Monte's Steakhouse at BSC

I've been on a quest to search for a great steakhouse in Malaysia. I went to a couple really good ones in Boston, namely Smith & Wollensky (twice), Grill 23 (twice) and the place whose name I can't remember that Hue brought us for our Potstickers Thanksgiving dinner. I have a slight preference towards Grill 23, but then again that's just pure bias. In all 3 places, I always got the Porterhouse, which is pretty much a large cut of T-Bone.

Now, before I started this blog, I had a Porterhouse at Jake's Charbroiled Steaks (which I will go to in the future and review again) and that's pretty much it as far as my steaks experience in Malaysia goes. Granted, I've been to TGIF's and Chili's and had steaks there, but those don't really count.

Anyway, my original plan was for dinner with KS, Alex, CM and Aaron at this steakhouse in Damansara Perdana called Eagle's Nest Steakhouse. Problem is, when we went there, we couldn't find it, ultimately concluding that it must've closed down some time ago. So, we then decided to go to a place that Alex recommended, Monte's at Bangsar Shopping Center.

Located on the (Malaysian) First Floor at BSC, a reservation is apparently a must-do. Fortunately for us, it was still Chinese New Year week, and we managed to get a table for 5 with no problems. The ambience is pretty neat, again, fit for a romantic dinner, a dinner with friends or a family dinner.



A bit like Victoria Station, it's not a pure steakhouse per se. It also serves seafood, chicken dishes and lamb and my favourite part of it, OSTRICH! I've never had ostrich meat ever and wouldn't mind trying but I was really craving steak that day. Plus, if I didn't like it, it'd be a pretty expensive mistake.



As you can see from the menu, the prices are on the high side. Again, unsurprising as this is in Bangsar and it is supposed to be an uppity sort of place. Alex ordered the Sirloin, CM and Aaron had the Rib-Eye, KS had the Tenderloin and I had the Awesome (to be displayed shortly).

I admit I'm still pretty shitty at this food-blogging thing b'cos I forgot to take pictures of our starters. I ordered a Calamari for the table, which was good, crispy and of a generous helping. CM had some soup (can't remember, proving again how shitty I am) while Alex and Aaron shared a salad, which, for the purposes of this food blog, is inconsequential.



The Rib-Eye. Here's where I deduct points. While Aaron's Rib-Eye was done properly (medium-rare), CM's was inconsistently done. Some parts were medium-rare, as ordered, but some parts were medium and, blasphemously, medium-well. Judging from Aaron's perspective, the Rib-eye was pretty damn good, but CM wasn't as satisfied, clearly.



The Tenderloin. Really good. Done properly (medium-rare) and consistent throughout. Gotta love seeing the redness when you cut the meat open. KS was kind enough to let me sample a small portion of his, and yup, it was delicious. Juicy, tender, all that is good with the world.

Now, for the Awesome:-



MY SURF AND TURF! You see, I'm a sucker for Lobster, even though it could kill me by means of high cholesterol overdose. Given that it's so rarely served in most places in Malaysia, I had to have it. And so I did. The portions given were, in my opinion, fairly generous, and the Lobster was boiled well, with some cheesy dressing which turned out to be, as the Famous Five say, scrumplicious! Naturally, the Turf portion didn't match up to the Surf, but taken on its own, it's still a very decent bite. Consistently done, it meshed really well with the Lobster meat. Though one may consider it pricey, obviously given the lobster, at RM70, I think, relative to the other steaks, it's reasonable.

But I do have to take some points off here for the service, or lack thereof. Like I mentioned earlier, there's a possibility of inconsistent grilling of steak as experienced by CM. And, my Surf and Turf was ordered with all French Fries, and none of the potatos stuff (still okay, and pretty good, actually) or the salad nonsense (unacceptable). Somehow, the waiter goofed it and I ended up getting the potatos, a slight salad, and no fries.

Despite that slight caveat though, Monte's is a place I'd defo go again. Good steak is really hard to find in Malaysia, so, the fact that this place serves good steak is more than enough reason for me to come back to it. I give it a 8/10, though the score could have been higher if the service was better.

As a digression, I think it'd be funny (and maybe quite unnerving) if they served snake meat here and called the dish "Monte's Python." Hilarious. What? Just me?