KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 – As the sun goes down, the good people of KL come out to play, to eat and to laugh, with options that stretch far beyond restaurants and bars.
It’s an exciting time for many cafes and bakeries in the city, swapping cutesy brunch items for ambitious dinner dishes, some with cooking so good it almost overshadows the bread and pastries.
The typical menu at these places features lots of shared plates and often showcases influences from home and abroad.
The Bread Bar in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) is one such place.
By day, an extensive selection of bread – where sourdough reigns supreme – and pastries have become their calling card.
However, their brunch menu goes beyond the expected with dishes that feature millet risotto and zaalouk (a cooked Moroccan salad of eggplants and tomatoes with plenty of spices), hinting at the kitchen’s capacity for more ambitious cooking, while still offering the familiar tartines and sandwiches.
At night, expect to find bisque, labneh and ajvar (Serbian roasted red pepper sauce) incorporated into dishes, a testament to the many global influences on the pork-free menu.
The dining room is smart, sleek and well-lit without being glaring, with one side of the room dominated by navy-grey walls and ceiling.
It’s not hard to imagine it as a bakery and cafe during the day, with the distinctive focal point of "The Bread Bar” emblazoned in black, backlit by a stark white light on the bottom-front-side of the countertop display.
We sat at a table in the centre of the room as a server (who was phenomenal all night) took our order, making recommendations with poise and self-assuredness that can only come from knowing the menu like the back of one’s hand.
Dishes soon arrived, with a trio of starters materialising first. Assorted sourdough slices and croissant, toasted and served with kombu butter (RM24) showcased proper crusty and chewy sourdough, helped by the savoury kombu butter, though much better enjoyed by dipping and soaking in the other two starters.
Prawn Bisque (RM30) and Clams with Zaalouk Sauce (RM40) both offered seafood-heavy action, with the former intense, thick and heady with the flavour of tiger prawns and the latter fresher, lighter and spicier (there is a non-spicy option too), which on occasion, flirted with singeing our throats.
The Black Angus Ribeye Steak (RM230, market price depending on weight) was a perfect medium-rare, sliced on a bias with a healthy helping of chipotle butter slathered on top.
Watercress salad, oven-baked broccoli and roasted garlic cloves rounded out the meat, which was bold and flavourful in its own way, but not quite extraordinary.
A side dish of Broccoli with Chilli Oil (RM25) was, curiously, prepared the same way as the broccoli with the steak was, save for a generous drizzle of spicy and fragrant chilli oil.
The best part of this dish, which proved to be one of the highlights of the night, was the house-strained labneh, a strained yoghurt that’s popular throughout Levantine, Mediterranean and Eastern European cuisine.
Creamy, thick and tangy, it makes for a dream backdrop on which the earthy, slightly crispy and now spicy broccoli shines.
Another dish that was a high point of the meal was the Jerk Chicken (RM50), packed with bold smoky and spiced flavours.
The supple and almost unnaturally moist flesh points to the use of sous vide, which is complemented by the interplay of sweet, spicy and herbaceous notes from the marinade.
Corn fritters bring more sweetness to the table, balanced out by the bright and zesty jalapeno sauce that’s a brilliant green.
We went for one of the two desserts offered, the Lemon Cake Slice (RM28), a name that vastly understates the technical expertise going into it.
Instead of the expected slab of simple lemon cake, we watched, peering over the counter with bated breath as a cook brûléed the top of the soft, spongy cake, smacked a spoonful of just-whipped meringue on the side and torched it too, before finishing off with chunks of macerated strawberries and a lemon curd crémeux.
It was so beautiful it was almost a shame to mess it up by eating it - which we did, with plenty of glee.
The Bread Bar
57, Lorong Rahim Kajai 13, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur
Open daily, 8am-5pm, 6-10.30pm. Closed on Wednesdays.
Tel: 011-1200 5626
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thebreadbarmy/
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