Sad to find out from the owner that Pink Belly is no more. Good food but low sales volume is not good for business. So if you have a favorite joint that you enjoy, help them by spreading the words about their place. 

Now and then, I would stumble upon a restaurant that would make me a tad bias people ask me about food. All it takes is a good combination of good food (PORK!), cozy atmosphere and good strong (BLACK!) mildly acidic coffee. And over a nice rainy evening in Hazy Kuala Lumpur, I discovered such a place. Now, mind you, if you're not familiar with the area, getting there would be an adventure. But have no fear, I've also placed a Waze location at the bottom so you can just click on it and technically, it would bring you to the spot (+/- 10 meters difference). Yes, my usual map is also at the bottom so that'll help too. Right?



This is also the part where the Love and Hate part of the relationship comes in. Love the place, cause of the food, the atmosphere and coffee as I stated above, and Hate that I have to share it with the rest of the foodies out there. Hate the fact that if not many people know about the place, it'll end up shutting the doors for good cause lack of sales and they are unable to pay salaries and rents. Love it that as long as there's a steady flow of business, they'll remain open. Hate that as it gets popular, I'll end up having to fight for a space in the restaurant when it packs up. You know how it goes with all relationships, right? Plenty of Love and Hate, but unlike relationship with humans, there's plenty more to love than hate when it comes to food.



With a group of friends, we decide to have a binge session at Pink Belly. Portion wise, if you plan to order a lot of the dishes to try, you can essentially feed a group of 6 with the number of dishes you see here even though their helping is actually for a single person. So you know it's a good hearty meal if you decide to eat there alone. Porky Penne Pasta, cooked in smoked bacon, honey ham cubes and mushrooms with spicy agile olio was pretty nice, slightly spicier than my tongue can stand but because there's bacon in it, I went after it with gusto!
Verdict:





The next dish served was the Roasted Pork Belly, roasted to crackling perfection served with roasted root vegetables and braised red cabbage with little bowl of honey BBQ sauce. The Pork Belly skin was roasted to perfection, still crispy even after I left it soaked in the sauce for 5 minutes which is always more awesome than it feels. Trust me, when you finished your pork and you wish for more, and you found a nice piece of roasted skin sitting there. It's like the heaven parted the haze and shone a light down unto the skin and I hear angels singing praises and I was rewarded. OK, maybe I was just hungry and it satisfied my needs but seriously, I really thought I heard Angels sang at that moment. Oh yeah, the other bits that took up space between the Roast Pork Belly was ok too....
Verdict:





Caramelised Stir-Fried Porky Risotto with wild mushrooms and garden vegetables was the 3rd dish in the order. Now, I only gave it a 3/5 because there's way too much rice and mushrooms and too little pork in it. Yes, I have a preference that there should always be more meat than side decorations in any dishes. I love it when the hero (the PORK!) stands out and nothing else matters. This one felt like the 5 little piggy was crying out for help and wants to come into the safe confines of my belly from the dark pit of hell they were falling into... Oh the sadness, the drama, the horror! Yeah, eventually I threw a life vest of a fork at them and rescued them and now, they are safely nestled within the safe haven known as my belly and the Angels sang their praises again.
Verdict:




Before this next dish came out, I heard a whisper in my ears, it's for sharing it said. I was like "Shut Your Face!" and tell me again what you really want to say! But that whisper never repeat itself, instead, a Star Destroyer like craft cruised past me and landed before me. Now, that's how a proper sized meal should be! And then that weird whisper came around again and reminded me that it's for Sharing! DAMMIT! The BBQ Sticky Pork Ribs slow cooked to perfection and drenched with the Chef’s special BBQ sauce and served with wedges and coleslaw. The most important thing for slow cooked BBQ Pork ribs is that it should ideally slide off the ribs when sliced or stabbed into. And they did not disappoint. the meat slid off faster than an evening gown sliding off a woman. And the best part is, it was all perfect and beautiful and sexy, it was that good! The pork ribs. Yes, I'm talking about the pork so take your mind off the gutter, please!
Verdict:




Now, this is another dish that looks nice but doesn't rate highly to my palate cause it's freaking spicy! Spicy honey glazed Grilled Pork Skewers with roasted root vegetables served on aromatic buttered basmati rice. The pork balls are pretty tender and grilled beautifully but I almost spewed flames like Smaug at his enemies when I bite into the balls. But then, I was taught not to waste food so I wolfed it all down except for the decorative basmati rice. There's plenty of those left so I had to "Taichi" those to the unlucky soul to finish those off.
Verdict:




This Pink Belly Salad with a medley of romaine lettuce, red cabbages, tomato cubes, watermelon, lychee and honey ham cubes with smoked bacon bits made me very sad. Look at all those Mother Nature's children still looking shocked upon their death as humans stabbed at them and sliced them to pieces all for the name of creating a Salad? These Nature loving, Oxygen producing babies grew up giving us the air we breath and the chef murdered them all for the sake of "Healthier choice". I give it a 3 out of 5 because of the murder that was committed in this dish. Oh, the bacons and ham coated in the sauce was awesome. But to think of all those plants being murdered just sadden me. Now, leave me be, I'll go mourn their death until the next dish appears.  
Verdict:





These guys are gooooooooood, they know how to perk a person up after they are down and sad. Seriously! Double scoop of Special Vanilla Ice-Cream drizzled in maple syrup topped with smoked bacon slices. Now, that hit the home run for me. Right out of the stadium. What better way to end the night than a 2 scoops of ice creams (I'd prefer Chocolate Ice Cream though) with loads of bacon bits sprinkled all over them. There's also salted nuts to go along with the dessert but not really a big fan of salted nuts when there's bacon. To others, they love it. For me, they can do without any nuts and it wouldn't affect the flavor of the dessert. Maybe in the next incarnation, they could look at mixing in the bacon strips into the ice cream itself like some other restaurants do to give the dessert that extra bite. Overall, it's still good, I could eat that all night after the lovely meal but sadly, as it was a week day, I was told to put down the fork and not hold any of the bacon hostage and slowly leave the premise at 10pm or the sniper across the roof would double tap me right at the forehead. The lovely lady, Elizabeth, is a good negotiator, she managed to make me put down my food. I could hear the poor Roasted Pork and Bacons crying as I was separated from them.  
Verdict:



It was a sad good bye and the heaven turns gloomy again with the haze enveloping the sky once more as I depart from Lorong Kurau. Would I make a visit back to the restaurant? Definitely! There's quite a few more dishes on the menu I've yet to try. There's a Pork Burger dish in the menu that is dying to meet my stomach so I'll definitely make a return to the place.

PINK BELLY

1, Lorong Kurau, Taman Bukit Pantai
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Phone: +6012-287-2570 or +603-2389-1518
Hours: (Mon - Fri) 11:00 am – 10:00 pm,
(Sat - Sun) 8:00 am - 12:00 am
Waze: https://waze.to/lr/hw283c86ud

Ratings:

FOOD :

SERVICE :

CLEANLINESS/AMBIENCE :

VALUE FOR MONEY

 

MAP:

Click To Enlarge