Get Baked @ Paramount Garden, PJ - Something new in the area

We had a meeting nearby and once that was over with, we decided to take a short drive around the area to see if there was anything new to check out. This is the same area where Awesome Canteen, Kakigori, Runners Cafe is located. If you are familiar with the area, you’d know that this location is somewhat of a food hub – restaurants and cafes all around.

As we were driving past this particular row, which was mostly filled with ol’ school chinese restaurants, in the middle of it all was this cafe ….

It sure did stick out like a sore thumb. Surrounded by ol’ schoolness, this was an obvious difference in the sense that it was completely opposite. It was new, modern and it certainly gave out a ‘notice me’ vibe. If I am not mistaken, this is a new cafe, opened perhaps end of January 2021.

Customer service was great. As soon as we entered, we were greeted, seated and given a menu. This is a new cafe, if I am not mistaken. There is one person manning the front counter and 3 cooks in the kitchen? The cooking area has an open concept, as you can see in the images above. The cafe is new and it shows at times. If you visit during peak hours, it would seem like the one person working at the counter isn’t enough. She is basically a one man show. She greets new customers, get them seated, bring them Menus, gets the orders, keys it in, handles pastries takeaways and as well as getting it heated up for dineins, she makes the drinks, she then heads to the kitchen to check on food orders, she serves the food and etc. Good thing is, she does it all with a smile. Not so good thing is, during peak hours, when she is running around, it would be a tad difficult to get her attention. She will eventually come to you, you just need to be patient and wait. The kitchen, despite 3 people working in it – food took some time to arrive, a good 20 minutes and it arrived rather cold. Before I get into that though, here is the Menu.

** For the pastries, I was told that the Pan Au Matcha Chocolate (the round one in the top pastry image, on the left) was the crowd favorite. This was consistent with some of the Google reviews I read whereby customers said it was very good. The other popular pastry would be the Pan Au Chocolate ( bottom pastry image, on the right).

As for the Main, I was told that the Chicken Ragout Pasta and the Pandan Rice with Chicken Kaarage was a crowd favorite.

Garlic Cream Cheese Phan, RM 12 + Pandan Rice with Chicken Kaarage, RM 22

I was not in the mood for desserts today, not something sweet at least. So, I decided to give their Garlic Cream Cheese Phan a try.

Ooooo, this pastry was yummy. That garlic spread + cream cheese sauce was gooooooood. I really wouldn’t mind having the sauce alone in a jar, as dessert, lol. The combination was da bomb. The flavors were evident but it was unique here because it was toned down by some sweetness. Not too sweet as you’d still be able to taste the garlic and cheese. Texture wise, it was more of a creamy, liquiddy custard. Overall, it was very nice. However, considering that I was paying RM 12 for this pastry, it would be nice to also get some of that cream cheese filling inside too as oppose to just the top? Or make sure most of the pastry top is covered with the cream as oppose to just parts of it? If you notice, the only area with the cream is the (X) on the top and a little more in the middle. It was hardly enough. The area that does not fall within the X or the middle basically meant that it was plain pastry with some garlic butter spread. The cream cheese filling was very nice … give us customers more laaaaa, please.

The Pandan Rice with Chicken Kaarage, a crowd favorite here is basically a fancier name for nasi lemak with chicken. I am pretty sure I’d enjoy the dish if it was not for the rather cold rice. Nasi Lemak rice is usually warm and moist. Well, here it was more like Nasi On Diet because the rice was cool and dry. Not really a good thing especially when eating Nasi Lemak. As i mentioned before, there were many customers but most of them were ordering drinks and pastries. When I arrived, there was only 1 table before me that also ordered Mains. At that table, there were 2 adults. 5 mins after I was seated, 1 of the adults received their dish – it looked like bread with scrambled egg and salad. The remaining adult ordered the same dish as me. I know this because its an open kitchen and since I am a kepo, I was observing what the kitchen was doing. For the nasi lemak, both mine and the other tables dish were made together and served at the same time too. The 2 bowls were out there on the counter for a while and I think this explains why the rice was rather cold and dry. It has been left out there on the counter while the chefs prepare the other ingredients. Perhaps doing a few bowls together saves time, sure. Maybe building your way from the bottom to the top is efficient but when everything is done and completed, please remember that the bottom may not be warm anymore. Spend a few seconds heating up the whole thing before serving please. I paid RM 22 for this and I think I deserve a warm dish, right? I could have asked them to heat it up but I did not have any more extra time to spare and couldn’t risk having to wait.

The rice issue aside, the dish overall was pretty good. There was about 5,6 pieces of boneless chicken. It was krispy on the outside, tender and juicy inside. The sambal was nice too. It was somewhat thick and not too spicy,

Overall, it wasn’t too bad. Besides some minor issues, everything else was pretty good. Perhaps I will be back soon to give their popular matcha chocolate pastry a try.