Wizards at Tribeca: Restaurant & Bar at Bukit Bintang, KL

Located in the relatively new Tribeca Serviced Suites in downtown KL, Wizards is the latest brainchild from the team behind the award-winning The Red Beanbag and Yellow Brick Road cafes.

Dine in a beautiful contemporary space, with plenty of natural light flooding in through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Hanging green plants are cleverly placed around the bar area to recreate the Emerald City, home of the Wizard (of Oz).

Wizards serve specialty brunch, lunch and coffee in the daytime and come night, the menu will feature exquisite dinner dishes and craft cocktails for that perfect date night. We ventured in at noon last week to sample some of their all-day dining options.

To start, we had the Turning Japanese (RM30), a cold somen dish with shiitake mushroom broth, garnished with barbecued unagi, flying fish roe and crispy baby prawns. A touch of truffle oil makes this truly irresistible. I definitely wouldn't mind turning Japanese for this!

One of the signature dishes here is Wizards Foie Gras Brioche (RM44). A fairly substantial, luscious slab of pan seared foie gras tops a brioche base along with creamy duxelle mushrooms and mixed berries reduction.

The lunch menu offers soups, salads, pasta, grains, pizzas burgers and sandwiches. We had the Scallop Salad (RM30), which comes with plump and juicy seared sea scallops with a mixed salad tossed in walnut vinaigrette and carrot dressing. The dressing reminded me of the one I love from Japanese restaurants and there's scallops (my fav!), so this was definitely a satisfying salad in my books.

Sally Bowles (RM32) is comfort in a bowl; this rice bowl is topped with tataki salmon, with creamy avocado, pickled cucumber, seaweed and a beautiful onsen egg to bring it all together.

For desserts, the Golden Molten Lava (RM28) is a must-try. Drawing inspiration from the Chinese salted egg "lau sah pau", molten chocolate and salted egg yolk lava flows as you cut through the dessert. A sprinkling of golden salted egg yolk crumble and vanilla ice cream completes this rich, sinful dessert.

If you prefer something lighter, Feeling Peachy (RM28) is the one for you. Fresh peaches are combined with vanilla jelly and raspberry sorbet for a refreshing finish to your meal.

The Wizard's Bar has weaved some magic into their crafted cocktails, with interesting and unusual ingredients such as Panama Geisha Cascara, Wasabi syrup and Sumac belacan cream. We had the Wizard's Potion (RM38), a potent, delicious concoction of red wine, Campari, rosemary, blood orange and passionfruit.

For something non-alcoholic, the Cascara Soda (RM18) is an excellent thirst quencher, featuring the Panama Geisha Cascara. Cascara is the dried husk of the coffee fruits which has a sweet, fruity cherry taste.

The owners are passionate about coffee, so you'll definitely find a great cuppa here. Currently, they use beans from Artisan Roastery in Malaysia and 2degrees North Coffee Co from Singapore.

Flat white (RM12)

The Bold Hot Chocolate (RM16) is worth mentioning too, as they use single origin chocolate from Pahang, Malaysia, which has been fermented in oak barrels for a caramel finish. Dark and smooth, I loved it!

Reservations are highly recommended to secure a table. To book a table online, click the button below:

For the full menu, please click here.

Opening times: Mon - Sun 10am -10pm.

Location: Wizards at Tribeca, Ground Floor, Residensi Tribeca, Jalan Imbi, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Parking available at Tribeca - RM3 per hour, RM5 per entry after 6pm weekdays or RM8 per entry on weekends.)

Tel: 03-2715 5308

Website: https://www.facebook.com/wizardsattribeca/

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Tangerine, THE FACE Suites, KL: Rooftop Fine Dining Restaurant

THE FACE Suites is a luxury all-suite hotel in the Golden Triangle boasting immaculate views of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers and KL Tower from the 51st Floor Sky Deck. Perched on the rooftop is Tangerine Restaurant, a modern Western fine dining restaurant whereby guests can dine to the view of the KL city skyline while enjoying the evening sunset.

The elegant restaurant is modern and tastefully designed, with orange accents to match up to the restaurant's name. Helming the Tangerine kitchen is Chef de Cuisine, Siti Arini who is classically trained in French fine dining cuisine.

The menu, which changes every 3 months is both innovative and exquisite, with a choice of either 3, 5 or 7-courses. We had the 5- course set dinner, which is priced at RM318 nett per person.

If you enjoy the niceties of fine dining such as amuse bouche and petit fours, Tangerine is one of few restaurants in KL which offer this. Chef Siti Arini plays around with the amuse bouche, depending on ingredients which she gets her hands on - so there is always an element of surprise for diners here.

To tease our palates, the first amuse bouche of the evening was Smoked salmon with fruit caviar and cucumber sphere. This prelude to our meal gives us an insight of Chef Siti Arini's playful and inventive side.

How many ways can you serve a tomato? Well, here at Tangerine, you can enjoy seven spectacular ways a heirloom tomato can be prepared. Imported from Australia, the tomato is transformed into various forms with different flavour and texture profiles - Granita, Gazpacho, Caviar, Tomato compote, Semi dried tomato, Tomato salsa and Tomato dust.

For the second course, Hubby went for the King crab served with kiwi, kyuri, melon, yogurt dressing and cilantro oil, while I had the Cheese agnolotti with shaved truffle, fennel puree and hazelnut foam. The pasta parcels were delicious, with sweetness from the fennel puree well balanced by the earthiness of the truffles.

For our second amuse, we were served a crustacean espresso with a prawn cracker. A smooth, intensely flavoured seafood bisque.

The third course offers diners a choice of either Hokkaido scallop or Seared foie gras... as a fan of both these ingredients, it was a really tough choice but I settled for the scallop. The plump, juicy scallop was beautifully cooked and was served with a mushroom souffle, crusty kale and shimeji mushrooms.

Hubby had the foie gras, which was seared and complimented by candied kumquat, smoked duck, puy lentil and a vanilla glaze. The foie was rich and luscious and the kumquat helped cut some of the richness of the foie. Lovely!

Palate cleanser - berries and mint

For mains, diners can choose either the Kyushu Wagyu MB10, Hillside lamb rack, Wild turbot fillet or Free range beef short rib. I had the Wagyu and it was amazing! Chef Siti Arini sure knows how to cook meat. Absolutely tender and melt-in-the-mouth goodness, I savoured and enjoyed every mouthful of it. The beef is simply seasoned with pink salt flake and served with parsnip cream and seasonal vegetables. Please note that there is an additional charge of RM100 for the Wagyu.

Hubby had the Hill Side lamb rack, which is rubbed with spice and grilled to perfection. The meat was well seasoned and tender and was served atop a broad bean hummus along with a herb tuile and pickled onion petal.

For dessert, diners can choose to go for the lighter Apple caramel sorbet or the rich Marquise made with Cuvee bali 68%, followed by after dinner treats of candies and cookies. If you want to impress your date, you know where to head to on your next romantic rendezvous.

Opening times: 6.00pm to 10.30pm daily.

Location:Tangerine Restaurant, Level 51, THE FACE Suites, 1020, Jalan Sultan Ismail, 50250 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-2168 1670

Website: http://www.thefacekl.com/

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Kouzu Bangsar, KL - Great, Affordable Japanese Fusion Restaurant & Bar

Located on Jalan Telawi 3, Kouzu is a vibrant new addition to the Bangsar food scene, boasting contemporary Japanese fusion dishes at wallet-friendly prices. The kitchen is helmed by Chef Kaito, who has over 17 years of culinary experience in Japanese cuisine.

The menu offers a mix of authentic and contemporary Japanese cuisine, including japas (Japanese tapas), yakitori, pasta and noodles, donburi (rice bowls), pizza, roll sushi and dessert. For lunch, they also offer a very attractive lunch menu, with sets priced at RM19 including mains, miso soup and fruits.

Comfort food in a bowl, the Kouzu Don (RM29) was my favorite dish here, featuring sliced sirloin steak topped on rice with a beautifully runny onsen egg, crispy garlic, scallion and truffle teriyaki sauce. Chef Kaito tells us that he uses F1 beef (that's a cross between a fullblood Wagyu and another breed), which explains why the beef was so tender and delicious! The best thing we've eaten this month - I'd definitely return for this! (Pssst... beef don is also available for lunch at RM19.)

Simply amazing!

Kouzu offers over 15 types of yakitori, including chicken, smoked duck, ox tongue, rock lobster, quail egg, vegetable and mushrooms. We sampled the Wing (RM6), Sirloin (RM15), Rack of lamb (RM15), King mushroom (RM6) and Okra (RM6).

The yakitori here is cooked over bincho charcoal, which imparts a lovely smokiness to the meat/skewers. The salty flavours goes well with a cold glass of beer.

My fav is the Wing, with its lovely crispy skin.

Roll sushi is reasonably priced, starting from RM10 for the California roll. The Dragon Roll (RM15) comes with shrimp tempura and ebiko in the centre, topped with tuna, avocado and shrimp and some caviar. The different toppings gives the impression of enjoying three different types of sushi.

We also tried Chef Kaito's new creation, the Salmon Kabuki Roll (RM18) , which features torched salmon with ebiko, foie gras, cucumber, chives, avocado, wasabi mayo and caviar. Th avocado adds a lovely creaminess to it ... Lovely!

We were pleasantly surprised by the Yasai Heritage Salad (RM17) which proved to be more than just a bunch of greens. Chef Kaito has selected point pennywort, point selom and cosmos candatus, which you may know better as pegaga, Chinese celery and ulam raja - three types of Malaysian herbs for this salad, and they went really well with the mandarin orange and ponzu vinaigrette. Topping the salad also are some crispy sakura ebi, yuzu and grated coconut.

Kouzu also offers a wide range of Japanese hot and cold tapas (also known as Japas). All the hot tapas that we tried were well executed and delicious.

The Japanese maguro (blue fin tuna) is lightly seared so it's still lovely and rare inside and paired with a slice of luscious, rich seared foie gras, apple chutney and unagi sauce. So so good! An absolute steal for RM29 too!

Blue fin tuna and foie gras 

I'm not a fan of raw oysters, but I do love a good baked oyster. Using Japanese oysters, they are baked with Chef's special sauce and topped with ebiko (5 pieces for RM25). We loved them!

Creamy Baked Oysters

Gyoza Kaisen (3 pcs for RM22) with a 19th century twist - turns out these plump, juicy gyoza are filled with seafood (shrimp and scallop) as well as foie gras.. yum!

If you love duck, you should try this Smoked Kamo Steak (RM25) - the herb grilled smoked duck breast was juicy and flavorful, beautifully paired with the creamy spinach and onsen yolk.

From the Chilled Tapas, we tried the Hiyashi Tofu (RM18) - homemade chilled tofu with bonito flakes, scallion, grated ginger, nori and tofu sauce served on the side.

I would liken the taste of this Sanuki Udon Pasta (RM19) to an aglio olio - udon is sauteed with garlic and dried chilli, giving this quite a spicy kick.

They also offer a few types of Japanese pizza here with toppings such as Atlantic salmon, chicken, escargot, seafood and seasonal vegetables. We had the Jidori Yuzu Kosho (RM19), which is topped with grilled spring chicken, tomato paste, yuzu miso, mozzarella, dried tomato, pineapple, wasabi mayo and teriyaki. What's different about the pizzas here is the pizza base - which are made using Japanese rice and semolina - so the base stays crispy for longer.

Three scoops of ice cream - whiskey raisin, rum & coconut and yuzu umeshu sorbet (RM12 each), sprinkled with crumble, concluded our meal here at Kouzu nicely. I personally like the creamy whisky raisin best, with the refreshing yuzu sorbet coming in a close second.

Relaxed ambiance

Lunch Menu (available daily)

Click here for the full a la carte menu.

Opening times: Lunch 12.00-2.30pm; Dinner 5.00pm - 1.00am.

Service: Good.

Location: Kouzu, 19, Jalan Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tel: +60 11 6050 0995 / +60 3 2201 1592

Website: https://www.facebook.com/kouzubangsar/

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