Heartbeans Coffee @ Pandan Indah

Driving around my housing area running errands, we chanced upon this cafe which we seemed to have missed. A check on their Facebook Page revealed that Heartbeans Cafe @ Pandan Indah has been in operation since December last year.  The cafe is quite small and narrow with just two rows of tables, one on either side of the wall...and you can access it from either the front or back entrance.  The cafe is pork-free (but not sure if it's halal-certified) but there are Malay servers working in the place.

The menu seems pretty limited...with about 12 main dishes in all (where chicken chop features in almost half of them, either on its own or in a combo with spaghetti bolognese or fettuccine carbonara).  An all-day breakfast, one fish & chips, two pastas with either smoked duck or foot-long sausage, two french toasts, a nasi lemak, some sandwiches and snacks round up the rest of the menu.  They've also introduced some weekday lunch sets (inclusive of a drink) for between RM10 - RM12.

Looking at the menu, you can't help but feel that some of these dishes can be something you can whip up at home (if you really wanted to).  But, since we were already here....I ordered the Spaghetti Bolognese with Grilled Chicken Chop @ RM18 served with some steamed vegetables.

The grilled chicken chop with black pepper sauce was decently executed just like any grilled chicken chop dishes out there.  However, I did like their black pepper sauce (house made, I assume) with just the right amount of peppery flavour.  [#Tip: You can also have this grilled chicken chop with spaghetti carbonara or on its own.]

The spaghetti bolognese with minced chicken, on the other hand, tasted like something I could quite simply put together at home (with a good bottle of bolognese sauce).  I find the combo of bolognese and black pepper sauce on one plate a bit of a mis-match and very unoriginal.  In fact, this dish is eerily similar to something I can get out of a western stall in a typical coffee shop....and at half the price! >_<

My son's Breaded Fish & Chips @ RM16 again was nothing special (frozen kind, I'm sure) and again looked almost identical to those you'd get from many coffee shop-style western stalls as well.

Next, their signature Pandan Nasi Lemak with Rendang Chicken Leg @ RM15.90 comes highly recommended, so we put down our order for one.  Served with a whole chicken leg, half a hard-boiled egg, fried anchovies, nuts, cucumber and pandan-infused rice, the serving was too huge for one (can be easily shared between two small-eaters).

You can certainly smell the aroma of pandan in the pandan and coconut infused rice...not bad but could be more "lemak".  They were very generous with the condiments of fried ikan bilis and kacang.  The ikan bilis was of an ok quality, the smaller ones were crispy but the bigger ones were a tad hard.  The sambal I didn't care much for.

You can add additional sambal sotong (squid) for RM3 and we did.  I thought I'd just get a scoop of it on the plate and was pleasantly surprised to see a separate serving on its own.  The sambal sotong is made with those crunchy-type cuttlefish (although they managed to cook it till tender) and not from those dried squid that I love so much.  However, the sambal (in the sotong) was definitely better tasting than the other sambal.

But the best thing on the plate was the rendang chicken leg...and a huge one at that.  The chicken leg was fall-off-the-bone tender and the "kuah rendang" (rendang sauce) was really good, certainly a lot better than the other two sambal.  I enjoyed this and the rice the most.

Their coffees (Iced Latte & Iced Cappuccino @ RM12) are drinkable and they offer organic flower and fruit teas as well.

A new drink on the menu, the Iced Magic Lemon Tea @ RM7 caught my eye...hmmm, I can certainly do with some 'magic' in my life (haha!).

It turned out to be just a lemon drink with a little help from the butterfly pea flower tea (and not colouring)...just a bit theatrics for that 'wow' factor! ^.^  That said, it was a refreshing lemon-flavoured drink that I enjoyed and wouldn't mind ordering again.

My Personal Opinion

Though the grilled chicken chop (and black pepper sauce) is satisfactory in taste, the food just screams ordinary, unimaginative, run-of-the-mill! >_<  The chicken chop with black pepper sauce tastes like something I can get out of a good western stall in a coffee shop...for less.  And the pastas look like something I can replicate at home to a fair degree of success too.

So, only if you're someone who likes localised western food, then this place would please you.  For others with a more sophisticated western palate, the food here will seem pretty "pedestrian"! >_<

The best bet here is still the Pandan Nasi Lemak....price may seem a bit high but it's a massive portion. Although I've only tried 3 dishes here, the rest don't seem to interest me all that much as the All-Day Breakfast @ RM23 looks rather generic + I wasn't going to pay RM18 for a french toast with salad leaves and some mushrooms thrown in...or even a simple french toast with honey (which I can make at home).

For me, I need a lot more than just grilled chicken chop (with black pepper or mushroom sauce) to get me to come back.  I'm afraid my heart didn't skip a beat for Heartbeans! :P

Heartbeans Coffee
8 Jalan Pandan Indah 4/6A
Pandan Indah
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 019-326 8326