Following a short closure, Akar Dining makes a comeback—and given themselves the moniker Akar 2.0. Original patrons will notice that everything is completely revamped: from the interior to the restaurant’s layout, and most noticeably, the menu. When the restaurant first opened, the menu was focused on French philosophies with Asian ingredients, eventually moving towards a modern Malaysian flavour. Akar 2.0 now completely embraces the modern Malaysian ethos with Japanese-influenced cooking styles from Chef-Proprietor Aidan Low’s time in the country with their new menu, aptly named Mekar, which translates to “bloom” in the Malay language.
But first, the restaurant. Gone are the chef’s table seating and European-informed interior; its design now reflects the modern Malaysian menu, inspired by Chef Low’s childhood nostalgia and Malaysian home designs of yore. Stepping through the oxidised steel sliding door, guests will enter a narrow walkway lined with terracotta tile flooring. Nicknamed the Rumah Anjung, this is the waiting area for guests before they are shown to their seats. Once the table is ready for them, they will walk through a hallway lined with photos showcasing Akar’s early days, while lightly billowing fabric screens give some privacy to patrons in the dining area.
At the dining area, the first thing you’ll see is the chef’s stage: the previous chef’s table setup is no longer there, but you can still see the team at work, assembling your plates on a prep counter while the produce used in your current tasting menu is laid out on a tray. Education is key here, and your host will bring you through the key local ingredients to allow you to better understand what goes into your tasting menu. The dining area seats 26 pax comfortably, echoing a comfortable, dim environment with dark wood furniture and concealed lighting.
Now, on to the food.
The “Mekar” menu blooms
It’s worth noting that the tasting menu will continually evolve and feature different ingredients, depending on what produce is currently in season and available—hence, not everything that we mention from henceforth is completely the same as what you will experience should you decide to pay Akar 2.0 a visit.
The first three dishes on the tasting menu were served together, amuse-bouche-like: X-Dairy Cow, Breadfruit, and Prawn Pais. The first is a beetroot paitee filled with beef tartare made from a retired dairy cow (hence the name), and topped with caviar. Breadfruit was a black fried bun made from breadfruit flour, filled with salted egg kaya and topped with duck floss. It was a welcomed sweet break that surprisingly complements the third dish—Prawn Pais—despite both packing a punch in the flavour department. Reminiscent of a pulut udang, the Prawn Pais contains big head prawns-filled glutinous rice, wrapped with mulberry leaf and then grilled for a nice little char. It’s paired with a tempoyak tapai hot sauce for that extra kick.
Next comes the first in a series of seafood-forward dishes: Squid. Take any ideas you have of how squid is typically prepared, because you will least likely expect it to be in the form of noodles. Expertly sliced and treated to resemble flat rice noodles, this dish is served with chicken broth and finished with passionfruit and droplets of kesum oil. Eat this as you would with noodles; the zesty freshness of the passionfruit coupled with the savoury yet light chicken broth makes for an interesting cold dish. The chill continues with Oyster & Chayote, an inventive oyster ice cream with compressed chayote, paired with lacto lemongrass sambal and topped with sea grapes. The idea of an oyster ice cream may not appeal to most, but the team at Akar has successfully made it exquisite: the oyster ice cream is rich without the salinity typically associated with the mollusk, but the crown goes to the lacto lemongrass sambal that really makes the dish, while the sea grapes add a nice textural mouthfeel.
From cold and refreshing, the menu then progresses to warmer, richer flavours. Slipper Lobster & Pumpkin is next on the list, featuring the crustacean that is finished on the grill, buried in silky pumpkin espuma. It’s a two-part dish with a side of prawn cucur and pumpkin, offering two varying textures. A similar texture will carry on to the next dish: Jicama & Abalone. Jicama, also known as turnip to the locals, wraps around the sliced abalone and is fried, giving it a flaky, crispy, fried popiah-like texture. Alongside the liver sauce made from abalone, the entire pastry was a delightful chew—crispy yet gummy with each bite. Ending the spate of seafood dishes on the “Mekar” menu is Sardine & Kale, where we see a Japanese-influenced dish. The sardine is smoked with hay and accompanied with kale sauce and kale chips, playing on the bitter notes of the vegetable. The sardine liver is turned into a sauce, closing the loop, while the turnip imparts an interesting flavour alongside the kale chips.
Duck is once again the favoured choice of protein, as proven with the Aged Duck. Cherry Valley duck is aged for seven days, and then given an oil bath for that crispy skin. Inspired by Peking duck, Akar’s version is served alongside rice cake sheets brushed with taucu—fermented yellow soybeans—and chilli. But that isn’t all. Adding to the complexity in flavours are a medley of mulberry jelly, lemon marigold herb, wild ginseng leaf, Japanese chives, and lemon hysop—a calculated move to give green, herbaceous flavours to counteract the rich, meaty flavours of the duck.
The final mains on the menu give way to a comforting favourite: Crab Claypot. The dish comes with a side of theatrics too; the wait staff produced the actual crab heads as a cutlery holder—although we question the practicality of it, since it seemed challenging to get them to actually balance cutleries on it. Crab head cutlery holder aside, we were also treated to a table-side presentation of the claypot crab rice mixing ceremony. An Akar signature, this version comes with koshikari short-grained rice, crabs, egg yolk noodles, and engkabang—a sort of “tree butter” typically found in the Bornean forests. Rich, tasty, and with a nice char from the bottom of the claypot, this experience is elevated with the addition of crab broth halfway through, underscoring the fact that despite enjoying the finer things in life, comfort foods like soup and rice will still remain a staple in our hearts.
After a long journey—eight courses, to be exact—we come to our final two: desserts. The first of the two is Passionfruit, a passionfruit panna cotta dotted with kombu for salty and umami flavours that strike a balance with the sharp tang of the passionfruit. It acts as a nice palate cleanser after the savoury mains, whetting our appetite for the second dessert, Fig Leaf. A medley of fig ice cream with almond crumble and, astonishingly, anchovies. Piped with a reduced banana dolce and served alongside a guava jelly with asam boi powder. This dessert is certainly the heavier of the two, with the banana dolce tag teaming the fig ice cream. As for the anchovies in this, rest assured—all you taste is welcoming hints of saltiness.
The dinner ends with a trio of petite fours, except instead of chocolates, these are inspired by local kuih, but with the Akar twist. Think kuih bahulu but with a sansho pepper dusting, onde-onde but with filled with kwini (a wild mango variant) and apong sugar, and kuih sarang semut with jackfruit dolce that is reminiscent of bambangan.
Afterthoughts
Akar 2.0 enters their new era with a strong menu highlighting not just ingredients from Malaysia, but also tamps down on nostalgic flavours and dishes. While every course packed a punch in its own right, we would like to see Akar 2.0 focus on harmony between courses for their future menus and trim the fat with necessary tableware to refine the dining experience. Kudos to Chef Aidan Low and the rest of the Akar team for this fine effort.
Address: 109, Jln Aminuddin Baki, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
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