A modern affair
A popular eatery’s new a la carte menu offers classic French fare infused with playfully contemporary twists and turns.
NESTLED high up on the 41st floor of Alila Bangsar in Kuala Lumpur is Entier. For six years, the eatery has attracted swathes of diners, charmed by its innovative nose-to-tail approach and modern French cooking, all enhanced and elevated by the appeal of dazzling views of the cityscape beyond.
In 2023, the eatery – under the stewardship of executive chef Masashi Horiuchi who has been at the helm since the restaurant’s inception – became a Michelin Selected restaurant. Now the restaurant is celebrating the start of a new chapter with a new seasonal a la carte menu devised by Horiuchi and head chef Romain Fabre, who has infused the food with his own personal brand of classic French fare interspersed with playful twists.
“We don’t deviate from French flavours, because this is a French restaurant and we want to remain a French restaurant. But French food is really different from south to west, and east to north, so I think it is interesting to be one restaurant offering diners the possibility to try different gastronomy from France but not be too boring or too traditional. We need to have a bit of a twist, but still keep the original flavours intact,” says Fabre.
Fabre is a seasoned French chef who attended the Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France, before going on to work in Michelin-starred establishments in France and Switzerland. At Entier – which he has been leading since 2022 – he draws and harnesses from his experiences eating and cooking meals from across France.
As a result, Entier’s newly-launched a la carte dinner menu celebrates some of Fabre’s all-time favourite French dishes, with modern adaptations, of course.
“There are many French dishes that I have tried at least once in my life, so I look to these dishes and find inspiration. This first menu was easy to come up with – I just looked at my favourite French dishes from different regions,” says Fabre.
The restaurant has always prided itself on sourcing as sustainably as possible and this is something Fabre continues to be committed to. Which is why you’ll spot select local produce like Tanjung Malim caviar and harum manis mangoes on the menu.
“Obviously there is no reason to important something when you have quality produce right here. It is more profitable to source locally than to fly something in from far away. But sometimes this is not possible. So we source locally where we can but sometimes the Malaysian produce does not match the French recipes, and then we have to source elsewhere,” explains Fabre.
Prices at Entier remain on the higher end of the spectrum, so make sure your wallet (and your brain) are ready to factor in the numbers.
Kick your meal off with a bang with a glass of champagne in the form of the in-house Le Champagne Entier Cuvee Prestige Brut Millesime (RM80 a glass/rm468 a bottle). The champagne marks a special collaboration between the restaurant and boutique champagne grower Laurent Robert, and is a fun, fizzy, twinkly offering that really amps up the party atmosphere of a dinner here.
Each meal starts with complimentary bread and homemade kombu butter and you would do well not to skip this. The bread at Entier is the stuff of yore – crusty on the outside and incredibly silken soft and pillowy on the inside. The kombu butter meanwhile is hugely, hugely addictive, an umami wonder that you’ll keep wanting more of ... diet be damned!
To better acquaint yourself with Fabre’s brand of regional French food with a twist, start by ordering the Lobster Nicoise (RM160). Originating from Nice, this upscale version of the dish incorporates poached lobster, ancholade (anchovy) sauce, Romaine lettuce, French beans, marinated cherry tomatoes, vinaigrette and an olive pesto.
As a meal opener, this is pretty legendary stuff. The lobster is voluptuously fluffy and sweet and this is judiciously countenanced by the zing of the vinaigrette and the inherently briny, savoury quality of the olive pesto. Overall, this is a riotously fun opener to a meal that checks all the boxes in terms of memorability and lasting appeal.
Next, savour the Escargot (RM75) which features escargot wrapped in ravioli alongside spinach puree, garlic cream, pickled chanterelles and fresh button mushrooms. In this iteration of a classic dish from Burgundy, France, escargots are not spoilt and lavished with lashings of butter. Instead, restraint is applied in a “less is more” philosophy that showcases the plumpness of the escargots while encased in ravioli. This is accentuated the fig dessert is only available on the chef’s tasting menu and is a true delight from start to finish.
by the spinach and garlic undertones and the acerbic qualities of the pickled chanterelle which balances the meal out very well.
For mains, look at indulging in the Beef Belly & Sauerkraut (RM130). This is a dish that takes inspiration from the Alsace region in France that borders Germany. As a consequence of its geographical closeness to its neighbour, the region is renowned for sauerkraut (a German fermented cabbage dish).
Here, Australian beef belly is served with sauerkraut enhanced with beef bacon and a magic sauce – essentially sauerkraut-enhanced beef jus. The beef is sublime – very, very tender to the touch with a sauce that is both robust and ever-so slightly lip puckering – a good way to sluice through the richness of the meat. The sauerkraut itself is acerbic with a slight crunch and salty bites courtesy of the beef bacon.
If you’re at Entier to savour the chef’s tasting menu (RM650 per person), there’s also plenty to whet the appetite, like the Turbot, which showcases grilled turbot with blue mussels, Tanjung Malim caviar, turnip, nama nori cream, champagne foam and confit lemon.
The turbot is brought live from Korea in limited quantities, so if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to savour this when you dine here. The fish is very, very fresh and retains a firmness that still yields easily upon inclination. The blue mussels offer sea-salt laden overtures to the meal while the nama nori cream, foam and lemon offer richness, opulence and some much-welcome citrus nuances to the meal. The only oddball here is the caviar which seems a little out of place and almost superfluous in this configuration.
For dessert on the chef’s tasting menu, you’ll get to indulge in Fig, which showcases a fig sorbet and fig compote in what proves to be a fig-tastic denouement to the meal that celebrates fig in all its glory.
Moving forward, Fabre says that while this current menu has been relatively stress-free in terms of trawling for ideas and inspiration, he says he will probably have to work a lot harder to come up with menu offerings as the years go by.
“Maybe after one or two or three years, I will have to go back to the beginning and read more about classic French dishes,” says Fabre, laughing.
Entier French Dining
Level 41, Alila Bangsar
No 58, Jalan Ang Seng 50470 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2268 3819
Open Monday to Friday: Noon to 3pm; 6pm to 10pm Saturday to Sunday: Noon to 4pm; 6pm to 10pm