Rare The Food Company — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

Although Rare is rather a catchy name, I prefer the Chinese word "珍" on the wall.

What started as a kitchen equipments and cooking ingredients supplier has boomed into a full fledge restaurant located on the 2nd floor of The Clubhouse in Empire Residence, Damansara Perdana. This is what is learned when the other half brought me to celebrate my 40th birthday earlier.

Spearheaded by Chef Bryan Tan who honed his skills in many restaurants around Klang Valley, their menu showcases modern Japanese food interpretations, with the usage of only high quality ingredients (down right to the Japanese salt and Cambodian pepper) to prepare the food. For now the menu is kept simple yet almost everything that we had was very good. ◾Opt for Set for Two costing RM160 in order to taste some of the creations that this restaurant has to offer - starting with

1. the mushroom pate made from Portobello and button mushrooms which were blended together with ricotta and lemon for that earthy notes which you'll have to spread the rich pate onto smoky sourdough toast which even the kids fought to eat with us (excellent start to the dinner);
2. pork then took centerstage with iberico pork-stuffed, pan seared gyoza;
3. followed by Okinawan rafute which was essentially 16-hours slow braised pork belly with tsukemono and juicy raw bean sprouts - melt in the mouth good but somehow lacked the killer punch;
4. local izumindai fish which was actually Bentong-sourced tilapia fish was grilled to perfection using the Kampot pepper - you wouldn't have guessed it was tilapia given the finishing quality;
5. tebasaki showed the chef skills in grilling the tender defined chicken wings with smoked onion sauce - worthy of any too grade yakitori restaurant out there;
6. house cured bacon and cherry tomato was over shadowed by the tebasaki but good in its own way;
7. sweet potato - no complain as it tasted just like its name.. sweet!
8. we were served with this (not in the set but we didn't order it either) awesome Japanese corn topped with slightly spicy butter which melted and covered the corn (or was it butter at all?)... 5 of us fought for every piece of the crunchy and juicy sweet corn.
9. a choice between mini don or pasta which we went for spaghetti carbonara - now my kids are picky eater.. too creamy they'd complain, too thick theyd reject.. but this they finished it and asked for more. We broke the 62°onsen egg and mixed it together with the bacon
10. dessert.. Marjolaine - almond sponge, chocolate ganache, whipped cream and praline. Those who know me well know that I seldom eat dessert but this acted as a surprise birthday cake for me to blow the candle.

◾Do ask for any special which is not in the menu. I was glad we did as there were two dishes which was recommended by our friendly waiter

1. Belgium mussels cooked with beer - it was a bliss to savour the rather small yet fresh mussels. My daughters who normally disliked eating mussels finished the whole pot.
2. GRILLED IBERICO LAMB RACK - why the need of capital letters? I declare this as the best lamb rack I'd tasted in my life so far - imagine the lamb fed only with olive, and exclusive mixed of cereals.. which resulted in lamb meat with balanced flavour, texture and juiciness.. better than the French lamb rack that I had. Cooked medium... My eyes were lit up with every bite. Luckily the red wine in my hand was of good quality.

I breathed my Chateau Quinnault 2001 an hour before to go with this excellent dinner.

Year 2019 has been a good year for me.. food-wise! Somehow my taste buds were wowed many times in a space of 12 months.. or is it my taste bud is...

Absolute terrible service that i received just now at dinner. The 2 men waiters & a lady supervisor that DO NOT even know how to speak english and convey properly at a restaurant with such prices.

Came to try their steak out of stock as it was taken by a big group that pre ordered. By pre ordering the kitchen should've even be more prepared. And you dont serve wine by glasses which is inconvenient for customers.

Letting that aside. I went behind and told the waiter that i wanted prepare dessert with happy birthday wording for a surprise. Next minute he came to our table infront of my girlfriend and ask which dessert i would like for the happy birthday wording.

Next thing the dessert was served and my iberico came after. Common sense that dessert is the last. The waiter told me to eat the iberico first then dessert. The dessert was already warm. I told him off to take it back. Next after i finished the same dessert was served with the presentation partially melted. Absolutely disgusting. Furthermore, i was handed the lighter and he told me to light the candle myself infront my face while he just stand there.

The above is unexplainable through words as it was a horrid disaster, couldnt even complain as the waiters werent even able to understand english properly to convey to the bosses on what happened. Only compensation given was to minus the dessert frm the bill.

Supervisor staff asked me to call the boss instead of her as she doesnt even know how to explain english properly and understand the situation. I cant give a damn as i have spent 15mins waiting for no answers and im in a rush. You have to rmb that customers are paying such high pricing for food and experience. Bad

A horrible place and this is truly unacceptable for such high pricing restaurant. Definitely not coming back anymore. Many bad reviews on Joon Dining as well....

It's a big let down, nothing more to say, and its not a kids/toddler friendly restaurant if you are expecting one. As a premium dining restaurant, I expect the waiters would be able to describe to their customers about their menu and give in more suggestions. Sadly in this case, it didn't happen and emphasis has been on the few items on the Daily Specials. The disappointment continues when several items that we wanted are either not available, or can't be served. We wanted to order a simple aglio olio pasta for our 2yr old toddler and requested the dressing to be non-spicy. Sadly they can't accommodate. Point us back to their Uni Pasta. We told the waiter its for our son and he look at us back without a flicker. Yes they do have carbonara available but it comes with cured bacon, which is not suitable for a child of such age in our opinion and let it pass. Waiter strongly recommended us to try Iberico Nabe Pork hotpot, which is nothing fancy than what you could get from any Japanese restaurant with the exception that they serve with a plate of tender pork slice. Worst part is the two big fresh water prawn that comes with the hotpot is not even fresh.

We ordered a nuri sardine Don, which the waiter repeatedly emphasised the tuna is imported. Yes it is, a bowl of white rice served with imported tuna (in a tin) with a slice of kombu butter. The tuna in a tin did most of the magic.

We also ordered wagyu beef tartare and Okinama Rafute as appetizer. It tasted good but nothing exceptional.

I must say the dishes didn't taste bad, but maybe we came in with too high of an expectation which leads to such let down. I should have also ring up the restaurant to check if they can be kids friendly before my arrival, which could have avoided some of the...