Hommage Restaurant, Damansara Utama
Hommage Restaurant KL is easily one of the most ambitious restaurants of the season. Located at Damansara Utama, where Battery Acid Club used to be, it is an unexpected but pleasant location. Parking is easy to find and the area is quiet.
What I love about Hommage is its welcoming vibe as you enter. The previous fittings from Battery Acid Club are versatile and adaptable to any kind of F&B establishment, making it the perfect setting for Hommage.
You can order some sourdough bread (RM12) as an entree, which is served with a beautifully textured olive tapenade and butter.
For some starting drinks, we ordered a couple of refreshing iced teas. The hibiscus lemonade and orange mint ice tea (both RM14 each) were both a great drink to start the evening with.
We didn’t exactly have the broths (chicken, beef or mushroom - RM10 each) in the beginning, but we had it in between the entrees and mains. Each soup was clear and surprisingly packed with flavour. I particularly enjoyed the mushroom but the chicken broth was everyone’s favourite. It allowed for a smooth transition from entrees to mains.
If you’re a fan of escargots, Hommage offers half a dozen (RM28) and dozen (RM48) options. The escargots are drowned in a garlic herb butter sauce that we couldn’t get enough of! It’s a good thing we had a dozen to share between the 5 of us.
Hommage has a pretty extensive range of entrees, with lighter dishes like the sourdough bread and heavier ones like their ceviche (RM22). The ceviche is made with avocado and white local fish. We really enjoyed this dish and felt that it was perfectly executed.
Another heavier entree that we got to try was the beef bone marrow (RM19 for two). It was served with warm bread, which was the perfect pairing. It isn’t the best bone marrow we’ve had... but for RM19... it is definitely the best we’ve had for its affordable price.
The name Hommage comes from the restaurant owner’s desire to pay homage to local hawker dishes. So when we finally got to the mains -- which was one meaty dish after the other, we could really see that. One of my favourite dishes for the evening was the pork belly and ribs (RM38) -- clearly a nod to our typical Siew Yok/Char Siew dish. The pork belly was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside at the same time. The way any good pork belly should be cooked. The ribs were marinated perfectly and its meat falls off the bone. The mashed potato is a must-try.
Thankfully, we got to indulge in more of the mashed potato in the lamb cutlet (RM59) dish. The lamb cutlets were cooked perfectly and comes with a nice dollop of olive tapenade, which complimented the lamb nicely.
The beef shin (RM49) was an interesting dish, their Western rendition of the Hainanese beef noodles. We didn’t quite fancy the tendons and tripe but the beef was decent. However, since most of us don’t take tripe or tendons, we couldn’t fully appreciate the extent of this dish.
The corn fed chicken (RM32) is Hommage’s take on chicken rice. Instead of rice, the chicken breast sliced are served with cold ramen and a hot chicken broth to dip the noodles in. I found this a little reminiscent of Maggi Mee rather than chicken rice.
A dish that blew us all away and came as quite a surprise was the Ikan Kurau (RM56). The fish is served with assam laksa sauce and guava. The little guava cubes brought the whole dish together.
The obvious star of the show was their Indocini (RM27), which is their idea of indomie. But we couldn’t stop comparing it to the traditional Hakka mee. This is hands down, one of the best pasta dishes we’ve ever tried. The fettuccine used in the dish is handmade fresh in the kitchen daily. The pasta is rolled down so thin and has one of the best flavour profiles for pasta that I’ve ever tried. If it’s one dish you have to try at Hommage, it’s the Indocini.
Dessert is a deconstructed bubur chacha (RM19). The dish is reimagined and plated against a stunning red plate. The classic ingredients, yam, sweet potato and pumpkin, are doused in a generous pool of coconut milk and served with fried sago crackers. It was absolutely lovely but its portion proved to be too big for us to finish.
The meal concluded with a hot cardamom rose hot chocolate (RM14). It is the best way to end a meal, especially on a rainy evening. We loved how the rose petals popped against the drink in both aesthetic and flavour.
Would we be back to Hommage? Absolutely. There are no doubts about that. The indocini is pull enough for us to return over and over again.
Hommage Restaurant
21, Jalan SS21/34, Damansara Utama
Opening hours: Monday, Wednesday to Friday: 2PM-11PM
Saturday and Sunday: 12PM-2:30PM; 6:30PM-11PM
Closed on Tuesdays