Vineria @ Bangsar Shopping Center, KL

Vineria is new. It is affiliated to Bar Italia and we picked this place for lunch because we wanted to have our favourite Gelato for dessert later without having to drive down-town to Changkat Bukit Bintang. Also, we wanted to see if the food at Vineria was any good.

Today I am in the mood for red meat. Lamb to be precise. I hoped that the lamb at Vineria would be up to the mark. No pork is served here so I guess this place can be considered Halal. Booze however is served.

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Costolette Agnello – lamb rack roasted with eggplant paste and pecorino, on roasted potatoes – RM56.00

Lamb is one of the hallmarks of spring in Italy, and one of the most popular styles of preparation comes from Rome , Italy that is Costolette or ‘finger burning’ lamb chops- a humorous reference to the fact that the cute, dainty lamb chops can be held and eaten with your hands. Normally,  rib chops are used in this style of cooking, and I like them for the precise reason that these cuts are usually nicely marbled with fat, leaving the meat still moist even after the process of cooking. One of my all time favourite Lamb chops is found at La Bodega, Jalan Telawi. The other one would now be here, at Vineria. Succulent and with just the right amount of fat marbling, this was a great start to the lunch.

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Insatale Portofino; prawns, smoked spanish salmon, asparagus and carrots – RM26.00

What I liked about the salad was that it was light and refreshing and that they were generous with the salmon and olives. What I did not like was the fact that the salmon was soft and mushy and a little too salty.

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Proscuitto & Melone; Spanish beef and Rock Melon – RM22 – 32

Prosciutto, which is Italian for ham, derived from the Latin word perexuctus, meaning “deprived of all liquid.” (Feels like Ciki, after a run on the Kiara hill:P)  It describes any seasoned, salt-cured (not smoked) and air-dried ham that has been pressed to create a firm, dense texture and typically cut into paper-thin slices. Here at Vineria, they use Spanish Beef Loin Nocina of 18 month aged Ham. I have never tried Beef prosciutto, so of course I jumped at the chance to order it and found, to my surprise, that it was really rather good! It’s a little bit tougher than pork and has a beefier taste(obviously) but other than that, it went excellent with the melon. This is a great place to bring your Muslim friends.

Just to digress, which is your favourite way of eating Prosciutto? The 3 most popular ways of eating Prosciutto are :
1. Prosciutto e mozzarella
2. Prosciutto e melone
3. Prosciutto e fichi (fresh figs)

I always love prosciutto with melon because the saltiness of the ham is canceled out by the sweetness of the melon, and the overall effect allows you to savor the sensation of the textures without distraction. Nice!

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Salsiccia & Fonduta; Duck Foie gras sausages served with truffle cheese fondue – RM22- 36

The salsiccia (italian sausage) was good in that it wasn’t gamy but bad because we could not taste the foie gras really. Also the cheese fondue went well with the sausage but it lacked any truffle taste to it.

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Pasta Fusilli all’Italiana; spicy pasta sauteed with pesto and tomato sauce and nuts – RM23.00

The pasta was good. Cooked al dente with a strong, heady infusion of pesto herbs it was my dream pasta- the flavour was awesome! The pasta is a must.

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Gelato -RM16.00

Gelato from Bar Italia is what is says on the menu. The flavour  and smooth texture was exquisite just like the one from down-town,  however, we were let down by the size of the single serving. Someone in our group mentioned “Bangsar location , therefore Bangsar prices..”. Well, what can I say, the gelato was delicious but we hope that Vineria will increase their portions so that we can keep coming back for their Gelato!

All in all, a nice restaurant, tucked in the back of Bangsar Shopping center(BSC).  You need to walk past Kiehls on the ground floor, to the inner depths of the back part of BSC. Vineria offers  a gorgeous, chill-out balcony area with lazy sofas and excellent furniture for watching the world go by. It is extremely ‘tai-tai’ (lady of leisure) in ambiance. The service was just so-so because we were seated outside and it was difficult to get their attention. We needed to call a couple of times before we got any service. The food is definitely above average. We had a memorable lunch at Vineria.

Vineria
G-133,
Bangsar Shopping Centre,
Bangsar,
KL.
Tel: 603 2287 7889

31 Comments

  • email2me says:

    The Proscuitto & Melone; Spanish beef and Rock Melon looks good ….. perfect for adding it to my plate of aglio olio

  • Phwarrr…. the lamb looks good. Can’t wait to visit my Kiehl’s store… plotting it in my calendar now. LOL

  • Ciki, my food wiki. 🙂

    And how can you eat smoked salmon again after that glorious piece you had at Sage? Nothing will come close again. Nothing….

    • cumi&ciki says:

      thank u LL.. someone wise, she told me – you must do research .. otherwise not worth reading.. hehe.. she’s a clever cookie..

      sigh, i know.. after sage, its like nothing else will do.. sob.. sob.. 😉

  • Sean says:

    ooh the fusilli looks good! i usually avoid fusilli as well as penne cos they’re often stodgy and don’t soak up the sauce well (personal preference, i guess). but this one looks light and springy and smothered beautifully in the sauce!

  • foodbin says:

    a good place to bring my Muslim friends.

  • hhm…me thinks my hard-saved up $ is for Sage tis mth. Vineria hv to wait! But tht gelato is antr thing all toge! hehehe.. will jz buy frm Gourmet & glare at the wait staff if they give me too little! kekeke

  • Leo (thule) says:

    truth to be told… I have not been to any restaurants in BSC except for Ming Room 😛

  • Bangsar-bAbE says:

    Nice shots babe!! You actually went that day ah? 😉

  • Selba says:

    The gelato looks very interesting! 🙂

  • Nice shot of the lamb! 🙂 Looks like a really small serving for that price though… 🙁

  • Nic (KHKL) says:

    a cool gal knows her red meat well. rawk on, babe! ;D i wanna try this place la. hopefully they are open during the cny week la. wei, whatchu tokking abt?? your pics are wonderful lah! 🙂

  • eiling says:

    I should have gone to this vineria instead of twenty one. Food there sucks!

  • jencooks says:

    I was at Bangsar last weekend but did not come across this place…hmmm
    Your pics are really eye popper ! POP!!!! nice shots

  • Julian Si says:

    HAHAAAA Tai Tai ambience 🙂 Cute!

    ps – Bar Italia sure looks like they are doing well …

  • babe_kl says:

    gee the gelato does have bangsar price tag on it!

  • fatboybakes says:

    omigoodness, i went there and had the exact same items. we must be siamese twins.

  • Danny says:

    Terrible experience and painfully slow service which annoyed me. Food when it arrived was tasteless. Recommend all avoid. 😥

  • MG says:

    Nice looking restaurant, heard mixed reviews but tried anyway last night… food was awful. Bread basket was rock-hard, wines (red and white by the glass) were warm, red emperor fish smelled foul, medium well lamb rack was served purple and bloody. Needless to say we left without eating. YMMV.

  • Scooby says:

    OMG what a nasty experience. FOOD POISONING ALERT – I ate a seafood dish that smelled weired, but the waited told me that was how it was supposed to be. I then spent the next 24hrs vomitting my stomach out. Cheap ingredients, poor kitchen hygiene. Avoid avoid avoid.

    • cumi&ciki says:

      Dear Scooby thank u for you feedback. Poor u, food poisoning. I am sure Vineria will be acting upon this feedback once they read it. Cheers!

  • Danny says:

    Mmmm – I had funny smelling seafood too. Yuck yuck yuck.

  • Ticked Off says:

    My friends and I had dinner at Vineria.IT last night (this was my second visit) and safe to say that we are never going back there! Most of the food was satisfactory even though they screwed up a simple Aglio Olio (we specifically requested not spicy but when it arrived the first time, it was spicy and had to be returned).

    We also had to wait 40 mins to get 2 ginger ales which we ordered when we first arrived which I found utterly ridiculous. I don’t understand why wait-staff refuse to write orders down when they can’t seem to remember them.

    Service was sub-standard throughout the night and we were always hunting for someone to take our order. The fact that I had to get up and walk to the front of the restaurant 3 times just to get the waiter shows you how inattentive they were!

    If it was just a case of ignorance, perhaps I could be more forgiving but I just could not tolerate the skinny Italian guy’s (manager?) rude and pompous attitude. When we tried to ask for additional spoons while he was looking in the wine chiller which was near our table, without even bothering to look up, he just put his hand up and told us to wait. Maybe that’s his way of talking but it sounded really rude from where I was sitting. Seriously, I have never been treated like this in any fine dining establishment in KL or anywhere else.

    After waiting almost half an hour for our coffee and gelato to arrive, we had to leave and decided to cancel the orders and settle the bill. I won’t even go into the details of the fiasco with the bill but suffice to say that the so-called Italian manager is in desperate need of a few lessons in manners (and also math ’cause he can’t do simple arithmetic even with a calculator it seems) and if he’s incapable of learning any, then I suggest he find another career as he’s obviously not cut out for the hospitality/ service industry.

    I now understand why there are so many negative reviews on this place (mainly on the service and bad attitude of the manager I might add).

    How they even have the cheek to charge 10% service, I can’t explain. Our bill was over RM1k so we basically paid RM100+ for NOTHING!!!!

    Take my advice and spend your money elsewhere!!

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