Bistro42 is a quaint little dining place in BVII that has a weird seating arrangement consisting of regular tables and chairs with a plush sofa (complete with comfortable pillows) flanking the side. It also has a quasi al fresco area outside the main restaurant:
You get what I mean when I say “al fresco” right – it’s smack dab in the middle of a shopping mall so it’s not a real open air dining area. That means no smoking, no cooling nighttime breeze (unless you count the central air conditioning) or any other activities you’ll associate with the phrase al fresco.
However, Bistro 42 does have pretty good food. I’ve been there a couple of times and if the place looks slightly familiar to you, it’s because it used to be T Forty Two. It now comes with a revamped menu and I went there last night with Kim to check it out.
Anyway, the story behind dinner with Kim is quite interesting in itself. I met her in 2008 while on a vacation in Miri. There is a funny story somewhere in there but that’s a bit of an #insidejoke. Heh. That was over 3 years ago and she came over to KL sometime last year. I didn’t know that and while hunting for photos from when I got out of rehab, I stumbled upon one of us and put it up. Kim had just started reading blogs again, saw it, and we got in touch and made plans for dinner.
…and that, my friends is the totally irrelevant background as to how I had dinner with Kim in Bistro42 last night. 
Slow Roasted Wagyu Beef Cheek (RM 45.90)
I knew I was going to order this when I saw it on the menu, It’s served with carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes and mashed potatoes. It sounds pedestrian from the description but when the dish came out, it looked (and tasted) wonderful.
The wagyu beef cheek is superb! It’s melt-in-your-mouth tender. The beef cheek literally falls apart when you slice into it – you can even eat it with a spoon! The sauce it’s swimming in complements the juicy slab of beef cheek perfectly. Kim tasted this and says it totally kicked her dishes’ ass.
Grilled Tiger Prawn Linguine (RM 49.90)
This is in a reduction of lobster bisque and finished with a touch of cream. The size of the tiger prawn is pretty generous and I was amazed to see that Kim can actually peel the shell off the tiger prawn using nothing but a fork and knife:
No shit. I’ve never managed to master that.
Anyway, I found this pasta dish quite good actually. I like the lobster bisque reduction – it goes well with the seafood based linguine. It’s the perfect pasta sauce. My only complaint is that it only has one tiger prawn. Granted, it is rather large but still…
Bistro42 has a small but satisfactory wine list. The bottles starts from RM 100 so expect your meal to be in the RM 250 – RM 300 range if you have wine with your dinner. Bistro42 also has a very interesting cocktail called Lemon Meringue Martini. It’s made with vodka, Limoncello, lemon juice, sugar and fresh milk. It’s like a dessert cocktail – check it out if you’re there.
the wagyu beef cheek looks delicious!! how big is the portion? worth the money?
It’s quite a large portion actually. A good sized slab. 🙂
Yeah, I like the food over there. 😀
Wow that was a lavish dinner! And I’d wanna master her fork and knife skills too. Or else I’ll end up using my hands LOL
Haha! Yeah, that is one hard thing to do.
I personally can’t peel it without resorting my fingers too. 🙂
That’s cheap for wagyu! Here, ordinary sirloin, we’d have to pay that much already at some places. 🙁
Yeah but then it’s not wagyu beef per se – it’s the cheek. 🙂
Wagyu steaks go for about RM 199 per 300 grams here.
I like the cheek though – very tender stuff. 😀
Owhhh, huge prawn. So tasty “,
Yeah, gotta love huge tiger prawns. I’m a big fan of seafood too. 🙂
so this is where you had the wagyu . nice place indeed 🙂
Yup, this is the wagyu beef cheek place. It’s very tender stuff.
They also serve wagyu steaks – marble 7 – at RM 199 per 300 grams. 😀
HB, I see this restaurant mixed of French and Italian style cooking new age cooking. I do like how they present the dishes which I always look for in restaurants. Since it called a Bistro food should be made with reasonable price ingredients. But restaurants misuse the word Bistro thinking it upscale and charge upscale price in their business for it.
French use Bistro for cafes for Country French Cooking not too fancy type but more home cooked style.
Heh! Yeah I know what you mean. 🙂
This place is part of a conglomerate of restaurants in KL – owned by the BIG Group.
no wonder it looks darn familiar! haha. your friend looks pretty by the way!
Yeah, it’s the ex-T Forty Two! 😀
Heh! I’ll let her know. 😉
Damn that tiger is huge !!
But I rather have 1kg of smaller prawns for that price =P
Yup, it is a fine specimen of tiger prawn indeed! 🙂
You’ll be sick if you eat 1 kg of smaller prawns. Haha. I’ve tried eating a lot of cocktail shrimp in a single sitting but I couldn’t do it.
not sure to look at the prawn, or the girl. :X
Haha! Well, her knife skills is pretty formidable. 🙂
博主乃美食达人啊
Hmm…Google Translate did not handle that very well.
Sorry mate, I didn’t really understand. 🙂
it says u r Gourmet
Okay! Thanks for the translation! 🙂
you can never go wrong with a bottle of E Guigal cotes du rhone. good choice. and I love beef cheeks too. Would order it if i see it on the menu!
Hello Eiling! 🙂
Hey, you really know your wines. I just simple chose one from the list. Haha!
The wagyu beef cheeks are great – it literally falls apart when you cut it. I think you can even eat it with a spoon if you want to.
It’s that tender. 😀
That’s one big motherfckin prawn there. I also can’t master prying the prawn shell with fork and knife. I’m good with my hands though =P
Yeah man. It’s a huge prawn.
I can’t do it either, God knows how she can. 😀