on the plate: New York New York Deli @ 1 Utama

Found this place just outside Cold Storage in the new wing of 1 Utama, where Giant used to be. It looked intriguing, so I thought I would check it out sometime.

I finally found the time to go over there and try it out. Doing some research on the internet (yes, if I am interested in a restaurant I do check it out first) I found out that it's a Singaporean chain. A promising start, especially since Jack's Place and Sakae Sushi, both Singaporean chains are pretty decent establishments. Anyway, the website didn't have the full menu which was pretty disappointing.

The menu was pretty varied, and was interesting for the most part. They serve a variety of Western foods such as pasta, pizza, chops, burgers, sandwiches, and other mains and stuff. I had the Brats with bacon and cheese (sadly, not real bacon, but turkey bacon instead). Didn't look too impressive, and was so-so only. The bratwursts were not real bratwursts (which have real meat inside), but some processed stuff that tasted okay, but it really wasn't what I was hoping for. Gimme real sausages wrapped in real bacon, and some good cheese melted on top, then we'll talk. Okay?














The other dish was the Hawaii teriyaki burger, which didn't look like much (the patty looked really hand-made, which could be more or less appetizing, depending on your preference) and actually tasted pretty good, surprisingly. The beef had absorbed the teriyaki flavor, and there was enough beef to go around for every bite. In other words, a pretty decent and tasty burger.













Pricewise, I'd say this place is pretty decent. Each of our main courses was RM16.50 each, and they do supply drinking water (none of this "no free water here, buy our bottled tap water for RM10 per bottle or dehydrate and die" crap).

They also have this uber burger called the Giant Yankee burger. Supposedly 8" wide, 4" high, and with 2 pounds of beef inside. Really interesting stuff. At the Singapore branches if you can finish it on your own with a bunch of fries, it's free and a root beer float on the house. No such promotion here though. And it costs a whopping RM48.90 or something like that. Saw a group of people at another table order it, and my interest quickly waned as the bread looks really, really thick. I'd rather not be munching on something that's predominantly bread over everything else.

All in all, it's not fantastic, but a decent, comfortable place to hang out and chill (too bad there's no bottomless drinks!) and a widely varied menu, there should be at least something for everyone (especially the cheese fondue and chocolate fondue! I'll be trying those next time, hopefully).

Alright, here's the ratings

Food: 6.7/10 - not great, but not bad either
Drinks: 6.5/10 - a good choice, but too bad there aren't any refillable or bottomless drinks. Huzzah for the plain water though! :)
Ambience: 7.4/10 - a bit exposed to the shoppers passing by, but pretty decent.
Service: 7.6/10 - for some reason one or two of the waiters kept coming to check the order sheet which was placed on our table. Probably trying to check on the kitchen to make sure they were getting our orders ready. If so, good work, guys, but some reassurance that our food was coming would have been great, rather than the silent effort.

More to read about at their official website.

EDIT: I've heard a lot of pretty bad reviews about this place, and a few good ones, so it'll take another visit or two to really get the feel of it. Will keep things posted :p