Essence, Sheraton Imperial KL

Essence which is located on the 1st floor of Sheraton Imperial KL (formerly Hotel Imperial Kuala Lumpur) is an all day dining funky restaurant with dim lightings and comfortable couches.

Having undergone a period of extensive renovation and refurbishment, the 38-storey hotel is transformed into Sheraton Imperial KL, The Luxury Collection today. The brand new look continues at the lobby and restaurants, one of them being Essence.

The different areas of the restaurant are theme coded. The sleek modern section with red and white striped couches serves salads and international and Asian food while the chinese oriental section serves dim sum and noodles.

The Entrance

The modern sleek design section

The Chinese oriental design at the noodle & dim sum counter

Appetisers & satays

Winter Melon soup.. cooling & yummy!

Veges, mushroom and what tastes like curry soup with lots of spices

The array of desserts

More desserts

Oyster & Sushi Counter

Oysters - tastes rubbery and unfresh



Pubs around the hotel


View of KL Tower from the Hotel

The Japanese selection was limited and I only made do with two oysters, which wasn't too fresh and it tasted rubbery and salty. I was still nursing a nasty cold and flu and that explained why I did not attack sashimi and sushi this time. It was a thumb down as they did not serve teppanyaki like Le Meridien where they cooked for you on the spot... fish, cuttlefish, chicken, beef, scallops (only on weekends).

Many places serve roast beef that is so tough. At Essence, the roast beef was succulent and paired well with some mustard and mushroom gravy.

Pastas are prepared on the spot, and you can choose between carbonara, Bolognese and one more sauce which I cannot recall now. Hubby got himself a spaghetti carbonara with ham and mushrooms, I think. He said it was good.

We skip the noodles and dim sum station as from past experience, these sort of counter at the hotels are usually disappointing.

They make pretty good coffee -- I ordered cappuccino that came with some basic coffee art, which I thought was a very nice touch. Sorry, no pictures to show.

In conclusion, I would still prefer Latest Recipe to Essence for their wider spread of food and their Japanese counter or could it be that I wasn't in the mood to enjoy the buffet this time around due to the stubborn cold and flu bugs that would not go away for like ages. Arrgh.....