The Food - Part 5 (Royal Dream)

It's been a while since I made a food post, so here we go!

On our 5th or 6th night in KL, after a few nights of street food and an interesting experience with Chinese hot pot, we were in the mood for some Arabic food.

Google showed us a few options nearby, and we settled on Royal Dream, which touted itself as serving authentic Lebanese/Syrian/Yemeni food. The reviews looked good, so we decided to give it a try. We're so glad we did!

We almost missed the entrance, as the restaurant itself is upstairs and the street signage wasn't all that obvious. Given how much neon and competing signage there is on a typical street in KL, it's understandable that it got a bit lost.

But after doubling back through the lineup at a very popular eatery on the corner just past our destination, we found the doorway leading up to Royal Dream. As soon as we opened the door we had a feeling we were in for a treat.

We figured that the stairs up were a good thing, since the climb was bound to help us burn off some of the calories we were about to consume.

We were greeted warmly and shown to a table on the balcony, after deciding we'd prefer to take in the outdoor ambiance while we dined. The table was set simply yet elegantly (notice the lack of a knife), and our server presented menus then disappeared.

As we soon discovered, the custom in Middle Eastern dining is for servers to remain discretely out of the way, only to appear instantly the moment a diner so much as turns their head to look for a server. It was unobtrusive yet attentive service at its best.

The decor inside the restaurant was beautiful, and I was captivated by these gorgeous ceiling lamps.

Ordering was the hard part, as the menu was extensive and we just couldn't decide. In the end, we opted to make a meal out of assorted appies, the better to try more dishes without stuffing ourselves (spoiler alert, this was a FAIL!).

We started out with this mixed platter containing (clockwise from the top) hummus, stuffed grape leaves, baba ganoush, another dip made from pickled veggies I believe, and in the middle some Arabic salad.

Of course, the platter came with a generous helping of pita bread for dipping, which pleased Gerry to no end.

But it didn't end there. We also ordered an eggplant appetizer, which was cooked in the Yemeni style in some sort of sauce and served in a clay pot. We figured a little basmati rice would go well with that, the better to soak up all the sauce. And finally, we had to try the falafel, which to our surprise and delight was served with another helping of hummus as well as some sliced raw tomatoes.

Little did we know that the falafel also came with pita bread. We quickly realized that we had most likely overestimated how helpful climbing those stairs would be in keeping our calorie intake in balance.

Oh well, you only live once, so we dove in determined to enjoy every bite. And that we did, despite feeling just a little overstuffed by the end of the meal.

We enjoyed our meal at Royal Dream so much that when we returned to KL from Penang for our last two days before flying home, we chose to return here for the final meal of our stay.

But this time we knew what we were in for! We ordered the same appy platter as it was a nice assortment of flavours, but this time we had just one other dish: a Yemeni style lamb and rice pot.

The ingredients are layered and then baked in a clay pot, with onions on the bottom, then chunks of flavourful and very tender lamb in a sauce, then cashews, almonds and raisins on top of that, then a generous amount of basmati rice to top it off. The clay pot is then topped with a thin layer of bread dough to seal it and keep everything moist. It's then baked to perfection in the oven.

I wish I'd taken a photo of the dish when it arrived at our table, but I was too enthralled watching our server dish it up for us. He began by removing the bread topping and placing it on a beautiful serving platter. The entire clay pot was then inverted over the bread so that the rice was on the bottom with the lamb, onions and nuts spilling out over top.

It was as delicious as it was beautiful, and we enjoyed every bite.

Best of all, we were able to enjoy the flavours without stuffing ourselves too, too much. It was the perfect meal to wrap up a fabulous adventure in Malaysia.

Yes! You are welcome to share this blog with others who might enjoy it.

If you want to be notified whenever there's a new post, just click the Subscribe via email link down at the very bottom of the actual blog post (not the email).