44: Bread & Olives Cafe

Right, I was sent here by Food Street Malaysia to do a food review. Because I love you all so much, after I sent in my review, I'm also gonna post it here so you all read it first before it appears on the website. Huzzah.
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Bread & Olive Café: Dinner with a View

I was pretty psyched to get down to Bread & Olive Café down in Ampang because, they served Middle Eastern food, and believe it or not, I have never eaten it before in my entire life.

After a drive down there, I was greeted graciously by the proprietor. I found out that Bread & Olive Café (henceforth referred to B&O) is pretty new to the food scene, being just 8 months old. I liked the place and I see a lot of potential in the café.

B&O serves food ranging from the Middle East, like lamb briyani to Italian, like pizza’s (worth mentioning is that they have a pizza which sounds like the hotel in Dubai, the Burj Al Arab) and pasta (did I also mention that they have their own pizza oven here, the one made from bricks?), Mediterranean, like the fatayer or Mediterranean lamb the and to western favorites to cater to the kids.

I went exploring a little, because B&O had to floors. The bottom floor had the usual aluminum tables and chairs (like the usual cafés), and the top floor had this apartment/suite thing going on, which really left an impression on me. The dark, woody ambience of the top floor coupled with the view of Kuala Lumpur from so high up was really amazing. I was blown away.

We were served two drinks, one the fragrant and refreshing Arab mint tea and B&O’s specialty, the B&O Flava Layer.

The Arab mint tea was great, and the mint really acted as a pick-me-up, but I found it a little too sweet. The Flava Layer on the other hand is pretty much a creation of genius. Who thought of layering fruit smoothies of multiple flavours into one drink? As the name implies, each “layer” has a different fruit, namely, kiwi, strawberry, mango and, guava. As you drink it, the flavour changes as the volume goes down, or you can plunge your straw into the different layers to get a taste of everything if you just can’t wait.

For the main course, we had the house special and also the best-seller, the Lamb Briyani.

The dish was seriously well prepared. Fluffy briyani rice with cloves and raisins served with a large lamb shank topped with sour cream accompanied by a crisp salad and a flavourful spice potato sauce, made from juices of the lamb shank and spices (which actually resembles a curry, but it isn’t I was told).

The raisins in the rice added a certain sweetness to it, and the spice potato sauce goes really well with the rice. The lamb was well prepared and topped with sour cream. Now I know some people can’t stand the smell of lamb, but this lamb had no trace of that smell whatsoever. Kudos to the chef.

Next up was the Creamy Chicken Pasta.

This filling dish is perfect for a cold day in my opinion. It has a hearty amount of mushrooms and chicken and is topped with diced tomato, which strangely adds a burst of flavour if you bite in to them while eating the pasta. It’s also accompanied by pieces of garlic bread, which you can use to mop up the cream sauce when you’re done.

This was my first time, and I really enjoyed the review. To finally sum it up, here is some information regarding B&O Café.

Bread & Olives Café

No. 7, Lot Perniagaan Komplex Pelancongan,

Menara Tinjau, Jalan Ampang Hulu langat,

68000 Ampang, Selangor Darul Eshan.

Opening hours: (as of now) 6 p.m. to 1 a.m

Contact: 013 250 6119 (Proprietor - Omar Kodah)

Pork-Free

B&O Café also host events like Valentines Day, and Mother Day (which is coming up soon) and also they do things like catering or functions.

Finally, B&O is located next to Menara Tinjau, which seems to be a favourite spot for couples. Go figure.

Final Verdict: 4 out of 5. Good food, good company, good ambience. What else could you ask for?