Incredibly colorful flavors of Kerala cuisine at Malabar Palace Sri Hartamas

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Well Above Par at Malabar!


We stumbled upon this gem of an Indian restaurant quite by chance a couple of months ago while
visiting the Hartamas area for the first time.

At first glance it looks just like any other of the thousands of
Indian restaurants in the greater KL area, from the pictures on the wall to the North Indian sweets lined
up in the fridge at the entrance.


Typically, I tend to do at least a little bit of research before trying a new restaurant for the first time,

but
on the night in question we were all hungry and it was kind of an impulse thing.

Little did we know that
not only would we be coming back again the following night

Yes, 2 nights in a row!

but that Malabar
would quickly become our absolute favorite of its kind in Malaysia!


Studying the menu, it took as a while to figure out whether the restaurant was predominantly North or
South Indian inspired, even though we consider ourselves pretty experienced in this field!

The reason
for this is that all the usual suspects were there; palak paneer, butter chicken, chicken tikka masala,
malai kofta, and so on – all the famous North Indian dishes.

But sprinkled among them was an extensive
selection of far lesser-known southern dishes from, according to the descriptions, Kerala and Tamil
Nadu.

There were too many of these to be a coincidence, and sure enough, we soon discovered that the
head chef, as well as several of the restaurant staff, are from Kerala.


The staff are all so kind and were more than happy to teach us about some of the dishes that we were
not familiar with.


That first night, I remember we selected a few that we knew we liked, such as almond chicken and dal
makhani, and then a few more adventurous ones including avial (vegetables in coconut milk and yoghurt)
and kalan(Kerala curry).

We also ordered a couple of starters, namely the lamb samosas and the
Malabar special soup (again with lamb).


After quite a long wait, during which time we all tucked into some (free) papadums with homemade
pickle, the starters started to arrive and we were very pleasantly surprised indeed.

Both were stunning.
Well worth the wait. I should say that the “lamb” samosas were mostly potato, and only a little bit of
lamb, but on the other hand they were fresh, hot and delicious so I think that is forgivable!

I also think it
is worth pointing out that the wait time was unusually long for Malaysia (and indeed compared to India
itself), yet it didn’t bother us.

It actually felt quite reassuring, knowing that our dishes were being
carefully made to order, just for us.


Next, the Hyderabadi biryani, almond chicken, dal makhani and shahi paneer. Well, what can I say. All
were top notch. The almond chicken and shahi paneer, in particular, were so, so creamy; they must have
poured a ton of fresh cream into each – not exactly light on the calorie front but oh my, so delicious, and
somehow, they didn’t taste greasy or oily at all.

The almond chicken gravy tasted like 100g of almonds
had been ground into it, so rich and thick. The paneer, we were told, was homemade – and we could
taste the difference.

The dal makhani is one of my staples, I just love it in general, and I wasn’t at all
surprised to find that the Malabar version was one of the best I had tried. Again, it was rich and thick,
but without being at all greasy.

The biryani had big chunks of lamb, more than we expected, and the
meat was quite tender for a lamb biryani.

The waiters continued to be very helpful throughout, and even brought us a second serving of
papadums to wipe up our gravy, free of charge. We later learned that normally extra papadums cost
rm2.


Water was free, too, which is always nice, especially when your husband and your son can easily get
through a couple of litres per meal each.


Needless to say, between the three of us we destroyed these dishes in about half the time that we had
been waiting for them. It was as if there had been some sort of a massacre.


Meanwhile the Indian sweets had been watching our table from the fridge the entire time. Or at least
that was Berry’s excuse. Ok, ok my baby whatever you say. I think we chose the gulab jamun, and the
milk cake. Both were fine, but nothing particularly special.

I believe the reason for this is that, we
learned, the sweets (the ones on display outside the restaurant) are NOT made in-house, but rather
delivered from elsewhere.

They do however have homemade kulfi, which we suspect will be very good,
but I can’t recommend it just now as we are still yet to try it, even though we have been back a few
times since. We always say that we must try it next time!


Ok now for a few more dishes that we have had on our subsequent outings. The lamb seekh kebab is
something I’ve ordered here more than once, and it never lets us down. Just look at the gorgeous
presentation, complete with homemade mint sauce.


The Kerala style vegetable dishes, including our favorite “Avial”, are also very good with interesting
flavors and we enjoyed them very much; however, I would say that at the end of the day we prefer the
meat dishes on the whole.


Finally, a special mention for the lamb Rogan Josh. Of course, this is a very famous dish which you can
find anywhere so it might sound quite ordinary to you. But like just about everything else here, it wasn’t
ordinary at all, rich and flavorful and with a very interesting kick to it which we discovered could be
traced back to one of its secret ingredients, fenugreek (or “methi” in Hindi).


Now, how much is a meal and Malabar going to set you back? Well, if you are as greedy as us, you will
likely order 2 or 3 dishes per person and pay about RM50-60 per head. The highest we paid was around RM162 (US$35). If you score only average marks
on the greed-o-meter, it will cost more like RM30 per head. In summary very much in line with any other
Indian restaurant, and really not too bad at all for the quality that you get, in our opinion.

They also have a lunch thali set for lunch on weekdays, priced between RM15 (US$3) and RM20 (US$4).


We’ll be back!

Malabar Palace Sri Hartamas

Address: G8 & G9, Ground floor, Main Lobby, Hartamas Shopping Centre, 60, Jalan Sri Hartamas 1, Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur

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