In the mood for high caliber Lebanese food in KL? You might wanna go to Al-Amar, in the Pavillion shopping plaza in Bukit Bintang. We went during off hours but the only other patrons in there were speaking Arabic. One family was having a shisha session, mom included but not child. The atmosphere is upscale but not in an oppressive way. Right away I order Almaza beer and Josh a Lebanese coffee. The Almaza was not bad, a little buttery but more tolerable than most of the Malaysian swills. Unfortunately the waiter whisked away the bottle before I noticed so no photo. Josh’s coffee looked luscious, and he said it was a solid Turkish-style.

We ordered mezes. Heard the hommos was good, and figured that deceptively simple dish would be a good test of the kitchen. It was. Outstanding. Drenched in bright extra virgin olive oil and garnished with fresh chick peas, this was the real creamy deal. Next up, we ordered the chicken livers with pomegranate molasses. Wouldn’t you? The livers were rich and soft as they ought to be, and not fried. The deep fruity flavor of the pomegranate molasses complemented the heavy fat of the livers very well. The dish was almost rich enough to be called dessert. A third dish we ordered was described as “pastry” but it was more of a flatbread liberally dusted with thyme and lemony herbs. Delicious, and not as redundant as it might have been with the delightfully fresh puffy round breads (no cardboard pita here) that were served with the meal. Oh, I forgot to mention they give you snacks while you wait for the food to arrive. Those were fun, including raw carrot sticks with lemon, salt, and a pinch of sugar. This is a great table snack, and brought back memories of the Pink Bar in Selcuk, Turkey. They also gave us a fun nut mix. We will return next time the craving hits. Though it’s pricey for KL standards the value is still good overall. The total bill for all of the above was less than $30.