July 18, 2024

Executive Business Lunch @ Barkar, KL

It is another dimension behind this mirrored door, a space that filled with energetic vibe, with an open flame kitchen concept situated in the middle of the premise. This is Barkar, another mastermind by the team behind Eat & Cook ; taking you on a journey with Southeast Asian flavours.

We were given an option for table or counter seats; we picked up the later one as it serves the best place to observe the live performance by the chefs and the team.

Well, thanks to the push of those ads on social media again. This round my partner-in-crime spotted Barkar is offering Weekdays lunch course at quite a deal! We made it here and honestly, we find this meal quite a satisfying one here in Barkar.

Though their lunch set is priced at just Rm 99+, they really give 诚意满满 (full of sincerity) kind of dishes. Pick you choice of dishes from Starter and Big Plate’s category, each of them comes with three options. The Big Plate is served with either Grilled Cameron Corn or Grilled Seasonal Vegetable. As for dessert, it will be the dessert of the day. Both of us were surprised by the sweet ending. Maybe that’s because we thought it’s gonna be just a scoop of ice cream or some simple piece of dessert. We have never expected these lovely plated desserts came to us!

Everything was great but if only the dishes came with slightly more detailed explanations; that would be perfect.

The Executive Business Lunch

2-Course at Rm 88+
Comes with Starter and Big Plate

3-Course at Rm 99+
Comes with Starter, Big Plate and Dessert

Available from Monday to Friday only

First thing first… okay, this round didn’t have the usual first thing first for a glass like I always do. That’s because… I was a little to kiam (stingy) to splurge on a wine that cost around Rm 50-ish per pour. LOL.

We started off our meal with the complementary Hainan bread with a sweep of Gula Melaka and served with Whip Butter. I like that they are very generous with the whip butter, I always love my toast with thick spread of butter!

Grilled Squid, Chili Peanut
Squid grilled to its soft chewiness and aromatic in its char; layered on top of the kangkung, drizzled with chili peanut sauce that came with a kick and a handful sprinkle of crushed peanuts. Every layering element was very aromatic. This reminded me of the Chinese supper snack plate 鱿鱼翁菜 (cuttlefish kangkung in sweet sauce and chili sauce) and I quite like it.

Smoked Fish, Lei Cha Granita
We should have started this first instead of the grilled squid as this smoked fish with lei cha granita has light but refreshing flavour while the grilled squid has a stronger profile.

Dry Aged Seasonal Fish
The fish was really good, grilled to perfection. It complemented very well with the pickled onions and/or veg(?) and their signature homemade sauce. Like I said, if only we were given with a lil’ more details about the dish, that would be perfect.

Signature Beef Claypot Rice was lovely! We had a snap of photo, and then the server mixed the pot of rice and portioned it out for us. Fluffy piping hot rice interlaced with the scorched rice that resulted from boiling of rice over the direct heat from flame; it had a firm crunchy bits texture with toasted flavour. Yum! Do enjoy the rice while it is still hot, or else the scorched rice may turn a little hard to chew on. The beef was mimicking the char siew, beautifully glazed in the caramelized sweet sauce and its beautiful fats was at the perfect ratio, melted right on our palates. So lovely!

I like that they gave us different types of vege to share. This Dry Aged Seasonal Fish came with Grilled Corn and the later one was served with Grilled French Beans.

Grilled Corn

Grilled French Beans

Corn Mille Feuille
Cameron white corn, corn pudding on the flaky buttery mille-feuille pastry. We were over-joyed seeing this; this dessert was layered with textures and flavours of the corn. Buttery pastry topped with creamy corn pudding and beautified with the Cameron white corn that was lightly torched. Delicious!

Chocolate Lava Cake & Vanilla Ice Cream
But what wow-ed my heart most was this dessert! Made of single origin chocolate from Chocolate Concierge; It was rich chocolaty but light, softly hinted with a mild sourish tang which was the true flavour of that single origin chocolate. Extremely good to go with their very smooth vanilla ice cream. To be honest, this was one best chocolate lava cake I come across so far. We polished it clean (almost wanted to lick clean the hotplate)!