Ms. Jazz Reviews: Millesimme @ Solaris Dutamas

A contemporary cuisine with personal touch. Millesimme is another brainchild of Chef Max Chin of former Max @ Ihaus or Max! Kitchen and Wines and this time he decided to bring his culinary journey to a greater height. With his passion for food and undeniable talent and experience in cooking modern cuisines, you will wonder what the friendly Chef has up to his sleeve for this new establishment.

One should enter Millesimme with an open mind and let them surprise you with their degustation menu of the day. Yup, you heard right. Max’s newest establishment has only one menu – the Chef’s menu. Over here, you will set aside the common worry of what to order. The degustation menu comes in 5 courses dinner of RM150++ per pax with a lovely combination of amuse bouche, appetizers, main course, and dessert. The good news is, they change their menu by daily so it prompts a motivation of frequent visits.

While I had my reservations about the approach of serving only degustation menu in a restaurant (as it is still pretty new concept in KL dining scene- most restaurant serve ala carte menu with the degustation menu as an option), it is always a challenging business operation to depend on one person to run the show, but having to chat with the Chef and understand his thoughts and directions, I felt perhaps he is right for the job after all. However, the immediate challenge that I can foresee in the future is that diners are expecting Max himself to be behind the kitchen and when not, will be disappointed. Let’s hope it won’t affect them by much.

It was a task looking for the restaurant, having not been to Solaris Dutamas on a frequent basis because I always find parking a hassle there. Millesimme is located on ground floor towards the end of the block, near the driving entrance of the condominium. For the convenience of their diners, the restaurant blocked up several pavement parkings directly outside the restaurant purely for diners use only.

The atmosphere of the restaurant is warm and semi-formal with a seating capacity rough calculation of approx 40pax. A large open-concept kitchen stood proudly at the corner of the restaurant occupying almost 1/3 of the restaurant. The best thing is, now you can spy on Chef Max during his workings.

A good selection of wine was lined up against the side wall, with no wine menu at the present, you can either walk over to browse through the selection, or tell the manager to come up with the recommendation. We settled with Grand Vin de Bordeaux- Chateau de Seguin (RM140) for the night

 Started off with the amuse bouche of  Marlin fish (correct me if im wrong) smoky, light, tasty, and simple in presentation. A bit plain in sight, but the flavours works wonders.

First degustation course of Air Dried Beef Loin with Black truffle vinnigrette was enjoyable. The beef is a melt in your mouth sensation couple with some fresh leaves, light and crunchy.

By far my favourite dish of the night was the Cod fish with Asparagus cream. A creamy wonder topped with fish roes that explodes in your mouth. A sensation mix of both textures and flavours. I lapped it all up in no time.

Sweet Bread with duck breast, goose liver terrine and port wine sauce works nicely for me, I really appreciate the texture of the meat, it was tender and moist and the marriage of flavours in the palate works well together.
By now, i'm eating each dish with appreciation, looking forward to the main course between a choice of meat and seafood.

First option for main course is the Lamb cutlet on eggplant stew with classic mint sauce, which YJ commented that she really liked the texture of the lamb, it was soft but has a nice bite to it, but i thought it tasted a bit bland.

Sea scallops, Seared rare tuna loin and smoked anchovies with black olives tapenade. Applaud for searing the tuna loin right (nice and rare in between) but the flavour combination didnt quite do it for it for me. I remembered i liked the seared tuna loin very much back in Max @ Ihaus, but i cant quite capture what is wrong with this dish.

To cap if off, those familiar with Chef Max’s other outlets will be familiar with the Valrhona bitter chocolate souffled with hazelnut ice cream as it was also previously served in Max @ Ihaus. Fairly satisfying, though I wish the chocolate was a little bit more runny and intense.

One thing I enjoyed about this degustation menu was the simplicity in taste, when it comes to eating 5 or 6 courses a night, you tastebud will soon be pretty confused on what you are eating, but the particular one served on the night was fairly delicate and well thought of.

By the way, i just had my haircut. =P

Our Bill came up to approx RM230+ per pax with wine.

Ratings:

Food: 7/10

(Be pleasantly surprise with the menu of the day! Heard they are running white truffle menu for this month, do call up for more info)

Ambience: 6.5/10

(Good for quiet slow dinners)

Food Presentation: 7/10

Service: 8/10 

(Friendly and efficient)

Overall: 7/10

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Millesimme

Ground Floor, Menara Kencana Petroleum

Solaris Dutamas, KL

Tel: 03-6211 0648