Ril’s Steakhouse
Bangsar Babe vs Porterhouse
Ril’s at The Warehouse claims to serve the best steak in KL so rif and I went there for our early Valentine’s Day dinner on Sunday. Getting to Ril’s was a nightmare and since I wasn’t keen on walking too far, we did ‘the Malaysian thing’ and parked up the five foot way. For those law abiders, you can park you car at the parking lot behind the shoplots. It’s roughly 50 meters away from Ril’s but the alley is quite badly lit.
Ladies, if you’re planning to dine here, DO NOT (and I’m telling you this very firmly) wear your sky-high stilettos and/or super mini dress to Ril’s. You will need to climb a very steep staircase and risk flashing your undies or worse, poo-na-nee at the cute bartender and other guests below. My heels were 5-inch high and let’s just say the bartender was polite not to look.
Bread roll
Bottom up: Basil butter, coarse sea salt, pepper and garlic butter
Ril's Tiga Rasa Scallop
We started with a bread roll each – dense and delicious with generous lashings of basil butter and garlic butter. Good stuff, but Prime’s bread and butter still reigns supreme. Ril’s Tiga Rasa Scallop (RM24) featured seared scallops in three different sauces – sweet, sour and salty. My favourite was the salty version where the sauce was prepared with soy sauce and butter. The sweet was made with beetroot jam and sour, with lime and aioli.
Sour
Sweet
Salty
Ril's Porterhouse
Ril’s specialty is the porterhouse steak, said to be crusty black on the outside with a tender, melting, perfectly rare interior. The beefs are halal certified Malaysia-reared Gemas Gold or air-flown Australian Angus and served with Ril’s roasted garlic jus.
Porterhouse, in slices
That night, my porterhouse (RM158 for 1kg) was shockingly dry and tough, and as we progressed towards the centre, the meat was almost impossible to chew. On top of that, the texture of the beef was coarse and with hardly any silkiness from the fat. Cutting into the meat took longer than eating it, so I gave up after almost an hour. By then, my arms felt as though they had gone through an intense workout. The meat had little flavour so the roasted garlic jus and mustard was most welcomed.
Black, crusty exterior
Chunky skin-on steak fries
Sauteed spinach with garlic
For sides, we had the chunky skin-on steak fries (RM14) and sautéed spinach with garlic (RM10). The latter was disappointing; it tasted like every other stir-fried vegetable dish, which you can make at home. I didn’t care much for the fries either, but to be fair, they were adequately prepared.
Chocolate fondant
The meat was very rare towards the centre – almost blue – so we asked if it could be a bit more done. Our waiter was very nice to oblige. After another 5 minutes of battling the texture of the beef, rif and I gave up and proceeded to order the chocolate fondant (RM22) for dessert. This came with a scoop of Last Polka salted gula Melaka ice cream. The fondant had just the right balance of cake and molten centre, and ice cream gave the fondant a slightly salty-caramel touch. We both enjoyed this.
Molten centre
The bill was close to RM300 inclusive of a glass of Santa Ana Malbec (RM24). Not expensive, but I was quite disappointed with the porterhouse. Maybe I should have tried another cut of meat like the ribeye instead of this. Despite having only two floor staff that night, service was quite attentive, which was a plus point.
Santa Ana Malbec
Ambiance: 6/10
Price: 6/10
Food: 4/10 (pork free)
Verdict: I didn’t enjoy the porterhouse, but the starter and dessert were decent. Will have to give the ribeye a try next.
Ril’s Steakhouse
The Warehouse Gallery & Cafe,
198, Jalan Tun H.S. Lee,
50000 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2022 0528.
41 Responses
Ouch…tat’s a bad Porterhouse 🙁
Have tried their 500g Ribeyes and New York Strips…done medium rare…it’s good for me 🙂
Sorry abt not warning u on the steel staircase…it’s pretty steep n exposed =)
Yeah…I want to try the 500g ribeye next. Since others commented it was good too. You should have warned me! Felt so malu climbing up the stairs. Lol
Aiyo…sorry des sorry des…pls accept my humblest apologies…
Forgot to ask…was the porterhouse a Gemas Gold?
Yea…do try their Ribeyes and Strips if you have a chance…shud have figured out tat u will go for their 1kg Porterhouse…I haven’t tried tat yet…hehe 🙂
Yup. Gemas gold. I think have to stick to the Australian angus. LOL. You know me la…greedy as usual. 😛
Maybe u shud order one 500g Gemas Gold ribeye and another 500g Angus ribeye…just to taste the difference 😛
Hmmmm…good idea. Lucky thing it’s not so expensive so I can afford to experiment. Hehe
Maybe u shud downgrade a bit to d 750g bone-in rib steak…quite a few were happy with it…tats my next target after ur ouch porterhouse review… =)
Yeah…I read a few blogs saying that’s good. Funny though, the waiter suggested the Porterhouse saying it’s their signature. -_-
I’ve eaten the Gemas Gold bone-in rib eye steak, medium rare, at Ril’s and found it to be very very tasty. I was pleasantly surprised with the local product – it wont melt in your mouth, I had to chew a bit but each chew released more meaty juices. I’m definitely going back. I hope you find a cut you can enjoy next time.
Thanks for sharing this. I guess I have to stick with ribeye in future. 🙂
We had the bone-in rib eye (Gemas Gold) and my husband enjoyed it very much. I do prefer the more delicate steaks though I have no complains re the flavour.
And luckily for me, I read Jon’s review before I went and wore flip flops as there was no way I could have walked up those stairs in heels!
Hahahaha! Lucky you indeed. I almost didn’t want to go upstairs because of what I wore. :/
its hard to cook such a big piece of beef with the same doneness throughout..
1kg sounds like something my friends and I would try back in the day, 1kg per person and see who finishes haha.
Waaa…I cannot la. Max record is 700g. 🙂
Wow the meat is huge…
Yeah, massive!
loved the ribeye. was tempted to check out the porterhouse…but i reckon ill give it a miss unless i have for dinner company the folks who love well done dry chewy beef (yes such people do exist):P
Skip the porterhouse. The ribeye seems to be getting a lot of compliments based on the comments here. 🙂 My dad likes beef done and chewy…which is why I never eat steak with him! Lol
Eh, for a Steakhouse to screw up a steak so badly, that’s pretty inexcusable … based on your description I would never set foot in this place, ha ha D:
I won’t judge until I try the other cuts. If all also like the porterhouse, then I won’t return. 🙂
Best steak in KL? They might need to tweak that a little.
Maybe! Hehe
That chopping board of meat looks like enough for 2 months!
For small eaters maybe. For me…two days. 😀
LOL I thought that porterhouse looks rather good in the photo until I read your review… so looks can be deceiving… suddenly it doesn’t look so good anymore.. now I noticed that it was unevenly cooked LOL
I think that’s the problem with cooking steaks too large. It is never evenly cooked…unless prepared sous vide style.
YIKES!!!!! Say no more.
Hehe… 😉
Give the ribeye a trylah. It has my vote 😉 Oh, give the shrimp cocktails a go as well while you are at it 😛
Thanks for the tip. Next round, I will be less greedy. 😛
Hi Babe, we’re so sorry you didn’t have a good experience at Ril’s. We taste our steaks regularly to make sure they are still up to standard and we have just found out on our most recent tasting that our suppliers had run out of our usual meat and had replaced it with a lower quality Australian porterhouse instead without informing us. Please accept our apologies for the poor quality – we have since ensured that the meat is back to its usual top quality – I personally tried it yesterday and it was excellent 🙂 We’re still pretty new and always trying to improve, so we really appreciate your feedback (and thanks for catching it!!)
We’d really like to have you back again to give you a better dining experience. You’d be welcome to choose a different cut (our rib-eye is really yummy), or we would offer you a free porterhouse to replace the one you did not enjoy last time. Just give us a call or drop us an email. Hope to see you soon!
Hi Laurie, thank you for clarifying matters. I’m glad the problem with the steak quality was sorted. My readers have strongly recommended the ribeye, so I’ll be trying that next. And wearing pants of course. 😉
Guess…I’ll be trying the Porterhouse after all…hehe =)
Interested in trying it as well..Anyone had it so far?
The wine was rm24? u sure??
sorry, too excited and missed the ‘a glass’!
Yup!
Sorry, nice atmosphere, but the food is really poor. For me, the best steak in KL is still Prime at the Le Meridien. No comparison at all.
HIGH 5! Prime is still the best steak in KL, for me. 😉
hello, im not familiar with restaurants in kl and i would take my gf for her birthday to the best restaurant in kl , plz help me and which one do u suggest ?
Hi, I’ll need to know your budget and preferred cuisine.