Starry-eyed surprise
How do we make our dreams come true? At Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur Hotel, a delightful pop-up restaurant offering the ‘Find Your Lucky Star’ dining experience toyed with that exact question in late December last year. Seated within a box created by the internationally acclaimed Australian hospitality designer Emma Maxwell, guests dined amidst cleverly engineered projections of starlight nebulae, and shooting stars as they sought to make a wish on their very own lucky star.
“Guests are swept from the chaotic and bustling streets of Kuala Lumpur and submerged into a seductive and evocative ‘other world’,” Maxwell explained. “They’re then placed ‘upside down’ in a landscape where the clouds and the treetops are the basis for the floor and walls.” A four-course lunch (from RM238, with wine pairing) or a six-course dinner (from RM438, with wine pairing) featured an impressive menu from Chef Francois Mermilliod of Singapore’s Bar-A-Thym from 12 to 16 December. Angel hair pasta entwined with seared scampi, Hokkaido sea urchin, and Sakura shrimp, along with milk-fed veal tenderloin and foie gras foam left diners on cloud nine.
This was followed by an Italian-inspired menu by Chef Gaetano Di Stefano, from the hotel’s Villa Danieli, up until 29 December, with highlights including a baked turbot with Mediterranean vegetables, sea urchin foam, and tomato-vanilla sauce. With just 12 places at the mirrored table available for each dining session, the ‘Find Your Lucky Star’ experience proved to be this year’s most intimate and memorable dining experience – and certainly, the one most likely to leave you starstruck.
