May 26, 2014

Mexican Food: The Shepherdoo Restaurant and Lounge @ One City Mall

Hola!

In case you're wondering, I am working towards making my passion an even better and more useful passion - pairing my love for food with my passion for writing. :)

Today, I'mma be writing on a Mexican eatery where we had dinner at 2 Sundays ago - The Shepherdoo Restaurant and Lounge.

The outlet that we dined at was located in One City Mall. FYI, they also have an outlet at Centro Mall, Klang.


Some shots of their interior deco.
Basically, it was quite dark in the restaurant. I did edit the brightness of the photos below so that you won't be looking at nothing. lol

View from outside in

View of inside out. You get the picture. -.-

We got to the eatery about 6:00PM as we had a dinner slot booked at 6:15PM. Dinner crowd was fairly mild with only a handful of tables occupied. Also, from the pictures above, you'll see that they've got capacity for a huge group of diners as they have a section upstairs. Plus point! But it wasn't open when we got there due to the many available seats downstairs.

The menu looks rather torn heh.


As we were rather unfamiliar with mexican dishes, we took long enough before deciding on what to order individually.  Thankfully, food was served approximately 15 minutes later.

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Mum's order: Mexicana Gourmet Fajitas (Combo, i.e. all-in-one) - RM34.80


Dish description
Served traditionally on a sizzling hot skillet with mixed peppers and onions, tossed with The Shepherdoo's blend of spices. Served with sour cream, guacamole plus homemade salsa along with warm flour tortillas.
Verdict: The combo includes mixed wild mushrooms, chicken strips and flame-grilled beef. We were forewarned that it was gonna be a spicy order. Indeed, our tongues were flamed. LOL Portion of the fajitas was aplenty, and the 4 tortilla wraps (served in a covered flat pot which was a great idea to keep it warm!) was definitely not enough. We ended up picking from mum's fajitas to be savoured with our own orders.

The sour cream had a cheesy mashed-potato like texture. It was lacking in taste, but I'm definitely not complaining! This is because, when it is used as a topping for the fajitas and wrap, it worked well to complement the dish rather than it's taste overcoming the main. Guacamole was so-so, as it was lacking in texture. I'd prefer a guacamole slightly less smoothly blended and liquid. Also, the salsa was thumbs up!

Overall verdict: 7/10


Next up, it was the BF's order.
The Shepherdoo's Gringo Burger - RM23.80


Dish description
Juicy beef patty made from premium South American topside, turkey bacon, egg, lemon mayo and cheddar cheese. 
Served up in a toasted sesame seed bun with a side of cajun aioli, along with seasoned curly fries and crisp salad. 
(Note: For non-beef eaters, this is exchangeable for Chicken patties, upon request)


Verdict: I had a mouthful of this and thought it was quite a forgettable one. Portion wise was fine. But apparently their "seasoned curly fries" comes in the size of wedges. Heh! For me, a burger patty (be it, beef or chicken) should be juicy, thick and not dry. The Shepherdoo's beef patty was okay, nothing exceptionally juicy nor is it dry. Definitely incomparable to the excellent ones you can get at FatBoy's. ;)

Overall verdict: 5/10


Then came Daddy's order: Taco-Taco - RM23.50


Dish description
Fish wrapped in tortillas, guacamole, pico de gallo, chipotle aioli, sour cream and cheese. Served with a side of miniature nachos!
From the photos both above and below, you can judge for yourself on the portion for this dish.


I wouldn't be able to comment on the tortilla-wrapped-fish as it came only with 2 pathetic wraps and was definitely insufficient to feed Daddy alone, what more to share it with us. Heh But as you can see, the fish fillet was fairly small as compared to the reasonable size of tortilla wrap. The wrap and the fish fillet looked crispy-ly delicious though! Hmm, wish it was served in a bigger portion so we could all try!

As for the nachos, it was INDEED miniature as what was described on the menu. We couldn't resist from snapping up a piece or two each and Daddy was left with even miniature portion of nachos. :P


Overall verdict: For the price that you're gonna pay for this dish, I'd say, it's not worth the price at all! So, don't even bother trying. 2/10


Lastly, and the BEST ORDER OF THE DAY! Pasta ala Pollo - RM20.80


Dish description
Mexican rubbed chicken breast, char-grilled with caramelised pineapple and tomato relish on a bed of sauteed spinach pasta.
By the looks of the pasta, I'm sure your appetite is immediately turned on.

Verdict
Firstly, the chicken breast was well marinated and tender. It tasted like the good ol' Ayamas chicken (if not better) that I was very fond of during my primary school days where Sundays was always an Ayamas dine-in day. Whether or not it was Mexican-ly marinated, I can't tell. But one thing's for sure, it was tasty, VERY VERY tasty!

As for the pasta, it was pesto-kind. My parents were fairly unfamiliar with this pasta-style. But when they took the first forkfull of it, they couldn't stop nodding their head (indicating the extent of yummyness) lol. It was good, although when compared to the ones I've had at Italiannies (unfortunately they do not serve pesto anymore) this would be considered average. All in all, it was well al-dente. Good job!

With the salsa sides, it gave a tangy feel to this dish but it didn't boost any flavour to the dish; meaning, this dish would be great with or without it. Heh.

It was an instant crowd favorite. Daddy Mummy said that it was the most worth it dish that we ordered that night. Portion was great; even after generously sharing my pasta and slices of chicken breast with my parents and the BF, I had aplenty to feast on myself! A perfect way to say, "sharing is caring!" :P

Overall verdict: 10/10

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Food aside, I was pretty unimpressed with the service there. Well, not a surprising downside considering the country that we're living in doesn't really emphasize on a good-service culture.

There were no waiters to usher us into the restaurant nor anyone to help with getting us a table, or rather, checking with us on our reservation made until we walked way into the restaurant for someone to notice us.

Also, if you are an avid self-proclaimed food-photographer like me (ahem..), then this place is probably an eatery you may wanna consider bringing a spotlight. Otherwise, your food photos will not be Instagram-worthy and will turn out grainy. As you can see, the food photo for Mummy's order was extremely bright because we couldn't quite get hold of the angle of the flash (from the BF's Samsung S4) to shine towards the food. After a few shots, we finally got the angle right, and TADA! Pretty food photos for yall! ;)

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Location

A-GF-08, Ground Floor
Sky Park One City,
Jalan USJ 25/1
Subang Jaya, Selangor

Do not be misled by the "Sky Park One City". It is located at Ground Floor, NOT at the famous Sky Park area @ Level 10.

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Hungry bangry. Till the next time!

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