July is the month of travel for our foodie duo who flew 6 flights in 11 days.  The first day in Kuala Lumpur, we get to delight our senses at Huck’s Cafe, located in Bangsar’s residential area. While it took us some challenges to find it, we were impressed upon arrival to find a beautiful, homely yet grandly presented mansion.

We were welcomed warmly by their waiting staff. The walk through the front doors was a spectacular! The dining space allocations, interior design, and the SPACIOUSNESS! – made the experience very relaxing, private and special. We had a long wooden table and the next table is at least 4 meters away from us!  Every dining table has it’s own unique settings, but all themed with wooden furniture, natural colour schemes and crafty decorations. Some are slightly more upright and formal, some are close & intimate.

We were seated and immediately served a welcome drink, the Basil Seed drink (or at least that’s what we call it!) It’s a great starting drink as it’s fresh, lightly sweet and prepares our palette for what’s about to come. We have no idea what the menu is for the night as we have told to have the chef SURPRISE US when we made the booking. The only requirement is no beef and lamb, due to preferences of a few fellow diners.

A starter of delicious prawn crackers followed up shortly after, it was surprisingly flavoursome with the addition of julienne pickles. We’ve never had crackers like this and certainly set our expectations to expect the unexpectedness!

The friendly waiter came to explain our menu of the night, in which he left lots of room for our own imagination! We were offered two choices for our entree, individually. It was either Mushroom Soup or The Love Soup. Mushroom Soup wasn’t the best we have tasted but it is certainly different, as it’s not made into a smooth creamy soup, but rather a textured and “bitey” one. Flavours are good, interesting concept that you will remember, though we all seemed to agree that Mushroom soup should be made into a cream to bring out the best flavours from mushrooms. The Love Soup on the other hand was a stand out. It’s made of pumpkin, sweet potato and spices. It’s thick and creamy, smooth and gave an explosion of flavours from the spices used. Slightly spicy that sends a tingling sensation, I guess hence why it’s called The Love Soup!

The first main course was Chicken with artichoke, potatoes and olives. The chicken was cooked to perfection, we loved seeing artichoke & olives being used in Malaysia, and the choice of baby potatoes seems perfect. Flavours were good, however, didn’t leave much impact. The 2nd main course was another chicken dish – the Mediterranean Inspired Crumbed Chicken. Some of us are not fans of crumbed and fried food, however the use of ingredients on this dish excited us! As you can see from the picture, they had melted cheese, roma cherry tomatoes & blueberries! We were not sure how this is all going to match but it did! Hence a little magical and starts to show us the character of the chef!

We were served our second drink, which is a Lemongrass Infused Drink (we missed photographing it, sorry!) Perfect palette cleanser and very refreshing! They had the whole stick of lemongrass in the tall tumbler glass. Then the 3rd main course served was the mussels in broth, served with garlic focaccia. We know A LOT about mussels from our foodie experience in Australia, hence our expectations are pretty high. For a Malaysian standard, we think this is great. We liked the broth, and perhaps the garlic focaccia can have more than 1 piece? It’s a delicious piece of bread! 4th main course was Crispy Skin Salmon with Valencia Orange – THIS WAS THE STUNNER OF THE NIGHT! All of us fell in love with this dish, the salmon was cooked to perfection PLUS the crispy skin was exactly what it’s supposed to be, the pairing with Valencia Orange, onion & capsicum made it a great summery dish! The colours were so attractive too!

Next, the waiter returned to get our orders for individual desserts. We were surprised that they have so many options – 5 different desserts to choose from! As we had 5 diners, we ordered one eac h for sharing!  The Spanish Apple Creme was a unique creation, the presentation was good and we loved the flavours. The Creme Brulee was a little of a let down, as foodie Roslyn is a huge Creme Brulee fanatic, it’s not easy to please her with this dish! The verdict was the crackling of the burnt sugar was way too thin, and the creme was too runny. Then we had the Durian Mudpie which was an instant favourite amongst two durian lovers. The Durian flavour was pretty full on, which is what we wanted. Next was the Oreo Chocolate Icecream – it looked spectacular! Everyone was equally attracted to it, and we had a team effort of keeping the tower from falling down! Beautiful ice cream – definitely a winner! The last dessert was the Banana Chocolate Mudpie served with a Vanilla Ice Cream. This all-time-favourite warm dessert matched with the smooth vanilla ice-cream was a perfect ending to the dinner.

The chef, Huck Seng, came to greet us at the table, explained his dishes and asked for our feedback. It’s so lovely to meet such a humble cook, we chatted on and found out how he started this unique business. His passion for traveling combined with cooking made this private dining scene a success. What’s even more impressive is to learn that the friendly staff that served us throughout the evening were all his colleagues from the previous employment, where they all came from the advertising industry being designers, printers etc. They have been so closely knitted together that they have moved on into a complete different field, together, as one! It tells a great deal about the person Huck Seng is, to have his mates follow his journey to fulfill his dream, to be his backbone, to believe in his vision, to strive together, to try something different, to step into the unknown.

This dining experience is truly unique and will be in our memory forever as it is not just about the scene, the fusion dishes, the soulful flavours, but also the choice of ingredients use, the humble chef and his committed team. The thought that every visit will be uniquely different makes us want to return soon! Thanks to Huck’s Cafe for such a wonderful experience, definitely highly recommended by us and a place we will return when we next visit Kuala Lumpur.

Huck’s Cafe is located at 22 Jalan Abdullah, Off Jalan Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, Bangsar
Booking is necessary, call 0322822126 or 0126048719 . Warning – weekends are usually booked out a few weeks ahead!
Ideal for private parties, friends gathering & family dinners.