iL Primo

If you want to put on a stone or two in weight, this is the restaurant for you. One stone is 6.3kg by the way and when you are as skinny as me, this sort of weight gain is more like a boulder than a stone;)

iL Primo is a fairly new restaurant featuring a massive line up of international cuisine that will have you clutching your burgeoning belly and wondering how you will fit that final morsel of dessert down your esophagus. This modern retro chic restaurant is headed by Chef Federico Michieletto and is the latest buzz word about Kuala Lumpur town. As you enter iL Primo and to your right, you will notice and area sectioned off, offering all kinds of pastas, brewed coffees for sale.. also freshly baked breads and gourmet cooking ingredients. Deeper into the restaurant you will find a dimly lit retro lounge where patrons can wait for their tables whilst sipping a Bellini or two. Take you pick from a massive selection of cocktails, wines, beers and liquors. 

P9176951

To your left, you will see the open concept kitchen. I have to say though, restaurant kitchens are amazing.. you get to see chefs hovering hungrily over a slab of raw tuna or a hunk of bloody steak..  I am kind of addicted to that air of mad panic that surrounds the kitchen and to be allowed to watch and partake in it is seriously fun.. gratifying even, but minus the stress of being the one who actually has to cook!

P9176921

massive open concept kitchen

P9176963

So what can one order here? Italian, Western, Chinese, Japanese and Seafood even.. you name it, they have got it. I don’t know about you, but I actually normally feel pretty dubious about a menu, that seems too extensive for its own good.

P9176935

The saying “Jack of all trades and master of none” comes to mind, but still, this group looks young and energetic and I am sure Chef Federico Michieletto being as experienced as he is, will not take on more than he and his team can chew. Which brings us to iL Primo.. we wanted to start chewing.

P9176954

Amuse bouche – cappuccino mushroom and salmon tamago

P9176969

Sashimi Chef’s Platter – A delightful medley of sushi, sashimi and air-flown seafood (market price)

P9176964

hungry for more?

P9176988


Fish and shellfish caciucco – Tuscany style RM48.00

P9176995

Homemade beef Cheek agnolotti with porcini mushrooms RM52.00

P9177000

Wok Fried Seafood – Garoupa spicy sauce RM145

P9177008

P9177011

Rustichellad’ abruzzoorechiette pasta with stewed rabbit RM42

P9177016

Other nice things we saw being served up, that was not ours;)

P9176929

Heads or Tails? Heads I win, Tails you lose your Chargrilled prawns!

P9176930

steak your claim before someone claims your steak!

P9177034

Gleefully yours, gelato

il primo1

What we liked about this restaurant..

Well, first things first. The most obvious thing we liked about this restaurant was the way it looked. Modern retro and well lit, this place puts you at ease and helps you settle into dining, pretty quickly.

The service was fast and discrete, and the waiters seemed to know what they were on about.

Then comes the food. I loved the rabbit pasta as they got everything right about this dish, down to the dot. The pasta was chewy , shy of al-dente i.e. almost bordering on undercooked and wow.., this sort of undercooked-ness in a pasta really gets under my skin! The rabbit meat was tender, succulent with a hint of fight in its cartilage. Its overall heady flavour was not gamy but richly flavorsome. Full marks for this dish.

The other item I found praise-worthy was the seafood bisque and the super fresh, sashimi platter. With the generous amount of shellfish and even the sacrificial crawfish thrown in for good measure, the bisque was a wonderful dish worthy of applause. The only complaint might be that it was a tad salty. I guess that’s what the bread is for.. dunk it in the broth to help take the edge off the saltiness.

P9176992

What we did not like about this restaurant..

We only got the sample the fish from the Chinese menu but we were not terribly impressed with the cooking style nor the freshness of the Garoupa in spicy sauce. I suppose growing up on the best that KL Chinese restaurants have to offer (fish swimming in a tank moments before it gets the knife), this fish was just passable and the flavour unimpressionable.

The other dish that was good but somewhat marred by the cooking technique was the homemade beef Cheek agnolotti with porcini mushrooms. The pasta was overcooked and the musky scent of the truffle oil actually overpowered what would otherwise have been a terrific dish. Somehow, the over enthusiastic employment of truffle flavouring ended up masking the natural flavours of the beef cheek from really making its presence felt in the dish.

All in all, a great night out. Thank you Fairy Makan Godmother , Marian for organizing such a superb event. We will be back with our friends/colleagues/family members to try the other items on the menu really soon.

Add:
IL PRIMO,
No. 26 & 28, Jalan Kia Peng,
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2143 2798
Business hours: Daily; lunch,
12noon-3pm; tea, 3pm-5pm;
dinner 6pm-11pm.
Sunday brunch: 11am-3pm.
Lounge: Sun-Thurs, 11am-1am;
Fri, Sat, public holidays, 11am-3am
Pork free.
Google Maps

20 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *