Been down with pretty terrible headaches this weekend due to the crazy hot weather. I’d do the rain dance but that would just set my nausea off too. So if you are reading this, do have a word with the Rain God about this KL weather, k? I’ve been guzzling water like I’ve been stuck in a desert for days. How I wish I can be transported to somewhere nice and chilly, right about now.
The whining aside, let’s transport our mind to the south, specifically South America. Imagine the vibrant cultures, latin music, sexy salsa dancers, and not to mention a myriad of delicious food with various cultural influences. That’s right, I’m talking about La Boca Latino Bar, a little bit of South America right in the heart of KL.
Nestled just behind Tom, Dick and Harry’s Pavilion, La Boca is a lively Latin American restaurant with plenty of characters. This is evident by the bright multi-coloured decor and notes of Latino theme-art. I like how their facebook page advertised “handsome Latin American waiters” because that’s certainly not far from the truth. Perfect for a girl’s night out. *wink* Or in our case, a combined birthday dinner/booze up.
Louise has been singing praises about this place for ages, and it was only apt that we chose to celebrate her birthday (and Bok‘s) there. So let’s talk about the food, shall we?
Literally translated as Fish Croquettes, these sure hit all the right spots. Perfectly crunchy with fluffy interior consisting of flaky fish and potatoes, made better with the piquant tomato based dip.
I simply cannot resist a good ceviche, and this was exceptional. The chunky salmon, cured in lime juice, married with pico de gallo and corn: you can taste every simple component here and the flavours definitely woke up all my taste buds. The Cassava chips are house-made and irresistible. The allure of crunchy food has been widely documented.
Yet another dish with plenty of crunch: the Empanadas might resemble our local curry puffs but they were filled with delicious creamy beef which went really well with the chunky tomato dip.
This dish brought plenty of “oohs” and “aahs” round the table. Doesn’t the puffy dough just look so inviting?
This is a classic Argentine “stuffed” pizza with turkey ham, melted mozzarella, tomato & kalamata olives. Interestingly the tomato paste (pizza sauce) is served on the side, without it the pizza itself did taste a little bland. I’d love to see more cheese too.
La Boca has a Churrasco Latin barbecue station which serves steaks, roast chicken and lamb. Evelyn ordered an Angus striploin, cooked medium rare to share. The meat was slow roasted over a flamed rotisserie, which keeps the meat tender and flavourful. No sauce was needed for this. I liked how it was served with a huge salad lightly dressed.
Caipirinha is the national cocktail of Brazil, made with a sugar cane hard liquor called Cachaça, sugar and lime. This reminds me of a good Mojito. Very pleasant to drink and cooling too.
Churros are my ultimate weakness in desserts, especially if it comes with Dulce De Leche (rare in Malaysia). A little disappointed with the texture though as it was a little too chewy for us. But forgivable with such good dips!
Not pictured were Nachos (addictive with lots of toppings), 2 La Boca burgers (apparently really good) and La Boca’s signature Fajita (didn’t get to try that as I was really full already) but the total bill was just over RM300 for 6. Pretty reasonable I think.
We adjourned to Tom, Dick and Harry’s after dinner where my favourite Local Band Mad Sally was performing (you might remember that I joined them for gig last year), and even got up on stage to sing a few songs with them. Fun night!
I’ll return to La Boca with Frank in tow for sure.
La Boca Latino Bar
C3.10.03 Pavilion KL, 50150 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
03-2148 9977
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LaBocaMalaysia
Kelly Siew Cooks 
here’s wishing for nighttime-till-dawn rains over the next week (and hopefully none between 4pm-8pm that’ll mess up the evening traffic)! mmmm, i’m trapped on my laptop working right now (yeah, even though it’s sunday), and have no access to alcohol! i could sure use la boca’s mojito to make my afternoon merrier! 😀
Wow you are fast! Yeah early morning rain is the best! 🙂 A few mojitos definitely wouldn’t hurt right now! Oh…. The sky has just gone darker!
Wow, looks like a place to check out. Haiyah, how come all the good food are in the city center:(
I think there are plenty of good restaurants in the suburban areas too but I agree not as many. Yeah everything on the menu is pretty good here. The flavours are simple but fresh testing.
Food looks good. No photo with the Latino waiters? Wink! Wink!
Why are you interested? lol
Hi Kelly! This looks like an interesting place…
It’s a breath of fresh air. 😀 KL dining scene definitely improving.
What a fun place!
It is! Forgot to mention the service was really good too. 😀
Hope you are feeling better Kelly. It gets still cold here in SF and sort of envious of no jacket weather there… but humidity and hot weather is not very pleasant as Japan’s summer is just like that. Pizza Rellena looks so delicious!
No headache today but still feeling lethargic. Though it’s not as hot today as it rained a little last night.
I am glad I am in an air conditioned office the whole day for once, it was hot and humid the pass week…it was better today thank goodness! Great place to celebrate birthdays huh!
Aircon at home not strong enough haha. I don’t like to leave it on for too long as well. Indeed it’s a lively place for any occasion.
Walao make me hungry sial
Lol go again soon! 🙂
I wanna La Boca too! =)
Do it then!
this place has awesome looking food! must pay a visit…. just not now cos I m trying to diet to make up the CNY overload… lol… will keep this place in mind for functions though!
Oo.. I caught Mad Sally at Souled Out, love them too!! Hope to catch your performance too ya…
Hehehe yeah this would be nice for a girly session over fantastic food and drinks. Hope to see you at one of my gigs soon!
All the food looks like something I would want to eat! So yum and exciting!
Yeah love the vibrant flavours of the dishes!
that’s really a nice place to chill 🙂 looks like i must pay a visit there soon
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Yes do it soon! 😀
The food looks very much like we had in Buenos Aires! What a great find! 😀
Yeah KL dining scene is definitely on the uphill slope with plenty of new exciting restaurants.