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| Black Market Terrace |
Black Market – Beautiful Views and Tasty Food
Words by Naomi Martin
Photos by The Yum List (Monica Tindall)
Located beside the beautiful Royal Selangor Golf Club, Black Market offers fantastic views of greens and lush fairways, with the KL Petronas Towers standing proudly in the background. As soon as you drive into the parking lot, you find that there is an abundance of parking spaces - much appreciated in KL. The outside of the restaurant is rather ordinary. It’s not until you step inside that the sophisticated interior and lovely vistas are revealed.
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| Black Market |
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| Black Market Entrance |
First sight is a spiral staircase in the foyer adorned with bottles, and then an automated industrial metal sliding door uncloaks the swish dining room. It’s dimly lit and cool, with a window wall opening up to the verdant golf course landscape and an outdoor patio dotted with barrel tables and high stools. Soothing jazz tunes add a touch of warmth to the otherwise sleek interior.
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| Black Market Interior |
This restaurant offers good value quality dishes of both Asian and Western cuisine with a high presence of pork on the menu. The first dish that arrived at our table was the Black Egg, which is a Chinese style braised egg. It was coated and served in a dark, salty sauce, which on its own was overpowering but when combined with the egg formed the perfect combination. The egg was topped with salty dried fish, the type you sometimes see in Japanese snacks. At first it looks a bit like a century egg, but once you bite into it the sticky yolk immediately satisfies the taste buds. The chili sauce on the side has quite a bite to it, but is delicious if you can handle the heat.
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| Black Braised Egg (RM 7) |
Next up was the Porky Pancake. It was drizzled in chocolate and honey, which gave it a sweet, dessert-like taste. It was a flatter style pancake and my dining companions thought the dish could be improved a little with a fluffier batter. Along with the pancake came a piece of sausage and bacon, which were savoury and balanced the initial sweetness of the dish. This pancake is available as both a dessert dish and a breakfast dish.
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| Porky Pancakes (RM15) |
The next item we tried is a personal favorite of mine - the Spanish Platter. These cold cuts comprised chorizo (both hot thick chunks and cold slim slices), jamon Iberico, and fresh, juicy rock melon arcs. The sausages were slightly spicy, and the ham moderately salty - both full flavoured meats. Wrapping the ham around the melon gave a beautiful sweet and salty taste - an excellent balance of flavors.
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| Jamon Platter (RM28) |
After the delights of the first appetizers slowly started to melt away, the waiters brought out a gigantic Alaskan King Crab, more than two feet across! Black Market is now offering a promotion, where if you post the following flyer to your Facebook or Instagram account (flyer at the end of this post), you can get a RM60 discount from the original price. Please note this promotion only applies when you order the large size, not the half.
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| Steamed Alaskan Crab |
When it came, we each took our share of the crab - the legs, the claws, the body. The waiters provided us with gloves and scissors to help cut the crab open. The gloves are recommended, since the shell is rather spiky. When you finally succeed in cracking it open (which should be easy, since the chef makes small cuts in the shell to ease the process), you’ll find that the meat easily slides out. It has a brilliant, juicy, natural crab flavor, kept cold by the ice mound it’s served on. One of my fellow diners said he will never eat any crab again, unless it’s an Alaskan King Crab.
My dining partners paired the crustacean with a bottle of New Zealand sauvignon blanc. They report it a wonderful match for the fresh seafood. Light passionfruit on the nose and grapefruit in the mouth, with a clean crisp finish - they must have enjoyed it as by lunchtime's end, there was not a drop left.
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| Craggy Range Sauvignon Blanc |
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| More wine? Yes please! |
The next dish was the Five Star Truffle Egg Linguine. This was rather mild in flavor compared to the plates leading up to it. A creamy white sauce held the al dente pasta and a topping of black truffle pâté and a sunny side up egg completed the dish.
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| The Five Star Truffle Egg Linguine (RM28) |
Keeping to the Italian vibe, the vegetarian Truffle Mushroom Pizza followed. The crust was thin, just as the Italians make it, easing up on the carbs. It had a brilliant tomato sauce, topped with mushrooms, cheese and a black truffle pâté. The tomato-cheese combination makes this mouthwatering pizza burst with flavor. There was a piece of lettuce on each slice, which added a crunch and balanced the textures. I thought it simple, but delicious.
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| Truffle Mushroom Pizza (RM28) |
The last main course we sampled was the Iberico Pork Ribs. The flesh was succulent on the bone and the sauce moderately salty, not sweet like many rib sauces. A significant amount of herbs added an excellent, fresh flavor. This was another personal favorite.
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| Black Market Big 'S' Pork Ribs (RM42) |
Now, for dessert! The two desserts that were served were the B’iramisu (a Black Market version of tiramisu) and the Chocolate Lava Cake with Ice Cream. Both were extremely satisfying. The B’iramisu was infused with Illy coffee liqueur, giving it a nice coffee taste and moistening the spongy cake-y biscuits inside. The Chocolate Lava Cake is something all chocolate lovers should order. As soon as you cut it open, gooey chocolate starts to ooze out. It’s best eaten while still warm. A side of vanilla ice cream perfectly captured the taste of vanilla bean and made a lovely contrast in temperature.
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| 'B' iramisu (RM16) |
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| Oozing Choc Lava |
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| Americano (RM9) |
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| Latte (RM10) |
This restaurant is perfect for family outings, a get together with friends or even first dates. The views are pretty and the food delicious and good value. Just be sure to stop by before summer ends, so as to enjoy RM60 off the super large crab!
Reasons to visit: beautiful views of the Petronas towers and Royal Selangor Golf Club; kind staff; easy parking; Spanish Platter; Black Egg; Alaskan Crab special; Chocolate Lava Cake.
Black Market
16 Jalan Kampang Pandan (off Tun Razak)
Kuala Lumpur 504500
Malaysia
+6 017 321 8686
