Firefly Bar & Grill in KK Times Square on the fringe of Kota Kinabalu, has a new menu and we at SabahBah.com have mixed emotions about it.

The bad news is, the the Classic Firefly Beef Burger we so much loved is not on the menu any more. Not in it’s classic form at least.

The good news is… well, we haven’t discovered the good news yet.

In stead of the Classic Firefly Beef Burger, there is a Firefly Chicken Burger, but we just couldn’t get ourselves to try it, afraid we would spoil the juicy memories of the beef version we still covet.

Instead, we tried the LA Burger. It’s a large beef patty, which, yes, on it’s own is not too bad. But it’s pretty much alone on the burger bun, save for a few slices of what seemed to be pickles underneath. The description on the menu wasn’t quite what we had on our plate.

A light point was the Firefly Salad with extra Pepper Roasted Chicken added. An interesting looking salad, which tasted pretty decent too. At RM15 it’s OK value for money.

Firefly also seemed to have had a bit of staff turn over, and our server Zeck (according to the bill), seemed a bit inexperienced tonight, in fact, he seemed a bit afraid of our table, so much so that he hardly said a word and never actually asked us if we wanted anything to drink.

Maybe it was just an off night. The new menu looks interesting and is definitely queued for further exploration.

Update – 14 Sep 2010: We visited Firefly Bar & Grill again tonight and there has been an update to the menu. Read a little bit about the new Firefly Bar & Grill menu here.

Craving for a bit of Western food, SabahBah set of to the grill part of Firefly Bar & Grill, hoping to sink our teeth into that Bourbon Glazed Back Ribs everybody’s talking about.

Disappointingly, it was out of stock, but Firefly’s extensive menu had plenty else to offer.

Happy Hour is Beer Hour

Three hungry and thirsty people sat down at about 7pm, in the thick of Happy Hour, and decided to take advantage of Firefly’s generous beer specials. A tower of Becks, which equates to 4.3 litres of beer (3 jugs), costs RM73 during Happy Hour; it’s very hard to say no to such a great deal.

For Starters at Firefly Bar & Grill

For something to nibble on that would complement the beer while we waited for our mains, and keeping in tune with our Pork Mission, we chose the Crispy Pork Belly from the Starter section of the menu. Marinated pork belly, lightly floured and then deep fried to perfection, served with spicy lemon grass vinaigrette is the very accurate description.

Between the 3 of us we agreed it was flavourful, very tasty and overall quite delicious, although 1 thought it was perhaps just a little too crispy and 1 thought it wasn’t fatty enough (although admittedly she likes it very fatty). But otherwise we were well impressed.

In the meantime, our tower of beer was looming large over the table and the beer was flowing steadily. There’s something magical about being able to pour your own beer right at your table.

Firefly Bar & Grill – The Mains Menu

Shortly after, our mains arrived. We had the Honey Brined Pork Chop (pan seared pork chop topped with apple ginger chutney), the Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich (chicken fillet with Swiss cheese) and the Firefly Burger (homemade patty with mushrooms, sauted onions and Swiss and Cheddar cheese).

Having had a couple of hit and misses with burgers around Kota Kinabalu recently, the Firefly Burger was a pleasant surprise.

The homemade patty was aromatic, tasty herbs and spices complimenting the flavour of the thick and juicy meat. The bread bun, although large, didn’t overpower the patty. In this way the meat was the star of the burger, with the buns awesome as backup, making for a great burger show.

The chicken club sandwich was equally delicious, with two large chicken fillets smothered in cheese, overflowing on the burger bun. The buns are not quite as large as they look in the accompanying picture, but they were large enough for our taster to not be able to finish his.

Our critical Foodie gave the Honey Brined Pork Chop a big thumbs up, even though she was quite disappointed no to get the ribs she craved for.

We finished off the substantial amount of beer left in the tower, we called for the bill, which came down to only RM50 per person.

By then the bar part of Firefly Bar & Grill was heaving, the band hard at work getting the packed house moving. As we couldn’t find a table inside, we decided to try the bar part of Firefly on another occasion, perhaps when they have those Burboun Glazed Back Ribs in stock again…