Where to eat and drink in Bangsar

Recent developments in KL’s dining scene have made one thing clear and it is that wine bars are the place to be. Every month seems to house a new wine bar opening, with bespoke collections of bottles now available across nearly every suburb. Juno proves one of the city’s best, offering not only excellent pours but a selection of curated small plates and desserts.

The space fuses the atmospheres of sophisticated jazz clubs and laidback European delis, perfect for late afternoon aperitifs or a dinner comprised of light but expertly crafted bites. Find an impressive selection of wines, with its newest additions being from Japanese winemakers, Grape Republic and a menu of avocado tempura, octopus and pumpkin, fresh oysters, and a seasonal skipjack tuna ceviche with an asam laksa dressing. 

Taking inspiration from European cafés, daytime meals had at Alta are defined by eggs for breakfast, coffee, and of course, its renowned Alta Burger. When the sun sets, the laidback Bangsar spot mimics the atmospheres of wine bars, complete with sharing plates, low intervention wines, and tins of beer. Visit for breakfast to start your day with a decadent portion of Angus steak and fried eggs dressed in green hot sauce or a smoked haddock omelette with haddock and leek fondue and stracciatella.

For lunch, a must-order is its Alta Burger— two Angus beef patties sandwiched between potato rolls and smothered in cheddar cheese, onions, and its signature sauce. Alternatives to classic beef burgers can also be found here, seeing fried chicken breast and pickles from its Alta Chicken Burger and panko-fried sea bass and tartar sauce fortify its Alta Fish Burger. Dinners at Alta should always involve at least one of its pastas, from rigatoni with white ragu and fennel seeds to anchovy and lemon orechiette, French toast brûlée with beurre noisette, and a glass of natural wine from its rotating collection of labels. 

See also: The best burgers in Klang Valley, according to chefs
 

Authentic Kerala cuisine is at the core of Kayra. Punchy and vibrant sharing plates are this South Indian restaurant’s specialty, perfect for a special occasion or group dining. Its fish moilee biryani featuring a grilled whole sea bass nestled on a bed of basmati rice is a must-order alongside its curd sago with prawn pickle and pineapple pachidi tart. For small plates, its platter of dahi puri shooters proves a showstopper when paired with its reinventions of classic appetisers from Kerala arancini to dosa tacos. You’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to vegetarian options here with jackfruit moilee, traditional avial, okra poriyal, and ghee-roasted paneer, just to name a few. 

A sister restaurant of Alta Café, Studio Restaurant brings a similarly European-influenced dining experience to the suburb. Expect refined and contemporary creations at Studio, guided by chef-owner Christian Recomio. Each dish highlights European techniques and inspiration borrowed from global cuisines.

Multiple menus are available here that cater to all levels of hunger and feature snapper with fennel, watercress, and vanilla, braised duck and foie gras beignets with local figs, and cheese parfait with apple, sherry vinegar, and jungle honey. Despite its menus’ variety, a staple at Studio is its bread course of crème fraîche parker house rolls paired with cultured butter and a portion of crispy potatoes, jus gras and rosemary mascarpone. 

A pioneer of our local sustainable dining scene, Roost offers a truly farm-to-table dining experience in the centre of Bangsar. Its menu foregoes conventional importation and instead champions the use of locally sourced produce in dishes loosely informed by Nordic cuisine. Start your farm-to-fork meal with deep fried cauliflower with jalapeno dressing, before a main course of whole grilled saba with lemon and capers, free range chicken with chimichurri, and cured dry aged duck breast with wasabi salsa. Complete your meal with dessert, from Roost’s mille feuille with berry coulis to tarte tatin with dulce de leche.  

For sharing plates designed to be paired with cocktails, there is no place better than Coley. Touted by some as the bar with the best food menu, Coley’s recent menu revamp shined the spotlight on the culinary talent of chef Joel Kirk. Its new menu features after-work specials, Apertivos & Appetisers, with small plates of ricotta and lemon, olives and peppers, and roast tomato and tapenade.

Order its interpretation of European lentil stew, flavoured with leeks and dotted with pieces of roast chicken and sourdough croutons and pair the dish with a cocktail of spiced rum, gingered gula Melaka. For those who prefer a brighter cocktail, opt for its Avergreen and balance its vibrance with a decadent serving of aged Devesa sirloin accompanied by fries and kuchai caper butter.

If laidback Sunday afternoons were a place, they would be APW Bangsar. Nestled the artsy Bangsar dining hub is Olivia Deli, an eatery inspired by Southern European and Mediterranean cuisine. The menu stands as a compilation of the continent’s best dishes, housing caponata crostinis, marinated tuna served with tomato balsamic salsa, octopus with garlic and olive oil, and shrimp rissoles. 

Daily specials are one of the restaurant’s signatures, offering limited-run portions of suckling pig empanadas, arroz de polvo or octopus rice, eggplant parmigiana, and more. The dining venue is also home to a storefront, where diners can take home a variety of pasta, tinned seafood, and jarred accoutrements.

Creative combinations and inventive mixology inform Three X Co’s menu, which is one of the most unique in the city. Its signature cocktails take inspiration from sentimentality and stand as distillations of each founder’s childhood memories, with one of these seeing a classic Old Fashioned uplifted by longan and chrysanthemum. Find a refreshing gin-based sour with cava, basil and green chartreuse, a twist on a Salty Dog using Campari and vermouth, and a tea-focused tipple of Earl Grey-infused gin, grapefruit, and elderflower. Seasonally rotating tipples can also be found here, with a standout proving its discontinued sambal petai negroni, highlighting gin fat-washed with sambal prawn and served with smoked petai. 

Entier, or French for entire, is spearheaded by a nose-to-tail dining experience. Its menu proves a showcase of not just prime cuts but of specific, lesser-eaten parts of proteins and vegetables, highlighting the best of Malaysian terroir with collections of dishes that evolve with the seasons. In its most current form, Entier’s menu sees reimagined French classics, modernised with seasonal produce and ingenuity. Lunch seatings entail à la carte dishes of guinea fowl, seared and stuffed à la basquaise, escargot with pickled chanterelles, and stuffed whole quail with duck lardons and cognac sauce.

Its lunch tasting menu currently platforms the ingredients of spring, housing roasted Maine lobster and hand-made semolina spaghettini, parmentier velouté with Cantal cheese berlingot, and a fig-focused sweet course. Its dinner tasting menu begins with Tanjung Malim caviar and sweet potato blinis before a tomato tart with ricotta and fig chutney, and roasted celeriac with beef speck and hazelnut oil. 

Don’t miss: Entier’s latest menu sees reimagined regional French classics, courtesy of Romain Fabre

Asian-inspired cuisine meets natural pours at Unwined Plus. Discreetly tucked beside one of Bangsar’s most beloved bakeries, Jaslyn Cakes, this dining venue can be hard to spot when exploring the area. More than just a wine bar, Unwined Plus is home to a selection of dishes that pair excellently with its impressive collection of wines. A staple proves its crispy pot of rice, infused with kimchi and topped with grouper, ikura, and pickles. For those who can’t bear to part with glasses of red, opt for a pairing of its yuzu kosho and chichillo topped wagyu striploin. Pair glasses (or bottles) here with fermented flatbread and spring onion labneh, fresh mussels bathed in Shaoxing wine, striped jack ceviche with Thai basil citrus foam, grilled tiger prawns with coconut sambal and more. 

As its name suggests, The Lankan Crabs are specialists in all things crab. The restaurant is devoted to keeping the culinary traditions of Sri Lanka alive, bringing the cuisine’s seafood forward dishes to Bangsar. Live mud crabs flown in daily from Indonesia are the hero proteins of the eatery’s robust and soulful dishes. Its standout dishes are its Negombo crab curry, a dish from the West Coast of Sri Lanka, a fiery Jaffna crab curry brightened by tamarind juice, and black pepper crabs that spotlight Sarawak black pepper. You’ll also be able to find a variety of dishes without its titular crustacean, from prawns swimming in sothi to mutton biryani.