QRA at The Campus
There’s usually a butcher section at our neighbourhood grocer that carries meat cuts and seafood to buy and cook at home. Contrary to popular Ratatouille belief, not all of us can cook, especially when faced with poultry that can quickly go dry and tough when cooked for a second too long.
If you fall into the camp of I-can-only-chop-veggies-in-the-kitchen, we’re here to let you in on a lesser-known service of a grocer: QRA’s Pick & Grill, which lets you choose a marinated meat from the freezer and have it cooked on the spot.
Convenient Pick & Grill service at a grocery store
We checked out the Pick & Grill service at QRA’s latest branch at The Campus in KL. It can be found at the casual dine-in corner comprising a hot kitchen and dining tables at the premium grocer, just beyond its checkout counters. The service is also at its other KL branch, at Arcoris.
Your order from QRA’s dine-in corner will be mostly self-service. There’s a chiller holding various meat cuts and sausages and seafood like a lone, but unmissable, salmon that you can browse through.
For chicken, your choice for two generous breast meats will be based on the marinate. There are familiar options like smoky Cajun, honey mustard, and the unbeatable trio of lemon, thyme, and rosemary, along with less obvious, eye-catching ones such as spicy Korean, Thai-inspired, and spicy Jamaican.
Showing that premium meats aren’t reserved for fancy, low-light restaurants, there’s a good selection of beef cuts like Australian grass-fed sirloin and ribeye and New Zealand-imported lamb cutlets.
Each meat is priced by the kilogram, with marinated chicken starting from RM11 and beef and lamb cuts priced between RM30-RM120.
How to order your food at QRA
Once you’ve made up your mind on the protein, skip bringing it home and have it cooked for RM20 at the grocery store. The cooking fee is pretty worth it, considering that it comes with two sides – mixed lettuce, fries, sweet potato fries, crispy potatoes, or roasted vegetables – and a sauce to beef up your plate.
The marinated chicken might cause you to stumble on a sauce option, taste pairings and all. There’s chicken jus, black pepper, mushroom, creamy lemon mustard, and chimichurri. The jus is a safe choice, as concentrated chicken stock goes well with almost everything.
To order, bring your protein to the counter, pick your sides and sauce, and your meal will be delivered to your table.
What we ordered
We had the jus with Thai-inspired marinated chicken, which was among the strongest of marinates in the chiller. While the marinate had sharp flavours of lemongrass – cuts of the aromatic were lodged in the chicken – the jus paired nicely with it, adding more juiciness and “chicken-ness” to each bite.
As QRA’s hot kitchen has more than just Pick & Grill service, we ordered the Shakshouka (RM26) too. This breakfast-of-champs dish delivered on flavours, even though its visual boasted a simple combination of eggs poached in a tomato sauce speckled with chick peas and capsicum chunks. The buttered sourdough, lightly toasted so it doesn’t scrape the roof of your mouth, will be the edible spoon for this dish.
For drinks, we went with the kombucha and coffee (RM12.90/each) on tap that was sold at QRA’s in-house drinks stall, After School. You can purchase them from the grocery store and bring them over to the dining area.
The Ube Taro satisfied with its fizzy, refreshing take on taro that departs from its usual creamy consistency more common at local eateries, while the Cold Brew crafted with single-origin, Bali Kintamani coffee beans was satisfyingly frothy, smooth, and not bitter.
A convenient Pick & Grill service
Most grocery runs don’t result in satisfied tummies full of meat, carbs, and vegetables. But that’s what you’ll get at QRA with its convenient Pick & Grill service, which offers well-balanced meals for grocery shoppers and the curiously hungry alike.
The Campus branch
Address: G27, Ground Floor, Batu 5, Jalan Kerja Air Lama, Ampang Jaya, 68000 Ampang
Opening hours: 8am-10pm, Daily
Contact: QRA Instagram
Cover image adapted from: TheSmartLocal Malaysia