Restaurant: Bijan, Kuala Lumpur

Have heard about the Bijan Bar & Restaurant some time back. Awarded the best Malay restaurant by Tourism Malaysia in 2004, it’s located at Jalan Ceylon, an area I’ve always liked for its serenity in spite of being within the vicinity of the hustle & bustle of Bukit Bintang.

The restaurant plays with the colours purple & orange, and is unlike any other Malay restaurant I’ve been to, with the bar and wine chiller prominently in sight. Lol. However the overall design is rather cosy and inviting. We chose to sit inside as it was noon and I wanted my air-cond! Heh. Love the batik napkins, nice Malaysian touch.

Tried 2 drinks from Bijan, the Soursop Juice and Bijan Fruitpunch. Can you tell that I was really thirsty? The Soursop juice was much nicer than the fruitpunch though the looks of both drinks seem otherwise. The fruitpunch was rather bland despite the description saying that fruits like mango, oranges, watermelon were used. At least it was of slushy consistency.

For starters we ordered the “Pegedil” and Appetiser Platter. “Pegedil” or fried potato patties with chicken, meat and tuna were created bite-sized and served with a chilli dip. It was crisp to bite and warm and crumbly inside. Nicely done, I must say.

The Appetiser Platter was more disappointing even though it had a few items – Tauhu Sumbat (Fried Tofu pockets with prawns & vegetables), Popiah Goreng (deep fried spring rolls), Kepak goreng (fried chicken wings) and Cucur udang (prawn & vegetable fritters). The tofu pockets had that stale oil taste to it, which was least expected. Lucky neither the spring rolls nor the fritters had the same taste to it. The chicken wings were meatless and whatever little meat they had, were too dry for our liking.

I ordered the “Masak Ayam Lemak dengan Nangka” which are chicken pieces simmered in a rich & spicy curry of turmeric and young jackfruit. It was very creamy and non-spicy. They were very generous with the chicken portions and we didn’t manage to finish this. Maybe we were a little too ambitious whilst ordering. Lol.

Next up was the “Kerabu Paku Pakis”, a fiddlehead fern salad with a chilli mix of coconut milk, prawns, onions, dessicated coconut etc. Fiddlehead ferns are one of my favourite vegetables, hence i greatly enjoyed this. Would even say this is my favourite dish from all that we ordered.

We ordered the “Ayam Goreng Berempah”, crunchy deep fried chicken with spices and sweet basil as one of us didn’t take spicy food much. I would imagine that this is similar to the chicken wings in the appetiser platter, but as it was deep fried with onion rings & curry leaves, this had slightly more flavour.

My friend has been craving “Nasi Kerabu” (pic) for a while now and she didn’t hesitate in ordering Bijan’s “Nasi kerabu with Ayam Percik”, described as a rice platter with finely chopped raw vegetables, herbs and keropok (fish crackers) and grilled chicken in a nutty sauce. I must admit, the appearance of the rice that was served wasn’t what I expected. The rice doesn’t have to be the traditional blue, but at least there has to be an abundance of herbs & raw vegetables. Everything was sliced so thin and fine that it gives definition to the meaning a “fine-dining” restaurant. Lol. The budu and chilli sauces were placed separately. It looks a little bland. The chicken was served later and the taste didn’t appeal to me at all. Not like any ayam percik i have tasted before.

Overall, I prefer the food to remain traditional (as those more true to the roots tasted better) than innovated to suit modern tastebuds. But ambience wise, this place is a clear winner with the music and sounds of nature with the help of water features.