Thursday, June 07, 2007

French Vietnamese Food @ Bongsen, Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur



It has been quite a while since I dined at Bongsen. There's quite a few changes including a new menu which was pretty good. The plan was to meet up at Suria KLCC since it was near Splashie Boy and Ms. P's office. Unfortunately, Ms. P wasn't in the office so she ended up being one hour late for dinner. While waiting for her, we ordered appetizers from the menu. I won't have much descriptions for the food this time as I didn't do any of the ordering as I left it to my friends to select what we ate that night. I did picked this one - the dragonfruit and lime salad. Really good stuff and I reckon it's pretty simple to recreate at home. Tossed in lime juice, the dragonfruit cubes is topped with shredded mint leaf, crispy cuttlefish and toasted peanuts. Continuing the dragonfruit theme, I also ordered the dragonfruit and lime juice. Really refreshing and who knew lime would add so much flavour to the usually bland taste of dragonfruit.



My friend, MY ordered this - fried calamari and prawn salad. You drizzle a sweetish dressing over the salad which we didn't really like. The calamari came with a breadcrumb coating which tend to be quite hard signifying overfrying. Even though we all didn't like the salad so much, we finished it everything down to the last frisee leaf. You can't really tell from the picture by the salad also has quail eggs nestled with the frisee leaves.



We had the assorted platter of appetizers which came in two big plates for us to share. I snapped two pictures of the long platter - their chee cheong fun roll tasted kinda funny but I liked the meatballs served with the sweetish tomato sauce. Not too sure what was the item in between the meatballs and chee cheong fun rolls but I didn't like it as it was slightly chewy and a bit oily.



The fresh rice paper rolls and the tiny spring rolls were not too bad. There was also the sugarcane prawn which you eat the paste and chew on the piece of sugarcane to taste its sweet juices.



After an hour of waiting for Ms. P, she finally arrived hence we ordered the main meals to share. First was a portion of grilled lemongrass chicken. This was pretty good as it came with a brownish paste made with lemongrass that was so fragrant. The grilled chicken breast was quite juicy and went so well with the lemongrass paste.



We had to have the Beef Pho which came with tender sliced beef, beef tendons and cow's stomach. I love the rich broth and we slurped all the soup till the last drop.



Not too sure what's the name of this but it's a tomato based soup with noodles that resemble spaghetti strands. It's the ever favourite of Ms. P who must have it whenever she eats here for lunch or dinner. There's prawns, tomatoes and I think a type of beancurd in the soup. It's not spicy but quite moreish especially the broth.

Although prices here tend to be quite on the high side - dinner was approximately RM60 per pax for the food and drinks we ordered, the company made up it all. As usual, we had strange discussions like why Hong Kong men are supposedly better as boyfriends. We finally concluded they weren't ideal boyfriend or husband material since they have a tendency to acquire a second wife in China.

Bongsen
Level 4
Suria KLCC
Kuala Lumpur

(Halal. The restaurant is next to Spice of India and on the top floor of the mall.)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

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17 comments:

wmw said...

When I saw the first pic before I saw the title, I though the place was Co Do!

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

i thought the food was pretty good, and spot on with the meat balls..it was quite a delight..but being klcc, food never comes cheap..

Babe_KL said...

mmm I liked the tomato broth too which is slightly tangy. ooo so this is the place that serves lime juice with dragonfruit. will try it one day

sc said...

been ages since i went to bongsen and now with the new menu, wont mind going there again..haha your comment on HK men is darn funny :D

*sooyin* said...

i had a...well, not bad, but funny experience in bongsen 2 years ago...

Xiu Long Bao said...

i luv bongsen!
Seems dat they hav changed their menu? The dragonfruit salad looks really gud!

Big Boys Oven said...

I love vietnamese food especially their beef noodle and the aroma of sweet basil. Just can't get enough of it.

Tummythoz said...

Let me order at any Vietnamese restaurant, the main meal will be their appetisers. Yums.

MeiyeN said...

we'd a pretty good experience here... and i remember we had da set lunch, very affordable!

PlatinumGirl said...

Mmm. Looks delicious. I think i must make a pit stop here when i visit KL in October ... i feel hungry now.

Collecting Moments said...

Will try the beef pho u recommended. Im a sucker for calamari and prawns, that salad is soooo calling me.

boo_licious said...

wmw - no wonder it looked so familiar. Must give Codo a try to compare.

Joe - what to do? KLCC has one of the highest rental rates in KL hence they must charge premium.

babe - it's new per my friend who is a regular here.

sc - yeah, get girls and oops, one guy together and we talk abt MEN!

sooyin - LOL on yr experience with the chilies and the tapau incident.

xiu long bao - yeah, they did. Go try! the dragonfruit was yum.

big boys oven - yeah, I love it with a squeeze of lime plus the crunchy bean sprouts.

tummythoz - then you can sapu the platter of appetizers as it has so much variety.

meiyen - didn't know they have a set lunch here. Maybe you want to revisit since there's a new menu.

platinum girl - hope you like it!

honey star - beef pho is a good choice. That calamari and prawn one not so fantastic so be warned, ok?

Big Boys Oven said...

Not sure about the lime but the ctunchy bean sprouts really do the trick and finishing. I gotto say the sambal also important to enhance the taste of the noodle.

Rasa Malaysia said...

Boo - the tomato noodle soup is called Bun Rieu and it's definitely my favorite Vietnamese noodle dish. It's made with crab meat, eggs, tomatoes, and bean curd, and some with fresh water snails. In SoCal, you can get very very good bun rieu due to the large Vnese population. :)

boo_licious said...

big boys oven - sambal is always good but I think for Viet Beef Phos they don't use any additional chili. This place does a spicy beef soup one which is pretty good too.

thanks rasa msia for the name. No fresh water snails in this one but definitely had tomatoes and bean curd.

boo_licious said...

jackson - 5 of us eating all those. If 3 of us, think we will faint with so much food.

Catherine said...

Beautiful pictures. The Beef Pho looks delicious. This tomato based soup with noodles must be a hit.

Cathy
French online

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