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.
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!
massive open concept kitchen
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.
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.
Amuse bouche – cappuccino mushroom and salmon tamago
Sashimi Chef’s Platter – A delightful medley of sushi, sashimi and air-flown seafood (market price)
hungry for more?
Fish and shellfish caciucco – Tuscany style RM48.00
Homemade beef Cheek agnolotti with porcini mushrooms RM52.00
Wok Fried Seafood – Garoupa spicy sauce RM145
Rustichellad’ abruzzoorechiette pasta with stewed rabbit RM42
Other nice things we saw being served up, that was not ours;)
Heads or Tails? Heads I win, Tails you lose your Chargrilled prawns!
steak your claim before someone claims your steak!
Gleefully yours, gelato
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.
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
Hm~ Me love, me love! Love the photography of Sashimi Chef’s Platter.
Gelato.. mmmm…
This article, photos are amazing girl!
But I don’t want to get a stone of two weight… Should I run then?? 😀
And going global, that’s awesome. 🙂
Juno, going international.. as in going to eat international cuisine laaaa 😛 LOL
rm145 for a garoupa drowned in sauce? erm no thanks..
the sashimi seems lost in an array of pasta, dont u think? no link like that.
fish was a bit on the steep side but the sashimi was great!
Rabbit pasta! Yummy yummy… I’ve been such a carnivore-and-carbivore of late, so any sorta succulent meat + rice/pasta/noodle combo is really calling to me. 😀
me too. I loved this dish!
I’m going to down 2 bowls of rice later this evening
ROFLMAO!
Yummmmy! Sorry to hear the beef agnolotti was slightly disappointing. Out of all your photos, I actually gravitated to that dish. However, everything looks superb, thanks to your awesome photography!
thank u dah-leng Jen;)
wow, with so many different types of cuisine up their repertoire, i’m surprise they could even perfect a few.. but from what you said, I reckon their pasta deserves a try..
that’s right;)
Oooh. The desserts look good… Such cute little macarons! Perfect for one mouthful? 😀
J, yeah the macaron were so-so.. but the gelato was awesome;)
Cappuccino mushroom and salmon tamago looks so yummy, how much will that dish cost in Malaysia? It looks very expensive. What was your ISO in the room, these shots are so clear and bright very beautiful.
I’m shooting with flash darling.. that’s why the colors are so vivid. the place is DARK man.. would die w/o a flash LOL!
Stewed rabbit RM42 = Winner! Love Rabbit, if it’s done well. Count this as a place to eat!
Great photos in this post!
DAVE! rabbit stew for you 😛 errr… in this case rabbit pasta YEAH!
OMG! The pictures are gorgeous. But the prices are crazy!!!!!
agree. I mean thanks. HAHAHAHHAHA