Two acres of prime jungle property. That was the description given in the New Straits Times on 15 July of a Restaurant called Tamarind Springs. It was actually started by a husband and wife who converted a 1920’s colonial style bungalow into a restaurant. Curious, my family couldn’t pass up an opportunity to visit.

Located in Ampang, it was not as far as we expected it to be. Well, maybe if a few traffic congestions had not occurred we could have been there sooner. Unlike most fine dining areas, this one was located almost in the middle of nowhere.

The entrance itself was very intriguing. Just by looking at that, I was able to get a feel of what the place itself would look like. It had an Indochinese theme that expanded to the food as well. The building was designed in a very Thai design, something like the wooden houses in the movie “Anna and The King”. Open air, we were able to hear the sound of a natural waterfall that cascaded nearby. Amazingly though, there were absolutely no mosquitoes. With that many trees and water, I really wondered how they did it.

Then we come to the food. Our waiter was very helpful with recommending some of the dishes. My favourite was in fact the seafood dishes, especially the crispy soft shell crabs. Nothing was too spicy but some dishes possessed a strong tang of lemongrass and ginger. Not really my cup of tea. The dessert, in fact, was out of this world! Honeydew with coconut milk was so much more than that. While all the other foods were family sized (for 4), the desserts were individual. I thank my dad for selecting the aforementioned sweet, the honeydew came in little balls and was drenched in coconut milk on a base of sago. Very little “gula Melaka” was added to bring out the taste of the coconut milk. Delicious.

The online website hardly did justice to Tamarind Springs. It would seem that dining is mainly for couples, but it is actually very family orientated, seven members of my family went, but there were tables with more people. The ambience was great, crickets chirping and water, it was only disturbed by a wedding party downstairs whose host had a penchant for using the microphone.

Tamarind Springs has an Indochinese restaurant as well as an Italian one. There are two other branches of Tamarind Restaurants, Tamarind Terrace located on Tioman Island and Tamarind Hills, which is in the process of relocating.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ -- Fair