First published in Options, The Edge Malaysia, 17 July 2017
Quirky
and creative food choices housed in a whimsical, colourful setting in the heart
of KL
The duplex penthouse at the top of WOLO, in the midst of
sleepless Bukit Bintang, hosts Mr Chew’s Chino-Latino Bar. Be prepared to be bedazzled by the swirl of
colour, textures and shapes. Floor to ceiling windows look out onto the
cityscape below, a larger-than-life video of evolving light and motion.
A herringbone pattern wooden floor is the unifying element.
There’s some Art Deco and lots of whimsy, from a bathtub to the painting of the
dowager with the wooden mien, a bowl of tacos and a pink flamingo. The
restaurant is downstairs, while red spiral stairs lead upstairs to the bar and
a quieter mood.
The playfulness extends to the menu, with mostly Chino, and
touches of Latino and Japanese, and a separate menu for cocktails and such.
Salads and Raw Things includes the quirky Salmon
Ceviche (Rm48), translucent sheets of salmon striking a harmonious note in
garlic-infused soy and yuzu pearls.
Why wait for New Year when you can have
Everyday Yee Sang (Rm32), half-seared mackerel in a toss of festive-coloured
grated raw vegetables, with a mild salty tang from sheets of seaweed?
In the Small Plates section, old made new again: 48-hour
rice wine marinated Drunken Chicken (Rm38) invokes the Chinese banquet
favourite, Aspic Chicken. Mr Chew’s incarnation was a delight, tight, densely-flavoured rolls with wine
jelly and wolfberries.
Grilled whole aubergine (Rm28) saw plain aubergine
transformed with fermented beans, black sesame sauce and a sprinkling of
furikake, wriggling like live things – soft as baby food but a whole lot more
appetizing.
In Rolls, Buns and Dumplings: the very tasty,
satisfyingly crisp shell encompassing the Catfish Char Siew (Rm20) and tangy
som tam salad, small but packed with texture and tangy flavor, and almost
eclipsing the otherwise very good, full-bodied, texturally intriguing Soft
shell crab pancake roll (Rm38) with avocado, nori and wasabi.
Onto Bigger Things, represented by Home Blended Soy Sauce
marinated grilled Ribeye Steak (Rm160), served in cut slices with garlic chive
butter. This was spectacularly
good, the medium-done cut of beef gorgeously tender and pink, the soy sauce
marinade serving to enhance, rather than disguise the meaty flavour.
For Sides, Mr Chew’s Special Fried Rice (Rm25) was special,
a blend of different rice types and plenty of
texture, but it failed to pop.
For Desserts, Dessert Tacos (Rm35) were a visual delight, flavoured
ice cream with nuts and matching jam in taco shells for mouthfuls of sweet
indulgence. Banana Burrito (Rm35) paired ice cream, goreng pisang, brown sugar and coconut in a successful marriage,
but the messy-looking Peanut Butter Parfait (Rm35) was the winner, a
salty-sweet, creamily rich, nutty complex blend of ice cream, chocolate,
mysterious feuilletine, nuts, peanut butter and other ingredients.
The restaurant borrows freely from various cuisine types,
successfully mixing and shaking flavours and textures for strong contrasts and
tastes. The Chinese have a saying: “Nice to look at, not nice to eat”, but
that’s not true here: visually, the place is striking, a match for the playful,
free-form dishes, that match the mood and hit the mark.
Mr
Chew’s Chino Latino Bar and Restaurant,
Penthouse,
The Wolo,
Corner
of Jalan Bukit Bintang and Jalan Sultan Ismail,
55100
Kuala Lumpur.
Tel:
03-40650168
Business
Hours: Daily, 6pm-10.30pm, Bar from 5pm to late.
Plans
to open for lunch soon.
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