El Cerdo Restaurant, KL

Went for a romantic dinner with hubby last weekend to El Cerdo. We had the whole evening to ourselves, with the children entertained and looked after by their grandparents and uncle and aunt and cousins. It's been a long, long time since we did this.

So, naturally I looked forward to the evening.
And El Cerdo did not disappoint.

The restaurant has a cozy and romantic ambience, with soft lighting (perhaps too soft. One elderly patron used his flashlight to read the menu!). The waiting staff are pleasant and well-trained.

The skewered chicken meat balls were tasty, well marinated, soft but not spectacular. The squid with parsley sauce was nicely chewy and tangy to the palate. We also had grilled prawns that were twisted and wrapped around in bacon, which is a nice twist. Our last tapas dish was the roasted vegetables, which was a delicious and healthy conclusion to the start of our dinner.

Perhaps best known for their roasted suckling pig (which the Chinese love), this specialty dish of theirs, as you might know from reading other food reviews, involves the wait staff "cutting" the meat with a plate, to prove how crispy the skin of the pig is and how tender the meat under the skin is. Then there is the rather loud and frightening ritual of breaking the plates, which the diner is invited to do. A rather noisy dish. Interesting.

The pork spare ribs were cooked drier than I am used to, but not overly so. As the wait staff gave us 2 bowls of water with a slice of lemon inside to wash our hands, we abandoned fork and knife and enjoyed the ribs with our fingers. Finger licking good (no infringement intended to KFC's slogan!)

As we intended to while away the night along the extremely active Changkat Bukit Bintang and Jalan Alor, sampling the various bars and hawker stalls, we decided to skip dessert. It was an enjoyable and delicious dinner at "the pig".