Nose To Tail Lunch

One afternoon during our brief stay in KL we went to check out Entier on top of Alila Bangsar hotel. After days of street food and parties, we were looking for somewhere quieter to sit down and eat and the restaurant headed by Chef Masashi Horiuchi seems to fit the bill.

The place was just 10 minutes away by car from where we stayed, at one of the newest hotel in town opened slightly over a year ago. I love the interior of the hotel and the restaurant, with the consistent theme of minimalist design in natural color tone, with the tables by the window offering magnificent view of the city skyline with virtually no obstruction up on the 38th floor.

One could think of their lunch menu an abbreviated version of what they offer during dinner service, with choices of a 2 or 3 course set menu plus an a la carte weekend brunch menu with some dishes featuring the locally produced tropical caviar. The cooking style of the Japanese-born, European-trained chef was uncompromisingly French, but most of the ingredients were sourced locally and they were an advocate of the nose-to-tail dining concept, meaning different parts of the ingredient were utilized.

We both picked the 3 course option plus a caviar dish to share – just because we were curious how the locally produced caviar would fare. The meal got off to a good start with the salmon tartare as amuse bouche then the freshly baked cornmeal bread served with kombu butter. The tartare was served in a Pani Puri with a sweet creamy filling and pomelo jelly on top for a good combination of sweetness and acidity. The bread was served hot with the butter offering distinct umami flavor. Both were top notch.

My starter of “Tomato” was beautifully plated on a round deep dish. In it were chunks of locally grown tomatoes with salad greens and edible flowers, bread crumbs, housemade Stracciatella cheese (similar to ricotta but slightly softer), basil oil and sorbet. The tomatoes were super sweet and I like this classic combination of flavor.

Chef definitely took something from the Joel Robuchon repertoire with our added appetizer dish of “Crab, Caviar and Waffle” – hardly surprising given Chef Masashi Horiuchi spent time in Robuchon’s outpost in London before. On the wooden plank was a small piece of Belgian waffle topped with pepper sour cream and a sprinkle of sea salt, and served in a tin can was lobster meat and jelly with locally produced tropical caviar from a farm in Tanjong Malim. It’s served with very generous portion, and I must say I was pretty impressed with the quality of the caviar – a bit on the mild side but nonetheless delicious and worked well with the lobster underneath. The glass of Gruner worked well with the dish too – refreshing, a little creamy and with good acidity.

I did take some time to contemplate on my choice for main course given there were half a dozen options to choose from, and at the end I went for the oxtail risotto. Again, chef did well with the presentation, with well-cooked risotto done with oxtail broth and served with braised ox cheek, crispy strips of honeycomb tripe, a light cream foam on top and a soft and oozy egg yolk confit in the middle. The dish was well-executed with the combination of ingredients and textures working well as one.

We shared one cheese course and a chocolate souffle at the end. On the menu it mentioned French and Malaysian artisanal cheese, but there’s nothing extraordinary with the dish served with jam, nuts, dried fruits and grapes. But the souffle was delicious – done with 70% dark chocolate with a quenelle of chocolate ice cream on the side. Well risen with perfect texture and balanced flavor with the local cocoa beans.

For us, Malaysia is always more about casual local eats, but in between the Bak Kut Teh and Hokkien Mee food crawl, I definitely think Entier is worth a detour with its solid rendition of classic French cooking using local ingredients and live up to its concept of nose-to-tail, and farm-to-table dining.

When? December 28 2019
Where? Entire French Dining, Level 41 at Alila Bangsar, 58 Jalan Ang Seng, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Menu Highlights?
Drinks? 2017 Domaene Gobelsburg Kamptal Gruner Veltliner
Web: entierfrenchdining.com