Pentos & Basil

Post by Chiefeater VK

It was discovery weekend and we were exploring Bukit Jalil’s offerings and we chanced upon Pentos & Basil. It was pretty packed when we arrived at 1 pm, but they seated us quickly enough. It did take about 15 minutes for them to take our order as they were working through the line. Understandably so; there were about 40 diners and only 2 front of house staff managing delivery orders as well as dine-in guests.

We ordered a Black Mussel Salsa Verde (RM28) as a starter, a Spaghetti Vongole (RM32), a Spaghetti Carbonara (RM31), a Spaghetti Pomodoro with Grilled Chicken (RM32 + RM9 for the chicken), a Black Mussel Salsa Verde (RM28) and a dessert of Dark Chocolate Pandan Cake (RM24). They have a good selection of wine and options of house pouring too. I had the house pouring Placido Pinot Grigio delle Venezie IGT (RM33) which had fruity nose and a refreshing palate. I made short work of it and HAD to order a second glass. I do note that the price of wine by the glass here is expensive. The bottle retails at just about RM70.

Let me start with the clear winning dish of the day; the Dark Chocolate Pandan Cake. It is a cleverly made dessert with the dark chocolate shaped like a mini coconut and the pandan cake with a layer of Gula Melaka enveloped within the faux coconut shell. It was a fitting way to balance the tangy and savoury tastes that we had in our mains with a not overly sweet dessert.

Now on to the mains. The flavours of each dish was superb. Their menu gives you an idea of the ingredients that goes into the dishes. I think their alcohol infused dishes really brought out the flavours well. However, in every dish that had seafood or meat, there was a downer. The mussels were mushy, which sometimes happens with a less than stellar batch of seafood. However, the grilled chicken that came with my Pomodoro was also mushy. To be fair, they did not charge for the mussels after we had a few pieces and returned the dish.

I was pondering whether I want to post this or not because it was not an entirely positive experience. It’s a missed potential because the flavouring of their dishes was so good but only to be let down my mushy meat. Nevertheless, I would go there again in due time to give it another try. Maybe it was just a bad day. Pentos & Basil does not charge SST nor a service charge.