Colonial Cafe @ The Majestic Hotel Kuala Lumpur

They don't make 'em like this anymore: Furnishing a contemporary hotel with colonial history, this Majestic establishment is suffused with a sumptuous sense of nostalgia, evoking an era that's steadily inching out of living memory.

Colonial Cafe's dining chamber, with its warm timber notes, leather chairs & white tablecloths, has stateliness to spare, but eagle-eyed customers will note there's also something of an atrium out back, blessed with sunlight streaming from a skylight.

True to the setting, the menu revisits classics like old-fashioned faggots (RM75++), a hearty, savory British winter warmer, made with minced beef, lamb & potentially some offal, paired with wild mushroom mash & mace-infused sauce.

Hometown fare: Malacca's chicken rice balls, a highlight of the Hainanese-dominated menu here.

Flagrantly fragrant rice, prepared painstakingly in small batches daily, with poached chicken that's smooth & succulent, plus soup & impeccable house-made condiments of chili & garlic. There's a 'but' nonetheless: this costs RM55++.

Mulligatawny (RM45++), reputedly once comfort food for employees of the East India Company. Colonial Cafe's curried lentil broth bears the telltale hallmarks of dahl.

Desserts range from Spotted Dick to English trifles, Swiss rolls to marble cakes, bread & butter pudding to bubur cha cha, goreng pisang to sundaes. Each of those costs RM45++ per portion, even the bubur cha cha.

There lies the problem: even though we realize the prices we pay encompass the entire experience of eating here, the final bill might seem unconscionable.

Colonial Cafe includes a lovely bar where cocktails from bygone times are also revived.

Beautiful illustrated menu, with each RM48++ cocktail endowed with its own background.

Code 55 & 2 Bulat (shandy, gin, whiskey), a mixture that hearkens back to what happened here at The Majestic's location decades ago, when a mix-up over a Colt 55 & two bullets helped to prevent potential bloodshed (it's a long story).

East India Cocktail (cognac, maraschino liquor, cointreau, raspberry syrup, angostura bitters).

Scarily, the cheapest wine here is sold at RM50++ by the glass, RM180++ per bottle. All in all: Like the place, loathe the prices.
Earlier entry on The Majestic's Tea Lounge & Contango buffet outlet: December 2.

Colonial Cafe,

The Majestic Hotel, Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin, Kuala Lumpur.