Nook, Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral: All-You-Can Eat Lah

Sarawak laksa served steaming-hot; salmon that's straight from the teppan; steaks seared sizzlingly to order: Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral has reimagined the hotel buffet experience at its flagship Nook restaurant with an all-you-can-eat selection that's cooked à la minute and sent to your table.

With around 50 dishes whipped up by nine live stations, this is a safe, comfortable way to savour an all-you-can-eat spread, without the queues of a typical buffet.

Eat Lah is available for dinner, 6pm–10pm, Thursday to Saturday, and is currently offered at a ‘Welcome Back’ promotional price of RM98 nett per person (normal price is RM138 nett). Children under 12 receive 50% off this promotional price. 

Double Happiness when you Eat Lah!

Things just got even more exciting when you Eat Lah at Nook – Aloft is now giving you the chance to win a free stay every week. And for this week (August 6–8), enjoy an even further discounted price of RM88 (normal price RM138 nett). Plus, monthly lucky draw winners will win a stay at a sister property.

To redeem your RM88 free meal:

Like Aloft’s latest Instagram post on Eat Lah
Follow Aloft on Instagram
Tag 3 friends in the comments whom you think would enjoy Eat Lah

Once this is done, the hotel will message you with your exclusive discount code – valid only for this week, August 6–8.
For the lucky draw, while dining at Eat lah, you’ll be given a form to fill out. Weekly winners will be announced every Saturday to win a free one-night stay. Even if you don’t win the weekly stay, the hotel will award one lucky person a stay at a sister property on the last Saturday of each month, from now until September. Winners will be contacted separately.

For guests who remain vigilant about health precautions, Nook's measures are reassuring, with seating that abides by social distancing regulations. Each table has a maximum of 10 persons; larger groups will be split across separate tables.

All the friendly staff members ensure the food is professionally prepared and hygienically served; Nook also undergoes frequent sanitisation, so you can sit back, relax and relish a worry-free evening.

Ordering is straightforward, using cards and pens provided by Nook - typically, many orders took about five minutes to prepare, so there was minimal waiting. With utensils in clear bags and alcohol wipes provided, we felt completely in secure hands, kicking off our dinner with complimentary canapes that change everyday - tuna with cucumber and potatoes with cucumber offered a refreshing start for our evening.



Longtime fans of Aloft KLS know there are two local favourites that have a firm place in the hotel's heart. Both are beautifully represented in the Eat Lah buffet.

Sarawak laksa has been available here since the beginning (fun fact: the current show-runners of Aloft KLS are Sarawak-born). This is as authentic as what you'd find in Kuching, with the laksa paste sourced from the same Sarawak supplier for more than seven years now. It's rich in santan and spices, offering a lovely kick that'll keep you slurping till the end.

Aloft's 'legendary biryani gam' is another Eat Lah highlight - claypot rice completed with chicken, cashews, boiled eggs, raisins and acar. It's moist, melt-in-the-mouth comfort fare, with savoury and tangy flavours harmoniously complementing each other, balanced by a gentle sweetness from honey that makes this a distinctively marvellous rendition of biryani. A vegetarian version is also available.

From Sarawak to the south of the peninsula: Another Malaysian must-have is the assam pedas Melaka, paying homage to the historic state, braised painstakingly for an hour with ginger, shallots, garlic, chilli paste, daun kesom and bunga kantan.

If you're an assam pedas aficionado, you might notice a bonus in this recipe - belacan, which adds extra depth and dimension to this spicy-sour signature. We had ours with flaky, fleshy sea bass; it's also offered with a choice of salmon, prawns or vegetables.

The assam pedas showcases one of the benefits of Nook's Eat Lah - with everything cooked to order, flavours and textures feel significantly fresher and more satisfying than the average buffet, where food might be sitting in heated chafing dishes for an hour or two.

If protein is your pick, Nook promises fire-fuelled primal pleasure for beef and fish.

Grilled to your preferred doneness (or medium-well by default), seasoned purely with salt and pepper, the Australian grain-fed sirloin is a smooth, succulent minute steak, slicked up with hickory BBQ sauce for extra smokiness, rounded out with a garlic mash for a mini meat-and-potatoes meal. We'd happily have seconds of this (and since this is a buffet, we could have!).

Norwegian salmon surfaces from the teppan, cooked separately with vegetables to ensure both maintain their original nuances, mixed in the end with a sweet, shoyu-based tamari sauce and sprinkled with bonito flakes for unmistakable Japanese flavours. Other teppan offerings include chicken, beef, prawns, squid and vegetables.

Pastas also profit from the cooked-to-order theme, turning out al dente in preparations like prawn aglio e olio, tossed with a fine blend of chopped garlic and sauteed capsicum, showered with parmesan and a choice of protein like prawns. This is a little less oily than conventional aglio olio, perfect if you're looking for a lower-guilt indulgence.

If you're a cheese chaser, order the mac 'n' cheese, luxuriant with mozzarella, cheddar and cream cheese. Surprisingly, it's not cloying at all, a testament to the Nook culinary team's confident capabilities, so you'll probably have no trouble polishing the plate.

There's much, much more to still discover and sample here, from Thai beef salad to steamed dim sum, petite burger-loving sliders to slices of lamb.
 

Desserts don't disappoint either - aside from chilled temptations like ABC with Milo tabor or teh tarik ice cream, you can also order a platter of three desserts that change daily.

These desserts are beautifully conceived - our centrepiece was a brownie popsicle that resembles a Magnum ice cream bar, made with 70 percent French dark chocolate, flanked by a rainbow-hued sponge cake layered with buttercream on one side, and an irresistible coffee cheesecake with Philadelphia cream cheese and an Oreo crumb base on the other. On other days, the platter might comprise treats like red velvet cake, chocolate mousse, or fruit tartlets.

All in all, Nook's Eat Lah dinner service is a very strong effort by Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral, making buffets as enjoyable as ever or even more. Many thanks to the team here for having us.

Reserve a table or find out more by contacting the hotel at 03-2723-1154 or email kulal.b&[email protected]

Eat Lah @ Nook, Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral
5, Jalan Stesen Sentral, 50470 Kuala Lumpur. Website: www.aloftkualalumpursentral.com

This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com

Still Waters, Hotel Maya: Saturday Japanese Buffets

Platters of sashimi and sushi, freshly prepared to order; kushiyaki-style skewers, grilled before your eyes; oysters, mussels, black cod, squid and prawns, served hot from the kitchen: Still Waters run deep indeed at Hotel Maya Kuala Lumpur's flagship Japanese restaurant, which has launched an all-you-can-eat a la carte buffet that promises substantial value, with more than 78 dishes for RM78 nett per person (or RM40 for children between five to 12 years old). It's a weekly exclusive at Still Waters, currently every Saturday afternoon, 12pm-3pm, at least until the end of June, offering a strong reason to return to a restaurant that has endured for over a decade in the city centre.

Many of the buffet's specialities are assembled or cooked immediately after you order them, curtailing the wastage of typical buffets and ensuring your food reaches your table straight from the kitchen brigade's hands. 

Naturally, sashimi and sushi rank among the highlights of a meal like this, with tender slices of salmon, salmon, tuna and butter fish ensuring that the raw-fish highlights for many Malaysians are accounted for, while nigiri-type sushi draped with shrimp, octopus, crab sticks or tamagoyaki might keep many customers ordering seconds or thirds. Unlimited helpings of hand rolls, stuffed with everything from salmon with mayo to chicken karaage, also hit the spot for the first items to tick off on this buffet.

The ocean's bounty is well-represented, served in multiple styles that span the Japanese cookbook, from tempura to teriyaki. Molluscs muscle their way to the top of our favourites, including mussels striped with mentaiko sauce and oysters in the classic deep-fried kaki furai preparation. Butter prawns are another guilty indulgence; with crustaceans this lusciously plump and richly flavoured, calories shouldn't count for this weekend feast. Fans of fish can order the salt-grilled mackerel, fried shishamo, and black cod in robust batayaki sauce, with some squid in teriyaki sauce to round out this parade of the sea's pleasures. Portions are prudent, so you can order a preliminary sampling to share before choosing whether to have another round of that recipe.

Choices are also abundant for chicken yakitori and other skewered meat, mushrooms and vegetables, charcoal-cooked for that unmistakable smokiness. Round out with the fundamental carbs of Japanese cuisine - our favourite is the garlic fried rice, as aromatic as any, but the mini bara chirashi don raw fish rice bowl and ramen in umami-swathed miso soup merit a mention.

Beyond the buffet's a la carte orders, an extensive spread is available on the counters - with oden increasingly popular in KL, here's a lovely way to savour bowl after bowl of this soulful soy-flavoured stew, brimming with fish cakes, daikon and konjac. Fried fare also seeks the spotlight, spanning staples like meat-packed gyoza and vegetable-based kakiage and yasai tempura.

Chawanmushi, California maki, futomaki, tuna and ebiko sandwiches, Japanese tofu with seasoned baby octopus - the selection seems encyclopedic, with more than enough to ensure everyone leaves satiated at the end of the three hours. Desserts are no less diverse, though our heart will always belong to ice cream, with multiple scoops to call our own.

It's been a long time since we last visited Hotel Maya, but we've consistently relished our experiences here, dating back to more than a decade ago. From top to bottom, the hotel's F&B options remain enticing and engaging, from the sky lounge that supplies a sweeping 13th-floor view of the city skyline from a distinctive perspective, for in-house guests and private events, complete with a cosy mini library and even a boardroom, to the all-day-dining venue Maya Brasserie and Ramah Tamah deli - everything we'd need for a staycation, illustrating why Hotel Maya is popular for that purpose, besides business travellers.

There's much to explore and discover within the hotel, from intriguing architectural flourishes to vibrant open spaces that underscore its reputation as a boutique 'urban resort,' a soothing sanctuary for the soul that's only a short stroll from KLCC.

Many thanks to the Hotel Maya team for having us.

Still Waters
Hotel Maya Kuala Lumpur, 138, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. Tel: +603-2711-8866 ext 260

This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com