Enorme Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

Hands up, how many of you have passed by centerstage but never knew what was inside? Wait do you even know where centerstage is?

On the table today is Calamari Fritti (RM26.90), Tagliatelle Al Prosciutto (RM42.63) and 11" La Pizza Swirl (RM48.25).

I thought I ordered too much but visually they look like small plates. Let's start with the calamari, as an Italian restaurant, you cannot afford to screw this dish up. The dish is nice, batter good and both the dips nice.

Next is the tagliatelle, if you have not tried parma ham then once in your life you should. This dish, I'm on the fence because the base tasted like cream of chicken. The parma ham is cured and salty; so there is really no need for the base broth. In the end, when you dig in , you will get pockets of saltiness.

Lastly, the pizza swirl looks small but it will pack a punch. The mozzarella cheese is chewy which I like but there is something that lets this down. The thing with dough is that you never know it's is thoroughly cooked when it's curled up. So the outer sides are crispy and the insides are crispy but the middle feels uncooked so there is feeling of biting into thick flaky dough. Not cool. Otherwise this was a novel way of eating pizza.

Overall the environment is not welcoming, that's because it's located in a mall that is not doing well. It feels run down and I think it has affected the overall morale of the servers and also chefs. Imagine working at a place where left, right and center is all up for rent and sale. Happy workers is as important as good food.

NOTE This is not a paid post; the written content is based on author's personal opinion and preference.

For more food reviews, follow me on IG at...

Hmm, pretty decent among the more upmarket Italian restaurants. Ordered the Carbonara pizza with the runny yolk in its centre...my impressions resonate with an earlier reviewer who didn't find the pizzas THAT great. Despite being 'wood-fired', the dough on the bottom of the pizza slice was a bit hard to the bite and not amazing. The yolk in the middle was perfectly poached but such technique doesn't seem very hard.

Soups were creamy, if not a little light on seasoning. The soup portions were too small to share, though. Would like to try the cakes next time.

I thought the Caesar salad was the least palatable starter with very little taste, even with the capers. On the other hand, the Portobello was really yummy. The deep-fried mushrooms in batter were crunchy and moist on the inside and the chicken strips and sliced onions could not have complemented this dish more.

Least impressive was the ambience. The dishes served were not Instagram-mable because the lighting was so dim, it seemed to border on power failure.

Service is prompt and courteous and the waiters and waitresses were quick to refill our glasses with water, after downing each one without so much as having to ask.

The Swirls which came only in one size were alright but a bit overpriced (beware: RM42 for six swirls) for the sizes of each piece. What won me over was the honesty and the willingness of the servers to go the extra mile to ensure a wonderful dining experience. Our friend who we ate with left behind a gift we gave him and the lady waitress must have walked 250 metres or more to tell and deliver us the...

Size (of Pizza) Does Not Matter

The service by the waitstaff here is really good. Kudos to the team working through a busy evening. Although we did receive the Pizzas slightly late, they were patient and acted swiftly to requests.

Foodwise, it was kind of a hit or miss experience. This place has huge Pizzas which can come with a maximum of 4 flavours depending on the customers request and the style of the crust is thin. So for pizza lovers who like their crust thick, this maybe isn't for you.

The overall taste of pizzas was okay, crust texture was good, soft, fluffy with a bit of chew for 'Enorme' sized pizzas but when it came to the extra small, it was tough and dry which wasn't very good. Amount of toppings were adequate with decent quality ingredients.

The Grilled Pork Rack however was a huge let down. It was dry and tasteless which sort of felt like eating a tough sponge. The sauce didn't help either cause it was like what you get out of a packet from the supermarket. The short grain butter rice served together with it felt out of place too. As for the other dishes, the Puttanesca sauce provided with the Fried Calamari was good and the Tiramisu was well made.

The dining experience here was sort of a mixed bag. Great service but just normal tasting food as personally I view the Enormous Pizzas with "unique" flavours merely gimmicky (e.g. Carbonara Pizza). With that said, maybe this place is just really for fans of ridiculously...