Maria's Steakcafe @ Bangsar KL - Secretly Hoping For More.

My cravings for all-things-meat brought me to Maria's Steakcafe that evening. The casual steakhouse is situated along the same bustling stretch as McDonalds in Telawi, Bangsar.

Nothing fancy, simply good food. That's, Maria's Steakcafe's food motto.

On hindsight, I'd have to agree with the nothing fancy part. The casual ambiance was laidback no doubt, but it also felt very old-school and even a little outdated to say the least. Having said that, I'm really just here for the steaks. So was the food as good they claimed?

You'd get to taste the best of all worlds in one Single Platter (RM170++) (okay, maybe just 4 of their best meatcuts), though it doesn't exactly come cheap. Meant to be for one, the meat platter came with 3 variation of 55gm steaks - Wagyu 7 (this was teriffic!), Angus and Ribeye (comes with a dollop of garlic butter), along with a Grilled Lamb Cutlet, baked potatoes and vegetables at the side. Now, for that price, I'd highly recommend just going straight for the Wagyu 7 (RM98/100gm).

The Single Platter also came with 3 glasses of tasting wine. Each red was attentively labeled with it's origins - Finca San Martin, Terramater and The Lucky County.

This is probably the most unconventional dish to order at a steakhouse. Our serving of Grilled Salmon Fillet (RM45.00) came with baked potatoes (the unexpected highlight of the dish) and grilled vegetables at the side. For me, the salmon came nicely flaked, though somewhat too firm for my liking (tad overdone), drizzled in sweet tangerine sauce. My friend finished her salmon nevertheless.

We also ordered a dish of Bangers & Mash (RM35.00) to share, which was nothing to shout about really.

Overall Rating: 7/10. While I'm writing this, merely a day after dining at Maria's, I came to realised that everything just felt... boring. There were no excitement, no surprises and nothing interesting on the plate that was urging me to dig into immediately. Don't get me wrong - the steak was good; the rest of the dishes were decent though average. Perhaps... I was just secretly hoping more.

Maria's Steakcafe is located at:

Address: 58, Jalan Maarof, Bangsar Baru, 59100 KL (There's also another outlet in Damansara Perdana and Ipoh)

Phone: 03-2282 2220

Opening Hours: 12pm-10.30pm Daily.