Nosh – Too… much… black… peppAAACHOO!

7, Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru, 59100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We went to Nosh in Bangsar for Christmas dinner and found it to be refreshingly quiet and uncrowded. We even found parking within seconds of turning into the Telawi area.

Guess most of the people who frequent Bangsar partied too hard there the night before and were all at home nursing hangovers and feeling sorry for themselves. Great for me, since I am not too fond of crowded places.

So, the food at Nosh. It seemed that they were a little heavy-handed with the black pepper, and this was particularly noticeable for someone who doesn’t like black pepper, like me.

The taste of black pepper dominated my chicken roulade, to the point where I could hardly taste anything else. Besides this, the chicken itself was nice and tender, with what looked like spinach in the middle and a thin, crispy crust. There were some nicely cooked and beautifully carved pieces of vegetables and a huge amount of sweet and extremely heavy pumpkin mash. Fortunately, the tart tomato sauce helped cut some of the mash’s sweetness, and also counter some of the pepperiness of the chicken.

They should have called it black pepper chicken roulade to warn people like me.

Lady Fartsalot’s tagliatelle carbonara with smoked duck was a lot better. It landed on the table in a swirl of amazing smells: cheese and salty ham and deliciousness… topped with a single, beautiful, runny egg yolk. Once everything’s been mixed and given some time to dry out, we were left with a nice, thick sauce that tasted every bit as good as it smelled. There was just the right amount of sauce, too, and it coated the firm and chewy tagliatelle nicely. Everything was great except for an occasional pepper-heavy bite of food. Maybe we didn’t mix the pasta thoroughly enough to spread the pepper out.

An amazing carbonara spoiled slightly by the pepper bombs buried within.

Fortunately, the last item we’ll be talking about is blessedly free of back pepper. The Passion Shy mocktail was a bit like a mojito, and tasted of lime and passionfruit, with a very slight hint of mint. Very refreshing indeed.

One of the few things containing mint that I actually like a lot.

Overall, the food at Nosh is pretty good. The black pepper thing is probably a very personal gripe based on my own taste preferences. I am curious to go back again to try other items on the menu, perhaps on normal days when the cooks are less likely to have been out getting hammered the previous night.

Bite-sized review

Good food, ambience and service. The food seemed to have a little too much black pepper, but that could be because I don’t like black pepper and am particularly sensitive to it. I would go back again to try other stuff on the menu.

Stats

Price: Mid-range for Bangsar. The two mains were RM34 each. The drink was RM12.

Hours: Closed on Mondays. Opening hours on other days vary. Check their website at nosh.my/theplace.html for details.