Marco Creative Cuisine, 1Utama Review • Affordable Fine Dining in KL

Hi guys, welcome back to another post! Today's post will be all about Marco Creative Cuisine, a recently launched restaurant in KL featuring a 7-course meal at a super affordable price of only RM78.

I know you all saw that price and went like "WHAT?!". Before I get into the menu and the food porn shots, I'll share a bit more about the place and the atmosphere 👌

Marco Creative Cuisine is a modern restaurant located on the ground floor of 1Utama's Old Wing.

You'll have no trouble finding it because there's probably going to be a crowd admiring their jellyfish display!

My group and I hadn't even set foot inside the restaurant yet and we were already blown away!

The aquarium has LED lights which change color, giving the jellyfish a colourful effect. I suggest taking pictures at the side so that you don't take any random customers eating + the lighting is better!

They're so instagrammable and I had such a hard time choosing which ones to post, so here's one more haha:

Once you enter the place, you'll find that it's very modernly designed. It gives a minimalistic, clean and luxurious feel too.

There's a place sectioned off as well for those who would prefer more privacy.

I actually came during lunch hour with my work colleagues to celebrate our team member Bo's birthday!



The place can seat up to 62 people and they take the order per table, meaning you can't change seats once you've ordered. I definitely recommend seating in the sectioned area because you can take better pictures (for all you Instagrammers out there). Reservations are recommended, and you can make one at 03-7731 8293.

Since they've only recently opened, we didn't know much about the restaurant and their concept. We were met by their managing manager Alice and she welcomed us warmly and told us all we had to know about Marco.

She explained that each dish they offer is made from scratch and that they want to offer not just a meal but a culinary journey; a journey of flavours that is.

I would say that their specialty is their "Journey of Flavours" 7-course meal. It costs only RM78 for a palate cleanser, an appetizer, soup, entree, main, dessert and drink, which is such a super good deal! It's definitely a good chance for anyone who wants to experience fine dining and not spend a fortune such as myself.

The palate cleanser and appetizer is set by the chef, but you can choose your choice of soup from 3 selections, your choice of entree from 3 selections and your main from 6 selections.

Do note that although there is no pork, alcohol is provided and you may dine at your own discretion. The 7-course menu only has one item with alcohol in it which is the Chicken Liver Parfait (entree).

After that, you can select your choice of dessert from 3 choices and your choice of drink from 3 choices as well:

If you don't want to order the full 7-course meal, you can choose to order them ala-carte at the following prices:

Soup/Entree: RM18
Main: RM35 per serving (+RM10 for Duck Breast)
Desserts: RM20 per serving

I definitely would come for the set though because it's more worth it. Anyways, they also serve wine and other beverages.

The mastermind behind all the dishes, Chef Daren Leong, was there to explain to us what each dish was and what it contained.

We really enjoyed his explaination because you could clearly see that he loved food and that each of his creations were made with love, care and experience.

Now that we've talked about the restaurant, the concept and the menu, let's get on to the food porn shots and my feedback/review!

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Palate Cleanser | Velvety Matcha-Lime Shooter

Just a disclaimer, almost everything that we had was a surprise. You think it's gonna taste a certain way and it completely tastes like something else! To be honest, I came into that lunch with a preconceived notion in my head thinking "Oh, it's probably gonna be like any other meal" but it was legit a mouthgasmic experience.

To start things off, this palate cleanser tasted both sweet and citrusy with a hint of bitterness, and my tastebuds were totally surprised. This serves to clean your tastebuds of anything you had previously so you can taste the whole meal better.

Appetizer | Savoury Eclair

This choux pastry has aubergine caviar, green chile pesto and tomato confit, and it all blended very nicely. The colour of the caviar looks very similar to yam cake (lol) so I had this idea in my head that it would taste like yam. Again, full of surprises!

Soup

There are three choices for the soup, and since we were all adventurous we selected all three and shared among ourselves so we could taste the others as well.

Strawberry Gaspacho

Truffle Mushroom Soup

French Onion Soup 

I had the French onion soup and oh my gosh, another hit for me! It's very savoury and salty with a dash of sweetness because of the caramelized onions.

Sydney had the strawberry gaspacho and it was the most unique one out of the three. It's cold and its very different from the soup that we're accustomed to here in Asia.

Entree

Again, we had a chance to try all three of the entrees:


Garden Plater

Savoury Ice Cream Salad

Chicken Liver Parfait

I had the chicken liver parfait, and as a Filipino, I actually had past experience with chicken liver. I'm not sure about local Malaysians but I LOVE chicken liver. Chicken liver spread is one of my fave sandwich fillings and I thought it would be similar.

I wasn't too far off, it did taste similar but Marco's liver parfait was finer and sweeter as it had a caramelized top. It was perfect with the toasted bread and reminded me of my youth in the Philippines.

I tried the salads too and they were pretty good but my heart still goes out to the chicken liver parfait. The ice cream salad was pretty interesting, and they actually specifically froze the ice cream enough so that even if you were a slow eater the ice cream wouldn't totally melt and become a vanilla pudding.

Main

For the main, you can select from 6 choices and we got to try 4 of them:

Duck Breast with Orange Puree and Roasted Beetroot

Chicken Roulade with Brussel Sprouts

Squid Ink Japonica Rice

Salmon with Jet Black Hollandaise

I had the salmon for my main and it was pretty good! The portion was good and it was perfectly cooked. Although the highlight was the squid ink hollandaise, I actually enjoyed the green chili pesto more! Chef Daren explained that he was inspired by the pickled green chillis that came with Wan Tan Mee. I actually wished that it there was more of it haha. The salmon was very filling and didn't have a fishy taste at all.

Sydney's duck breask was humongous and it tasted amazing as well! The chocolate sauce and the beetroot chunks complimented the meat. Mira's chicken roulade looked like a chicken sushi roll tbh (and it was delicious too), and although Tammy's Squid Ink Japonica Rice's portion was a bit small, the rice was tasty and the prawns were all juicy.

Desserts

There are 3 choices for the dessert and we got to try all three:


Raspberry Decadence

Creme Brulee with White Chocolate Sherbet

Deconstructed Lemon Meringue Pie

Being a cheesecake holic I got the Raspberry Decadence and it was DIVINE. Sweet, tangy and cool, the perfect way to end the meal. I tried the deconstructed meringue and it was nice too, very citrusy and definitely recommended if you prefer something that's not ultra sweet.

Drinks | Sparkling Iced Berry

We weren't really paying attention to each other's orders and ended up ordering the same drink 😂 this was light and refreshing~


As I mentioned, we were actually celebrating our team member Bo's birthday, and Chef Daren was kind enough to give her a personalized birthday Chocolate Souffle!

They also offer the Chocolate Souffle and other delights as part of their Afternoon Delights menu. It was sinfully sweet and delightful, like YES. I wanted to eat more but I decided not to be a hoe and left the rest for Bo to enjoy (since it was her birthday 😂)

Overall it was a fabulous team lunch and definitely an awesome gastronomical experience. For the quality and portions that you get, I think RM78 is a totally reasonable and worth it price. You get to experience a fine dining inspired meal perfect for both formal and casual events. A lot of the girls actually said it would be perfect for dates since the food would definitely start conversation.

100% would recommend this place!

If you'd like to make a reservation or drop by for a meal, here are Marco CC's details:

Address:
Lot G146, Ground Floor Old Wing, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, 1 Lebuh Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya 47800 Selangor.

Opening hours:
12pm to 10pm
Open Daily

Lunch service: 12pm to 3pm
Coffee & desserts only: 3pm to 6pm
Dinner service: 6pm to 10pm

Contact:
03-7731 8293 / reservation@marcocreativecuisine.com


I hope you guys enjoyed this post and found in helpful! If you guys would like to read more food reviews click here 💕

As always, thanks for reading and see y'all in the next post!