[Food Review] Teased by Al-Amar Express & Circus

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Welcome to Circus. No clowns. Only great food and drinks.

The Circus is in town

Circus, at Pavilion KL is the Eatertainment Group’s latest baby. The casual eatery by day, transforms into a chic cosmopolitan restaurant and cocktail lounge by night. The stylish interior with mood-altering lighting puts you in the mood for food or indulging in drinks.

Circus delivers international cuisine featuring hand-crafted gourmet pizzas and signature dishes starting from RM22 to RM58. The newly re-created food menu complements its extensive wine list and new cocktails menu that features a mind-blowing sixty cocktails ranging from classics to the avant garde.

As the day ends and the night begins, live music featuring renowned singers, international and local DJs feature on Fridays and Saturdays. Be mesmerised by the amazing Dany Kazemi, the resident magician, as you feast on the delectable grub.

Circus’ operating hours: Sun- Thurs 10.00am to 2.00am / Fri & Sat 10.00am to 3.00am

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Impressions

The new reworked food menu, I thought, was impressive with a clever blend of east and west and  with one or two surprises. First up was the Beer Platter – a purposeful platter of nachos and salsa, chicken fingers and skewered lamb designed to accompany your drinking binge. The lamb was exceptionally good.

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Beer Platter
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Nicoise Salad
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Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Injecting some healthy greens was the Nicoise Salad that came up next. I’m personally a fan of the salad, and this was made quite authentically with quails eggs and fresh tuna. Refreshingly light and tasty.

Slightly off-beat though, was the Vietnamese Spring Rolls, which tasted alright, though uninspiring. It did provide some lightness and freshness before the onslaught of more serious stuff though!

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Beef Fajitas

Served up next was Mixed Fajitas – a combination of beef and chicken fajitas complemented with guacamole, sour cream and pico de gallo. The beef was seriously good.

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Sarawak Laksa

To our surprise, next came Sarawak Laksa, served authentically with sambal and lime. Having tasted the real deal (and my mom makes the meanest one), I thought this was pretty good. They used authentic ingredients, including the Sparrow-brand laksa paste from Kuching. The broth had proper consistency, not too watery. While I thought it’s one of the better Sarawak laksa dishes I’ve had outside of Sarawak, I felt it was a little sweet and lacked spiciness. A matter of personal taste though, in all honesty.

Another Malaysian dish I’m absolutely fussy about is beef rendang. Simply because my Aunt Tina makes the best. So, the Angus Rendang served with white rice was in for a hard time. To my surprise though, I found it really good – the top quality beef succulent and fragrant. I took seconds despite already stuffed at that point.

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Truffle Alfredo

Being a fan of Italian cuisine and pasta, the next dish was a welcome addition to the menu. Truffle Alfredo – tagliatelle with alfredo sauce, crispy beef bacon, parmesan and truffle oil. Before you say that I’m a fusspot, I do take my pasta seriously. And it’s terrible that so many restaurants do bad pasta. This however, was done pretty much to perfection. I even forgive the use of beef bacon (real bacon, please thank you) in this dish.

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The final dish was Steamed Sea Bass, a Chinese-style preparation with the sea bass on top of a bed of glass noodles and soy sauce, which I thought wasn’t bad at all.

Overall, I was rather impressed with Circus and I’ll most certainly return for meal. It would be a good place for a fun night out too I suppose, with an enticing repertoire of drinks and live music.

Thanks to The Eatertainment Group for a tantalising night out!

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A souvenir shot with excellent host Joseph Sabeh Afaki and Esther Ng of The Eatertainment Group
Vernon
Vernon is the founder and chief editor of Vernonchan.com. A graphic designer by profession, he has a deep love for technology, cars, gadgets, food, and travel. He tweets too much and is also known as a caffeine bacterium ("life's too short for bad coffee"). Bleeds Blue (go Chelsea FC!) and considers BMW, Porsche, Alfa Romeo cars to have in the garage--hallmarks of a true petrolhead.