Sura Korean restaurant - Cristal Salam Tourist Club Area, Abu Dhabi

Add: Mezzanine, Cristal Salam Hotel, Tourist Club Area - Abu Dhabi.
Tel: +971 2 659 7715

Sura means "Korean royal court cuisine", which had us salivating ... But we were going to be quite dissapointed! The food was mediocre at best ... No "ooomph", or "kick" as described by my dining companions, DL and OK, and what I found strange was - The food was not served piping hot!

OK, DL, LY and myself had many Soju + Beer combos in Seoul ... so we gave it a go here too ;-) Never quite the same!

 

Beef bone soup ... Very mediocre :-( Again, it wasn't steaming hot!

Our seafood and chicken platters ... Reasonably tasty, but lacked the "ooomph"!

 

Beef steak galbi ... Tough :-( We miss the tender beef cuts in Seoul!

Time to say goodbye to Sura ....

Silk & Spice - Unique Thai restaurant, Sofitel Abu Dhabi

Add: Sofitel Hotel, Corniche Road - Abu Dhabi.
Tel: +971 2 813 7777

A really nice looking Thai restaurant that's open through Ramadan, serves some good beers and the desserts are nice too. Must try the main courses next time!! We tried the Khao Neow Ma Muang (Mango with Stick Rice, the Silk&Spice variant is served in a candle-lit balti dish!), as well as the evergreen Tab Tim Krob (Water chestnut dumpling with Jack Fruit in Coconut milk). Both were good!

Tiger by the bottle .. Cheers!

Private dining area, Japanese-esque with your feet in a "hole in the floor"!

Fancy interior ... Not the most Thai-esque, but hey... looks good!

We had 2 desserts ;-) They were both good!

Raclette dinner and Comté - Chateauform De-Mareil-Le-Guyon, near Paris

Add: Chateauform De-Mareil-Le-Guyon - 78490 MAREIL-LE-GUYON, France
Tel: +33 1 34 57 08 40
Web: http://www.chateauform.com
GPS:
N 48° 47' 23"
E 1° 51' 5"

We indulged in wonderful french cheese all week - Both at lunch as well as dinner time! I slowly learned over the week that my favourite was Gruyère de Comté :-)

Some facts from Wikipedia ... Comté is a French cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France. Comté has the highest production of all French AOC cheeses, around 40,000 tonnes annually.

 

A raclette is both a type of cheese and a Swiss dish based on heating the cheese and scraping off (racler) the melted part.
This was our wonderful dinner on the penultimate night of our seminar :-) A wonderful communal-eating experience!

 

 

A modern way of serving raclette involves an electric table-top grill with small pans, known as coupelles, to heat slices of raclette cheese in. Generally the grill is surmounted by a hot plate or griddle. The cheese is brought to the table sliced, accompanied by platters of boiled or steamed potatoes, other vegetables and charcuterie. These are then mixed with potatoes and topped with cheese in the small, wedge-shaped coupelles that are placed under the grill to melt and brown the cheese...

 

Kronenbourg 1664, good ol' french beer!

 

If you are lucky enough to enjoy the hospitality of a Chateauform, you will have the privilege of having an open-bar, free-flow of wines, spirits and all other wonderful beverages!

 

49er's The Gold Rush - Dana Hotel, Abu Dhabi

Hotel: Al Diar Dana Hotel
Address: Al Meena, Abu Dhabi
Located: Corner of Sheikh Zayed 2nd Street and 10th Street
Tel: +971 2 645 8000  

Well known for being a seedy joint - As long as you go before 9pm, its actually "OK"! Food was very well priced, with a mixed grill costing only 79-89 AED or RM$65-70. Good customer service, decent food ... Its OK!  

We had ... Chicken wings to start, Mixed grill as my mains, and a "Love Boat" to finish!  
Goodbye and bon voyage, E ... You will be missed :-(  

Transit plays at Zeta Bar - KL Hilton

Its been a while since I partied at KL Hilton ... A few of us Oldhamites gathered in Kuala Lumpur for E+J's big day, and celebrated the wonderful event with a night out at Zeta :-)

KL Hilton

Add: 3 Jalan Stesen Sentral, Kuala Lumpur Sentral

Tel: +603 2264 2264

Opening hours: 8pm - 3am 

  

Zeta has always had good bands ... Transit was no different, they rocked the house!
Transit's season at Zeta this year: 02 Jul 2012 - 29 Sep 2012
Timings: Fri-Sat, 10:15pm - 2:15am (They also play on Tues-Thurs)

A Michael Jackson impersonator runs onto the stage - The security team tried to remove him, but Transit kept the fella on the stage!

Is that Pit Bull? Haha...

The band played all the latest hits ... and the crowd loved it!

 

Transit is made up of ...

Leader - Bassist and lead singer, John Deschenes

Backup vocals - Jehan El-Dabbagh, with Lafonda Jackson

Keyboard - Andrea Spolti

Lead guitar - Francois “Frank” Pellerin

Drums - Justin Jackson

 

Casbah - Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur

Oldham Hall 23rd year reunion / ET's wedding weekend ... Party Number 1 was at Casbah on a Friday night, after dinner at Menara Hap Seng's Elegant Inn :-)

Hotel: Mandarin Oriental
Located: Near KLCC, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 2380 8888




We had whiskies, beer, stout, and many cigars (Thanks to duty-free prices and ET's generosity, I brought these back from AUH International) ... ET was the guest-of-honour, myself + WL + NWJ + RF joined him, and TC arrived in time from HK as well ;-) For about 2 hours of drinking, the 6 of us spent about RM$450. Not too bad!

Service was excellent throughout the evening. Music was interesting though - They played Rick Astley and other 80s tunes most of the night, which of course I loved - However, it seems they played more "contemporary" stuff after we left ... Wonder if the old-school music was just for us!

Han Kang Korean - Abu Dhabi Golf and Country Club

Located: Abu Dhabi City Golf Club
Tel for Golf club: +971 2 445 9600
Map: ADcityGolf website
Other outlet: Eclipse Boutique Suites - Al Markaziyah, Abu Dhabi
Tel for other outlet: +971 2 626 8800

Banchan or Korean side dishes ... In all, there were about 5 varities served to us, I loved the potatoes and the "pulled" beef.


Heh heh ... Japan's finest Asahi in a Korean joint!? 20 AED per bottle only, that's great value at RM$16.


Beer ... then BBQ pork, YES PORK, what a treat. We ordered 2 portions of BBQ pork to share amongst the 4 of us, it was quite fatty but I enjoyed it. So did MA! Very yummy with the bean paste and lettuce / rice.


Bibimbap ... but where's the meat :-(


The Korean fried rice was really good, as was the Kimchi pancake - Could taste the good quality ingredients which were used. D and bbG enjoyed the meal too :-)


Excellent BBQ steak :-)


On child-friendliness, it doesn't quite get the nod from me, as they only had 1 high-chair available. The fried rice is very child-friendly though, low-salt and not spicy. Delicious!

The verdict
Overall ... food was good, and who could complaint about the combination of hitting golf balls + private dining + good service + pork + beer!? But pity ... it was expensive. The above meal cost us 500 AED, or 125 AED per head.

Belgian Beer Cafe - InterContinental, Abu Dhabi

Add: Intercontinental Abu Dhabi - Al Bateen, not far from the Corniche
Tel: +971 800 423 463
Reservation: Recommended ... The place was 2/3rds packed by the time we got there at 8:30pm, and was full by the time we left at 10pm!
Opening hours: Daily, 5pm - 1am
Review: Previous visit a month ago
Entertainer: YES! 2012 edition (Entertainer costs 350 AED or RM$280, and is a book of vouchers which allows us to dine for buy-one-get-one-free at many places in Abu Dhabi).

Yes ... I believe Belgian Beer Cafe is one of Abu Dhabi's BEST porky-places, delicious!

A bag of warm bread is served in a paper bag with some fancy butter, before your meal is served ... Yes, my Oldham Hall (1989 - 1993) bro visited us in Abu Dhabi!

Belgian Cafe's finest .. Kwak (About 35 AED I think) - Love the unique glass!! And ... Leffe Brune (45 AED for a very large glass) - My choice each and every time, bbG's favourite!

Wikipedia ... Pauwel Kwak is an amber, 8.4% abv Belgian beer, brewed by the family-owned Brewery Bosteels in Buggenhout, Belgium. It is named after an 18th century innkeeper and brewer, Pauwel Kwak. As with other Belgian beers, Kwak has a branded glass with its own distinctive shape. The Kwak glass has attracted attention because it is a round-bottomed, hour-glass shaped glass that resembles a stirrup cup or 'yard of ale', which is held upright in a wooden stand — rather like a piece of old scientific apparatus.
AND,
Leffe is a beer brand owned by InBev Belgium, the European operating arm of the global Anheuser–Busch InBev brewery giant. There are several beers in the range, and they are marketed as Abbey beers. Leffe Brune has 6.5% ABV.

And ... our meal selection, Ron had Mussels in Roquefort cheese and Cognac ... and I had the excellent Pork Festival platter, consisted of sausages / loin / belly. They each cost 130 AED and 120 AED respectively, best of all we only had to pay for the more expensive of the two dishes, whilst the other was free (Entertainer voucher!).