Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Restoran Venecia

This is what I would call a " hidden gem" waiting to be discovered. It took about 20 minutes for me to locate the place on top of 40 mins travelling time from Subang Jaya to Selayang on my first visit to Restoran Venecia... and that was more than 2 years ago. Restoran Venecia used to be called Restoran Venezuela. I don't know since when they have changed their name as I didn't notice that when I was here on my last visit few months ago.
They are based at 1st floor in this clubhouse ( or community hall?) of this condominium, Casa Venecia in Selayang. There is no signboard placed outside nor inside the condominium. It is indeed a hassle for the first timer to locate the place. The security is tight. You need to leave your driving license at the guard house before they allow you to enter the area.
Once inside the area, you would see a swimming pool and a small lake ( not sure if it was man made). The view was breathtaking, akin to the view in Cameron Highlands.
Restoran Venecia is just a small restaurant that has 8 or 9 tables only and a private room.
The Preserved Green Crunchy Mango... an excellent appetising dish before the meal. 2 small plates of this mango were served soon after we were being seated. It was so good that we actually requested for another one. RM 2.00 per serving.

Dishes that we order...
Everyone of us was being served one bowl each of this lala soup. The lala was fresh and clean. It really brought out the sweetness taste of the soup. But personally I don't really like the lala to be served as a main soup dish. In my opinion it should only be used to complement with other ingredients for soup based dishes but not lala alone for soup. I still prefer lala to be cooked in a "fried dish" version. - RM 20.00
The huge fried "Ma Yau" fish with Nyona sauce... This pic. can't really tell you the actual size of the fish but let me tell you it was at least 15" long. The sauce was very tasty... and on top of that, "petai" was certainly a big plus. - RM 50.00
Claypot tofu... plenty of ingredients used in this dish. -mushroom, button mushroom, cauliflower, carrot, baby corns, green pea, sotong, prawn and fresh scallop. Unfortunately the soft and smooth tofu was 'hiding' underneath all those ingredients which you can't see in the pic. -RM25.00
The Marmite Fried Sotong... It was crispy on the outside and still moist on the inside. Wonderful dish! -RM28.00
Half way through the meal, this claypot chicken which we didn't order was wrongly sent to us and I "accidentally" picked a piece of chicken wing for food tasting purpose before it was sent back to the rightful owner. It tasted OK but not great.

The star tonight... CRABS!

The boss actually led us to his kitchen to show us the huge crabs when we did the ordering. They were still alive and kicking. So we ordered 3 huge crabs weighed about 800 gms each and requested it to be cooked in 2 different recipes. One was fried with salted egg and the other was in yogurt sauce. RM60/kg and altogether it cost RM145.00.
The Salted Egg Crab... the saltiness of the egg and the sweetness of the crabs that complement each other very well... one word for that - Delicious!
Look at this crab claw... FYI, the one who held the claw was a grown up lady, not a small kid, she actually weighed 70kg or more. So with this info you can have a better idea on the size of her palm and the size of the claw. right?
The Yogurt Sauce Crab... the sauce was thick, rich and in yellowish color. I'm not sure if they used curry paste but there were some curry leafs in the dish. However the taste of curry was not too overpowering for the whole combination. It was just perfect! It was so tasty that makes you even wanna slurp up the gravy.

Conclusion...
A very satisfying meal! So far never once that Restoran Venecia disappoints me on any of my visits there. The only drawback is their location, the distance that takes about 45 minutes.
BTW, I would like to convey my sincere apologies to my family members as I had to hold them back whilst I tried to get a good shot. I could see them literally drooling as I did so.
The total bill came to RM293.00 (USD84.00) inclusive of drinks and rice for 10 adults.
Here, I should also thank my sister-in-law who has just came back from US that happily picked up the bill. Most importantly it was a satisfying meal!
This time around, I will just provide you their address below and not the location map which I normally did. I believe it will be more fun to do a bit of food hunting your own.

Restoran Venecia
1st Floor, Casa Venecia Club House
Jalan Bukit Idaman 1/3
Bukit Idaman
68100 Batu Caves
Selangor
Tel:03-6136 2010
Business hour:
Monday - Thursday
12:00p.m - 2:30p.m & 6:00p.m - 10:00p.m
Friday - Sunday
12:00p.m - 2:30p.m & 5:30p.m - 10:00p.m

* Reservation is a must. Book your crab in advance as well.

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