The Shepherdoo, Sky Park @ One City: Latin American Soul Food

From Nachos to Tacos, It’s Latin American at The Shepherdoo!

In pursuit of its successful outlet in Centro Mall, Klang, The Shepherdoo opens its second outlet at Sky Park in One City recently. This outlet screams Latin American all the way from the moment one walks into the restaurant cum lounge. The six of us was here for a magazine shoot as The Shepherdoo is gorgeously decorated with a Latin American ambience to match its menu.

There are two levels at The Shepherdoo. Enjoy your meal at the dining area below or simply head up to the next level for more privacy and comfort. There is also the casual bar area that has a huge mural of bodacious sceneries in Latin America. The stairs leading up to the next level is brightly painted a sunny yellow to mimic the colorful houses in that region. Choose your dining in the restaurant or al fresco on both levels.

The upper level has a large sofa area for chilling while dart machines will keep many busy. A large wall covered in a beautiful poster of houses from a certain area in the region provides the backdrop for the ambience. Its’ all about bold colors to create a happy and easy-going ambience that makes diners want to hang out there.

Enough about the ambience, let’s see what the menu has to offer! The Shepherdoo team takes their food and drink list and amps it up with loads of fun flavors. We were recommended some of their signature cocktails and mocktails that evening to unwind the day. The Shepherdoo’s mixologist makes pretty cool drinks.

I love the Passion Fruit Heineken. It’s a beer smoothie! Pretty fresh and delicious… and I don’t even like beer. We also had their Classic Mojito, Mango Margarita and Afrutado. The Mango Margarita is lovely too but it’s more of a ladies cocktail because of its fruity sweetness.

The team at this restaurant takes their drink list seriously… there’s about 10 pages of drink list alone! From Freezing Smoothies, Hot Sun Coolers, Coffee, Tea, Mocktails and Cocktails to Beers, Shooters, Wines, Champagnes and Liquors, there’s plenty of giggle juice to keep everyone pretty happy. Happy hours are even better… with Buy 1 Free 1 deals and more.

The menu is filled with lots of choices too. There are plenty of appetizers, snacks and tapas while mains are plentiful as well. We had Pollo Nachos, Mexican Buffalo Wings and Quesadilla de Hongo.

Even Nachos alone, the menu has several options. Our Pollo Nachos is a pile of crispy tortilla chips covered with a beautiful mess of cheese sauce, sour cream, jalapenos, pico de gallo and crowned with a scoop of housemade guacamole. This version has grilled chicken pieces for that extra protein. It’s a mount of flavors and textures and a great one to be shared!

The Mexican Buffalo Wings is really awesome. Ticking off the essential checkmark of crispiness, kicking tang and spicy flavors and the meaty wings, this one disappeared pretty fast off the plate.

Quesadilla de Hongo has sautéed garlicky mushrooms and cheese as a filling before it’s sandwiched with tortilla and chargrilled for a toasty texture and finished off with a drizzle of balsamic reduction. It makes a nice snack when shared or one can even have this as a main course if you are going meatless.

Our mains had us starting off with Pizza de Mexicana. It’s a fairly simple pizza made with tortilla topped with sauteed sweet and soft bell pepper, sweet onions with a light red sauce and plenty of cheese. This one makes a great bite with cold beer. I like the light and crispiness of the tortilla pizza.

We also had Taco-Taco, The Shepherdoo’s rendition of crispy tortilla shells stuffed with fish and the standard taco filling of shredded greens, pico de gallo, guacamole, chipotle aioli, cheese and sour cream. We had three orders here as each order has two tacos. This is very flavorful as one gets a burst of sour, creamy, savory and a little heat together with its various textures of the tortilla and fish. I daresay it’s a little messy to eat but hey… it’s a beautiful mess!

We were told that their fajitas is a popular choice and we must their Combo Fajita which had wild mushrooms, chicken and beef all piled up into one sizzling plate! The fajitas had mixed peppers and onions for sweetness while the spices in it jazzed up the flavors. Simply take the accompanied soft flour tortilla, heaped on the fajita and dressed it with salsa, guacamole and sour cream. I usually piled on a lot of the condiments since I love them. It’s a hearty taste of Mexican cuisine. These are also the heart of the street food in Mexico and one can literally see them on every nook and corner in the country.

I am no Gringo but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try The Shepherdoo’s Gringo Burger! Thick beef patty has a blanket of melted cheddar cheese and is dressed with turkey bacon, sunny side up egg, lemon mayo and greens with a sesame seed bun. This one was tasted decent and the fact that the sunny side up egg had runny egg yolk makes the burger better than other regular ones.

We also settled for Chicken Parmigiana ala Mexicano, a breaded chicken breast baked and sauced up with a spiced tomato sauce and topped with melted cheese. This one comes with curly fries and side salad. Despite it being a breast, the chicken is really moist and flavorful. The sauce is tangy and tomatoey with a good dose of spice undernotes. Not usually a chicken parmigiana fan, I seemed to enjoy this a lot as the chicken is really juicy and tender.

The next dish was my favorite of the night. Pasta ala Pollo features a French cut Mexican rubbed chicken breast nicely chargrilled. It lies on a bed of pesto sauced pasta and is crowned with a chargrilled caramelized pineapple. The aroma and flavors are simple marvelous. The pesto sauce has such great depths of herb and cheese flavors that make it so scrumptious. The chicken again is utterly juicy and tender while the spice rub makes it very flavorful. What seals the dish had to be the caramelized pineapple, adding a little fruity sweetness to the chicken to remind us of its Latin American flavors. A Must-Order!

Pierna Rojo Vivo is also top in my list of Must-Order. Spicy marinated chicken thigh is beautifully chargrilled and comes with a fruity and tangy papaya salsa with potato salad and greens. The flavor combination worked really well. A squeeze of orange juice from the orange wedge does more wonders for the chicken.

The Shepherdoo does have some desserts and we had their signature Cinnamon Wafer Tortilla. It has crispy golden tortilla chips served with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream before being drizzled with lots of caramel sauce. Sweet and crispy, it’s really easy to enjoy, especially when I am such a fan of vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.

It’s fun all the way at The Shepherdoo. The ambience is groovy and colorful while the food and drink is as bold as the ambience. Prices are decent too for the food and drinks. It’s perfect for hanging out with family or friends and definitely a great place to unwind…

THE SHEPHERDOO RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE

A-GF-07, Sky Park, Ground Floor,

One City, Jalan USJ25/1A,

47640 Subang Jaya

Tel: +6018 337 8828 / 6018 656 8828

Website: www.theshepherdoo.com/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/theshepherdoo