An Enlightened Lunch At Tony Roma's

"Eh! Bukan Tony Roma's tu tak halal ke?", asked an office-mate of mine while we were at the pantry making drinks one day.

The topic was arranging for a monthly department lunch and she was told Tony Roma's is not a halal outlet by someone.

There is a difference between a non-halal outlet and an outlet that doesn't receive a halal certification, I told her. An outlet can't get a halal certification if it sells alcohol for drinks even though the food itself has no alcohol mixed in it.

Anyway, I also got similar reaction by my non-muslims friends who queried over why they see tudung clad patrons in Chili's or TGIF yet some of us muslims would not step in such outlet.

I don't profess to be an expert in these matter and for me, it is up to individuals to decide themselves whether they can or cannot patronise any outlet.

But I did pose the question over to Tony Roma's people.

I don't know if anyone remember this but I used this statement from TR as a reassurance that my food is indeed halal. 

It's just that there's no JAKIM halal mark slapped on my food.

It somehow reminded me of the non-halal imported turkey case yonks ago. It's non-halal because it wasn't slaughtered the correct way, yet some people think we cannot even touch the turkey carcass. I have one colleague who still insisted that she sees the halal certificate from the hotel I order our yearly office Xmas turkey. I respect her for that although I usually am just OK with verbal reassurance. 

But of course, everyone has their own prerogative in this matter and mine is that, I'm OK with Tony Roma's. Don't lynch me over my opinion. That's all.

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to have lunch at Tony Roma's in eCurve and had the opportunity to have a long chat with the people in charge who were very obliging in answering my queries.

One interesting fact to note from our conversation was; while the training for the chain's chefs is done at the HQ in Florida, Malaysia has now become the training centre for chefs from Islamic countries such as Pakistan. That's good progress for the chain in my opinion.

Anyways, I was at Tony Roma's to have lunch with a few friends and that's what we did.

Enjoy our lunch.

And enjoy, we certainly did.

Trying out their new menu that is available from Sep 7th to Oct 18th, 2015; we decided to order from the new menu and shared the dishes.

The Virgin Romaritas. All of them.

Clockwise from top : Romarita, Strawberry Romarita, Mango Romarita and Wild Berry Romarita. I had Wild Berry and it was delish!

 Bread, of course. A must too. I love 'em.

 Salmon with shrimp in lemon sauce. It was nice, but I wanted meat. Hahaha

Beef short-rib with cranberry demi-glace. The short rib is heavenly and I totally love, love, love the mashed potatoes as the sides.

Filet mignon with fried onion rings & demi-glace.

It was cooked to perfection; medium rare and everyone agreed that the onion rings was great.

Another plate of filet mignon, with rice and vege.

The highlight for a meal at Tony Roma's for me is their lamb ribs. I love their lamb ribs more than their beef ribs.

And to make it more special, I was told that only the KL outlets offer lamb ribs. So... if you're in KL and heading to Tony Roma's, why not have lamb ribs?

I have the perfect excuse to enjoy them too. I just ran a full marathon a couple of days before my visit here. ^^

Om nom nom.

The carnovires had eaten most of the protein and left the grains at this time. Hahaha

We ended our meal with some coffee and feeling fully satisfied.

Can't wait for another makan trip to Tony Roma's soon, with my family.

My two boys are already complaining over the fact that I didn't include them for lunch that time. Bwahaha.