Nude, Bangsar

Nude is ambitious: Fresh house-rolled pasta, on-site dry-aged meat and crafted-from-scratch desserts, drawing on the founders’ substantial experience in KL and Singapore, including top-level stints in Spago, Saint Pierre and Yardbird.

Start with salmon pie tee, lusciously silken with 12-hour cured fish, Granny Smith apples, sour cream cheese and dill in firmly crunchy top hats.

Ribbon-cut tagliatelle is Josh’s current pasta in classics-with-a-twist preps like carbonara, perfected with egg yolk, Parmigiano Reggiano and pepper, finished with own-smoked beef brisket, sliced and diced, succulently savoury. Fun fact: Josh’s early pro years spanned Prego’s prime in The Westin KL two decades ago.

There’s more, from steak frites to chicken confit, with future temptations that might span Louisianan po’boys and gumbo, embodying Nude’s ethos as a borderless soul food restaurant with a cross-border kitchen brigade.

Ai Li oversees sterling desserts like Nude’s flagship pavlova, the crackle of its first forkful revealing thickly whipped, dairy-rich creaminess within, tinged with passionfruit gel. topped with mangoes handpicked from Selayang’s market and a wedge of lime.

Also try the tart, a blend of dark and milk chocolate ganache in deep, decadent harmony, crisped up with macadamias and cacao nibs, punched up with salted caramel. In the works: Buah keluak Black Forest cake potentially?