Banana leaf rice finally comes to Suria KLCC: Say you'll be there at Spice Guys!
Parboiled ponni rice promises a smoother and healthier BLR option here, with a variety of chicken, fish and crab curries, a rotation of vegetables and acar, condiments of mango chutney, lime pickle and sour chilli, plus kesari to sweeten the deal!
There's biryani too, a beauty of aromatic basmati rice with mutton dalca, onion raita and boiled egg, available with chicken, mutton masala, prawn masala, sotong masala, fish or egg.
Also check out the crab rasam for a tangy kick, crab peratal for a spicy punch, with crabs brought in fresh daily.
Lamb shank is a signature too, cooked in low heat, making the meat more tender. Deep-fried sotong and chicken varuval = irresistible classics!
Spice Guys BLR
Lot 254, Level 2, Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur. Daily, 10am-10pm
Made by hand, with heart: Mingle Cafe takes pride in its pastas, crafted with semola di grano duro, or premium durum wheat semolina, from Italian producers like Granoro and Caputo.
This choice of flour ensures elasticity balanced with bite, enhanced with free-range eggs, soaking up the richness of house-blended sauces with fresh ingredients.
The pasta dough is patiently kneaded and flattened with a wooden rolling pin, an old-world touch that tempers the process with human warmth and wisdom.
Next, the pasta sheets meet a manually cranked pasta machine, sleekly fed through rollers to surface as supple ribbons, sliced into fettuccine, ready to be cooked al dente.
Mingle Cafe
55, Jalan Sultan, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur.
In an age of instant gratification, José Gordón champions slowness. On Spain’s windswept northwestern plains, he raises cattle the old way, letting them graze freely for over a decade so that the rhythm of nature permeates every fibre.
For steak devotees, tasting Gordón’s work typically requires a pilgrimage to El Capricho, his famed restaurant-bodega in Jiménez de Jamuz, three hours from Madrid.
But now, his prized Rubia Gallega, Galicia’s indigenous blonde cattle, has crossed continents to Desa Sri Hartamas’ Vantador, the first Malaysian restaurant to collaborate with Gordón.
This beef bears the weight of time, dry-aged in El Capricho’s caves for 50 days, then up to two weeks in Kuala Lumpur.
At Vantador, chef Emir and his team take the reins, finishing the steaks for half an hour on an asado-inspired grill fired with acacia, rubber wood, and binchotan.
The reward is fragrantly marbled, faintly nutty beef, nurtured for years, not months, resulting in crimson-centred steaks for patrons who prize craft and provenance.
Each firm slice releases a primal perfume with layered flavours underlying creamy fat, including hints of a mineral essence with subtle blue cheese and roasted hazelnut, in a testament to a life lived under open skies.
Vantador makes it a full journey. Beyond Gordón’s beef, expect modern sophistication: Tasting flights of beef raw, roasted and cured; surf-and-turf skewers of Australian wagyu and Argentinian prawn; dry-aged turken chicken and coral trout; and a sensory finale in the Lemon Mirage dessert.
Vantador
38, Jalan 25/70a, Desa Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur.
Subang’s new Soft Cream specialises in Japan’s milky-smooth style of soft serves.
Try a softcream twist, twinning two flavours like pumpkin and tofu in one waffle cone, or a sundae of vanilla softcream with kuromitsu, kinako and tapioca pearls.
Soft Cream’s soothingly subtle flavours span blueberry to banana to black sesame, matcha to mango. Softcream shakes are also available.
After a year of pop-ups, Ignition is firing up its first restaurant at The Exchange TRX, serving its signature pizzas and smash burgers with Langkawi-sourced cheese, plus scooped-to-order tiramisu from a refrigerated drawer inspired by Manchester's Onda Pasta Bar.
Start with the Stracciatella Pizza, plopped with plenty of creamy curds for milky burrata-style richness on nearly every slice, and the House Cheeseburger, stacked with thick and tasty beef patties, tender and textured, perfectly proportioned in pillowy-soft buns.
Save space for the scene-stealing tiramisu, the city's most irresistibly indulgent, smooth and luscious in a lavishly loaded portion.
Service is warm and welcoming, ensuring an enjoyable experience from start to finish.
Keep It Simple but make it shine at Taman Bukit Indah’s new @kiscoffeeco neighbourhood roastery and coffee bar.
Pace the gravelled path through KIS Coffee’s courtyard, where fig trees fan out over benches for leafy, laidback lounging and seaside-style summer sun-soaking.
The friendly KIS squad specialises in approachable coffee, casual and community-centric, with lattes landing at just RM9.
KIS’ smooch-worthy Keluarga coalition of beans from Brazil, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea makes for easy-going flat whites with chocolate-berry clarity.
Batch brews of a dual-Ethiopian blend offer an everyday-drinking escape of calming iced blacks.
It's only been seven years since Mingle Cafe first opened, but stepping inside feels like entering a living, breathing scrapbook of Chinatown's history.
Wearing its heritage in timeworn textures, Mingle Cafe evokes a rustic-retro reverie where chipped walls, creaky chairs and charming curios weave a collective memory, welcoming wanderers for wistful conversations and contemplations.
As part of a backpackers’ hostel in an early-1900s building, Mingle Cafe is a crossroads of cultures and cuisines, casual but cosmopolitan. When we walked in at 2pm on a Wednesday, the space remained bustling even after lunchtime, laidback yet lively.
Mingle's latest menu of handmade pastas is more soulful than ever, served in styles spanning the classic Italian pomodoro to the crowd-pleasing Malaysian rendang. Succulent steaks, sandwiches and smoothie bowls share the spotlight with the signature nasi ulam ayam percik.
Whether you're a traveller traversing the world or a local craving comfort close to home, Mingle Cafe is where shelves of fermented fruits, vegetables and kombucha remind us that the most meaningful places take time to unfold, slowly and naturally.
Made by hand, with heart: Mingle Cafe takes pride in its pastas, crafted with semola di grano duro, or premium durum wheat semolina, from Italian producers like Granoro and Caputo.
This choice of flour ensures elasticity balanced with bite, enhanced with free-range eggs, soaking up the richness of house-blended sauces with fresh ingredients.
The pasta dough is patiently kneaded and flattened with a wooden rolling pin, an old-world touch that tempers the process with human warmth and wisdom.
Next, the pasta sheets meet a manually cranked pasta machine, sleekly fed through rollers to surface as supple ribbons, sliced into fettuccine, ready to be cooked al dente.
The Classic Bolognese (RM32) leans into homeliness, robust with minced chicken or beef, blanketed in tangy-sweet tomato-based sauce, finished with Parmesan for savoury satisfaction.
We won't go wrong with the Pesto (RM26), vibrantly verdant with herbs that swirl into a garden-fresh sauce that clings to every strand. Button mushrooms bring earthy notes to the basil brightness, its breezy sharpness mellowed by hints of cheese.
The Pomodoro (RM30) feels light but layered with its luscious tomato-based sauce, a meat-free marvel with eggplant, carrot and olive oil for a low-guilt, high-nourishment indulgence.
The Rendang Pasta (RM26; with chicken or beef) fuses Malaysian and Italian inspirations with fun flair, bold and resonant with heady spices, supplying hearty sustenance to fuel us up flavourfully.
Also evoking East-West influences, Mingle's Minute Steak (RM37) is unmistakably unique, a skillet of tenderloin steak slices paired with percik sauce.
The beef is subtly seasoned to let the firm-bodied meat shine, aromatically cut through with Kelantan-style sauce, rounded out with crisp fries, fried egg and salad for a powerhouse meal.
Bread buffs, bookmark Mingle's Pesto Chicken Sandwich (RM28), lined with tender chicken breast and the kitchen's own-perfected pesto with sliced cheese, onions and tomatoes, stacked in soft, pillowy bread. Fuss-free and feel-good, partnered with plenty of chunky fries.
For first-timers to Mingle Cafe, feast on the signature special of Nasi Ulam Ayam Percik (RM30), a nod to tradition with tasty, textured touches. Strips of grilled chicken are creamily coated in spicy-sweet percik sauce, harmonious with herb-flecked basmati rice, invigorating ulam, salted anchovies, punchy sambal belacan, crackly keropok, zesty calamansi, plus a breakfast-of-champions omelette instead of the conventional hard-boiled or salted egg.
Health-conscious patrons can get their fix of nutritious sweetness in smoothie bowls: The Passionate Mango Smoothie Bowl (RM28) brings together a ripe harvest of mango, passionfruit and seasonal fruits in velvety yoghurt smoothie with chia seeds, house-made granola and dried cranberries, while the Cocoa Peanut Butter Smoothie Bowl (RM28) is milkshake-thick with protein, fibre and antioxidants, bursting with cocoa powder, peanut butter, bananas, seasonal fruits, granola and roasted almonds.
Mingle Cafe
55, Jalan Sultan, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur.
