

We started with the Fish of the Day Soup @ RM11.80 coz I was intrigued by the description of a Borneo-inspired lemongrass-flavoured white fish soup with fried egg.

The light and tangy fish soup came with pieces of white fish (dory) and salmon, both of which could have had a fresher taste, with bok choy, french beans, carrots, fried onions and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.  The soup had a very subtle, somewhat bland flavour with the lemongrass infusion almost non-existent.

The other starter was the Breaded Calamari @ RM12 served with their house-made aioli sauce and a fresh slaw of shredded white and purple cabbage, carrot and pea sprouts.

The fried calamari was crispy but I wasn't liking the breaded crumb batter as much which I found to be heavier and would much prefer a lighter, crisp batter.  The house-made aioli managed to liven up the otherwise mundane calamari.

For our mains, we had the Pan-Seared Threadfin @ RM38 ("kurau" in Malay or "ma yau" in Cantonese) with chive cream, dill mashed potatoes and salt-baked beetroot (as per the description on the menu).  There weren't any mashed potatoes on the plate but, in its place, some red stem spinach and pickled daikon instead.

I liked that the threadfin was nicely cooked, soft and moist, with a crispy skin and the (vinegared) beetroot and pickled daikon provided some acidity to the dish.  The dish was nicely presented with vivid colours of green, yellow and red, in an almost fine dining portion and style.  The only thing that wasn't fine dining about it was probably the price.

Our next main was the Pan-Seared Salmon @ RM45 with shallot puree, grilled marinated pineapple and fennel salad (as per their menu).  I noticed two sauces on the plate (and it certainly didn't look or taste like shallot puree).  So I asked the server and, after checking with the kitchen, she came back to inform us that it was pea puree.  I still don't know what the other sauce was but it tasted sweetish like some kind of berries (or maybe beetroot?) sauce.  Both the sauces were good however.

The salmon was fresh and (again) expertly cooked, pinkish in the middle and with a crispy skin.  The grilled pineapples and fennel (+ cabbage, carrot and pea shoots) salad brought the much needed freshness to the plate.

The fresh juices here are reasonably priced like this Fresh Mango Juice @ RM7.90.

My Personal Opinion

Although there were some hits (the mains) and misses (the starters), it's still a place worthy of a visit if you're in (or from) the area.

What I was most glad to see was the reduction in prices in many of their dishes coz I feel that these prices are more suited for a restaurant of that stature in an area like this.  I guess they're still experimenting and finalising their menu and pricing in this barely 3-month old restaurant, so we may yet see more changes in the coming months ahead.

Perhaps, I'll return to try some of their Borneo-inspired dishes! ;)

Vanilla Sky Restaurant

Lot G-10 G Village

No 35 Jalan 1/76

Desa Pandan

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 012-291 5271