Chequers Restaurant in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur is pretty well-known as a casual eatery serving American-style meals. The affordable meals work well with its clientele who troop in for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some of their unique dishes like the Moo Moo, Double-Deck Croque Monsieur & Melting Moment are big hits in the KL waffle scene.
Recently, Chequers expanded by taking up another floor upstairs to serve as a bakery cafe. Breads, pastries, cakes and donuts (both sweet and savoury) form the core of their bakery menu. However, for their donuts, they use a denser cake dough and not the traditional spongy yeast dough. I guess the more compact texture of the donuts hold up the toppings better.
We checked out some of the Savoury Donuts…
BBQ Beef Ribs – an all-American favourite with slow-roasted BBQ beef ribs with homemade BBQ sauce and garlic aioli over chia seed donut
Chipotle – corn tortilla and cheese donut with grilled chicken, crusted corn tortilla, mozzarella cheese, chipotle sauce and garlic aioli
Shroom Doughnut – vegetarian. Raised spinach donut with Portobello, oyster and button mushrooms, mozzarella and honey grain mustard
What looks like a donut (albeit a fancy one) but is not really a donut? Well, take a look at these… it’s all kinds of everything shaped and moulded into donuts! Not every one of them appealed to me but hey, life is all about trying new things, right?
Chicken Tikka – a popular Southern Indian dish. Chequers used chicken breast, russet potatoes, jalapeño and scallions and a fiery mayo to finish the ensemble.
Frittata – light and crumbly double frittata stacked with sautéed spinach, capsicum, mushrooms, cheddar and parmesan cheese shaped into a donut.
Mac N Cheese – classic American Mac N Cheese moulded into a donut – only for the serious fans yo!
Points must be given for the use of fresh local premium seasonal ingredients. Newer donuts will make their appearances soon, depending on the food season or the whims of the bakers.
And here are the sweet donuts… their textures are definitely firmer and denser due to the cake dough concept…
This was my favourite – the Pandan Coconut Donut!
Diners should make a point of trying out their Savoury Pastries. Essentially they are layers of light puff pastry holding up all sorts of delicious stuff.
Take the Shogun (RM17) for example. It’s a Japanese-inspired crispy puff pastry with mozzarella cheese, egg sunny side up, shiitake mushroom, bulgogi beef, seaweed, pickles, spicy teriyaki sauce. All these contrasting textures and flavours actually worked very well together on that puffy piece of square pastry.
For a quick meal, their sandwiches are best-sellers.
Sake Ga Daisuki (RM24) – smoked salmon over a bed of lettuce, tomatoes, capers, alfalfa sprouts, tobiko, wasabi mayo and garlic aioli on freshly-baked ciabatta
Bacon Turkey Bravo (RM24) – rustic and wholesome sandwich with turkey ham, beef bacon, spread with garlic aoili, tomatoes, lettuce, kyuri and tangy yellow mustard sauce on croissant
Their sandwiches come with accompanying crunchy sweet potato chips.
I do like their sweet tarts and again, theirs are rather different. The “pastry” is actually made of crushed cookies and cereals bound together with butter (similar to the non-baked cheesecake base) and into this sweet case, all kinds of delicious fillings are filled in. The varieties we tried were key lime cheese, mocha, matcha and double chocolate, all priced at RM8 each.
If you are looking for a quick meal of freshly baked goodies, including heavier robust donuts, both sweet and savoury types, head on to Chequers Bakery.
CHEQUERS RESTAURANT & BAKERY
153 & 153A Jalan Aminuddin Baki
Taman Tun Dr Ismail
60000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel : 03-77333068
Website : chequers.com.my
Opening Hours:
Restaurant opens from 8am – 11pm
Bakery opens from 8am – 8pm
Closed on Wednesdays