Yellow Brick Road at Batai, Damansara Heights: Restaurant Preview

No ruby slippers required – tap your heels together three times, tell Toto you’re not in Solaris Dutamas anymore, & let happy little bluebirds take you to this restaurant somewhere over the rainbow (Damansara Heights, to be clear), run by the Wonderful Wizards & Good Witch behind The Red Beanbag, Smooshie Juice, Oneatezero & Shamaziin.

Yellow Brick Road isn’t lacking in heart; there’s no place like home, but this space comes close – warm, wholesome & nurturing, suffused with both sunshine & sunflowers. If L. Frank Baum was right that a heart is judged by how much you’re loved by others, the evidence rests in a friend of the founders who took the long road to Yellow Brick Road from Penang this week to offer his support in person ahead of this imminent landmark’s launch.

The Menu

The restaurant isn’t left wanting for courage – Yellow Brick Road’s kitchen could have selected the safe path by replicating The Red Beanbag’s recipes, but it’s taking a riskier route with an Asian-accented repertoire. In a few days, you’ll find head chef Bob’s ‘Balik Kampung’ percik chicken with turmeric rice & kerabu salad (RM25++; a recipe Bob introduced at an RBB retreat), chicken char siu aglio olio pasta (RM25++), sugar-cured prawn omelette with ikan bilis sambal (RM25++), beef rendang cottage pie (RM22++), chili con carne baked eggs with naan bread (RM25++) & ‘I Wanna Be Kaya’ French toast with coconut mascarpone cream & caramel kaya sauce (RM22++) to partner with popcorn butterscotch & Guinness chocolate cakes.

Ready to Launch on the First Week of April

But what about a brain? Nope, not missing either – the folks behind Yellow Brick Road have more than proven their mettle in masterminding a wide-ranging swath of F&B businesses in recent years. Not even a faulty coffee machine that short-circuited the restaurant’s power supply this month could thwart Yew Kheong, Lin Lee, Jason, Shaun & their team; Yellow Brick Road remains ready to launch on the first week of April (coincidentally, the fourth anniversary of Smooshie Juice’s official existence).

Wicked Pancake Parlour

Something wicked comes this way: Yellow Brick Road’s name isn’t supposed to be a strict reference to all things Oz (think of it instead as a metaphor for the journey that its four founders have embarked on together), but the fantasy theme is still a factor. Upstairs, a ‘Wicked Pancake Parlour’ will unfurl within months, whipping up savoury & sweet pancakes – flapjacks rank among RBB’s most popular orders, after all – with a bar that specialises in ice cream floats (it’ll bring a new meaning to ‘I’m melting’).