KUALA LUMPUR, June 13 — Three years ago, Playte closed to the dismay of its regulars who enjoyed the contemporary European offerings with an Asian tilt served at the Damansara Heights eatery.
Many mourned the loss of their superb, aged duck, labelled by some as “best duck in the Klang Valley”, lovingly prepared by Playte’s chef owner Brendon Chen, a tribute to his childhood favourite, the Peking Duck.
Well, these same fans will be ecstatic to find out that Chen is back with an intimate chef’s counter at Cézanne which is tucked inside Plaza Arkadia.
Located inside Qing Gallery, the restaurant’s sombre brown and grey palette comes as a surprise as you have to walk through the gallery’s wave of colours and bold expressions to reach it.
The restaurant’s quiet ambience describes Chen’s approach which is born out of his Le Cordon Bleu days with stints in Taipei’s Mume, Sitka and Nadodi; see him quietly painting a plethora of small modern European plates that subtly touch on Chinese and local elements.
There’s one tasting menu, ranging in size between five-courses (RM348++ a person) or seven-courses (RM548++ a person), with an option to add wine pairing or a juice and tea pairing.
Your meal opens with two refined one-bite snacks such as a seaweed tartlet and braised abalone in pai tee shell.
The crisp ebony black tartlet with burnt chilli pesto and tiny chopped century egg, may sound like a wacky flavour combination but its restrained heat, cooled off with the tofu cream and a whisper of savouriness from the jellied preserved egg whites rather than the pungency from the yolk.
The second one-bite leans more towards a mix of textures and subtle flavours, as a pai tee shell cradles chopped braised abalone, shiso, avocado, a subtle ginger mayonnaise crowned with bits of fried kale reminiscent of seaweed.
There is also the sourdough bread paired with a divine butter with an intriguing saltiness, using fermented black beans.
Refreshing and light striped jack is combined with tomato water and sprinkled with ginger flower powder. — Picture by Lee Khang Yi
The first course is the striped jack presented with a clear tomato water and fig vinegar dotted with fig leaf oil, showered with ginger flower snow, giving it an ethereal smoky mist, leaving a clean yet complex flavour on the tongue as the floral fragrance tickles your nostrils.
A perfectly seared Hokkaido scallop sits on curry, where spicy notes are tempered with the sweetness from pear and pumpkin, layered with smoked eggplant puree, fried preserved radish, and pucuk manis.
The bright orange curry with just a hint of spiciness dotted with curry leaf oil, balances out the plump scallop finished with kulim brown butter, making one wish you could mop up the curry with a piece of bread.
Pan seared Hokkaido scallop is placed on a pear and pumpkin curry, smoked eggplant and ‘pucuk manis’. — Picture by Lee Khang Yi
The push-and-pull of flavours from refreshing to slightly spicy, switches into a delicate mode with the soy milk and duck egg custard, dotted with earthy maitake mushrooms, almonds and salt baked jicama for crunch.
A beautiful golden hued caramelised onion broth pulses up the silky chawan mushi with a delicate sweet, umami flavour from the slow cooked onions.
Soy milk custard is a dreamy dish with maitake mushrooms and golden caramelised onion broth. — Picture by Lee Khang Yi
As you’re introduced to the sea bream dish, you might be thinking that the pickled green chillies are an outlier.
Turns out it’s Chen’s interpretation of a sharks fin soup where the slightly thick broth is replaced with a refreshing sake and fish broth with flower crab and edamame beans, paired with a flaky sea bream and crunchy rice puffs.
Sea bream is served with a sake and fish broth, flower crab, edamame beans, rice puffs and the unusual pickled green chillies. — Picture by Lee Khang Yi
Then it’s time for the main event, a choice of their aged duck or Japanese A4 wagyu beef with an oxtail and coffee sauce.
With the selection of the aged duck, the first part is an interpretation of Peking duck pancakes, where a buckwheat pancake uses a duck leg confit shaped into a roll, to be eaten like a Mexican taco.
Sweet soybean sauce is swapped for a cherry and black garlic puree, a nod towards the classic French canard aux cerises dish where duck is paired with a tart cherry jam.
On the side, one gets an unexpected flavour in the form of a yuba tartlet filled with yellow wine-marinated foie gras parfait and pineapple.
Duck leg confit with buckwheat pancake and cherry and black garlic puree (left) takes inspiration from Peking duck pancakes and yuba tartlet with yellow wine ‘foie gras’ parfait and pineapple (right) is a burst of sweetness and creaminess. — Picture by Lee Khang Yi
It’s a melange of sweetness from the wine that floods the mouth with one bite, followed by creaminess from the foie gras and the refreshing pineapple.
The 14-days aged duck was as good or maybe even better than I remembered, with a thin, crispy skin together with the moist, juicy meat, on a tamarind and mandarin peel jus.
The chef’s famous 14-days aged duck with crispy skin and juicy meat is excellent. — Picture by Lee Khang Yi
As we wind down for desserts, an ulam granita with a cocktail of pickled guava, kedondong juice and dill oil, cleanses the palate with its puckering refreshness,
Dessert takes inspiration from the classic morning coffee shop ritual with their modern rendition of roti bakar. There’s also banana madeleine and a choux puff with pandan mochi and gula Melaka cream for petit fours.
The cloud-like roti bakar reinterpretation starts with a base of French toast, where the egg is in the custard soaked bread, pan fried to replicate the toasty flavours.
‘Roti bakar’ is reinvented into a dessert of French toast, Earl Grey ice cream, ‘pandan kaya’ mousse and brown butter powder. — Picture by Lee Khang Yi
Your cup of tea is reimagined into a smooth Earl Grey ice cream with pandan kaya mousse, topping the bread and given a final flourish of brown butter powder.
It’s definitely a show stopper to end a meal that tugged on nostalgic flavours with Chinese and Asian links, cleverly conceptualised with European techniques, and cooked right in front of you at the chef’s table.
Cézanne Restaurant,
Block C-GF-01, Plaza Arkadia,
3, Jalan Intisari,
Desa Parkcity, Kuala Lumpur.
Open: 6pm to 11pm (Tuesday to Saturday)
Closed on Sunday and Monday
Tel: 012-5773229.
Website: @cezannekl
Instagram: @cezanne.my
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
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