Food Review: Avanti Italian American Restorante @ Sunway Hotel

This time I'm reviewing Avanti Italian American Restorante @ Sunway Hotel. I know its rare to see me do food reviews but its 1.30am on christmas day and I'm wide awake from sleeping earlier.

Surprisingly easy to find, and easily accessible with lots of parking at Sunway Hotel. Parking rates are surprisingly very decent compared to what you would normally expect at a parking. Easy parking at decent rates makes starts the night on a good foot.

Sorry it's abit blur.

 Ambience-wise it was definitely something, and some other pictures did not do it justice. It's windows face the front of sunway hotel which is almost always litted up with some nice lights. I'd recommend it for dinner over lunch based on ambience and setting.

Live band 

The live band was a very nice touch, and both the singers were amazingly good. This is rather important because it would have been horrible to sit through a few hours of dinner if there was terrible karaoke just right behind us.

There's an upstairs as well, but since it was rather a slow day when I came, it was not open for seating.

The table is lined with paper and crayon is provided for the kids to draw on the table. While the paper lining seemed a little cheap, I figured they did have a legitimate excuse for them, which I thought was smart. I guess they're promoting it as a family restaurant more than a restaurant you would bring your date to impress.

Duck Breast with mashed potatoes, asparagus, and some sauce I forgot the name. RM39

And finally the food. The menu wasn't very big, in fact it was only two pages. There wasn't that much of a choice to choose from, as pastas and pizzas takes up one page already. But this caught my eye and I decided to go for the duck breast. At RM39, I was not expecting that much, but I was silently impressed.

Expect fine-dining-like portions at Avanti, which are pretty much a few bites for most parts. Not the place you would want to bring big eaters especially if they are hungry. Nonetheless, the taste impressed, and that is the most that matters.

Ravioli Pasta RM 30

I can't say the same for the Ravioli pasta. I did not have this dish but the person who did mention it was disappointing. For starters, I'm all for small portions over big taste, but this kinds of pushes the limit. It was literally 6 bites. The orange sauce that the pasta seem to be soaked in is apparently sour-ish. At RM30, it was RM5 per piece. It was hard not to count it that way when it was so easy to do so.

Salmon Steak RM-I-forgot

Perhaps the most impressive of all our dishes is the salmon steak, which despite it's rather plain and untasty look, is pretty good. A complete contrary to the pasta portions, it was practically huge. The salmon was fresh, and the sauce completed it very well.

Rock-salted fish RM-I-forgot

And finally the last was the rock-salted umm.. fish. I apologize for not remembering the exact name of the fish!  This took 30 minutes to come (written on the menu), and is apparently an authentic traditional italian food. Not hard to see why, as the fish was coated entirely in rock salt. My best word to describe it was probably.. interesting. Lots of bones though, avoid if you hate fishes with lots of bones. It does come with some mushrooms and asparagus sides with what seemed to be melted butter sauce.

Service
One thing I have a little concern about is the service. While the service is definitely very friendly and welcoming, it lacked a little of the professional side that I was expecting. If you were going there with the expectation of a family restaurant, it would be fine, but I was going there with the expectation of a higher class restaurant, particularly since it was in a hotel.

For example, the waiter that was showing us to our table brought us half the way and then disappeared without a word, leaving us standing in the middle of the restaurant looking lost for a few moments. The one that took over there brought us to a area of the restaurants and then looked lost herself. Every table around us was empty.

The manager did come by later and asked if our order was all good. This was good except that I felt he chatted a little too long while we were having foods in our mouths and chewing. I mean, it's really unfair to say that his service was terrible when he was being friendly and explaining about the rock-salted dishes being a traditional dish in Italy but it would probably have been better suited waiting until we have finished our meals instead of trying to start a conversation when we were in the middle of chewing our meals.

Conclusion
Nonetheless, it was a good experience and a place worth noting for good food at decent prices.

Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa Persiaran Lagoon
46150 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
+60 3 7495 1888

Business Hours
Lunch: 12.00noon - 2.30pm (Tue - Fri & Sun)

Dinner:
6.30pm - 9.30pm (Tue - Sun)

Closed on Saturday for lunch, and on Monday for lunch and dinner


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Lawy3rz