PETALING JAYA, Aug 12 — With coffee shops serving great local fare, eateries offering awesome Indonesian food, a bakery and dessert shop, Ara Permata has become a food destination of sorts.

The latest to set up shop here is Born Butcher.

Pegged as a Muslim-friendly restaurant, it wins with a simple formula of meat and side dishes, where they use halal certified ingredients.

It's not all Western eats like sandwiches, pasta and burgers, as you can find familiar local eats like sup kambing (dinner only) and nasi goreng as well.

Sure, you can get steak, lamb or even chicken chop here but their pride and joy is their handmade items, like sausages, salt beef and cured ox tongue.

The name of the establishment though may leave you a little confused as this isn't your typical butcher where you shop for the best meat cuts. Maybe that reference is a nod towards their handmade items, which can be purchased for home consumption.

There are four different sausages to select from.

Chicken sausage gets a mild cheese makeover, while another variant pays tribute to Thuringer German style sausages.

For the beef sausage, it's a black pepper flavour while the lamb merguez is served in a spiral.

Prices for the sausages range from RM12.90 to RM33.90 for the spiral lamb merguez.

Feeling lost about what to try? Luckily, they know diners may want to try everything so there's a Sausage Platter (RM69.90).

It's enough to feed two or more, with all the different types of sausages, served on a bed of mashed potato drizzled with brown sauce with a beef stock base and two types of mustard, wholegrain and German.

The texture of the sausages made using sheep casing have a nice juiciness, which one can happily relish. The lamb sausage in a spiral form tends to have a firmer bite though.

However, flavours tend to be a little shy. Maybe they're playing it safe since it's still their soft launch.

The other item we tried was their Salt Beef. It's served two ways here, in a sandwich form (RM48.90) with fries or just on its own with a choice of your side dish (RM52.90).

Using Australian beef brisket, the texture of the Salt Beef is on point.

What I liked was how it wasn't jarringly over-salted. It's a compromise though as the meat has a softness that sees it flake apart easily, rather than those who oversalt to get a more buttery texture.

At least one's blood pressure won't go into hyperdrive after you consume this Salt Beef.

In a bid to balance out the meats, the Butcher's House Salad (RM28.90) was summoned.

Crunchy greens and cherry tomatoes were given a flavourful soak in caramelised onions, making it a "not boring” salad. What it did need was more feta cheese to give it a slight creaminess and pine nuts for crunch.

It's early days still but one is tempted to return for the Ox Tongue with Apple Sandwich using sourdough bread or Barramundi Fish & Chips with their homemade tartar sauce. Being a corned beef addict, I would also like to try their Corned Beef Garlic Rice.

Born Butcher, 58, Jalan PJU1A/42A, Ara Permata, Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya. Open: 11am to 3pm, 6pm to 10pm. Closed on Wednesday. Tel:017-5411203. Instagram: @thebornbutcher Facebook: @thebornbutcher

* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.

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