Santini

I've always thought Santini was a French name, but hey, it's this Italian restaurant in Tropicana City. So, y'know, you learn something new everyday.

I think it's best to describe this place with a theory, called the Tipping Point Friend Theory described by my favourite sportswriter, Bill Simmons. Here it goes:

"Every group of female college friends goes between eight and twelve girls deeps. Within that group, there might be three or four little cliques and the backstabbing is through the roof, but the girls get along for the most part and make a big deal about hanging out, doing dinners, having special weekends and everything else. Maybe two of them get married early, then the other ones start dropping in their mid-20s until there's only five left - the cute blonde who can't get a boyfriend because she's either a drunk, an anorexic, or a drunkorexic; the cute brunette who only attracts assholes; the 185-pounder who'd be cute if she lost weight; the not-so-cute one with a great sense of humour; and the sarcastic chain-smoker with 36DDs who isn't quite cute enough to land anyone but hooks up a lot because of the 36DDs. In this scenario, the cute brunette is the Tipping Point Friend - as long as she's in the group, guys will approach them in bars, clubs or wherever. Once she settles down with a non-asshole, now all the pressure in on the drunkorexic and if she can't handle it, then the girl with 36DDs has to start wearing crazy shirts and blouses to show off her guns."

My point is this: Santini is like the sarcastic chain-smoker with 36DDs who hooked up often but never found a serious suitor. Simply because there's not much competition for 'upscale-type' restaurants in Tropicana Mall and they're suddenly the hottest friend in the group. Does this mean they're hot? Of course not.


Some average pizza.


Some average thingy.


Some average thing.


My average lasagna.

See, maybe I'm being overly harsh. But really, the portions are small, the food isn't great and it's overpriced. The reason I didn't elaborate on each dish (as you know I am wont to do) is simply that you'd be reading the same thing for each dish (which I probably have written before). So, yeah, in terms of pricing, it's at the Puerto Rican Specialty Factory level for rather disappointing food. Like the chain-smoker with the 36DDs, Santini hooks up often (gets a lot of one-time customers) but doesn't land anyone permanent. It gets a 4/10 on my ranking scale.

Good Evening, Bangkok

See, I love Malaysia. However I feel about Boston or New York City or whatever, I'm happiest at home. I mean, when I compare what I have here versus what I have there, it's no contest, really.

The mall in which I pretty much grew up has always been one of my favourite haunts. 1 Utama has everything. Cinema, fairly-stocked book store to just laze for a couple of hours, Intenci...oh wait, nevermind, and Good Evening Bangkok.

God, I love the place. It's located on the Ground Floor of the New Wing by the Rainforest area. I've been going there for a few years now, mostly with Zulie and Liyana, 2 awesome eating buddies. And we all love this place.

We usually get the same stuff. I think a must-have is the Seafood Tomyam Soup (not the clear one, just get the regular one). One bowl can be shared between two people. Personally, I prefer sharing with Liyana cos she doesn't eat seafood. Awesome. The soup is spicy enough such that there's a kick to it, but not overly spicy to the point where you don't really want to have more of it.



The soup alone is enough to have with rice, actually. But, natcherly, we go for more. The other thing we generally get is Pandan Chicken!



The Pandan Chicken here is usually very tender and somehow blends perfectly with the Tomyam soup. I mean, they're both equally good on their own, but together, it's like magic. A good analogy would be that the Chicken is like Xavi and the soup is like Andres Iniesta, and together, they form a potent combo. No? Not feeling this analogy? Nevermind, moving on...

Since we had a Fourth for this outing (Vanessa), we got a 3rd dish (well, 4th, but I hardly count their stupid Kangkong as a dish. It's like saying Edward Cullen is a real vampire) which was the Green Curry Chicken. And holy shit, it's good.



The curry is spicy. And good spicy too. Blending the curry, with the soup, and using that as gravy for the chicken, and it's like the feeling when you win a huge poker pot, your team wins the European Cup and you score the girl of your dreams, except all three things happen simultaneously, and in your mouth. That sounded dodgy, but I'm just saying it's awesome.


Xavi + Iniesta + Messi = This

The downside though is that this place is pricey. It costs about 40 bucks per person per meal, so it's a little expensive to be going there often. Plus, if you went there often and kept ordering these, your brain would explode from pure delicious-ness. But every now and then, it's a grand place to go for some great food at the world's greatest mall (completely objective).

Overall, I give this a barnstorming 9/10. And oh, as was suggested by my buddy, Zain, I now have an arbitrary price ranking for the restaurants. Just to be a bit creative, here are my 4 categories:-

C.Chew = Cheap = RM 15 and below
Mid-Level Exception = Moderate = RM16-RM25
Puerto Rican Specialty Factory = Pricey = RM26-RM50
Firebolt Broom = Expensive = RM51 above

So, clearly, as I told you the prices earlier, this one is classified under Puerto Rican Specialty Factory. As a parting shot,THE DORKS WILL ONE DAY INHERIT THE EARTH SO TAKE THAT!