The Apartment, The Curve

 

 G.72, Ground Level,
The Curve,
6, Jalan PJU 7/3,
Mutiara Damansara,
47800 Petaling Jaya 

http://www.atheapartment.com/

You'll be spoilt for choices when it comes to a special Christmas dinner. The only issue is will you be able to get a table without a reservation. Thankfully, we managed to get a table here without waiting for long. All thanks to Mr Jay who didn't show up. Hopefully, he had better plans for his Christmas eve than to spend it in a mall like we did. 

 The place hasn't changed much since my last visit few years ago, still retaining that homely hipster feel with cushions and lots of Instagram-worthy corners. But only if you got good camera (read: not phone camera) since the lighting here is geared towards romance (read: not bright at all). 

Even though it was the year end festive season, The Apartment didn't see the need to come up with a special Christmas menu. I think that's not a bad thing because special menu means special prices i.e. not worth the money you would be paying. 
 

Wild mushroom soup RM 15.05: sauteed wild mushrooms in a creamy mushroom broth served with garlic crostino.
While I can't vouch for their wildness, the mushroom certainly did taste rather earthy. The soup did taste of mushroom and while it wasn't overpowering, it is stronger than what one would expect. Don't order this unless you don't hate mushroom. Be prepared to tuck into a hot warm bowl of soup. The accompanying crostino, on the other hand, was reeking of garlic. Not a date friendly food but it goes well with the soup.

 Oven baked fish RM 31.40: baked tilapia fillet with a creamy mozarella and parmesan crust with ripe cherry tomatoes served with new potatoes and arugula
Despite being able to secure a table in less than 5minutes without a reservation, service was rather slow throughout the night. Somehow, it translated into the food as well. The fish does look a little sloppily put together. Thin and slightly salvaged with the cheese crust, I think we overpaid for this boring, nonchalant dish. At least the potatoes were fresh and hot.

Beef and caramelized Onion pasty rm 26.70: mined beef, caramelized onion and blue cheese folded in puff pastry served with watercress salad, cherry on vine and dressed with balsamic glaze
It's not the same nor have I tried it before but this one reminded me of beef wellington. I was expecting a round/circular pie and this came out looking almost hastily done. At least, they still made the effort with the presentation using the balsamic sauce which was quite sweet.

 When I took the first bite from the left, I was greeted with a thick pastry. Thinking it was the corner (which was sadly not crunchy), I continued inward. Same thing again. It took a few more bites before I could taste something apart from puff pastry which felt like they didn't get baked long enough as it felt clumped together (?). Yes, I was expecting to be able to taste the different layers and not all mushed up into a single layer.

The blue cheese used was either not blue or not strong enough. In fact, it reminded me of a less-stringy mozzarella. They used minced beef mixed with caramelized onion that gave it a sweet note. Unfortunately, it was rather dry on the inside. The onion or the balsamic sauce didn't do much to salvage an otherwise good pie.