Galah Gala's halal sang har mee is packed with flavour from start to finish. — GALAH GALA
A good meal is far more than the sum of its parts. It can be a meal that is future-forward, rooted in the present or takes a page out of the past, but ultimately the true measure of the best meals are the ones we continue to remember long after the meal itself.
Here is a compilation of dishes that made a splash in my year of unabashed eating.
Coast by Kayra was launched by the indefatigable Meriam Alfonso, who also helms the Michelin Selected Bangsar stalwart Kayra, which champions modern Keralan-influenced fare.
Grapes are the star of the show in this south Indian scene-stealer of a dish. — COAST BY KAYRA
At Coast by Kayra, the focus is on sea-faring fare with Indian nuances and everything from the fish curry to the squid kanthari is phenomenal. And yet amidst the aquatic showmanship on display, there is a quiet show-stopper that has become a leading star in its own right.
The lovely dish of grape pachadi, which features charred, blistered grapes blanketed by copious amounts of curry leaves and mustards seeds is the gustatory equivalent of a scientific discovery. Because who knew grapes could steal the savoury thunder in such a memorable way? This was a revelation when I first ate it – and continues to be a favourite eat.
Read the full review here.
They say still waters run deep and this couldn’t be truer of the shoyu ramen (light and clear soy sauce broth) at Hartamas’ new Minamo Ramen House.
The eatery is the brainchild of seasoned Japanese F&B entrepreneur Kota Furuya and Tokyo ramen master Chihiro Miyazaki who has eaten over 6,000 kinds of ramen in his lifetime!
The shoyu ramen might look simple, but one sip and you will be blown away by the depth of flavours within. — MINAMO RAMEN HOUSE
The eatery only has three core chicken broth ramen options but the most memorable is also the simplest. The broth is fashioned out of soft water, chicken bones, a whole chicken, young ginger, apples, bonito, fermented fish sauce, sun-dried salt and a whole lot of other ingredients.
As a result, it retains a great depth of flavours that highlight both avian nuances and the complexity of a craftsman’s broth. It’s a bowl that provides maximum pleasure and maximum flavour in one fell swoop.
Read the full review here.
First time restaurant owner Low Wei Hong stumbled upon an original idea that built on his wife’s culinary heritage in China and fused this with the Malaysian stalwart of bak kut teh.
It’s hard to create something entirely new in a landscape so filled with classics and yet Low has done exactly this with his signature yang kut teh, which is essentially a lamb bone soup that utilizes young New Zealand lamb bone, 11 herbs and spices and a cooking process that takes close to 10 hours.
Ba Fang's lamb pot is a fabulous new invention that borrows from a recipe from China while melding local bak kut teh connotations into the meal. — FILEPIC
The lamb pot or yang kut the is phenomenal – the soup itself is milky, creamy, indulgent and utterly, fabulously hedonistic.
Read the full review here.
Banana leaf aficionados in Petaling Jaya’s Sea Park area will know the wonders that lie within Achi Ayahdorai. Started by local filmmaker Kavi Nanthan, the restaurant has forged a stellar reputation for its banana leaf rice since it opened a few months ago.
The crab curry at Achi Ayahdorai is redolent of classic home-cooked fare. — FILEPIC
But if you have the appetite, indulge in the eatery’s crab curry – a fantastically good odyssey through the flavours of the Indian sub-continent, anchored by crabs that are sturdy but reveal fluffy, sweet crab meat inside. The gravy that coats the crabs is rich, thick and perfectly epitomizes the noun ‘comfort food’.
Read the full review here.
Sequestered on a heritage shop lot in Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown, the charming Pickle Dining is helmed by intrepid chef Danial Thorlby whose cooking is buoyed by pickling and fermentation.
Of what’s on the tasting menu, the grilled sirloin with black garlic aioli has star power packed into every fibre and molecule of its configuration.
The beef has been dry-aged for three weeks and has a lovely char and crust on the surface that yields to supple, succulent meat.
Pickle Dining's grilled sirloin with black garlic aioli is fabulously good. — ABIRAMI DURAI/The Star
This is accentuated by the black garlic aioli which is made up of garlic that has been left to ferment and turns black naturally.
The aioli imbues the beef with a lovely tang and funk that isn’t overwhelming but just enough to make it stand out from the rest of the bovine crowd flooding the market.
It’s a meal that highlights the purity of the beef in its classical format while adding a very unusual – and yet highly successful – component – that takes it to the next level.
If you’ve ever had the joy of tucking into a plate of sang har mee, you’ll quickly understand that the soul of its breath-taking beauty is the thick sauce that courses through the dish as well as the large roe-filled freshwater prawns that typically jack up the price of the meal.
But have you ever had a halal version of this famed Chinese dish? Well, it was exactly this gap in the market that enterprising F&B entrepreneur Tan Jay Wvin was hoping to fill when he introduced the signature sang har mee at his halal-certified eatery Galah Gala in Taman Tun Dr Ismail this year.
Tan is the scion of the family behind Petaling Jaya’s famed decades-old Green View Restaurant, which built a reputation off the back of its sang har mee.
Sang har mee, halal edition. — GALAH GALA
Galah Gala’s halal version of sang har mee has been crafted with care and omits the pork bone broth that typically makes up the rich sauce that coats the crisp noodles, replacing it with a halal option. The freshwater prawns are huge, fleshy and filled with ooey-gooey roe and the noodles are suitably crisp and then melt into tender yet firm carbs once coated in the gravy.
This is an excellent, memorable rendition of sang har mee – and perhaps more importantly, it has turned a singularly Malaysian Chinese dish into a quintessential Malaysian experience.
Read the full review here.
Asador V is the sister restaurant of Michelin Selected steakhouse Vantador and is housed in an opulent, beautiful space in central Kuala Lumpur.
The restaurant specializes in dry-aged steak and you would do well to try beefy delights like the dry-aged bone-in wagyu ribeye steak – which is a true delight.
The burnt cheesecake has a secret ingredient: dry-aged beef fat! — FILEPIC
But perhaps the surprise sleeper hit of the restaurant is the dry-aged burnt cheesecake, which utilizes dry-aged beef fat to make the dry-aged butter which goes into the cake. As a consequence, the cheesecake is fabulously luscious with a smoky overcoat and an almost animalistic allure. It is insanely, addictively good and quite frankly, simply unforgettable.
Read the full review here.
It sounds so weird – mutton curry on a pizza and yet, this strange-sounding pizza is proof that you should never judge a book by its cover – or a dish by its name.
At Lloyd’s Pizza, the incredibly friendly owner Lloyd Anthony has crafted a range of pizzas that meld his Indian and Eurasian ancestry with the art of pizza-making.
Lloyd's Pizza's mutton curry pizza blends East and West into one mightily yummy pizza. — FILEPIC
The stand-out here is his fabulous mutton curry pizza, which combines chunks of mutton coated in a fiery, rich gravy alongside tomatoes and cheese in a combination that shows that when you let your culinary imagination soar, it can take you places you never thought were possible. Because this is a pizza that has remained unforgettable since I first ate it.
Read the full review here.
Yes, I made a face too when the dish was placed in front of me and I was told that it was an oyster ice-cream. I mean, what on earth is an oyster ice-cream? And who in their right mind would want to eat it?
Well, I was forced to eat my words because this proved to be one of the most revelatory meals I had in 2024. The Hiroshima oysters here are silken and velvety with sweet underpinnings. This is juxtaposed against latok (sea grapes) from Sabah that have a briny overcoat as well as a sambal that has a well-deserved place in this set-up.
Oyster ice-cream with sea grapes - who could have imagined such a flavour bomb out of such a weird combination? — AKAR DINING
Akar Dining’s chef-owner Aidan Low reopened the restaurant this year with a new direction, moving away from purely modern Malaysian to a more nuanced Japanese-Malaysian oeuvre. The oyster ice-cream represents both the restaurant’s new direction and Low’s renewed sense of culinary purpose.
It is this new culinary compass and vigour that perhaps sparked the seed of ambition for a dish like this, that has such a high potential for dissension and yet ultimately ends up, winning you over.
Read the full review here.
Terra Dining has become a force to be reckoned with since it launched in late 2023. Helmed by talented chef Chong Yu Cheng or YC, as he is better known, the restaurant has a pulse on modern Malaysian cuisine, with a firm emphasis on drawing out the best flavours in every composition.
As a result, you get star-studded meals like the unforgettable mystery fish with masak lemak beurre blanc. It’s a meal that pays homage to simple ingredients like locally-sourced tilapia fish while taking notes from traditional recipes like masak lemak, albeit done with modern connotations.
Terra Dining's fish in masak lemak beurre blanc is an ode to simple ingredients and classic Malaysian cooking techniques with modern connotations. — ABIRAMI DURAI/The Star
It’s a smart, elevated meal that still manages to be soul-warming and comforting – a rare feat in the world of fine-dining.
Read the full review here.
