Kuala Lumpur

If you’re craving for a meat feast, American BBQ joint Burning Pit in Hartamas has gotcha back. Miles of meat stacked high along with a multitude of mouth-watering sides such as buttery mash, housemade coleslaw and corn.

The beef brisket is my favourite – fatty and melt -in-your-mouth, but the smoky, medium-rare ribs are tasty too.

Taste: 3/5

VCR is an oasis of calm in the heart of busy KL, with good coffee and decent food. Great texture on the thick and fluffy brioche french toast, and the flavour as well as textural combination of the espresso no churn ice cream, sour raspberry compote and coffee-esque mocha sauce worked well. However the chocolate soil and crumble was too fine and irritated the throat slightly.

Taste: 3.5/5

Wholly average and not better than any other fried chicken joint out there. Don’t waste your time.

Taste: 2.5/5

The defining highlight of our 9 course dinner – undeniably beautiful to look at and truly innovative yet delicious. This bowl exudes exotic herbaceousness, with a fan of thinly sliced prawns cooked at a low temperature to maintain their delicate flavour, then rubbed on the underside with housemade coriander stem and salted lime skin paste, before being crowned with an aromatic bouqet of herbs such as ulam flower and cashew leaf. The warm pool of starfruit juice dotted with kaffir lime leaf oil complemented the prawns with nicely balanced astringency and sweetness. Exciting times for Malaysian cuisine.

Taste: 4/5

I balked slightly at the almost blue portion of milk-fed kid goat, but, always game for game, I tucked in. What was good was the salty, pungent exuberance of the charred petai miso coating the meat. Pity there was so little of it. The cut of goat itself was a little too raw and fibrous for my liking.

Taste: 3/5

I’ve played this game before at Spago, except with Buah Keluak shells instead of “stones”. Cleverly camouflaged, these frozen pebbles are made of a shatteringly crisp coat of charcoal infused shell encasing some of the smoothest, most buttery and fragrant kaya you'll ever taste. A marvelous, sweet surprise ending to a most interesting meal at Dewakan.

Taste: 3.5/5

Boring would be the last word on anyone's mind when describing a meal at Dewakan. If anything, some dishes might prove too adventurous for some. The forward-thinking "Black Banana Porridge" proudly champions indigenous ingredients - black bario rice from Sarawak is made into a porridge topped with inky black fermented banana creme riddled with bee larvae(which got stuck in our teeth). On the side are saucers of grated salted egg and pickled choy sum stem to be added as seasoning for the sweet porridge according to your taste. For protein, there is a rather roughshod homemade duck sausage whose coarseness and gaminess I felt did not complement the almost dessert-like taste and texture of the porridge at all.

It is no mean feat to bring together such an ambitious combination of ingredients, but I can certainly admire the attempt. And while I did not take to it, this dish polarized opinion around the table, with others declaring it a stroke of delicious genius.

Taste: 3/5

One of my favourites from the 9-course Nusantara menu, the compact quenelle of goat tartare is packed with big flavours. Composed of finely chopped smoked duck leg, ginger, pickled radish, shallots and chilli, the meaty smokiness and zing of chilli and ginger was most enlivening upon the palate. To finish, the artfully shaped slices of pressed pumpkin atop not only looked pretty, they served to add a delicate sweetness and crunch to the dish as well.

Taste: 3.5/5

Dewakan’s Darren Teoh seems to have a penchant for presentational flair, as evidenced by the whimsical, seaweed-shaped Choy Sum Nori that came before and these mushroom tartlets perched on a multi-tiered tray surrounded by the very mushrooms they were made from. Cendawan Kukur(wild mushroom) is used, and it exudes a powerful, earthy flavour that lingers on the palate several courses later. The tartlet is topped with shaved candlenut that further enhances the inherent nuttiness of the mushrooms.

Taste: 3.5/5

True to its name, the Behemoth is a hulking beast, a heaving platter straining under the weight of a mountain of delicious meat sweats. 200g each of beef brisket, pulled lamb, burnt ends, beef ribs, and a quarter of a chicken. Everything on the plate was decent barbie, save for the burnt ends, which was conspicuously missing any char at all and was more akin to "char siew". If you do happen to see the daily special of housemade sausage on the menu, order it and thank me later.

Then we come to the sides - some very well seasoned and moreish mashed brotatoes, cassava chips, thicc brown gravy, refreshing coleslaw, buns, and rather average corn bread. Thankfully, The Behemoth also comes with bottomless servings of icy cool lemonade to wash down all the meat and carbs with.

Taste: 3/5

More than 3000 reviews on Google Maps and a full house at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon attests to the popularity of Village Park. And while some locals might argue otherwise, I found their signature nasi lemak very good. Though not the most “lemak”, the rice was light, fluffy and fragrant. It is the chicken that is the real star though – fried till crisp, crackly and golden brown, yet somehow managing to retain a moist, juicy interior. Even more addictive was the mound of heavily spiced, crunchy batter scattered atop the considerably large chicken quarter, which we mixed into our rice along with the sweet and spicy sambal for an explosion of textures and flavour in the mouth.

Mamak power in full force here. After 10 straight hours of drinking, this was the perfect antidote for our alcohol-addled minds and vodka-soaked bellies. While the wait was Malaysian time, the plate of freshly fried rice laced with extra crunchy ikan bilis and topped with a most eye catching “lembu mata” was utterly delicious.

Taste: 3.5/5