KL Restaurant Week 2024 – Kenny Hills Bistro
Words: Monica Tindall
Photos: Matt Wehner
After two stellar editions, KL Restaurant Week returns from October 11-27, 2024, with 37 restaurants participating over 17 days. First introduced in New York in 1992, Restaurant Week lets diners explore prix fixe menus at top restaurants at accessible prices. This year’s event offers set lunches starting at RM58 and dinners at RM78. Michelin honorees like Kayra, Sushi Masa, Wagyu Kappo Yoshida, and Tenmasa headline, while newcomers like Coast by Kayra, Fritz at Troika Sky Dining and more offer exclusive menus.
KL Restaurant Week 2024 at Kenny Hills Bistro
Today, we’re checking out what Kenny Hills Bistro offers for KL Restaurant Week 2024. Starting as a small wholesome bakery in the green suburb of Bukit Tunku, the Kenny Hills brand has since overtaken the city with outlets dotted across Kuala Lumpur. Their bistro, located on the ground floor on the back of the Shoppes at Four Seasons Place, is a unique branch, adding hearty European fare, wine and cocktails to the bakery café menu they are celebrated for.
There are options for indoor air-conditioned seating or covered semi-alfresco dining. I’m partial to the great outdoors and appreciate the abundance of potted plants Kenny Hills Bistro nourishes, creating a green separation to the adjacent street. However, indoors is also an attractive setting with a bakery counter providing flaky temptations and a central bar adding some liquid entertainment. If you love the outdoors as I do, you might plan your experience for a Sunday or later evenings to avoid the noise of the construction across the road.
KL Restaurant Week 2024 – Kenny Hills Bistro Menu
Kenny Hills Bistro serves a three-course dinner menu (RM260++ for two pax) for KL Restaurant Week 2024. Guests can choose one starter and one main course each, and one dessert to share. Considering that most starters hover around RM50, mains around RM70, and desserts around the RM30 mark, the menu offers decent value for money. The set is available from October 11 to 27, and there are two seatings, one at 6 pm and one at 8 pm.
Starters
There are three choices for starters: Oxtail Soup, Bruschetta, and Mediterranean Couscous Salad. The latter is a meat-free option. The soup is a rich broth of root vegetables and meat with the bone in, maximising the flavours. Thick finger slices of toasted white rosemary loaf feel classic yet fancy.
The bruschetta is a pretty trio of sourdough slices topped with an abundance of beef bacon and tomato salsa, lightly sprinkled with shredded parmesan. It’s a generous serving, loaded with meat and carbs.
Lastly, the salad is a taste of the Mediterranean plumped with couscous, halved cherry tomatoes, roasted capsicum, beetroot slices, creamed spinach and lettuce. The bowl is seasoned with a balsamic dressing with Dijon mustard, honey, black pepper and olive oil. It mixes with the creamed spinach, balancing its potential acidity.
Main Courses
Four main courses are for the picking: vegetarian, fish, lamb and beef. While we’re encouraged to try all four, we’re only three stomachs, so we let go of the lamb, although it sounds delicious with turmeric, yoghurt, and pilaf rice.
Even the meat lovers on our table say they’d be satisfied with the vegetarian dish Wild Mushroom & Truffle Risotto; it’s so hearty and tasty. The carnaroli rice has a nice chew to it, and the piquant flavours of parmesan balance the earthiness of the porcini.
The seafood recipe, Malabar Fish & Provencal Sauce, features a seared fish fillet accompanied by a fennel salad and Provencal sauce. The sauce is rich, caramelised and garlicky, with capers lending a light acidic finish.
The Argentinian Angus Tenderloin is the heaviest of the mains, with a beautiful 180gm round of corn-fed Angus beef. It’s easy to slice in, barely resisting the knife, and my fork comes out with a tender slice of pink flesh with grill marks on the edges. On the side, there’s a tower of pomme boulangère and mushroom mustard sauce in a petite jug to add to taste.
Desserts
Desserts are made for sharing, with your pick of profiteroles, chocolate fondant or granita. Once more, we’re only three stomachs, and these plates are meant for two, so we do our best to try the ice cream-filled pastries and apple ice.
Mini Profiteroles with Homemade Ice Cream showcase what first made Kenny Hills famous – their incredible pastries. Crispy craquilen profiteroles are filled with coffee and vanilla ice cream, resembling mini, sweet burgers. They’re served with a seductive drizzle of warm chocolate sauce over the top.
The Frozen Apple Granita provides a lighter, more refreshing option with frozen apple cubes, apple jelly, vanilla sponge, vanilla ice cream and granita pooling in the middle of a plate. The pretty tower is partially covered with thin meringue shards sprinkled with green apple powder.
Kenny Hills Bistro Cocktail Menu
Such a lovely menu deserves some liquid companionship, and what makes Kenny Hills Bistro stand out from its siblings are its cocktail menu and wine list. We toast KL Restaurant Week 2024 with two of their signatures: Ava Morin (RM42) and Gin-Ger Fizz (RM42). The first is a cool thirst quencher on a base of torch ginger-infused gin, topped up with guava, lemon, orange bitters and a foamy top. The second is sweet and tangy with a whisper of spice thanks to gin, calamansi, strawberry and homemade ginger beer.
Wine List
Kenny Hills Bistro serves eight wines by the glass (most at RM36), and it has a compact selection of red, white, and bubbly bottles. Keeping things fresh, they also have monthly wine promotions featuring a certain producer or region. This month, it’s a duo from Latin America, the Chilean Los Vascos Sauvignon Blanc (RM40) – aromatic, mouth-filling and with bright acidity – and the Argentinian Caro Aruma Malbec (RM42) – bold dark fruits, balanced tannins and a lingering finish. The white is well suited to our Mediterranean salad and fish, and the red is a complementary companion to the steak.
Kenny Hills Bistro KL Restaurant Week 2024 Review
KL Restaurant Week 2024 invites diners to discover the abundance of quality food on our doorstep. With 37 restaurants participating and menus beginning at RM58, it’s a highly enticing time to explore KL’s kitchen. The menu at Kenny Hills Bistro is just the right size, and we appreciate that each course has a meat-free option. It’s hard to pick our favourites from the set. Still, if choosing for dinner tonight, I’d go with the salad, fish and granita with a glass of sauvignon blanc for a lighter pick, or oxtail soup, beef, profiteroles and a glass of Malbec for something heavier.
Reasons to visit Kenny Hills Bistro for KL Restaurant Week 2024: a lovely three-course set menu just right for two people; vegetarian choices; quality cocktails and wine list as support; we like the green semi-alfresco patio in the evenings; our fave dishes are the fish, beef and risotto.
KL Restaurant Week 2024
KL Restaurant Week runs from October 11-27, 2024.
Lunch menus start at RM58, and dinner menus begin at RM78.
Find the full list of participating restaurants and menus at https://restaurantweek.diningcity.my
Kenny Hills Bistro
G-07 (B), Ground Floor, Shoppes at Four Seasons Place
145, Jalan Ampang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Link to Kenny Hills Bistro on Google Maps
restaurantweek.diningcity.my/lang/en/cities/kualalumpur/restaurants/khbistro
*Vegetarian choices available
*Prices are ++
*Parking underneath Shoppes at Four Seasons, across the road in KLCC or cheaper options in Wisma Central next door
*Nearest LRT Station: KLCC
Kenny Hills Bistro Opening Hours
Daily: 8 am–10 pm
Find more of our Kuala Lumpur favourites here and stay up-to-date on the latest happenings in KL’s food and beverage scene with The Yum List on Instagram and The Yum List on Facebook.