Steak and pasta combination
Taman Tun Dr Ismail has always been a hotbed for middle to high-end restaurants in Kuala Lumpur.

That being said, it hasn’t always been one of my favorite places to visit due to the challenging parking situation. However, there’s always an exception to the rule, especially if the restaurant is situated in a building with basement parking. Makes life so much easier!

We were served the Chilled Aged Grain-Fed Porterhouse Steak (RM368, min. 700g). Porterhouse consists of a smaller portion of tenderloin and a bigger portion of top loin, separated by the T-bone. The meat comes with potato and vegetables, plus a choice of bearnais, red wine sauce, green peppercorn sauce or mushroom sauce. Medium rare, the way to go for meats, yielded perfect results.

Director’s Cut is operated by the people who are no strangers to the KL food scene, having first set up El Cerdo almost 20 years ago, and still running a number of outlets such as The Whisky Bar KL, The Steakhouse KL and Dining in the Dark KL. This is their latest venture – at Menara KEN in TTDI, offering prime steaks and artisan pasta. We were invited to sample a few of their dishes one afternoon.

The restaurant itself is split into two sections: a bar and lounge area, and a dining room. The interior decor was tastefully done without being dramatic, and I appreciate that it is bright and inviting enough of a space to even bring a baby. There’s also a baby grand piano at a corner; I’m assuming there’s music on some nights?

The menu is a four-pager with two dedicated to pastas and meats, one for salads/appetisers, and another half page for desserts. Nothing overly complicated.

The Spaghetti Fruitti Di Mare All’ Aglio Olio was one of the homemade pastas in the menu. Homemade in this context meant that the dough was made in-house, and the eggs sourced from their Penang Hill farm. There were a couple of huge tiger prawns, Hokkaido scallops and what turned out to be our favorite – octopus tentacles. This seafood pasta was simple yet beautifully done.

You can’t go to a place with artisan pasta without giving it a try, so we had the seafood pasta. We also had Chilled Aged Grain-fed Porterhouse Steak but skipped dessert and, dinner after that, as we had enough food to last a day for the two of us, especially since we wiped down every plate!

KY Teoh has been trying to influence your food cravings since 2005. He was NTV7 Foodie Blogger 2014, R.A.GE Food Fight Judge 2015 and Versus 1001 Rasa Baba’s Guest Judge 2018. Read more about his food jaunts at KYspeaks.com
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Our guest foodie savours prime steak in style.