Cilantro, by common consensus, is Malaysia’s best
restaurant. Not Malaysia’s best French
restaurant, not even Malaysia’s best European restaurant. The best, period. So does Cilantro, the long-time home of chef
Takashi Kimura, justify a spot on any food lover’s itinerary, or is it merely
the haute-st blip on the radar of a country renowned for its casual local fare?
Located a stone’s throw away from KLCC in the Micasa
All-Suites Hotel, Cilantro has an amazingly devoted legion of local
admirers. When Micasa closed for
renovations back in 2007, KL diners seemed to suffer from withdrawal symptoms
as they were denied their regular intake of black truffle butter. Never mind the fact that Kimura continued to
serve his unique Franco-Japanese cuisine at Sage in the interim (good and innovative,
but not great by any means), the truffle butter seemed to be the thing on most
people’s minds. Apparently, some
regulars asked Kimura to serve it at Sage, a request which he duly refused.
On first impressions, Cilantro is not the liveliest
restaurant around, with its dim-lighting and semi-circular cone-of-silence-like
banquette seating arrangement. It’s the
kind of place where conversations take place in the most sotto of possible voces,
where conviviality seems to take a supporting role to the cuisine. At the next table sat a tuxedo-ed (!) gentleman
and his similarly overdressed girlfriend - yep, it’s that kind of place. (I was hoping that the pretext for their garb
was a marriage proposal, but they were pecking away bird-like at the
seven-course menu degustation, so I left
well before the evening reached its denouement).
The wine list contains entries as diverse as New World
quaffers to 1982 Haut-Brion, and is very well-priced for a restaurant of this
level. A bottle of Bollinger Special Cuvée goes
for around RM400++ (around US$135), Ayala NV for less. There are also a few decent wines below the RM200
mark. Given the alcohol taxes in
Malaysia, the sommelier has clearly shown a lot of restraint in marking up his
wines, and he deserves a lot of credit for that. Apparently, guests are welcome to bring their own wine, subject to a RM25 service fee per head.
Diners here have three choices. Pure a
la carte (the most expensive pound-for-pound, and I suspect priced to deter
the one-course diners), three- and four- course prix fixe at RM230++ and RM260++ respectively (full choice of
dishes from the carte), and a degustation for RM320++. My companion and I opt for the three-course
option.
Amuse Bouche: “Sumu-Gai” with shiso cress
To start, a complimentary amuse bouche of a Japanese clam.
I have no idea what sumu-gai
is; but that’s what the staff said. It has
that rubbery crunch so typical of a fresh clam, mildly sweet, and the cress
adds a sharp snap. A good start.
Bread and Butter
Lo and behold, the fabled black truffle butter. Creamed and mixed with shredded parmigiano
reggiano and diced black truffle, it creates a fatty, earthy umami overload on the palate, for which slices
of wholemeal loaf and baguette are great conveyance systems. Easily spreadable, its texture actually reminds
me of (Kimura-sensei, forgive me for this) “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”. Well, it is.
And it is good, but I am left wondering what the fuss was all about.
First Entrée: Wagyu Tartare, Oeuf Mollet, Toasts
Perfectly presented with a yolk astride a shaped patty of
hand-chopped beef. The beef is vibrant
and tasty, and the yolk breaks into a comforting sauce for the dish. Wafer-thin toasts add texture and
substance. Very classic and very good.
Second Entrée: Terrine of Chapon with Lobster
A very rich slice of terrine, with foie gras, smoky ham nubbins and the chapon... Subtle in taste
but rich in texture, the foie adds
creaminess and the very fresh lobster contributes a sweet crunch. If I had to complain, the elements seem very
distinct, with nothing to bind them together.
First Main Course: Confit of Loire Poussin with truffle
My French dining companion remarked between mouthfuls that
he has a dilemma now whenever he orders baby animals for food, being a new
father himself. “And when you have a
child”, he adds, chewing intently, “you will understand what I mean”. But that’s why I love the French, they never
let their queasiness stand in the way of a good meal. The truffle influence here, however, was virtually non-existent.
Second Main Course:
French Pigeon with Foie Gras, Sauce Perigueux
Breast, leg, goose foie
gras with a heavy sear, perhaps a little too heavy. I ask the staff what the black micro-dice
scattered across the dish are, and they tell me “Black mushroom”. I try some and remark that it very much tastes
and feels like truffles. “No, it’s black
mushroom”. Alright then. The pigeon is tender and cooked on the rarer
side of medium, and the sauce is so technically sound and delicious that it
shuts me up for a moment. Stuff the
truffle butter, this is the kind of sauce that cries out for bread to mop it
up.
Side dish
Vegetables. From what
I can recall, asparagus, slow-cooked peppers, onions, beetroot, artichoke, and
a little nugget of egg yolk. Much
fresher than I have a right to expect in Singapore, and a great foil for my
almost OTT pigeon dish.
Cheese
At this point, I’m in two minds. Food’s been great, but where was the
inventiveness? This is a cuisine based
on amazing produce cooked with “simple” techniques, never more than a few
components in a dish so the quality of the ingredients shines. I’m starting to fear that I have missed the point, my
internal debate interrupted by the arrival of the cheese basket. Five cheeses are offered, I’m told from the
Co-operative Fermier Artisanale or something like that, of which I recall a
brillat-savarin, petit Basque and a fourme d’Ambert. Mon ami français
pronounces that the cheese is good, which is as high a compliment as you will
get from him.
Dessert: Adzuki Red
Bean Soufflé with Green Tea Ice-Cream
I’m a soufflé fiend, and I like the dish as much
for the taste as for the test it poses for the kitchen. Kimura (or perhaps his pastry chef?) clearly
relishes the challenge, offering the choice of five flavours of soufflé to finish your meal. I’m torn between the two exotics, red bean
and pisang emas, and opt for the
former, just to finish my meal with a bit of a Japanese flavour. Once my mind is made up, green tea ice-cream
seems the natural accompaniment. The
soufflé
is light and airy, and the light bitterness of the green tea counters the
sweetness beautifully. Excellent.
Petits Fours, Coffee or Tea
Our busboy brings out a little dish of a canelé
and pistachio slice with raspberry glaze.
One of each, not one each. “Do we
only get one of each to be shared between us?” I ask. He responds, “Ummm, let me go and check”. He returns a minute later and says “Sir, I’ve
checked with the chef. The one on the
left is a canelé and the one of the right is a...” I interrupt, not too rudely, I hope. “No, I know what they are. I just wanted to know whether we only get one
piece each”. He seems to panic and walks
off with an apology, before bringing back another dish of the same. At the end of the day, the canelé
is a little too small to have a properly custardy interior against the crackly
outside, but the pistachio slice is delicious.
Over a decent coffee, my internal debate continues. The kitchen has some serious chops, but the
dishes seem so classic, so purist, that I had to go out of my way to get some
Japanese influence in at dessert time. Looking
back at it, the techniques utilised and flavour profile suggest that the dishes
are designed to pair with wine, so maybe I did them an injustice when I decided
to go dry.
The service is also a little lacklustre, and this is a
problem which we confront time and again across KL. The floor staff did not seem very comfortable
when quizzed about the food, and there was a lot of mumbling going on, as if they
were afraid of getting the answer wrong.
And I have never seen a restaurant (especially at this level) which
presents guests with a different petit
four each. Maybe I’m spoilt, maybe
it was the busboy who fouled up, but to me, it betrays a distinct lack of
generosity.
Is this KL’s best restaurant today? I can’t judge based on one visit, and I haven’t
returned to Lafite since John Nash took over earlier this year. Based on my 2010
experiences, the food at Lafite was more inventive and packed full of flavour, the
service far more assured. So the question I posed at the start still remains. Cilantro certainly is good, but based on the quality of the casual options available elsewhere
in KL and Malaysia, I must admit I'm not entirely convinced.
CILANTRO RESTAURANT & WINE BAR
Micasa All Suite Hotel
368-B Jalan Tun Razak
50400 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
Tel: + 603 2179 8082
Email: cilantrosvr@micasahotel.com
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