Liquid Lab Coffee Bar, Wisma Cosway

For a fast, friendly fix of caffeine in the city centre, Wisma Cosway's new Liquid Lab Coffee Bar serves wallet-friendly espresso-based and filter coffee. Founder Eric recommends a pour-over of 2022 Costa Rica Cup Of Excellence #19, a beautiful brew to banish the Monday blues.

Liquid Lab Coffee Bar

G.43, Cosway Guesthouse, 88, Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur.

Monsieur Darren, Bukit Kiara

With a dramatic new backdrop lined with magnificent moss wallscapes, Monsieur Darren offers an afternoon of Parisian-inspired enchantment in Bukit Kiara.

Pastry chef Hazel Chan and her team showcase virtuoso skills in viennoiseries and petits gateaux, vividly synthesising prime ingredients with a clear-eyed sense of buoyant balance. 

Order the Ouef cake, evoking a tart of bright tartness. Sea buckthorn jelly is the radiant 'yolk' encircled by whipped mascarpone, harbouring a tangy curd of bergamot on a crumbly sugar dough crust, decadent with delicious dimensions, singing with nuanced notes of zing and zest.

Popcorn Delice is a young-at-heart treat, its crunch of popcorn and Dulcey-dipped chocolate concealing a voluptuous core of macadamia vanilla cremeux and popcorn mousse, an ode to Cinema Paradiso in this patissier's paradise.

Even a basic butter croissant is a beauty, belying its modest price of RM8, gorgeously golden-brown, a triumph of time, technique and temperature in baking, with a bite that crackles and a chew of fluffy-rich flakiness. 

Monsieur Darren shares its space with the latest branch of Bref restaurant in the annexe of M Resort & Hotel.

Monsieur Darren

M Resort & Hotel, Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur.

Brew by Cobnb, Trion KL

A caffeine fix with a Christmas tree view: Trion KL's new Brew by Cobnb promises a pleasant stop for Americanos and flat whites. This cafe is run by a homestay company; its kitchen also serves rice bowls and pastas.

Brew by Cobb

G-11, Residensi Trofi 1, Trion KL, Jalan Dua, Sungai Besi, 55200 Kuala Lumpur.

Warung Eropa, The Exchange TRX

From Kuta Utara to KL: Bali's Warung Eropa has opened its first Malaysian outpost in The Exchange TRX, a beautiful little space for bebek. 

Its prime platter is the Bebek Goreng Set (RM69.90), showcasing half a duck, crisp and fresh to the bite, hot and tender to the chew, satisfyingly flavourful in every mouthful. rounded out with steamed rice, urap-urap, sambal merah and sambal matah. 

Other signature specialities include Rawon Malam, a beef soup that's dark and deep with buah keluak, soulful and savoury, served with steamed rice, sambal and prawn cracker (RM39.90).

Cocktails complete the experience - sip on Nusa Dua (rum with coconut liqueur, triple sec and jackfruit) and Ubud (gin with kaffir leaf, lemongrass and lime) to embrace the vacation vibes. 

Warung Eropa

The Exchange TRX, Kuala Lumpur.

MadHatter Desserts, Medan Putra Business Centre

MadHatter Desserts @madhatter_desserts is back, moving to Medan Putra Business Centre after nearly six years in Damansara Uptown.

This reincarnation propels the vision of chef-founder Marcus Low and his team in adventurous new ways: MadHatter is now not only about distinctive desserts but savoury fare built on baked foundations.

The kitchen embraces Malaysian produce across two-thirds of its repertoire, from rarities like Pahang wild durians and button mangosteens to Johor pineapples and Kelantan buah kulim, thoughtfully harnessed in a selection that evolves with experimentation and seasonal swings.

For brunch, sink your teeth into sandwiches, perfectly proportioned for peak pleasure, delicately orchestrated with subtleties that sing softly in soothing harmony, in tune with the harvest of the earth.

Sliced beef tongue cooked with red wine evokes French soulfulness, wedded in a holey union with Swiss cheese in a bagel, hitting a hole-in-one for heartiness, dressed in local ulam chimichurri, brightened with the biting vinaigrette zestiness of cherapu and asam gelugor.

Fluffy batter-fried pomfret is draped in a house ferment of durian duri panjang with mellow, nutty undertones of umami on a thick, tender substrate of Reuben-style rye bread, a marvellous masak-tempoyak marriage of sea and land.

Cookies are crisp to the bite, melt-in-the-mouth with a creamy chew, crowned with a jammy medley of two types of pineapples, one selected for sweetness, the other for acidity.

Focaccia comes with extra flourishes too, lined with melted cheddar and laced with kulim oil for an understated earthiness.

One contemporary plated dessert steals the spotlight before the show ends - inspired by the Filipino Christmas classic of maja blanca, coconut cracquelin layered with bruleed corn pudding, showered with corn kernels and snowy coconut foam infused with corn oil, a masterful showcase of two ingredients - coconut and corn - in multiple textures, channelling the natural sweetness of Cameron Highlands pearly white corn.

MadHatter Desserts

26, Jalan Medan Putra 4, Medan Putra Business Centre, 52200 Kuala Lumpur.