Tendon Adachi, Wisma Cosway

Cheap and cheerful Japanese tendon - tempura donburi - crops up in the city centre: A basic bowl of steamed rice starts at RM4.50, with plenty of customisation possibilities. Select as many or as few ingredients as you like - this hearty, piping-hot heap of six battered toppings (fresh prawn, chicken, white fish, pumpkin, eggplant and whole boiled egg) showered with a light soy dressing clocks in at RM11.50 (most of the toppings cost RM1 each, while the prawn is RM2), more than sufficient for a filling lunch for office workers at this friendly, fuss-free Japanese-owned joint.

Tendon Adachi

Ground Floor, Wisma Cosway, Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur. Open Mon-Fri, 11am-8pm; Sat, 11am-7pm.

This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com

Billy Angel Cake Company, Seoul

Billy Angel Cake Company's rainbow-coloured mille-crepe cake is heaven-sent for fans of colourfully photogenic sweet treats.

This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com

Rentak Bar, Tun H.S. Lee Road

Rentak Bar brings the beat and the buzz back to Chinatown; on a recent Saturday night, this first-floor shop-house space echoed hypnotically with everything from the Modern Jazz Quartet's 1950s chilled-out instrumental Cortege to Diana Ross' disco bop The Boss, as customers sipped cinnamon-laced whisky cocktails, calamansi-spiked vodka intoxicants and osmanthus-tinged tequila temptations beside a turntable, mirror ball and boxes of LPs. This friendly place has the makings of many a mesmerising night.

Rentak Bar

198, Jalan Tun H S Lee, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur. Currently in soft-launch stage, Fri-Sat, 6pm-12am.

This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com

Maki Japanese Restaurant, Desa Sri Hartamas

Skewers of chicken liver, charcoal-grilled to medium instead of well-done for a burst-in-the-mouth lusciousness, accompanied by other cuts of chicken neck meat, chicken oyster meat and chicken tail meat (RM5-RM7), followed by batter-fried oysters and Japanese-sourced sweet potatoes: For fans of yakitori and tempura, Maki might be one of your favourite finds this year. Bonus points for an izakaya that makes a mean gin-and-tonic.

Maki Japanese Restaurant

41-1, 1st Floor, Wisma CKL, Jalan 23/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur. Daily, 6pm-1am. Tel: 03-2303-9421

This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com

Kitchari, Bangladesh

Kitchari is one of Bangladesh's dishes to try, a mix of ghee-laden rice cooked with lentils, as comforting as it sounds, served in numerous restaurants throughout the country's county of Sonargaon.

Rolling Daruma, Kota Damansara

Rice bowls, ramen and much more: Rolling out a range of Japanese-inspired favourites with fun flourishes, this friendly venue is worth visiting for donburi topped with tenderly grilled pork belly with the caramelisation of char siu, sprinkled with crunchy bits of pork lard (RM24), noodles with plump pork gyoza in a mellow bone broth that's made soothingly smooth with a splash of sake (RM20), and deep-fried mantou, warm to the touch and crisp to the bite, stuffed with sweetly succulent pulled pork shoulder that's been slow-cooked for eight hours with peach, balsamic vinegar and bourbon sauce (RM16).

Rolling Daruma is the kind of place where customers enjoy lingering - keep the evening going with alcoholic cakes layered with, say, whisky salted caramel mousse (RM19), coupled with reviving whisky-based cocktails like the Matcha Martini (RM42; Black Nikka 8-Year-Old with matcha, milk and pandan lemongrass syrup) and Tokyo Green (RM38; Black Nikka 8-Year-Old with Carpano Classico vermouth, Angostura bitters, cucumber syrup and egg white foam).

Teetotalers have interesting choices too: Try the Nutella Latte (RM13; double shot of espresso with Nutella milk) and Espresso Tonic Sour (RM18; quad-shot with brown sugar, tonic and lemon).

Trivia: If Rolling Daruma's setting seems familiar, this space formerly housed the Olfactory Bulb cafe.

Rolling Daruma

15-2, Jalan PJU 5/13, Kota Damansara, 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. 

Open Wednesday-Friday, 5pm-11pm; Saturday-Sunday, 11am-11pm. Tel: 03-6151-1108

This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com