We went to Battery Acid Club. We had fried sweet potato fritters, miso espresso chicken, coffee and an affogato. We wrote about it.
First of all though, it’s probably pertinent to mention that Battery Acid Club has evolved quite a bit since their debut late-2014. Their lofty initial goals remain largely unchanged (to foster a space for the exchange of ideas between designers and other creatives, all amidst some good food and even better coffee) but much like the functional aspect of design itself, they’ve tweaked the means to the end along the way. The impressive personal library has given way to the no-less-impressive barbershop The Oven Cuttery, with Kevin running month-long waitlists. The menu has seen tweaks and re-jiggling. The no-WIFI rule has been removed to reconnect patrons to the Cloud.
Despite that, some things – the most important things – remain the same. The coffee is stellar (okay fine, this was our first time trying the coffee but we’ve always been told by moderately-reliable sources that the coffee has been good). The food – well, we’ll get to that in a bit. And their ever-popular events continue to run, with the stationery event coming up on 8-9 July.
What’s that? Less talking, more foodguzzling? Ever ready to oblige.
The miso espresso chicken or MEC (RM 22, with an option to + RM 6 for a long black) is quite a dish. It’s visually striking, especially atop their gorgeous plates. It draws the mind and the limited pokedex of the foodgazer to the sublime charred chicken that Littlepeople serves up. Does this chicken dish match the dizzying heights of that purple-mash plate? Not quite, but it stands out enough to be its own beast. Yalar, both also chicken leg, but they taste different wan.
Mr. MEC comes to us with a pretty little coat of its namesake miso espresso caramelised into its crispy skin. Those dots of dark-green around the plate rim? Seaweed mulch. And yes, that’s a nest of alfafa sprouts. And some sweet potatoes to round out the offering.
The clucky chicken leg is always a tricky one to cook. MEC stops just shy of hitting the gold standard with fairly juicy meat being let down by a not-quite-crispy enough skin. We are, of course, to an extent needlessly nitpicking here. This is still one of the stronger chicken dishes out there – especially considering the interesting little dress it has on. It’s a curious marinade that hints at a referential amalgamation of miso cod and a traditional roasted chicken. The espresso gets lost somewhere in between the other prominent flavours though. This Foodgazer also couldn’t help but wonder what this would taste like with the heavenly hickory goodness of My Toast N Roast’s smoked chicken. The flesh is weak to idol thoughts.
Oh, and the seaweed mulch was a tasty little accompaniment. The alfafa I could do without, though that may just be down to personal bias. The alfafa bed has always struck me as a useless accompaniment when some shrubbery is needed, second only in pointless overuse to the default-lettuce-salad. Plant Cartridge‘s arugula has a mean peppery bite to it that would likely be perfect in this dish, though I imagine it would cost a pretty penny. Maybe once the Foodgazers brush off the Half-Baked Ideas book and get started on a farm?
< COFFEE INTERMISSION >
The long black here jolts the eternally-tired synapses, but in a rather pleasurable way. It’s comforting, like getting bespoke shearling gloves or slipping into moleskin pants for the first time. The board says it’s a blend of beans from Columbia and El Salvador. The uncouth, unpolished tongue of the Foodgazer says it’s pretty damn delicious – albeit with more expletives before our editor washed through this copy. It comes at a close-to-perfect drinking temperature. This is good. It also immediately reminds me of the coffee I had at LOKL which, other than being horrendous to the point of being offensive, came at a couple of degrees above burnt-to-shit.
Anyway, this is proper coffee. This beauty has a faintly oily mouthfeel, with just enough heft in the body without being chewy. There’s also the curious property of tasting like a rich, dark roast with the oppressive shadows and darkness being reduced and recovered during post-processing. Strange. But tasty.
And now back to regular programming.
Sweet Potato Fritters (RM 18, same coffee deal thingamajig as before) pictured above. The fritters are perfectly crunchy with enough heft and bite for it to be substantial and not just, well, a crisp. My mouth approves. This rivals some of Fahrenheit 600’s offerings, which has been one of the most surprising breakfast finds recently. I would link to our post on Fahrenheit if not for the fact that we’ve been naughty, lazy, procrastinating boys and have yet to complete it. I did finish this plate of fritters though, because I’ll be damned if it isn’t one of the better breakfast plates around.
We’re told that’s smoked chicken ham inside, but it sure does taste like turkey. Strange inversion of the usual “it tastes like chicken”. Also interesting to note is the poached egg – we’re pretty much at the peak age of eggs in sous vide baths at the moment, and where a perfect one like this would have been cause for celebration a couple of years ago, it’s funny how blasé one becomes to it now. Maybe it’s because this one was verging on cold and could do with a bit of seasoning. Similar problems to the non-descript egg at Common Man’s Malaysian outpost.
The perfectly-ripe avocado gives the fritters a delicious fatty mortgage, and uhm everything else on there is decent as well, but that sauce sure is something else! Our thoughts immediately jumped to a mayo-curry-kunyit blend. Swiss Ooi, part owner, gently navigated us back on course. Turns out it’s a mix of dijon mustard and curry spices in an almost-cliche West meets KL-avocado-eaters twist. Shades of Portofino, that. The mustard is more for texture, we feel, with the graininess giving it a fantastic texture.
As real life begins creeping back in, we quickly move on to the affogato. The kacang tumbuk affogato (RM 13). And what an affogato it is! Easily one of the best I’ve ever had, this is a potent little cup of deliciousness. It’s delightful. And all those other similar adjectives – feel free to apply them here as long as they’re not too superlative. We already established the coffee here is great. Now imagine pairing that with some pounded nuts (phrasing!) and good ol ice cream. Makes a grown man moan and just about forget the Great Beer Bar-y excesses of last night.
Battery Acid Club also features magazines for sale (usual suspects like Monocle and Kinfolk feature prominently) and as a curious collection of clothing. Curious because the vintage Americana appears initially at odds with the modern stylings of the space – one would expect In Aisce a bit more than LL Bean, for instance. In a strange way, it sort of works though. The florals are a substitute for the live specimens they represent, and they add a splash of subdued, desaturated colours right at the entrance. And what says post-modernism quite like the intentional rejection of trends? A number of things, one would assume, but regardless the re-purposing of “vintage” wear is still going strong and Battery Acid Club taps sagaciously into the zeitgeist.
And that’s really the story of Battery Acid Club, at the end of the day. Their owners are shrewd operators who know just when to make measured iterations to build on a very impressive foundation. It makes it a curious little spot to review, but a very rewarding one to visit. And re-visit, once the stationery event lands shortly. And re-re-revisit after, just for some of that coffee. And some grub too, based on the solid primers we had. And…well. You get the drift. We’ll let you know when we’re here again of course. Just check our Instagram stories.
Located in SS2. Waze it.
Phone: 03-7733 9682
Hours: Tue – Sun // 9am – 7pm