Kuala Lumpur - Cilantro (photo overload warning!)

"Les produits, la cuisson, L'assaisonnement"

Products, cooking, seasoning. All the things you need for a great dish. According to Chef Takashi Kimura.

We had been in Kuala Lumpur for sometime and my mum and dad were keen to have a nice, special, intimate dinner with the immediate family (and one of my favourite grand-aunts) in the middle of all the mass family gatherings we were having which were often very out of the way and well frankly, after a while they get kind of tiring to go to. As much as I do love my family.

And I've said it before, I don't mean to be, but I am a little bit of a food snob, whilst I still love my street food (snails in Vietnam, cockles in the fried kuay teow in Malaysia), I love something dressed up and fancy as well. So when we were finally able to get a table in Cilantro on a Monday night (They were full on Saturday night and closed on Sunday) I was just buzzing with excitement.

Cilantro is one of the highest rated restaurants in Kuala Lumpur, delivering the ever trendy and ever popular fusion style dishes, with a hint of French and a hint of Japanese.

Residing in the MiCasa All Suite Hotel, Cilantro is softly lit, elegant and quietly chic. It's a luxuriously spacious, with spotless, cushy furniture and downstairs, what looks like a lounge-esque bar. It was quite quiet so it was quite pleasant to get our own room which very cosily squished the 8 of us in.

Ah decisions, decisions, where to start? There was the option of ala carte, degustation or the Grand Prix menu, which gave you the choice of two appetizers, one main, one cup of tea or coffee and one dessert. Um, hi there Grand Prix! All that for (with the current currency conversion) just under AUD $100. Steal!

We really took our time to order, the 8 of us were in a wonderful mood so we were chit chatting and joking about and being quite boisterous, which I don't think our waitress knew how to handle too well. The staff were quite quiet and a bit stiff.

In the mean time to tide us over...we had truffle butter with beautifully bundled up warm bread. Oh. My. Goodness. This was just a taste of what was to come later, but the truffle butter was just sinful and rich, the perfect consistency for spreading lavishly over warm bread which just soaked up the butter....ah. I definitely ate more of that than I should.

Some lovely, lovely wine...

After much deliberation, the majority of the room went for Grand Prix menu's and a couple of dishes were ordered more than once, my Grandmother and my father went ala carte and my brother got the degustation (since we know he's a hungry boy). It was a ridiculously fun time, with so much food and so much different food, as my Aunt from Canada is huge into food (like the rest of the family) and as each plate came out, scuttled out of her chair and hurried on over to take pictures before anything was eaten...just like me. Reminders of "don't eat it yet! Wait for the close up!" were continuously heard throughout the night.

So basically, if you haven't had a taste already, there's a lot of photos to come.

Upon sighting this, my very cute grand aunt asked "Are we supposed to eat this or smell this?". So adorable. We were treated to an amuse bouche of veal carpaccio. It was an absolutely beautiful note to start the meal on, tender and oh so flavoursome. I was definitely very sad when my one mouthful was gone...I wanted more!

....Sigh. Isn't that just beautiful? My heart fluttered away and then melted a bit when this was placed in front of me, so delicate, such a pretty colour palette...and so fragrant. One of the carpaccio's of the day, scallop and uni carpaccio. Oh my goodness, the uni and miso were so fragrant in this. It was so light and delicate, the scallops were cut so incredibly thinly that they were just about transparent and so sweet. There was a sprinkling of baby grass as garnish over the top, which added a bit of contrast to the sweet delicateness with a strong herbal taste. A tad strong in my opinion, but it probably did help to cut the richness of the uni.

Both my mother and my aunt opted for the Assorted Hors d'Oeuvres, a selection of entrees, some from the menu and some not. They've always like surprises and this certainly came as a very nice one. With an oyster, shot of sake, tuna, angel hair pasta with truffle and scallop (I think.). As I didn't really try other people's dishes I unfortunately cannot comment on flavours, but I was smitten with the presentation. So cute!

My brother's degustation starter, similar to the Assorted Hors D'Oeuvres, but with a Maine lobster with consomme jelly instead. Again, just gorgeous.

My dad got the cream of truffle soup, which came in the cutest cast iron mini pot, the weight of the lid surprising my dad! Whilst not as thick and creamy in texture as I thought it might be it was just overwhelmingly amazing in flavour, the truffles rich and succinct with a nice bite of pepper.

Hokkaido scallop with zucchini flower.

Baby Abalone with Aosanori.

Sadly I've completely forgotten what my aunt's second entree was...I loved the table side service, the waiter pouring in steaming hot stock (or something of the sort) over whatever she had. I think it was poached oysters....mmm...

Oh my. What is this? This was both my mother's and my second entree. Pan fried foie gras and unagi. Let me repeat. Foie Gras and unagi. If anyone needed to create a dish that was the epitome of French meets Japanese cuisine (or at least ingredient-wise), I think this might be it. It is absolutely as rich as it sounds. The Foie Gras is sandwiched in between two strips of unagi and lightly battered around the outside, adding a bit of contrasting texture to the softer ones of the Foie Gras and unagi. The unagi was so meaty and delicious, it's interesting that the 'fusion' of two such typically delicate and precise cuisines results in something so bold and luxurious.

Tucking into it...mmmmm....

Another dish from the degustation meal, I think this was roasted French pigeon, yes it looks small, but this was another entree...his other dishes get a bit bigger...

And onto mains we go! After enquiring if we could change the sauce on the sea bass from a dairy based sauce (since my grandma doesn't take dairy product), when we found out we could have truffle sauce instead, my dad jumped all over it as well!

Presented elegantly on a leaf, my dad was a bit disappointed with how it came out. Bit too overcooked for his liking as it came out quite dry and well...we're talking about sea bass here. It shouldn't be too hard to get right! The asparagus was beautiful though.

My two aunt's got the pigeon, unfortunately no elegant way to take a photo of it....the seasoning was nice, however I found the pigeon surprisingly gamey, it was a little bit off putting for me.

Ah, I can't remember what this was called, but my mother ordered this, an assortment of seafood in a bit of a creamy sauce/soup. Again, didn't try this one, but my mother liked it a lot and I just how plump and delightful all the seafood looks!

More goodies from my brother's degustation...the first dish was supposed to be on top of a risotto...but because we had mentioned Timothy was gluten free, the kitchen must have thought rice had gluten in it and taken it out! Hmmm!

Aaaah. And this was my dish. Oh my goodness. I always seem to end up picking the richest and must succulent of things when I go out, somewhat unintentionally. This was just listed in the menu as 'Braised ox Tongue with Madeira'. No mention of y'know, lots of truffles. And a disgustingly rich truffle mash. This was just divine, the tongue was so tender and delicious but oh my goodness that mash was insane. I don't want to know how much butter was in it as it was so soft and creamy and just overloaded with truffles. It was so disgustingly rich that I ate all of it. Yup.

Once we received all our mains, a waiter popped in very quickly after, giving us all a little bit of tender steamed baby bok choy, a nice little cleanser next to all the richness...

And right after that, a gorgeous little lime granite cleanser. Normally this is only included with the degustation, but the chef decided to give us all one! So nice and refreshing, with a nice bite of citrus. Could've had a lot more of this....

I'm sure you all know what comes next, my favourite part of the meal, always!

My mother ordered a rhubarb souffle, which we all had to wait a little bit for although once it got to the table....where was the rhubarb? The souffle itself was perfect, risen and standing but we were absolutely positive there was no rhubarb in it! Someone forgot to put something into the mix I think...

Passionfruit creme brulee with a bit of mango sorbet (if my memory serves me right), beautifully crystallized over the top and definitely very fruity, nice and tangy!

This was from my brother's degustation again, he was supposed to get a chocolate galette (which I probably would have stolen) but the chef's made the extra effort to not give him something with gluten and made him a pannacotta with espresso gelee. It wiggled every so adorably!

And finally for me, Feuillatine of Balsamico Ice Cream and Mascarpone. A slightly more abstract Feuillatine, I was a bit disappointed that the ice-cream itself wasn't really balsamic flavoured, the balsamic was just drizzled over the top. So whilst this looks and sounds very exotic, in the end it was actually just a very simple dessert, which I don't mind, but I'm pretty sure I can make myself vanilla ice-cream and strawberries at home!

We all left with our tummies insanely full and almost rolling out the door. Whilst we did enjoy ourselves very much, it might've been more because of the company than because of the service. The food on a whole, was pretty decent, entrees were excellent but there were a few disappoints in the mains and even more in the desserts! How could you forget to put rhubarb in a rhubarb souffle?!

Service was impeccable, technically. The second anyone left to go to the toilet, someone would be in within 2 seconds to fold up the napkin and the waiters and waitresses followed the book when it came to giving out cutlery and serving. Soft spoken and quite gentle but with no warmth. We were a pretty boisterous group and they just didn't know how to handle such jovial people, joke with us a bit, talk a bit, it's not too difficult is it? The poor waitress who had to deal with us taking orders look a little bit worried every now and again!

But despite my nitpicking, I would come back, maybe not for a while, but I probably would. And I would certainly suggest it for a classy night with good friends.

Cilantro

MiCasa All Suite Hotel
368-B, Jalan Tun Razak
50400 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia