I wish I’d known that this restaurant existed. I wish I’d known when my kids were younger because they love Italian food, and not only does this place serve great Italian food, but even go as far as providing crayons (the table cloth doubles as drawing paper) to keep impatient little fingers occupied whilst waiting for the food to arrive.

According to Assistant Director of Marketing Communications Rheka Dutt, they are not a fine-dining place, but I would beg to differ – I think they offer the best of both worlds. Just because a restaurant is child-friendly doesn’t mean it doesn’t serve excellent food and vice versa, and this place is not just child-friendly – the food we had that night was really quite fine.

It’s a large place which seats more than 200, but the mock Mediterranean décor beckons you in to enjoy the surprisingly cosy interior. There’s a bar near the entrance where you can have your drink whilst waiting for your table. At the corner, deep inside the restaurant, is a spiral staircase which takes you up to the mezzanine floor above the theatre kitchen where you can enjoy a drink or two with some tapas if you don’t want a full meal.

Their specially-built wood-fired pizza oven is clearly visible, and busy white-hatted chefs move about swiftly and efficiently under the direction of their maestro, the affable, surprisingly young Chef Stefano Maccagno from Piedmont in northern Italy, who has been with them for a year now.

We were in for a real treat that night, starting with one of their excellent thin-crust Cappriosso pizzas, then moving on to the beautifully-presented Beef Carpaccio – raw, very thinly sliced Australian beef drizzled with olive oil and mustard, served with a Parmesan Cup of salad.

I thought their home-made maltagliati was absolutely out of this world – fine sheets of pasta cooked al dente, tossed in garlic slices and green pesto, also home-made, served with a piece of delicious lobster on top. Mmmmm … I’d definitely go back for more of just that alone.

However, there are other great dishes to try, like Chef’s “Seafood Casserole”, a light concoction of prawns, mussels and scallops cooked with vegetables, marinated with rosemary, olive oil and some dried chilli flakes to give it a bit of a kick, baked with a pastry covering to keep the flavours in.

As we were near to bursting point at this stage, I regret to say that we just could not do justice to the piece de resistance, tender and juicy “Beef Tenderloin” with mushroom and breadcrumb topping, cooked au point and served with real French foie gras – although we did try our best as we just could not bear to let such a wonderful dish go to waste.

Apart from the really delightful food, we were able to see why their tagline is, “Adding Drama to Dining”, as every so often their talented resident Filipino group “The Avanti Singing Chefs & Waiters” appeared to entertain diners with a selection of oldies but goodies, dressed like their name implies. (They rendered a perfect impersonation of Satchmo himself in “What a Wonderful world”.) They perform every night except Tuesdays.

When Chef Stefano was finally free to sit down and talk to us after an evening of hard, hot work, he told us that they want to focus on quality more than quantity, and go back to simple, old-fashioned but wholesome desserts like their “Afforgato” (“drowned” in Italian – so-called because you pour dark, aromatic expresso over a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a cup), a simple but refreshing end to a great meal.

On Sundays try “Stefano’s Super Sunday”, an all-you-can-eat meal with semi-buffet starters and desserts showcasing three varieties of pasta and three different pizzas for RM60++ (half price for kids).

If you want good, authentic Italian food (and after all, who but someone from there will know how to cook real Italian food), then Avanti is definitely the place to go.

Source: The Expat Magazine

Get your free subscription and free delivery of The Expat Magazine.

This article has been edited for ExpatGoMalaysia.com