the return of "chicago rib house" ....@ gurney plaza

Wow.. The surprised look on our faces would’ve have been a real Kodak moment. We had just finished our "activities" in gurney plaza last tuesday when we accidentally stumbled upon on Chicago rib house.. .. We ate at Chicago ribs in auto City back in Sept 2008.. The 2nd time we went back and it was already closed. So imagine the surprise on our faces, when lo and behold, there it was, right in front of us. it was about 200pm and so it was not really packed. the lunch crowd was waning and we took a table beside the bar.

i ordered the full rack and elpea ordered the 1/2 rack. we wanted to order the soup/appetizer but remembered that the portions were huge the last time around so we voted against it. for drinks, we both took the bottomless fruit juices , i had cranberry (which was very unlike me but i wanted something sour this time rather plain old boring coke) and elpeas had the mango.

hehehe.. remember we didn't order any appetizer, right? well, you get a free bowl of deep fried battered mushrooms when you order 2 mains. i was also surprised that the free bowl was so huge.

the mushrooms were fresh and not overly battered, meaning more mushroom than batter and it tasted really good...and we really liked the honey mustard that came with it.

My order of the Full rack of St Louis hot ribs with fresh veggies and mash potato. fresh vegetables = broccoli :-) i must say that when order came, i was "a bit" dissapointed as i thought it would be a bigger portion but after the 1st bite it didnt matter any more.

as usual, the succulent meat practically fell of the bone and was really tender. they were very nicely marinated though i could not really feel the "heat".. it WAS supposed to be "hot".. i could only sense a "tinge" of spiciness/chili. i really enjoyed the mash potatoes as well and liked the chopped spring onions. and the fresh veggies..? well, broccoli is broccoli, so if you hate broccoli, don't order it,.. :-D i liked it.

elpea's order of original 1/2 rack of ribs with coleslaw and french fries. the original flavoured ribs tasted excellent as well and it was so good she started using her hands.... hehehe.. well, i did too.. you really didnt need the forks and knives. elpea loved the fries and coleslaw as well but I'm not one for coleslaw though.

the aftermath. savages.... :-) well it was a very satisfying meal and the freeflow of fruit juices was nice as well, so, i definitely recommend ordering that. 2 mains and 2 juices came up to a grand total of rm97. a bit pricey but i thought it was worth it.

Ambiance: similar to tgif or chillis concept. the servers were really helpful and the overall service was very good. oh yea.. they have free wi-fi as well so if you have a smartphone you'll be having fun being "connected" as well.

Would I go back again: Hell, yea..!! Ribs nice.... fathers day is coming.. :-D

Overall 4.5/5, ( -0.5 because I remembered that the full rack i had in auto city was bigger.)

Note: if you look at the pix on my previous post, you'll notice that we ordered practically the same meals... hahaha... how predictable we're become... http://chiak3.blogspot.com/2008/09/chicago-ribs-autocity.html and the portions were bigger leh..

food fest Q3 09 aka "How to lose weight laah, you tell me??"

My dad stayed over a few weekends ago and as you usual it was food fiesta time again... How to lose weight laah you tell me?? We bought some stuff from the pasar Ramadan and Lp made some stuff as well… LP made pork ribs Seasoned with soy and slowly cooked in the claypot for 2-3 hours

Its black because of the soy sauce…. Moist, sweet and tender flesh just slipping off from the bone. We’ll definitely do a grilled version if we ever get the BBQ up.

She also made a puff pastry with tuna filling topped with cut tomatoes and chillies. Very light scrumptious and definitely a good breakfast food I was actually quite disappointed this year with the fare from the pasar ramadan. Nothing that I bought tasted nice, not even remotely mediocre… And to make matters worse, our adventure to “karrukudi “ was just such a big letdown.. the briani rice was just plain bland and wet. And I’m never going back there again.

On the bright side, I found a place that sells better briani rice. Its from a nasi kander shop called tajuddin in queen street. And where is queen street? Well, it right there next to kings street and china street.. :-) (Googlemap it laah) Its only cost $3 for the rice which is quite a huge portion and $4 for a huge piece of chicken. The rice was very fluffy and it was very nicely spiced. Overall, it was so much better than the one we had at karrikudi for this one i could taste the spices, cinnamon, onions, cardamon, star aneis...etc... Mee goreng from the stall in front of the pulau tikus “mata-keng” . my personal all time favourite.

Mee goreng was as usual quite good but my dad commented that the mee rebus was not as good anymore.. also, I never buy from the Bangkok lane stall … I actually cant remember why its on my “banned” list..

And last but not least, not forgetting bran who had his porridge… hehehe…

Chicago ribs @ autocity

It was my 34th and we drove all the way across the bridge to go eat ribs. I’ve heard a lot about it and I especially wanted to go there since they serve pork ribs. You can hardly find good pork ribs on the island anymore. The last good ribs I had was in LA :-P The restaurant is hidden from view but it basically behind the mcD@autocity. We got there around noon and we were the 1st customers of the day. Soon after the lunch people started trickling in. Elpea ordered the lunch set, of ½ rack of babyback ribs with fries and slaw, mix veg soup and coke. I ordered the St Louis pork ribs, full rack, hot and spicy flavor, and for drinks I took the iced lemon tea. ( Next time, I go back I’ll be sure to try the original flavor ribs. ) I also ordered additional potato skins for starters. 1st to arrive were the drinks in 2 humongous glasses. Larger that what we normally see in crappy TGIF or Chili’s on the island. iced-lemon tea for me and coke for my lovely wife

Next came the potato skins Not as thick as TGIF’s but taste much much nicer. .

Elpeas mix veg soup came next. I don’t think there has been any soup from any restaurant that has met our standards. Every thing taste like it "fresh" from the can. elpea say so-so only.Then the main courses came.

Elpeas babyback ribs look really good The fries were very nice as well. the coleslaw was so-so only she said. the PORK ribs i ordered however looked super huge and elpea was laughing at me as it looked too huge for even ME to finish.

Don’t underestimate me dear… The meat on the ribs were very tender and it just peels away from the bone. succulent... :-) Taste wise it's better than what I had previously on the island. The hot and spicy flavour was very mild actually. not spicy also.

the Mash potato was excellent. not too soft and not too dry. Just nice. The broccoli tastes well, like broccoli but was suprising quite nice. I managed to finish the whole rack and ¾ of the mash potato but couldn’t finish the broccoli and no more space for dessert. :-( Overall 8.5/10 , good food and fast service