[Review] The Vanilla Place - Subang Empire

The Vanilla Place, situated within Subang Empire, is a place where they serve coffee, cakes, pastries, pastas, sandwiches, and other desserts including macaroons. A small kitchen located in between two rows of shops, located on the 2nd floor of Subang Empire (if not mistaken), or the lot number FK101 to be precise.

I had a chance to try the pastas there as we were having a small birthday dinner celebration for one of my friends there. They decided to give it a try after getting much positive reviews about the restaurant.

It was a Sunday night and the crowd in the shopping center was obviously lesser, so is the restaurant. There were only a table occupied during our arrival, and frankly speaking the place is quite small and only enough to accommodate a small party, probably around 40 people with my estimation.

Given the small dining area, the number of staff doesn't really seemed to be proportional, even on a Sunday night. There were a few waiters/waitress with the kitchen crew of course. We're served by a waitress and have all the freedom to choose where to sit since there's no other customers there during our visit.

We noticed the lunch and dinner promotional sets available including starter, main, a drink and a scoop of ice cream. However, the sets are only available during weekdays, too bad then.

We decided to try their pastas instead of other food available such as sandwiches, pastries and lasagna. We ordered four different types of pastas which include Carbonara, Aglio E Olio, Smoked Duck and Masala.

I myself ordered the Smoked Duck pasta. It is served with smoked duck breast and grilled cherry tomatoes, I believed. The duck breast is tender and juicy with a layer of fat as shown in the pictures. Onions and garlic were used to spice up the pasta, giving it a strong aroma, together with dried shredded parsley i believed.

My girlfriend ordered the Aglio E Olio, shrimp pasta with grilled vegetable toppings. The pasta tasted quite similar to my Smoked Duck, but with different toppings. Two big shrimps were served with slight grilled vegetable like broccoli, button mushrooms and cherry tomatoes.

My other friends ordered the Carbonara and Masala Pasta. I didn't have the chance to taste it but from what they claimed is, the Carbonara is not half bad with typical creamy texture of carbonara. She couldn't really identify what is the little star on her pasta is made of. As for the Masala pasta, its more like eating rendang with pasta.

Most of their pastas are priced at RM15.80, exclusive of the 6% gov. tax and 5% service charge. As for the drinks, we all ordered different drinks and I only can comment for my own. However, if you do not wish to spend too much on drinks, tea pots are available and I think it is more than enough for two persons to share.

As for myself, I ordered a hot Cappuccino which comes with a pretty fern-liked pattern as the coffee art presentation. The Cappuccino also comes with a small piece of sesame cookie. Priced at RM8.00, the Cappuccino was OK for me, as I'm not a coffee fan hence I do not really have the skills to taste it.

We took our sweet time chatting there after our meal and was prompt by the waiter if we are interested in any desserts. But with our stomach filled by pastas, I guess we will give it a pass until next time we visit here again. A simple search on the net shows that many good reviews are given for their desserts especially their cakes, macaroons and pastries. Maybe one day we will come here again and give it a try, but for that day, it's time to head home and prepare for next day's work.