New Spring Menu @ Mandarin Grill, Mandarin Oriental KL

Dining at Mandarin Grill in Mandarin Oriental KL is always pleasurable. The elegant interior combined with stellar service and excellent food makes it a gastronomically delightful evening everytime we dine here.

Spring has sprung at the Mandarin Oriental KL...

Chef de Cuisine, Reto Weber explains that the revamped menu at Mandarin Grill is inspired by spring time in Europe, showcasing some of the best produce spring can offer such as morels and white asparagus. There will be seasonal menu changes quarterly, using locally grown ingredients for guests to explore some of his other signature dishes. 

The romantic, elegant Mandarin Grill

Love the table setting, and very nice touch using the fresh herbs/produce as table decor ;)

The rosemary adds a splash of colour

Mandarin Grill is currently running its white asparagus promotion

For the dinner, I chose to have the Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling 2010 from Columbia Valley, USA. Chateau Ste. Michelle is perhaps best known as the leading North American Riesling producer. This sweet white wine was nice and fruity, and paired well with all the dishes served this evening.

We started off the meal with smoked rainbow trout with a white asparagus salad, poached quail egg and French village croutons. The rainbow trout comes from Provence in France and is smoked in-house. The salad is finished off with a white balsamic truffle oil dressing, making this a beautifully refreshing and appetizing salad.

Smoked rainbow trout

The foie gras ballotine (RM80) was a favorite of mine and many of my fellow diners. The foie gras has been marinated in Cognac and Port wine, stuffed with slow cooked Barbary duck leg confit and served with spring morels, Granny Smith apple puree and a warm brioche. The brioche and foie gras ballotine were executed immaculately, resulting in a world-class starter. The rich, luscious foie gras is so smooth, it just glides on your tongue.

The best dish of the evening

Whenever possible, Chef Reto sources for sustainable ingredients. This is the case with the John Dory fillet (RM75) from New Zealand. The moist, flaky fish has been lightly pan seared with brown butter and thyme and served with turnip puree, chicken chorizo, butter lettuce and locally sourced Venus clams.

The wood mushroom cream soup (RM34) was very good - made with cep and chanterelle and finished off with morel dust and thyme essence, it was lovely, rich and flavorful. Though unusual, I felt that the cured duck breast was a nice textural addition to the mushroom soup.

For our first mains, we first had the butter poached Boston lobster (RM285). The lobster was taut and meaty, served with tarragon papardelle, coral oil, Parmesan crisp and an enriched mascarpone lobster bisque. We asked Chef Reto what coral oil was and he explains that it is dried powdered lobster eggs in oil. Lobster, lobster and more lobster - a lobster lovers dream dish ;)

The Hay smoked Wagyu beef rib eye (RM230) is first brought to the table in a casserole with its lid on, and the lid was removed to reveal the beef and the still-smoking hay before being taken back to the kitchen to be plated up. The Australian Wagyu beef, with a marbling score of 6-7 is first grilled in the Josper oven, to give it a lovely flavour and retaining its tender juiciness, before being smoked with hay from the Swiss Alps. It is served with carrot puree and champagne vinegar, confit new potato, and double baked Gruyere cheese souffle with black truffle jus. Love the beautiful arrangement of the seasonal vegetables on the beef. For this dish, we got to choose our knives from a selection of Laguiole knives (we all wanted the pink fluorescent one, but only one lucky lady got it!)

We were served two types of desserts - the peach combination and the crunchy maple pecan bar. The peach combination (RM34) features a trio of peachy desserts, namely the white chocolate mousse topped with sesame tuile and peach sherbet, peach jelly with fruits (raspberry and blackberry) with a dehydrated orange slice and peach velvet cake with peach sauce. My favorite is the peach velvet cake which was very light.

The crunchy maple pecan bar (RM34) is truly a sweet end to the meal. The creamy semifreddo was studded with crunchy pecans and topped with chocolate mille feuille and raspberry sherbet. In the little jar is strawberry consomme which you can pour over your dessert and enjoy together.

MO Grill Petit Fours

The starters and soups selection are priced from RM32++ to RM180++ while main courses are between RM68++ to RM285++ per dish. Desserts are priced from RM18++ to RM56++ per order.


Opening times: 12pm to 2.30pm; 7pm to 10.30pm.

Pork-free.

Location: Mandarin Grill, Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 50088 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2380 8888

GPS Coordinates: 3.155514, 101.711555


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