Down one of the lanes among the newest blocks of shops at Sri Petaling square is Twenty5 café. If you have problems finding it, just look for Garden BBQ Buffet Steamboat and turn down that lane. It’s about 20 meters down and almost the last shop lot on your left.
Twenty5 is open from Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 11pm. They rest on Mondays. I do advice you to check their Facebook page before you choose to go, as they’re sometimes closed for private functions, or they’re busy catering for a huge event and can’t open the shop. Did I mention they provide catering too? That’s actually another side of their business, and you can always contact them to provide food for your event.
The café has a pretty relaxed and casual atmosphere. I particularly loved the artistic décor of metallic gears that covered one side of the wall, and the Ted Bear plushies beneath them. The irony is just cute, not adorable, just cute.
I get the distinct feeling the interiors were inspired in part by the steampunk culture, but it’s not too apparent. You’ll b able to see exposed pipes and miniature retro planes here and there. It’s still subtle enough so that you can still feel the coziness of the place.
I was particularly excited about one dish, their Nasi Lemak Spaghetti. With the recent hullabaloo about ‘Crispy Rendang’, I was craving for some traditional spiciness too. So that was the first thing I ordered. Apparently, this is their signature dish and everyone who comes here for the first time has it.
I’m glad to report that I wasn’t disappointed. The spaghetti was tossed in an aglio alio based sauce infused with sambal spices. It wasn’t very spicy, just very nice. It had a little bit of sweetness to it and there was a prominent garlic flavour. On the side were sliced cucumbers, wedges of boiled eggs and some alfalfa on the top.
The highlight of this Nasi Lemak spaghetti was, of course, the chicken rendang. Again it wasn’t too spicy. It wasn’t crispy, but by Joves, it was so tender! I’ve had chicken rendang so many times before, including in authentic ‘Warungs’ by the roadside of Kampungs and this was really something. The meat was falling off the bones, and the flavour of the spices had seeped into the skin and meat so thoroughly. I could tell that they had time to cook this down for a couple of hours, just like the traditional recipe demands.
For those who want to sleep in on weekends, Twenty5 actually serves breakfast dishes until 5pm. Hubby wasn’t too hungry so he went for the scrambled egg croissant. It came with a generous portion of crisscut fries.
For dessert, we had the Chocolate Waffle (It had a fancy name I just can’t remember now). This was my favourite part of the meal. The waffle itself was pretty interesting. It had a bit of a sour-ish taste, which I assume comes from adding sour cream to the batter. There was a huge scoop of rich chocolate ice-cream on top, with cubes of chocolate brownies, chocolate sauce and crunchy muesli sprinkled on top. The muesli was a good touch that really balanced out the textures.
I was so stuffed at the end of the meal that there wasn’t space for drinks. They’ve got a very wide selection of drinks, including mocktails, coffee and cold press juices. Let’s save that for my next visit!
- Price for 2 pax: RM 50-70
- Scrambled Egg croissant: RM 12
- Nasi Lemak Spaghetti: RM 20
- Chocolate Waffle: RM19
Twenty5, Sri Petaling
No 18G, 7, Jalan Radin Bagus, Sri Petaling, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Phone: +60 16-907 6700
Opening Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 11:00 - 23:00, Closed on Mondays
