Croatian goodness @ Dubrovnik, Solaris

Upon arrival at Solaris, Mount Kiara, it didn’t take me long to find this 2-storey restaurant located along the big building where Cold Storage is situated, along the left-hand end of it. The crest where the name of the restaurant is located maybe a little hard to find while driving though, situated below the roof, but if one were to walk alongside it, there shouldn’t be an issue locating it. I sort of love the soft, peaceful ambience surround the area.

As you enter the restaurant, you’ll find yourself in a much more classy environment, with a nice taste of aesthetic pleasure found through the arrangements of the bottles, housing from premier to rare alcoholic beverages.

Ben from Dubrovnik was to be our host for the night, and he did a very good job in it! Representing Dina Djumik, the General Manager of the restaurant who looked busy making sure everything was alright,  Ben’s first thought was to delight us with a few household cocktails. some of which are signature to Dubrovnik.  It certainly paid off as we were none less impressed with the multicoloured, multifaceted cocktails (priced at RM24~) as  described below (my recommendation!):

1st from front: You complete me more (Rum,fresh blueberries,apple juice and yoghurt) – fresh and fruity!
3rd from front: Adriatic Mudslide (made of Kahlua, Baileys, Amaretto and fresh cream) – creamily delicious!
4th from front: Croatian Limoncello Magarita (Home-made limoncello ,cointreau, sweet sour) – subtely sweet, not bitter!

There was one I didn’t get to try: Tito’s foo-foo drink (Midori melon liqueur, p’apple juice grenadine)

But something tells me you’d love to try some of Tit’s foo-foo drink ;). Whoops typo 😛

Making sure we don’t drown ourselves with the myraid of cocktails, we proceeded to start with soup tasting. The above are the Krumpir Soup and Due Colori Soup respectively. The former, made of porcini mushroom, isn’t just your average wild mushroom soup; the light cream is just right to offset the usual overpowering bitterness of the mushrooms while keeping the slightly rough texture preserved (unlike pure cream-based soup!) making it a truly delicious soup! However the latter isn’t as impressive, though with the mix of leek and asparagus-cauliflower soup, one can’t really go wrong. Soups are priced at about RM15~, a little pricey but for the Krumpir soup, I thought it was well deserved!

Afraid that we would be full before presenting their precious desserts, Ben prepared the Appetizer Platter (RM25) so that we can sample 3 traditional Croation appetizers without overfilling our bottomless stomaches. lol. It is made of:

1. Strukli– pan-fried cheese dumplings in bread crumbs, served with sour cream. GOOD!
2. Palacinke– oven-baked crêpe filled with cream cheese.
3. Sofia Salad– ’nuff said.

Lamb Crotia. Er. Lamb infused with the very essence of Croatian goodness? I don’t know why they call it that, but I can tell you it was done so deliciously, that I could have 2 of it, anytime! By the way, the pommes dauphine potatoes are a nice addition as well, try it 🙂 All yours for RM48.

The following few are highly recommended, highly specialized dishes that will require order in advance. The first one, called the Peka as you see above, is the traditional Croatian way of preparing whole marinated chicken or lamb by roasting it in the wood burning oven which is installed in the kitchen, as you will be able to see via the video below. If anything, the Peka is the ONE most MUST TRY food that you have to order, because it was the first time all of us food tasters decided that this was the best dish offered to us on that day, so it HAS to be good! Chicken Peka for RM45, Lamb for RM50 🙂

Next up was the Traditional Steak Korcula. I shall not waste any more words on this blog post and let CK up here to show you how it’s done. HAHA ok that was a joke, CK was just being a model subbing for Ben who was performing the preparation and cooking live for us! However I wasn’t kidding about wasting my efforts in typing out how it was done, cause I’ve gone ahead and did a video clip on how Ben prepared the Traditional Steak Kocula live right in front of us, so do watch it below:

Final result of the RM48 dish:

Make sure to turn on HD mode if you have suffieciently fast internet, it’s worth every second you wait 🙂 You definitely would not want to miss out on how the overnight herb marinated beef loin pan-fried on butter with special mushroom sauce & cognac gets flambéd to capture the orgasmic flavours together!

Now with the appetizers and main meals out of the way, it was time for Ben to show off their collection of gorgeous desserts that are so aethestically pleasing that you won’t dare to touch it less you breach its mark of purity.

Does it make your mouth water?

Orange Tart, a combination of Orange Zest and Almond Tart – RM17

Royal Chocolate Cake, with bitter chocolate top sitting on a crispy hazelnut praline base. As much as I don’t like chocolate, this was my favourite! – RM17

And last but not least, presenting the Ragusa Caramelo, simply put, caramelized layered cake. RM15.

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My honest view: considering its location situated right in the heart of Solaris, Mount Kiara, (also known as an international food place) the prices here are pretty reasonable. Its quiet and dim ambience makes it really nice for a date (in fact I saw a few chicks sitting around the lounge area drinking cocktails, definitely a place to chill out), and you can even book the place for private functions, sitting a maximum of 60 people. Typically a date for 2 would cost you around RM60 per person without coctails, RM100 with, but in return you do get a superb service from the waiters especially when you order those with flambé performance 😉

Occasionally you would be able to see a very pretty Croation lady waltzing about and if you do, say hi to Dina, GM of Dubrovnik. If you want, you may request to see the head chef Zoran Djumic which also happens to be the founder of Dubrovnik, and Dina’s father.

The Head Chef believes in healthy food, using organic vegetables and fresh seafood in his variety of European traditional recipes from Spain, France, Greece, Italy and Croatia (which explains the innovative influences in his dishes 😉 ) We didn’t get to meet him but after reading about him, somehow my desire to cook was again ignited, and who knows, maybe I’ll start a new restaurant sometime in the future showcasing traditional recipes all around Asia!

Dubrovnik Restaurant KL
J-0G-14, Solaris Mont Kiara
No. 2 Jalan Solaris
Mont Kiara
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel  : 03 62036780

Business Hours  :  11.30 am till 11.00 pm  (Tuesdays – Sunday)
Closed on Monday
GPS Coordinates : N03 10.499   E101 39.594
Website :  www.dubrovnikrestaurantkl.com

Related post:
What2SeeOnline.com – Croatian Cuisine, Dubrovnik