Mouthwatering Burgers @ Relish, KL

     It was on a Wednesday night when I drove down to KL, several friends in tow, for a birthday dinner at Relish. After having failed to secure a table at another venue, a friend had suggested to me, "Hey, why don't we try this one out?", clicking away on a laptop to show me the restaurant's website. Fair enough, I thought to myself, since the place was pretty close to our original destination.

    Nestled in a quiet corner along Jln. Changkat Sultan Ismail, Relish greets the customer with a pleasant and quiet ambience, with backlit lights and comfortable divans for the customer to sink into and relax. The head waiter, Gopi, greets us as we come in, and quickly ushers us to a room upstairs, that I had booked in advance. Securing a place for 25, a feat rather difficult in this busy day and age, proved to be a very easy chore, with the assistance of the head waiter, who had reassured me on the phone the day before, that there would be a place waiting for me when I came. After being seated, the menus were passed around, and we began to pore over it to choose our meal..

    Forget about your Ramly burger that you get queueing up at the stall opposite your house, the food here is authentic meat, with all the works thrown in. Gourmet burgers are their specialty, a fact which they didn't fail to point out, when we asked for recommendations. After consulting with Gopi, we ended up ordering the Classic Burger, a full 10 oz of hand-made chargrilled beef, slathered with tomato relish and mayo. For myself, I decided to go with the alternative meat (lamb, in this case), and nodded to Minty Lamb, chargrilled meat in pita bread, with mint yoghurt relish. Finally, after several minutes of deliberation, I finished off with a serving of Pasta Carbonara, as a benchmark item against other restaurants.

    As the food was being prepared, I shot quick glances around the place. The crowd (besides our bunch of university students) were mainly made up of middle-aged couples, and a few yuppies who looked like they had just drifted in from work. Jazz music drifted down from the walls, as the soothing purple lights lent an air of zen to an otherwise cosy room, that wouldn't look out of place in a hotel lounge. Just perfect for a quiet dinner with friends, I thought to myself. There was no need to shout across the table to be heard, a fallacy among other busy outlets, and there were no impatient customers waiting at your elbow, for you to gulp down your drink and leave.

    When the food came, I could have announced its arrival by its smell which wafted up the stairs. Abandoning grace, I tore into the Minty Lamb, and was rewarded with succulent juices that sprang out from the tender meat, nicely tempered by the mint. The pita served as a base for the meat, and I could tell that it was made from fresh dough. The Classic Burger practically oozed cheese, and had undoubtedly one of the freshest burger patties that I had tasted in a long while. The carbonara was nice, but I believe that their main strengths lie not in their Italian cuisine, but rather, in their Western-styled gourmet burgers. After having sampled most of the abovementioned food, I decided to place an order for the Aussie Burger, and when it came, I was greeted with a chunk of beef, wrapped in egg and smothered in a variety of sauces. The smoked bacon (beef) bits were to die for, and guacomole sauce on top of it all gave a heavenly afterbite. I guess the only caveat I have would be with the portions, which tend to be on the small side, so my warning to those who eat whole horses for dinner would be; you may need to visit a mamak stall after dinner.

    The drinks came, and my coffee appeared right after I gobbled the last piece of lamb. Service was rather efficient here, and I was attended to almost as soon as I raised my hand. The kitchen however, couldn't quite keep up with our large number of orders, but then again, I guess 25 people ordering at once would be rather taxing. When the bill came, there were several errors, probably due to the large number of people, but it they were quickly sorted out, with the assistance of the Gopi. For about approximately 35-something ringgit, I believe that I got my money's worth, with a main meal, and a drink thrown in.

    After having settled everything, we bade goodbye to the place, with a trail of waiters, and Gopi himself, happily waving to us, wishing us a very good night. Even as I dreamt of bacon bits, I knew that I would be coming back again.

Soon Seng