Pastea Cafe, Paramount Garden

Paramount Garden’s new Pastea Cafe is a peaceful stop for pork rendang nasi lemak and hojicha lattes in a welcomingly bright, leafy neighbourhood space with Kacey Musgraves on the lunchtime playlist.

Pastea Cafe’s Malacca-origin founders plan to start serving Kristang and Nyonya classics by Christmas, spanning seybak to keluak.

Testing Ground, Bukit Damansara

Testing Ground is the friendly new in-house cafe of Bukit Damansara’s GDP Campus, fuelling this architectural design hub with carbs, caffeine and the choruses of Leonard Cohen. 

Testing Ground’s baked creations are coloured by charm - Pink is a soft, scrumptious sandwich layered with kerabu chiutney and cheese; Red is a tangy, tantalising baguette-based tomato tartine; and Taupe is crusty Austrian-inspired bread with creamy mushroom soup.

Stay for tiramisu and sip the Brazilian-Colombian-Ethiopian coffee blend, rosy-peppery hot chocolate, and thyme-tinged Sunrise fruity cooler before exploring seasonal exhibits upstairs, currently a curation of Vitra chairs.

Ora Dining celebrates Christmas with Glazed Baby Back Beef Ribs, Koji Spring Chicken, Poached Pear Bread Pudding

Ora Dining is spreading Christmas culinary cheer with its festive creations, now available for dine-in and takeaway until 31 December 2024.

Make the season mouthwateringly merry with Glazed Baby Back Beef Ribs, Koji Spring Chicken with Perigourdine Sauce, and Poached Pear Bread Pudding, the perfect platters for feasting with family and friends.

Ora Dining's chef Xing Yu and the terrifically talented elves in his kitchen brigade sprinkle Yuletide magic on each recipe, brining the beef and chicken in their special koji marinade, poaching pears in port, patiently pickling onions and roasting cauliflowers for scrumptious side dishes.

Make your dine-in reservations early or WhatsApp Ora Dining at 017-228-8471 for takeaway orders at least three days in advance.

Glazed Baby Back Beef Ribs with Apple Salad (RM368 for full rack, RM198 for half rack) make for a hearty celebratory meal to fill your Christmas table.

Ora Dining brines these back ribs in shio koji seasoning and foil-bakes them for three hours, resulting in a bouncy chew with a robust beefy flavour, glazed in gula Melaka and fermented habanero for savoury-sweet, slightly spiced slickness.

We love the accompanying apple salad, a tribute to Xing Yu's past stint as a chef in Manhattan, resembling an American Waldorf salad with sliced red apples, celery, raisins and walnuts gently dressed in mayo for juicy-creamy crunch, plus the thick potato puree with beef jus.

Dry-Aged Chicken with Perigourdine Sauce (RM188 for whole) is a limited-time take on Ora's famous chicken, aged for five days for thorough tenderness and tastiness, more satisfyingly succulent than a typical Christmas turkey, complete with roasted cauliflower tossed with pickled onions, fried potatoes, egg yolk and ricotta cheese, rounded out with truffled pink oyster mushroom sauce, carrot puree and vanilla foam for addictive dipping. 

Half-chicken servings (RM98) are also available exclusively for dine-in.

Don't miss Ora's Poached Pear Bread Pudding (RM58), fabulously full-bodied with toasted brioche that's custard-soaked overnight, cinnamon-scented for the heartwarming fragrance of Christmas, layered with luscious port wine-poached pear, caramelised bananas, vanilla chantilly, honey crumble and a jammy spread of blueberries and strawberries. Feliz Navidad!

Ora Dining
29, Lorong Datuk Sulaiman 7, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur.
Open Tuesday-Thursday, 4pm-12am; Friday-Sunday, 12pm-12am; closed Monday. 
Tel: 017-228-8471