Dine-in Date: 19th April 2015 & 10th May 2015

The new level seven floor of pavilion is an all-eating place for the extreme eater. Here, you can find the famous Rocku Yakiniku BBQ buffet, Pig & Wolf, Village Roast Duck, and also Serai.

For this year mother’s day, I had decided to give this place a try due to the reason that my parent is usually fancy of Chinese or local cuisine, and a little bit of western stuff like coffee. So this is a perfect place that fulfil my needs.

About Serai

If you ever tasted Serai satay, then you probably heard of Serai before. Serai Satay Bar and Serai are both under Serai group, so you can find the signature satay in Serai as well. I'm not sure if it's exactly the same as the taste and quality of Serai Satay Bar as I have never tasted before, and I don't plan to try due to the cost and many reviews stated that their satay is good, but you can find much better quality out there.

The main cuisine idea for Serai is a Malaysian & Western style. Not only that you are able to get a taste on the local delights, you are also allow to select western style cuisine from their menu. Western menu range from spaghetti, cakes, juices, coffee, tea and much more.

One thing worth noticing, many restaurants who that serve more than one type of cuisine types often face the problem of specializing on a certain dishes while having difficulties to maintain the quality of other cuisine type to the top, or at least their customers think so. But in Serai, I am quite satisfying with their food for both Malaysian and Western delights. You won’t have the feeling of I’m-eating-western-food-in-Malaysian-cuisine-restaurant-but-the-western-food-is-not-nice…..

As a specialization in both Malaysian and Western cuisine, it means you are able to experience both cuisine right here. If you in search of tasty Malay's cuisine and fried snacks, here will be a great choice to fulfill your desire; if you are looking for western desserts and tea/coffee for after-lunch break, there are range of coffee & tea for you here. The overall design of the restaurant is also quite well done. It’s the type of high class food place that you can expect. Although they are serving any really high class food, the place give you a feeling that it’s wide, comfortable, and surrounded with westernize furniture and Malay style decoration. The environment is easily adapt to most people favour, as you don’t have to be a fans of western or Malay style to like the place.

Malaysian & Western Cuisine of Serai

One of the spaghetti with massive amount of salmon I had in my life so far. Spaghetti Smoked Salmon (RM23) offer the best salmon savory experience for a dish that has salmon as the main dishes. The salmon is not pieces but bite size, soft and chewy texture with fresh pan-fried salmon taste. It's just lacking of the smoked flavor as stated in the menu, mainly due to the sauce. The napoli sauce is nicely done, consist of amazing taste of various veggies in one sauce. But for me, the sauce is too much, and it cover most of the plate, including the salmon. Spaghetti vongole (RM23), a special dish originate from Italy with freshness of clams and combination of green veggie as the extra taste. This is the first time I had clams with spaghetti, a really new idea as we don't usually found such dishes out there. This spaghetti vongole is slightly spicy, but doesn't cover up the freshness of the clams. Apart of the clams is a little small, this is a great dishes if you like the taste of seafood on a spaghetti. But I wouldn't recommend this too much because the specialty of this dish is mainly clams and slight spicy spaghetti. The veggies are ordinary. There are lots of better foods compare to this one. Nasi Ulam is a Malaysian rice dish mixed with herbs that unique with in taste and it's always served as a healthy dish. While "Ayam Bakar" means grilled chicken. So Nasi Ulam Ayam Bakar (RM22) is basically a steamed rice with Malay's style with grilled chicken. Malay's dishes often consume herbs & spices that add tasty flavor and aroma into each meal. This Nasi Ulam has a special taste that I haven't had before. I don't always consume Malay dishes so I couldn't comment too much. But if you like marinated chicken that is full of salty-sweet flavor, you may give this a try. With some of the Malay's fried snacks as the side dishes, this is a plate full of Malay's style flavoring. Nasi Ambang (RM20) from Serai has quite some good reviews, and you will only understand why after you tasted it. White rice is nothing special but steamed rice, the killing shot in this dish is the beef rendang that has great aroma of marinated sauce and spices covered in the beef. The only complain I have in this dish is the beef rendang is too small. I wish I can have one more extra beef rendang. Apart of that, the veggies are quite ordinary. Fresh and crunchy, but the taste is plain after you had the delicious beef rendang. Lastly, I'm not sure why the fried noodle is there. Not a bad thing anyway. Nasi Kerabu (RM22) looks like rice with blue coloring but actually it's not. In Nasi Kerabu, the rice is cooked with the leaf of butterfly-pea, or more commonly known as Clitoria ternatea. You can find Nasi Kerabu in Nyonya dishes. In this dish, the Nasi Kerabu the main thing that provide you the aroma and taste of leafs, letting you feel the taste of natural plant mixed with "Ayam Percik", a type of marinated chicken with flavorful spices. This dish usually made with coconut milk so it's a little creamy and tasty. The chicken do has a strong flavor, but it's too strong that it result in being salty more than other taste. Nevertheless, the Nasi Kerabu is quite enjoyable. This La Royale has a great name yet suitable to this great dessert. To point out the obvious, this is a chocolate mousse cake. Non-alcoholic, but the chocolate taste is superb, yet not making us feel like this whole thing is just sugar. I would say this is what really call chocolate cake that made with actual chocolate. The great chocolate taste is not too sweet, not like just sugar, and doesn't make us feel stuffy after all those meals and desserts. A must try if you are a big fan of chocolate. Pavlova is usually really soft as each layer of it is made of super soft texture like marshmallow, or I should say softer than marshmallow because it usually melt in your mouth right away. This Pavlova has slightly harder texture like ordinary cake, except it's softer than ordinary cakes. However, the texture is not too sweet and it's still crunchy & soft. If you had tasted actual Pavlova before, this might not be the best Pavlova for you, but it's worth to give this a try.
Pandan Banana Fritters (RM13) is more like western style, but I'm not sure the exact origin as it set roots in many places in the past. But tasting the fried banana make me think of the "pisang gorreng" (fried banana) out there, so crispy and tasty from the inside and out. Although it is known as "Pandan Banana Fritters", I couldn't really taste pandan flavor. It could be hidden inside the fried outer skin. But the fried banana itself has really good texture. You may eat it as it is, or have some sugar sauce pour over it. Personally, I think the sugar is quite sweet. You may want to try a little bit to see if you like the sweetness. And the vanilla ice cream? Excellent, this dish give you the ultimate hot & cold sensation in the mouth. As its name suggest, Honeydew Blast (RM10.50) actually give you some blasts for every sip. In my experience, sometimes the honeydew comes first, but sometimes it's the lime. It's the sweet and sour taste that keep going against each other in your mouth. After some time, only you remember that there is lychee flavor in this drinks too. Just that lychee flavor is usually hidden. But surprise you once in awhile. In overall, not too sweet, not too sour. Good as an appetizing drinks.

Banana Blitz (RM10.50) is mainly banana flavor, paired with nice taste of coconut milk within the flavor of the banana juice. But, I don't really taste much of the pineapple. Perhaps a little bit sour. Nevertheless, it has nice portion and great sweetness.

Contact & Location

Serai Group: Click Here
Serai Website: Click Here
Serai Facebook: Click Here
Serai's Menu (In PDF): Click Here

Lot 7.01.04, Level 7, Dining Loft, Pavilion Mall
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Phone Number: 03-2110 5353
E-mail: info@seraigroup.com.my

Rating

Quality

Excellent. Both Malaysian and Western cuisines are at the top quality. You don’t need to worry the lack of quality in any of their meals. What’s more, you can enjoy every single ingredients on their plate and expect great & tasty food that you couldn’t find out there.

Cost

Worthy. Some of the foods are quite costly. But as a comparison of food quality, place, and services, you might not be able to find a place as good as here out there. Especially food quality and portion, considering a food place in Pavilion dining loft, approximately RM20 for a tasty meal is worthy for a treat once in awhile.

Portion

Excellent. As you can see, all main dishes have variety of foods in one plate. The ingredients might not be too much, but it's quite fulling. If you order their drinks, it will be more than enough to be full. Just remember to make some space for delicious desserts.

Environment

Good. Great, cooling and comfortable environment. The larger seats are not much, but all of the seats have sofa. More than enough for a relaxing meals and tea/snack time.

Service

Excellent. The staffs are extremely friendly and well trained. They give you a sincere smile and practice well manner behavior and gesture in serving customers. You definitely get the heart warming service here. Not to forget about the fast serving speed here, which is rought 5 to 10 minutes for each meal despite having lots of customers.

Next Visit?

Serai will be always be in my list whenever I'm at Pavilion with some friends that willing to go for tea, snack, or any delicious desserts.