Dancing Fish, Bangsar Shopping Centre

Indonesian food is not something I crave for often. rif however, feels differently. It is always him who suggests nasi padang meals, Balinese platters and more recently, Dancing Fish in Bangsar Shopping Centre. We actually tried Dancing Fish when we attended a wine tasting at O Gourmet two months ago, and found it to be quite good.

I ordered the barley lime (free refill) while rif had the Teh Koci (RM5.90). His tea was nothing to shout about. I thought it tasted like Jasmine tea. My barley lime (RM5.90) was alright, but it could have done with a bit more sugar.

Unfortunately for us, they ran out of a few items that day, so we didn’t get to order the bebek goreng bali. Instead, we settled for the ayam panggang (RM18.90 – whole bird), heavily seasoned, deep fried and coated in a thick chilli paste. If you’re a chilli wuss, you’re going to sweat buckets as the fiery flavour creeps up slowly but surely. The chicken leg was lovely and tender, but the breast and wings skewed slightly to the dry side.

Fiery Sambal

Daging Rendang (RM13.90) comprised tiny chunks of beef cooked with a lavish amount of spices, seasoning and coconut milk until a glorious dark brown shade. This was delicious; the meat was flaky, moist and ‘lemak’ from the coconut milk.

I ate this with nasi berempah kuning (RM3 per person), essentially yellow rice cooked with coconut milk and turmeric. The rice was fragrant and fluffy with a creamy aftertaste. We both had another serving of this (RM3 you pay includes refills).

Balado refers to spicy dishes in Indonesia, and the terong balado (spicy eggplant - RM9.90) at Dancing Fish was that, and more. The fiery gravy was almost painfully spicy, but it was excellent with the juicy eggplant slices. After a few mouthfuls, my mouth started to tingle and tiny beads of sweat formed at the back of my neck. Good stuff, really!

For desserts, we shared the caramelized bananas (RM8.50) and cendol (RM5). The latter – although majestic looking – was a disappointment. The shaved ice was coarse and didn’t melt nicely with the thick palm sugar. What we got were spoonfuls of crunchy ice bits with sweet beans and chewy cendol strips.

The caramelized bananas tasted better. Served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and generous drizzles of palm sugar, this was sticky-sweet with a deep, coffee-like flavour.

Lunch came up to about RM80 for two pax. Not cheap, but I reckon it is affordable by Bangsar Shopping Centre’s standard. Service needed a bit of work, because some of the staff were not properly trained yet.

Ambiance: 6.5/10
Price: 5/10
Food: 6/10 (pork-free)
Verdict: Pretty good food, fair service.

Dancing Fish
3rd Floor,
Bangsar Shopping Centre
Kuala Lumpur
03-2095 6663