The Daily Grind @ Persiaran Ampang

If there's a street not too far from where I live that's filled with abundant restaurants similar to those in Jalan Telawi 2 (Bangsar), Jalan Batai (Bukit Damansara) or Jalan 23 or 24/70A (Desa Sri Hartamas), it'd be Persiaran Ampang.

If you walk down this street alone (though this one is just a short one and on one side only), every lot is practically an eating/drinking place of some sort with cuisine ranging from Italian to Spanish, Latin American to Japanese, Indian to Vietnamese or western to tex-mex, you won't be short of choices here.

And that was what brought me to The Daily Grind @ Persiaran Ampang, the third restaurant on this street after two good eats at 28 Fireplace and Flint (though this has since closed, apparently to relocate elsewhere).

Their menu encompasses mainly burgers, light bites, salads and what they term as comfort food, desserts and even a few choices for children.

We began with a starter of Fried Onion Rings @ RM12 for sharing (this actually isn't on the menu but since it's served with some of the burgers, we requested if we could have it as a starter.  The onion rings were good, the batter was very light and crisp.

This place also reputedly makes their own ketchup & chilli sauces which have been favourably reviewed.

So I poured a little of each onto a side plate to have with the onion rings.  But no, the sauces didn't wow me, in fact it didn't even impress me one tiny bit...give me any local Maggi chilli or ketchup sauce will do (not that I like ketchup to begin with). ;P

Needless to say, I resorted to eating the rest of the onion rings without any chilli sauce.  Those specks of fried, fragrant, crispy droplets of batter I found at the bottom of the plate, you won't want to leave them behind coz those are the best bits.

For our mains, we had to start with one of their many burgers on offer and decided on the Mushroom Trio Burger @ RM33 with a choice of salad, fries or sweet potato crisps.  Other choices include beef, lamb, fish, foie gras, soft shell crab burgers and a vegetarian burger with just mushrooms.

The burger patties are all made in-house and this one came with a fairly juicy grilled chicken patty and three types of mushrooms, crispy deep-fried enoki mushrooms, creamy sauteed button mushrooms and grilled portobello mushrooms.  We liked the button and portobello mushrooms but not the batter of the deep-fried enoki mushrooms which, though crispy, was in dire need of some seasoning.

We chose sweet potato crisps which turned out to be bland pre-fried potato crisps and they were screaming for some salt too.  Since the crisps were pre-prepared, there was no point in sprinkling salt on them at this point since the salt won't adhere to the cold, pre-fried crisps.  The orange potato crisps at least had some sweetness to them and so weren't as bland as the other two (the yellow and purple ones).

I had the O'mega Salmon @ RM33 which featured a pan-seared salmon steak in a light sun-dried tomato sauce with sauteed vegetables.

The salmon was sitting on a bed of sauteed vegetables that were made up of strips of carrot and yellow & green zucchini.  The zucchini strips were soft and tender but the carrot needed to be cooked longer.  I left them on the plate as they were just too hard to eat. >_<

The cook on the salmon was well executed....the outside nicely browned with the centre still retaining its pinkish flesh. ^.^

Even though the tomato-ey sauce was poured over the salmon, the skin retained much of its crispiness when eaten.  The sun-dried tomato sauce was tasty with lots of onion bits and fresh herbs (I detected the fragrance and taste of oregano in the sauce?).  The sauce was rather good as it turned out to be very light, thin and not acidic at all (phew, thankfully it was nothing like their unpleasant ketchup recipe!).

On another visit, we sampled their Fish & Chips @ RM36 featuring golden battered, deep-fried barramundi fillets served with coleslaw and fries.

The barramundi fillets were fresh and crisp with a nice, flaky texture but the batter coating the fish needed more seasoning.

No complaints on the crunchy coleslaw in a light mayo dressing and crisp, thick-cut fries with housemade tartar sauce.  A simple dish that's easy to like.

I was in the mood for steaks and noticed that there was only one on their regular menu.  I was given a separate menu though with more steak choices...BBQ Australian chilled grass-fed ribeye (RM28/100g), sirloin (RM25/100g) and tenderloin (RM40/100g) + a couple more options including tomahawk.

Though the description 'smothered' isn't necessarily something I'd gravitate towards when it comes to how I like my steaks, I decided to go with Smothered Steak @ RM58 (from their regular menu since it cost about the same except you need to pay extra for the sides).  It highlights a piece of chargrilled Australian chilled grass-fed ribeye (I was told it's about 180g) smothered in mushroom sauce and served with sauteed vegetables.

They were also very accommodating when I requested to change the mushroom sauce to brown sauce instead.  They nicely prompted me to ask if I wanted the sauce served separately and I, of course, said, "Yes, please."  Though I like to eat my steaks naked (aka without any sauce), sauces are needed when the steaks are presumed to be of not premium quality (judging from the prices).  I prefer brown jus (usually my first pick) with steaks and black pepper sauce if the lesser-quality steaks doesn't have much flavour.  This not-too-thick nor too fatty piece of ribeye had decently adequate flavours, well executed to medium rare, and came with a nice, charred flavour.

I poured over a little of the sauce just to see if I like it and ended pouring more and more of it as it was rather good.  Only thing that could make it better was if it had a thicker consistency.  The sauce was thinner than expected, it needed to be reduced further for a thicker consistency to coat the back of a spoon, so to speak.  Because of that, it didn't cling as well to the meat but luckily it was still flavourful.  I ended up asking for a spoon so that I could spoon more of the sauce onto the meat (and into my mouth!).  In the end, I liked the sauce enough to actually finish two-thirds of it. ^o^

The sauteed vegetables was the reason that swayed me to go with this steak and I was happy to see the plate graced with yellow & green zucchini, eggplant and potatoes.  I enjoyed the perfectly cooked vegetables so much more than the vegetables that came with the salmon dish.

Ahh.....a refreshing, thirst quenching Fresh Pineapple Juice @ RM12 that's perfect for the hot and humid weather we're faced with of late.

I was surprised at just how large the glass of Iced Latte @ RM11 was, even a little heavy to lift up to drink (now that no straws are given, not that I'm complaining).  A decent enough coffee, it was like drinking out of one of those big-ass beer mugs.  A value for money glass of coffee for sure.

My Personal Opinion

The dining atmosphere is a little dim with a bar-like feel to it and seems more suited for a social gathering among friends than a venue for a family dinner (with young children especially even though there's a limited children's menu).  But that's just my observation...but hey, a hip and outgoing family could find themselves right at home here.

I was certainly satisfied with what I tried.  I especially enjoyed the Smothered Steak and O'mega Salmon, so I wouldn't dismiss the place for a third visit. ^_~ 

The Daily Grind
26 Persiaran Ampang
55000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-4265 7600