Decided to venture out of my usual scene – Petaling Jaya & Klang Valley,today. I got onto Google to see what is new and found TAFT. TAFT is new (opened in Jan 2017) and it is in Ampang, a place I do not go to much, so it fits the bill, yay!

This restaurant is located in M City. Yea, bet you are thinking what I was thinking back then, that M city is perhaps another I-City? Perhaps another one of those urban development areas? but NOPE, it is not. M City is basically a building, more like a condominium + hotel. Yea, and the whole building is black, which is a good thing because it enables you to locate it easily. Just use Waze and it will guild you right to its doorstep. You will see a basement carpark if you follow Waze’s direction , which at the point of my visit looked ‘supposedly closed’ , entryway was blocked those cones that screams ‘do not enter’ + a guard on duty. However, worry not, as soon as the guard see you and stops you, just tell the man that you wanna visit the restaurant and he will let you up. The only trouble I head heading to TAFT was when I have already parked inside. Once you have parked, there is no visitor entry? At least not from where I was located. perhaps I parked at the wrong parking bay? I do not know. I just ended up at the area where residents were meant to use, the kind that needs an access card? Again, worry not, there is a speaker + button thingy at the side of the door, press the button, speak into it and request for entry. You will have to wait for a bit, no more than 5 minutes, a guy from the management office on a motorbike will drop by to sort this complication and allow you entry.

At the point when I was there, around 2 pm, the place was pretty much empty. This was a good thing, at least during the point of my visit, lol. I wanted a quiet, under the radar kindda thing and I got what I wanted, the whole place to myself. The main color theme here was white and bits of turquoise spread around, which gave an impression of a rather big, large space. The table arrangement were were spread out too so there was not a feel of being cramped/crowded. You place your order by your table here, not the counter, so wait for one of them to come over and you will be on your way.

Since the cafe was empty, I had the luxury of taking a closer look around. There were a few cabinets located by the side of the wall that had all these interesting items for sale. All locally made, there were things ranging from a variety of paste, like sambal belacan to honey to dried fried bananas. I decided to give their fried bananas a try and grabbed myself a packet for 10 ringgit. It was pretty good. It was not too sweet or oily, just the right amount of crunchiness, was not heavily coated with flour and the whole packet surprisingly came with a whole lot of bananas.

Black Ink Squid Pasta, 30 Ringgit

This was really yummy! This squid ink pasta comes with some long beans and squids on the side. Notice the reddish bits in the pasta? Yea, that is the belacan paste. Apparently you get to choose between 3 types of paste to accompany the pasta of which I chosed sambal belacan. I am sorry I could not remember the other two paste, I was too busy eating the fried bananas and relishing its deliciousness to pay attention. However, since I like this dish very much, I will be heading there soon to try other the other two paste. Will fill you in when I do. As for the squid ink paste + sambal belacan – if you cannot handle spiciness then please do not attempt this paste, perhaps the 2 other remaining options will work better for you. This was some serious dose of hot and spiciness – no joke! It was one of those situations whereby “it’s soooo spicy and you have had enough, this would be you last mouthful …. but it is too good to stop, so lets do another spoon” and this inner dialogue continues until the last spoon of pasta is in your mouth. You, that sums it. This dish allows you to enjoy a really good Asian/localized version of squid ink pasta.

Ayam Masak Pedas Tenggiri, 23 ringgit

This dish came with rice + taugeh + fried tenggiri fish + asam curry. I am a fan of Tom Yam , so trust me when I say this dish fits right in. The asam curry was HOT with plenty of spice. The kind of hotness that has an added kick, as soon as you take a few spoons of it – your nose starts to run, yup that kind and I love it. Once you add rice and the fix into the mix, the hotness from the asam curry is dwindled down. The dish overall was yummy. The fish was fresh and well cooked, love the asam curry. This was definitely a satisfying lunch albeit the loads of calories, lol.