Review: Entier French Dining

One of Kuala Lumpur’s best restaurants, Entier French Dining, is located high atop the Alila Bangsar building, affording guests with sweeping views of the surrounding cityscape. We recently took the lift to level 41 at Alila’s lovely hotel, one that says it’s in Bangsar, although locals know it’s actually sited next door in Brickfields. But we like the easy parking and incredible views all the same, and Entier is well-known for its decadent modern French cuisine and next-level wine program, so we were certainly keen to see what was on offer.

Entier’s kitchen is helmed by Executive Chef Masashi Horiuchi, a Japanese-born culinary craftsman from Fukuoka whose career spans over two decades in Europe. He sharpened his skills in Switzerland and France, including a stint as sous chef for five years at London’s two-Michelin‑starred L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon. (Astute gourmands will know this restaurant by name, even if not by personal experience.) Chef Masashi embodies Entier’s namesake philosophy of entier – meaning whole – championing nose‑to‑tail dining and whole‑produce cooking, and combining French technique with Japanese precision while prioritising seasonal, local ingredients.

Supporting him in the kitchen is Chef de Cuisine Romain Fabre. A graduate of Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France, Chef Romain trained in respected Michelin-starred restaurants across France and Switzerland before joining Entier. He brings continuity alongside Chef Masashi, contributing innovative reinterpretations of classic French dishes and fostering a creative, collaborative environment in line with the restaurant’s stated ethos of excellence and hospitality.

With a duo like this leading the culinary team, it will come as no surprise for readers to be assured that the food at Entier is largely beyond reproach. Poring over the menu, diners could be forgiven for thinking they had somehow found themselves in a Parisian haute cuisine restaurant, and the food backs that up once it appears at the table. It’s no wonder the Michelin Guide has recognized Entier in their most recent line-up of noteworthy restaurants in Kuala Lumpur. But beyond the superb French cuisine, Entier’s wine program really stands out.

Entier offers a 52-page wine list, clearly a gold mine for diners who like wine with their meal. Indeed, wine lovers could easily spend many minutes perusing the wines by the glass, the bottle, magnums, and from the amazing Private Collection.

Few wine lists in the city come anywhere near the one offered at Entier, so much so that the prestigious wine magazine Wine Spectator accredited it in 2024 with an Award of Excellence. Only 2,150 restaurants worldwide received this award last year.

The wine menu impressed us with its clean design and, importantly, its clear nett pricing, avoiding those end-of-meal billing surprises. Goh Joyin is the restaurant’s junior sommelier, and she does a most creditable job in pairing dishes with the wines and providing informative details about each wine offered. We counted 22 wines by the glass, from sparkling to table reds, whites, and a rosé, plus a dessert wine. It is important to note that the fine wines at Entier are also poured into the most elegant hand-blown Riedel glasses.

The restaurant also stores some of its more expensive wines using Coravin preservation technology. This system uses a needle, which is inserted through the cork, to fill the bottle with argon gas, which displaces the oxygen and provides a gaseous ‘seal’ on the surface of the wine that remains in the bottle. The wine is also poured through the needle. When the needle is removed from the cork, the cork reseals, protecting the wine from oxidation and protecting the remaining wine.

The system ensures that wines by the glass can be poured for a few weeks after it has been ‘opened’, which means sterling wines like the 2018 Domaine Albert Bichot ‘Château-Cris’ Monopole Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru, Côte de Nuits can be offered to diners who would prefer a glass for RM185/glass rather than paying RM880 for the bottle. Expensive either way, but clearly, buying top-flight wines by the glass is a privilege afforded by the technology we enjoy today. Diners from decades past could only dream of doing such a thing!

As we opted for the dinner tasting menu, we also decided to pair the meal with several of their wines by the glass. Diners at Entier can choose to pair this degustation menu with five wines for an additional RM285. It needs mentioning that each pour for such pairings here is 100 ml, rather a bit below what is considered a standard pour.

We left the wine pairings in the capable hands of Goh Joyin and were not disappointed with any of the wines and found a number of the pairings to be particularly winsome. For the meal’s amuse bouche selection, Champagne was chosen to accompany the mostly seafood dishes, and we must say, it was an ideal pairing. This was not just any Champagne, but rather one that was especially bottled by the wine house of Laurent Robert for Entier with its own label.

This 2013 vintage prestige brut was produced from the three Champagne grape varieties of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. It was deceptive in the glass with such a fine bead that the wine’s effervescence seemed to disappear once poured. On the palate though, it was brimming with minuscule bubbles that danced across the tongue. We enjoyed flavours of toasted brioche that did not fight with the seafood dishes presented, and on the whole, found this to be a delightful and invigorating Champagne – a perfect start to our meal.

The starters also included a sliver of foie gras on brioche accompanied by fig jam. This was paired with Domaine Rolly-Gassmann Pinot Noir de Rorschwihr from Alsace, the French region best known for its aromatic whites. It is also the only region in France that notes the grape variety on the label, and thus, wine novices avoid the embarrassment of second-guessing the variety. While not as refined as a Burgundian Pinot, we enjoyed the pairing and the relatively robust nature of the wine.

The creative (and visually arresting) scallop dish was served with a 2022 Torre Rosazza Chardonnay from the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region in Italy (RM43). While not immediately identified as a Chardonnay, we were duly impressed with the grape selection and its bright, golden yellow colour. It offered aromas of ripe apple, jasmine, and peach, with a creamy and silky texture on the palate. The wine is characterized by its lively fruit acidity, providing a fresh and vibrant experience.

Sea urchin is tough to pair with wine, but the spaghettini with lime, chive, and sea urchin matched well with the 2020 Herdade do Freixo Reserva branco from Portugal’s Alentejo region. This refreshing blend comprising Arinto, Chardonnay, Alvarinho, and Sauvignon Blanc grapes shows notes of tropical fruits and hints of peaches, too, the characteristic quality of Alvarinho (or Albariño) grapes.

The following course, a black cod and caviar dish (an absolute winner) was paired with a taste of 2022 Delas Frères La Galopine Condrieu Blanc from the Rhône and made from Viognier grapes and a wonderfully elegant 2020 Domaine Albert Bichot from Mersault, a commune in the heart of Burgundy. The caviar for the dish is dramatically presented tableside and added to the dish, which regrettably for photographs, is buried under a veritable mountain of Champagne foam espuma, so while the cod dish certainly tasted incredible, it wasn’t exactly the most camera-ready course on the tasting menu!

The highlight of many meals is the Wagyu beef, and that served in Entier, adorned with foie gras, did not disappoint. The beef, served with Perigueux sauce, was beautifully paired with a 2019 Vivaldi Valpolicella Ripasso DOC, made from Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella grapes. (There is an RM80 additional charge for the Wagyu option.)

As we anticipated our desserts, we admired on the wine menu a 2012 Oremus Tokaji Tempos Vega Sicilia Late Harvest dessert wine from Hungary, but sadly, none materialized. This is a showstopper of a sweet wine, so aficionados with a little extra budget for their meal would certainly be pressed to refrain from ordering a glass.

If you asked the world’s leading sommeliers to develop an essential wine list featuring globally impressive wine estates, they would produce a list very similar to that offered at Entier. Leading estates from around the globe, including Chapoutier, Guigal, Castello Banfi, Dr Loosen, Catena Zapata, Loimer, Torbreck, Cloudy Bay, Château Haut-Brion, Château Pichon, Domaine Faiveley, Felton Road, Duckhorn, Domaine Leflaive, Petrus, Opus One, Screaming Eagle, and many more, are listed. Nett wine prices per bottle range from RM188 (2018 Beso de Rechenna Crianza from Valencia) to RM50,000 (2010 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Richebourg Grand Cru).

Dining at Entier ticked all the usual boxes that any fine dining experience in KL tends to do: the food was fully on-point, the presentation was flawless, the ambiance was chic and lovely, and the service was polished and well-rehearsed. What we’d like to see, both in Entier and in the city’s other top restaurants, is a bit more character and personality in the delivery of that exemplary service. Too often, the information is presented as if from a script, a mere performance without any passion or flair behind it.

To be fair, not everyone appreciates a display of personality at the table in a fine dining venue, but for us, we do like the interaction that comes along with a confident, engaged, and personable service team. Tell us what you like, why you like it, what you’d order, and why you think this wine works better than that one. Ask us questions and engage with us as we peruse the menu. Steer us away from dishes you think we might find less favour with, and above all, don’t be afraid to share a laugh with us. This is what we’d like to see more of in KL’s fine dining restaurants. A little more soul, a little more joie de vivre, maybe even a little cheek. We love good food and wine, and want ours served by people who feel the same. We think diners should find as much enjoyment and fun in upper-tier dining as they do in eating local food at the neighbourhood mamak. Good food should always be a good time!

Apart from that particular quirk, one which seems to be found in nearly all fine dining venues here, we believe that many of the city’s best restaurants can capably compete with those found anywhere else in the region, and Entier is no exception. This is an eatery that backs up those impressive top-floor views with a procession of top-flight food and wine. There is a lot of talent in the kitchens of KL’s fine dining venues, and it’s always a delight to discover these gems. We’d have no problem recommending booking a table at Entier for those who appreciate the finer points of French gastronomy and quality wine pairing. Just see if you can get the dining room team to come out of their shells a bit when you’re there!

Additional text by Chad Merchant

Location and Details

Entier French Dining
Level 41, Alila Bangsar
58 Jalan Ang Seng, Brickfields
50470 Kuala Lumpur

Reservations recommended

T: 603 2268 3819
W: https://entierfrenchdining.com