Sesame + Soy = Fusion at G Hotel

I have so many entries to catch up on but I can hardly spare the time. Right now, I'm taking a break as I to retreat to my happy place. No, I'm not at Overseas devouring char siu. Okay, second happy place, reminiscing about food. I just realised I've only posted one entry from my Penang trip. When I read about the G Hotel in a design magazine, I was impressed by the contemporary design of the lobby with its sleek designer furniture decorating a long rectangular space. I had also heard many good things about their fusion restaurant Sesame + Soy. If the hotel itself was anything to go by, I should've lowered my expectations for the restaurant. The picture is beautiful from far, up close you notice the details are missing. I for one, have a problem swimming in a pool that overlooks a construction site. Correction, where a constuction site overlooks the swimming pool. My first impression was already tainted when they couldn't find my reservation and then the room wasn't ready. It took almost 3/4 of an hour to check-in. We checked out the next day and moved to a less styled, more substance kind of hotel. However, if your idea of a holiday is shopping then by all means, G Hotel would be perfect. Its located right next to Gurney Plaza and you can have your Starbucks, McD's, cinema, F.O.S, Chilli's and other things you might be missing from Kuala Lumpur. Before we left, we dined at Sesame + Soy. Sesame offers a Chinese fusion menu while Soy (dinner only) is a fine dining Chinese restaurant.

Hunky ordered a fresh spring rolls with duck and mango chilli chutney which was a little on the bland side. We only ordered it because of the chutney but guess what? Its not a chutney when you have chopped mango swimming in bottled Thai chilli sauce. I supposedly had corn chowder with sesame crusted chicken. If I wanted Campbell's can soup, I would've bought one from the supermarket next door. Where is the corn? It was more like cream of cream soup. However, the sesame crusted chicken was fragrant and tasty. Hah, its all coming back to me now.

My grilled coffee and cocoa pork ribs sounded a lot more interesting than it tasted. First of all, it ain't grilled. It was definitely fried. Secondly, the sauce was too subtle and undefined. I think they should've gone all out with a strong and bittersweet sauce instead of an apologetic version which ended up tasting like mild kicap pekat. It was tender and tasty but not what I expected. The garlic fried rice was superb tho. Hunky's roasted belly pork spaghetti is the most popular item on the menu. I can see why. Siew yoke low meen instead of siew yoke fahn. Simple dish guaranteed to sell. The belly pork was very good. Warm and tender on the inside and crispy on the outside. After the slightly disappointing starter and main course, we had hoped dessert save the meal. It wasn't wow enough to save the say but it was pretty good. Gula melaka creme brulee with coconut ice cream. The creme brulee was lovely and smooth with a hint of gula melaka. Very nice. The coconut ice cream was a little overwhelming for me.

Would I go again? There are so many other fantastic things to eat and if I wanted fine dining, I would stay in KL so I doubt I would. Having said that, do try their set lunch at RM22++. The friends who recommended the restuarant both had their set menu on separate occasions. So, maybe the magic lies in the set. Also, you get a 15% discount with HSBC card. We paid RM78 for our meal with the discount.