KY eats – Lunch Buffet at Nippah CoffeeShop, Hotel Equatorial KL

My colleague invited me to this talk thingy at Hotel Equatorial a while back, lunch included. Who would want to miss a free lunch at one of the nicest hotels, right? However, I didn’t expect the host to offer such a lavish lunch at Nippah CoffeeShop. According to my colleague, most of the time similar functions usually only offer fried mee hun and the like. Lucky me. 🙂

very nice ambience

Nippah Coffeehouse is located at the basement of Equatorial Hotel, a giant staircase from the lobby will lead you directly to the restaurant, as you can see from the right bottom corner picture above. The ambience is really nice, the quiet and calm environment provides a striking contrast to the busy afternoon. The round tables at the center are fitted with steamboat pots, while the surrounding tables are rectangular and do not come with such fixture. There are probably around 30 tables in total.

some of the buffet lines

While not as big and lavish as Jogoya at Starhill, Nippah CoffeeHouse does pack an impressive array of buffet lines. There is a raw and salad bar, with oysters, clams, and other cold dishes. A grill bar with grilled fish, oyster mornay, satey, steak, and seafood thermidor. Then there’s the local dish area with various types of curry and other local cuisine such as beef rendang and crab with curry sauce (highly recommended). There are also a line offering raw food for steamboat, and also a dessert bar.

fresh seafood steamboat, raw oysters too

The food itself was excellent. I particularly can’t get enough of the Oyster Mornay, freshly prepared by the chef. If you are sitting on a table with no steamboat pot, you can still pick the food from steambaot line and get a chef to cook it fresh, with a choice of tomyam or clear broth.

The curry crab is another must-try item, alongside with the mutton rendang and the grilled salmon, done in a perfect way with the inner part of the fillet still soft and not over cooked. You can even find air mata kucing as dessert. A slight let down though, was the lack of fresh juices or any variety of drinks with the buffet package.

just look at these oyster mornay!

The lunch was worth RM 75++ per person. According to the Equatorial’s website, the establishment won the Malaysian Tourist Development Board Award for Best Malay Restaurant (Cuisine). It certainly taste like it.

I think this is an excellent place to bring foreigners for a good buffet dinner that offers expansive local delights while providing a very nice dining experience with excellent ambience and interior decoration. You will probably like it too for a change from the usual Western (esp. Italian) and Japanese style buffets.

Hours (the restaurant, not the buffet lunch):
Sun – Thur 6.00 am – 2.00 am
Fri, Sat and public holidays 6.00 am – 3.00 am
GPS: 3.153575, 101.709216
Tel: +60 3 2031 3030