Acme Bar & Coffee @ Pavilion Elite

After a positive dining experience with friends and loving the ambience, I returned 4 weeks later to Acme Bar & Coffee @ Pavilion Elite, this time with family.

I came back to eat the very two things I enjoyed the most on my last visit here (but minus the amazing dessert of Sizzling Coconut Nangka Brownie).

To start the ball rolling, we had the Octopus Carpaccio @ RM27 featuring Australian octopus with dry capers, salted egg and salmon roe in a raspberry-strawberry soy vinaigrette.

The fresh and tender slices of octopus, the added crunch from the thinly shredded cucumber, all the components worked well together to bring a harmonious and terrifically balanced flavour of salty, sour and sweet to make this a truly refreshing starter.

The raspberry-strawberry soy vinaigrette was an uplifting dressing guaranteed to wake up your taste buds. Taken in one bite with a bit of everying...it was fresh, it was delicious, it was perfect! ^o^

Our next sharing plate was the Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Strips @ RM23 comprising of fried chicken strips in a salted egg yolk coating.  The battered chicken strips with its generous salted egg yolk coating were utterly crispy and pleasurable.

The taste and aroma is further heightened by the crisped up curry leaves and just the right amount of heat from the red bird's eye chillies.  What can we say, we love our salted egg yolk in anything! ;)

Since I enjoyed the blackened salmon in the Sea-to-Land Sharing Platter I had the last time, our first order of main was the you-guessed-it-right Blackened Salmon Steak @ RM59 with cajun spice and caramelised spicy miso.

Served with an avocado and pineapple salsa, juicy cherry tomatoes, some fresh greens and a piece of garlic baguette, the salmon was perfectly cooked and still pinkish in the middle.

Loved the creamy avocado mash but would have appreciated the use of fresh pineapple chunks in the salsa instead of tinned ones which tasted artificially sweeter than juicy fresh ones.

The other protein I had a taste of in the Sea-to-Land Sharing Platter and liked a lot was the grilled lime chicken which can be found in the Spring Noodle Bowl @ RM35, so I had to have that.  It's a bowl of e-fu noodles with grilled lime chicken, avocado slices, quail eggs, spiral vegetable curls of cucumber and carrot, cherry tomatoes, corn salsa (with small cubes of green bell peppers, tomatoes and olives) and some pickled ginger with a chilli oil and soy sauce at the bottom.

Absolutely adored the zesty, tangy flavours of lime in the grilled lime chicken (not sure what the topping on the chicken was made up of but the savouriness of it went rather well with the chicken).

I'm not sure if we were supposed to toss everything together but I didn't as I thought that some of the ingredients would probably taste weird if tossed together with the noodles (like the avocado and pickled ginger).  The egg and vegetables would probably be good tossed with the noodles, maybe even the corn salsa and cherry tomatoes.  So, I ate the components separately and it was nice that way.  The avocado was the only odd component I found in the dish as the creaminess of it didn't sync with the rest of the ingredients IMHO.

Loved the slightly chewy and spongy texture of the noodles and was pleasantly surprised just how good the flavours of the sauce for the noodles were.  A pleasing balance of saltiness with a hint of spiciness....just delish! ;)

Our drinks of Twinings English Breakfast Tea @ RM11 and Shaken Honey Lemon @ RM17 of honey with fresh lemon and lime.

Drinks are pretty expensive here with iced drinks costing between RM17 - RM19 and hot drinks between RM9 - RM15.  There's always complimentary water which we were served promptly once seated (but that wasn't the case on my first trip here though...I had to ask).

My Personal Opinion

Although I've read some negative reviews of this place, I have to say I was pretty pleased with both the food and service on my two visits except for the overpriced drinks that didn't impress.

The Spring Noodle Bowl wasn't something I thought I would enjoy but I did!  Try the blackened salmon steak and grilled lime chicken or a bit of both in the Sea-to-Land Sharing Platter.  Both starters I had (from the Raw Bar section of the menu) I liked too (and you will too if you enjoy tangy flavours).

This was a place where the ratings weren't very flattering and yet it turned out better than I had hoped (in fact, even better than some I tried with higher ratings)...go figure! ^_~  So, don't take anyone's word for it...always try it out at least once (or twice in my case) to find out for yourself.

Acme Bar & Coffee
Lot 3.100.00 Level 3
Pavilion Elite Kuala Lumpur
168 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2110 3373