Malaysia – West 57th Street Cafe (in Pavilion Mall)

Restaurant: West 57th Street Cafe
Cuisine: American/Asian/Malaysian/Fusion
Last visited: April 21, April 24
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Address:
Level 4 – Inside Parkson (Department store)
Lot 4.42, Parkson Pavilion, 55100 Jalan Bukit Bintang
Inside The Pavilion Mall
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: 09-7983-3500
Price Range: RM 15-40 (about $5-13CAD)

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5 (based on the few items I tried)
Service: 3.5
Ambiance: 5
Overall: 4
Additional comments:

• American cafe
• Some Malaysian specialties
• Located inside department store
• Serves snacks/meals/desserts
• Extensive drink menu – exotic/creative
• Fruit juices, ginger beer, mint drinks etc.
• Fashionable cafe
• Pretentious atmosphere
• Great for coffee/drinks
• Quiet, business-y
• Chic and elegant
• Dine In/Catering
• 25+ years catering
• Open 10am-10pm
• Moderately priced (for Malaysian standards… still cheap)
• 10% service charge

**Recommendations: West 57th Pandan Cream Cheese Cake with Ice Cream, Zang Toi Signature Banana Chocolate Cake with Ice Cream, Zang Toi’s Fruity Ice Tea Punch

They recommend: Hainanese Chicken Chop, Chicken Mayo Sandwich and West 57th Nasi Lemak too – but I haven’t tried these dishes.

After a late lunch at Vansh Restaurant at Starhill Gallery we made our way across the street to The Pavilion shopping mall. Since the Rasmalai Indian dessert didn’t cut it for me I had to go for dessert #2! (I still had to save room for our Tamarind Hill dinner in a couple hours…)

West 57th Street Cafe is a boutique cafe located in the fancy Parkson department store in Kuala Lumpur’s biggest mall, The Pavilion. It’s a stylish cafe serving American food, Asian food and some American-Malaysian fusion dishes.

Inspired by The House of Toi and Zang Toi in New York, it’s where food meets fashion in a chic and glamourous atmosphere. With white and black fabrics, extravagant mirror displays and fresh flowers it’s fit for any Sex and the City girl.

The idea came from Zang Toi who had to prepare fancy meals for clients after a fashion show. It’s a place that isn’t to be missed by any girly girl or shopaholic! It’s a convenient resting station if you need a break from shopping.

On the table:

**Zang Toi’s Fruity Ice Tea Punch – 3.5/6

• Zang Toi’s fruity ice tea punch RM6.50 – about $2.30CAD
• This is the most popular drink and local favourite.
• It tastes like a bitter and citrus fruit punch. There’s bits of calamansi (Filipino acid orange that tastes like lime in an orange peel), pomelo (Asian grapefruit), and citrus orange fruit juice.
• Biting into the calamansi with the peels made it a bit too bitter for me although the drink itself was quite good.

Hainanese Coffee or “Kopi” – 1.5/6

• RM6 – about $2CAD
• I could be being a bit harsh; but I had THE best Kopi in Singapore and this was NOTHING like it.
• This was very deep, bold and dark roasted coffee.
• Kopi looks and tastes nothing like this and it’s served differently. So for “Kopi” it’s just not right. As coffee it was okay 2/6.

**Zang Toi Signature Banana Chocolate Cake with Ice Cream – 3.5/6

• RM10 – about $3.50CAD
• Without ice cream RM8.50 – about $2.50CAD
• Loaf: RM80 – about $27CAD 1/2 Loaf : RM40 about $13.50CAD
• Honestly the cake looks better than it tasted. I know it looks absolutely delicious, but I was kind of disappointed. It was as good as chocolate cake, banana, chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream can get. Nothing over the top, just good.

• Since the loaves are pre-made and sit in the fridge they kind of dry out so the cake was quite dry and the bananas were brown. Parts of it were moist and chocolaty – but the chocolate flavour (and at time the moistness) was from the syrup.
• At least it’s served warm though… from the microwave.
• It’s a fairly big piece and shareable and good proportion of banana and cake though.
• If you come here I would recommend it, but on the wide scale of chocolate banana cake – you can get better.

**West 57th Pandan Cream Cheese Cake with Ice Cream – 4/6

• RM8.50 – about $2.50CAD
• With ice cream RM10 – about $3.50CAD
• Loaf: RM80 – about $27CAD 1/2 Loaf : RM40 about $13.50CAD
• It has a light coconut flavour but again the cake is a bit dry. It was obvious it was overnight and the bananas were brown again. You can even see the dryness in the cake but the flavour was good.
• The best part was the creamy cream cheese and it was sweet and almost custard like. It was also tangy and not too cheesy.

• It was a very aromatic cake with pandan flavour which is a cross of thyme and lemongrass. A fresh and light dessert, but I could have used way more coconut.
• I liked how they served it warm because all the flavours were enhanced and went together well. It was a taste of Malaysia in one bite!
• Good ratio of cake, banana and cheese and the slice is quite big!
• I would actually prefer this one over the signature chocolate banana cake because it’s different. I have nothing to compare to.
• I passed on the ice cream because this was my breakfast… a bit indulgent already.

See the cakes just kind of sit in the fridge like that… which is fine because most cakes do – except I think these ones sit for a few more days than they should.

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