F Concept Dining by Buffalo Kitchens

May 2011

The steps leading up to the restaurant were chalked with the message ‘F. To. Welcome. Hi.’ Or possibly I was reading that the wrong way round. The cute personal messages continued in the scrawled menus, listing a short but eclectic selection ranging from the enticingly plain ‘steak and potatoes’ to the sophisticated sesame steak with fennel salad and several bizarre-sounding combinations such as chicken teriyaki roulade with risotto.

However, a word to the wise to menumakers out there, if you’re trying to catch my attention, bizarre-sounding is the way to go. It was the work of a moment to call over the waitress and place my order for this unlikely French-Japanese-Italian hybrid.

While waiting for that and the rest of our order to arrive, we walked past the ‘library’ (a raised area with two very small tables and a few dozen books on subjects as diverse as talking animals and an encyclopaedia of anaesthesia) and sat on the balcony, ploughing through a rather brilliant and reasonably priced shiraz cabernet. Being directly above Chawan on the intersection between the two Bangsar Villages, the balcony at F is a fine spot for people-watching and kicking back after a busy week at work. Especially when combined with a decent bottle of plonk.

The food arrived quickly, having been prepared and cooked in the open kitchen within the dining room, and the table quickly found themselves leaning across each other, cutting bits off each others’ food for tasting. This is how eating out should be; people genuinely intrigued and excited by each others’ meals. There were no short cuts or clichés in the menu so everyone was eating something that couldn’t be found anywhere else in the city.

That’s not to say everything was perfect in quality terms. Their signature risotto dishes were divinely created but too salty and the ingredient sourcing needs work as the chicken in the roulade was mediocre, albeit cooked brilliantly so it barely mattered. The barramundi was solid without being spectacular, but again beautifully cooked.

Rounding the meal off with a staggeringly delicious dark chocolate espresso mousse and petite eton mess, we were left to reflect on the name of this six month-old restaurant. It was less a case of WTF than Why The F? Still, and this goes for the whole experience; the chalk on the steps, the ‘library’ and the singular menu – sometimes when you eat out, it’s just as satisfying to be presented with questions rather than solutions. Matthew Bellotti

Awards

Food 40 is our monthly, definitive guide for where to eat in the Klang Valley. No entry into the Food 40 has provided any Time Out team member with a free meal or other incentive. If you have eaten somewhere that you think should rank amongst KL's top 40, email us and we'll check it out: [email protected].