Linguine pasta is one of my favorites. It's flat, and has enough bite to satisfy every bite but it comes at a price. For one it isn't cheap as it has to be imported. Second, it has to be prepared well.
The Loading Bay Cafe is a fusion style bistro that serves up Italian and Western cuisine with a fusion touch. Located in the center of Kluang town in Johor, one could cosy up to the place during a hot afternoon.
They recently started to offer a lunch set menu that comes with their signature chicken cutlet. You have a choice of having it with either rice or pasta. The dish comes with a drink of either tea, coffee or ice tea and is priced at US$3.00. This is not a bad price for a start but for sheer value of money, you have to examine the food.
Much Ado about Al-Dente
Having cut my teeth in preparing pasta, I am very critical of how Chinese chefs and cooks prepare pasta. Often, they prepare it too soft, almost noodle like.
This dish in particular fails because of this. The pasta taste like it was prepared in advance and left to warm up later when an order needed to be fulfilled. Then there is a distinct lack of olive oil. Chili is used to spice it up a notch but to no avail. The pasta falls flat. The garlic that flavors it just doesn't have enough olive oil to coat and all you can taste is the chili.
The chicken cutlet on the other hand was well prepared, flavorful and well breaded. But it doesn't stand out as a signature dish. The lack of attention paid to the pasta made the dish imbalanced.
The pasta didn't have a bite to it. It fell apart in your mouth once you started to chew on it. Olive oil, which is a chief ingredient to making it palatable was missing, due to cost probably as any drizzle would have eaten into its profits. Such penny wise pound foolish approach to cost controls is what kills a great restaurant.
This is a poor effort on the part of the chef and for this he will be penalized. I might add that 3 bucks isn't much, but for that alone in a small town is far above what people are expected to pay for mediocre food.
Chicken Cutlet Pasta @ Loading Bay Cafe
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