Restaurant review: Copper makes a fresh statement

Breakfast, Copper style.

By OOI MAY SIM

Copper in Menara Shell, Brickfields, is named after its namesake metal compound that is used to make coins, pans and plates. “When you think of copper, you think of quality, and that’s what the restaurant is about,” said Zeehan Zahari, who owns the setup with her chef husband Chai Chun Boon. “We wanted the name to reflect what we have to offer – copper is in the middle [range], not high-end like platinum or in abundance like steel.”

The restaurant is indeed classy without being too glam, and cosy without being overly simple. Tucked on the fifth floor of Menara Shell, Copper is an inviting space brought to life with splashes of colour – an olive green wall, a sunshine yellow sofa and a cherry red carpet. There is a lot of open space and tables are spaced out for privacy.

But ultimately, it is the food that draws the crowd. Copper serves pork- and alcohol-free “modern European fare with a strong Mediterranean influence” – a testament to Chai’s culinary stints in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain and Singapore. An ardent supporter of the local food movement, he buys his fresh produce locally. He also changes the set lunch menu every two days, and the weekend roast menu – cooked in the restaurant’s Pira charcoal oven – weekly.

Copper gives off cool, contemporary vibes.

When we visited in May, Copper was still serving breakfast but come June, they will do away with that and serve dinner instead.

The popular Copper Breakfast (RM27) will move from the breakfast menu to lunch. The platter offers a strip of salt beef, a fat chicken sausage, crushed herb potato, baked beans, sunny side up egg, sourdough toast and salad. Everything is made in-house, except for the sausage, which is custom-made – the restaurant specifies the meat-to-fat ratio.

We made our way around the plate and were impressed by the soft, juicy sausage. The beef was slightly hard, but released more and more flavour as we chewed; it had been marinated in brine for seven days, then cooked sous vide at 75°C for 12 hours, before being sliced and seared. The potatoes and baked beans were less impressive. The first was bland and under-seasoned, and the second was pretty forgettable.

Two other breakfast items that made the jump to the lunch menu were baked egg dishes, Shakshuka (RM20) and Pira Oven Mushrooms (RM20). We had the latter, a combination of egg, caramelised onions, dill, Bright Cow mozzarella and an assortment of shimeji, enoki, button, shiitake and oyster mushrooms, served with a slice of sourdough toast.

This dish was baked twice –in a normal oven, then the Pira charcoal oven. Earthy, fresh-tasting and creamy, the flavours worked well together.

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The Pira Oven Mushrooms were simple, but satisfying.

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The Leafy Green salad.

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Next, we sampled the Leafy Green salad (RM15) and Vichyssoise (RM16) from the small plates section. The salad combined a host of ingredients: onions, raisins, salad leaves, radish, dill, crushed nuts and sesame dressing. While it was enjoyable, the dressing and-raisins combo was slightly too sweet for my liking.

The soup, on the other hand, was pretty addictive. The thick and creamy leek and potato puree was heightened with leek fondue – chopped leek sautéed in butter – scallops seared with butter, seasoned with Spanish paprika and topped with plum sesame seeds and garlic breadcrumbs. These additions gave each spoonful texture and complexity. Vichyssoise is traditionally served cold, but Copper’s version is hot, “as most of our customers would have come from air-conditioned offices and prefer a hot soup,” Chai explained.

Forget chicken soup. This fragrant and creamy (hot) vichyssoise can lift any spirits!

From the mains, the Traditionally Made Pasta (RM24) and the Suquet de Prix (RM36) were average. The first had red onions, sun-dried tomatoes, wilted greens, grated cauliflower, parsley and Grana Padano cheese, while the latter was a seafood stew brimming with prawns, clams, fish and calamari. Both dishes were generous with ingredients but short on depth.

For dessert, the Grilled Pineapple (RM15) and the restaurant’s bestseller, Churros (RM15), were recommended. Copper’s churros were four crispon-the-outside, dense-on-the-inside dough fingers that went well with the vanilla Chantilly cream and Valrhona chocolate sauce.

But the standout was the grilled pineapple, which had undergone the long process of being cooked sous vide in spiced syrup – with cardamom, star anise, cloves and black pepper – and then macerated in non-alcoholic rum-flavoured syrup, before being grilled. The caramelised chunks of fruit were served with coconut yoghurt cream, vanilla custard espuma, Earl Grey granite and a dense, salted pineapple meringue. The whole bite was airy, light and quite dreamy.

Our meal at Copper had some misses, but more hits. There is room for improvement in terms of taste and execution, but the idea and spirit behind the restaurant is truly infectious and likeable.

COPPER

Level 5, Menara Shell

Jalan Tun Sambanthan

Brickfields

Kuala Lumpur

Tel: [phone]

Opens Mondays to Saturdays, 11am to 10pm. Closed on Sundays

Pork-free

This review first appeared in the June 2015 issue of Flavours magazine.