It’s been over a year since I last dined at Hotel Istana KL but all my dining experiences there have been memorable ones for the right reasons. A few days ago, I was fortunate enough to be invited to Urban which is the hotel’s contemporary western dining restaurant that offers a spacious, relaxing, and informal ambience. Menu features interesting and almost controversial mix of Asian and International cuisines, sometimes served up together on a plate, but not in fusion style.
Urban has a warm and welcoming ambiance thanks to the mainly orange tones therein. I like the colour as it’s like being outdoors without actually having to be outdoors. I wouldn’t want to dine al fresco here unless I absolutely have no choice of indoor seating. We were here to sample the Executive Set Lunch.
The breads are so good here, they are firm and not doughy with superb quality butter.
Okay, so we have 3 choices each for Appetiser, Main and Dessert (menu subject to change).
Delicious, crunchy Caesar Salad with generous portions of cheese but could have done with a few more croutons. I liked this so much that I wouldn’t mind having this as a main course.
This is a salad to whet your appetite, very light yet refreshing with plenty of tomatoes. There’s fresh buffalo smoked mozzarella cheese, Highland tomatoes, onion, basil, olive powder, pesto and extra virgin oil.
Nicoise is a selection of salad leaves, black olives, tuna, red onion, green haricot Kenya beans, anchovies, potatoes, boiled egg with Nicoise dressing. Phew! That’s quite a lot of ingredients in one salad. Tuna was very fresh but I can’t really say I liked this one as I am not a fan of tuna. Generally, I avoid anything with tuna in it.
My mouth is watering as I think of the Thread Fillet, so “melt-in-my-mouth” texture and the skin so crispy. The crab meat beignet was the best beignet I’ve ever had (can’t remember ever having any other beignets). A beignet is like a fritter, this one isn’t oily, just wonderful!
I learn something new everyday. According to Wikipedia, a ballotine is traditionally a boned thigh part of the chicken, duck or other poultry stuffed with forcemeat and other ingredients. It is tied to hold its shape and sometimes stitched up with a trussing needle. A ballotine is cooked by roasting, braising or poaching. A ballotine is often shaped like a sausage or re-formed to look like the leg, often with a cleaned piece of bone left in the end”. The chicken is very tender and I might just choose this main the next time I am back at Urban.
I definitely made the right choice by picking Crispy Caramel for my dessert. Love the presentation, dish is quite big and I adore the wooden spoon. Didn’t expect green tea ice cream, thought I would be getting vanilla ice cream. Burnt sugar on top of the caramel was the best. This is my favourite dessert of the year, seriously! Best Crispy Caramel ever.
Nice to look at and the basil sorbet was lovely but I will stick with the Crispy Caramel any time.
Executive Set Lunch At Urban Hotel Istana KL is priced at RM50nett. Price is very reasonable given the quality of the food. While portions are not huge, they are adequate for lunch and this has to be one of the most affordable 3 course meals anywhere in town taking into account the high standard of service and food.
Location: Lobby, East Wing
Reservation Hotline: +603 2141 9988 ext. 3691
Operating Hours: 3-course lunch (12 pm to 2:30 pm),
dinner (6:30 to 10:30 pm). On Saturdays, Urban is open for dinner only. It is closed on Sundays and public holidays
RM50 is indeed reasonable!