Champor-Champor

Champor-Champor is very far from being just another restaurant with a rather unusual name. Translated from the Malay it reads as 'mix and match', a mantra designed to reflect the restaurants approach to its cuisine as a total dining experience with a culture all its own.

Those whose tastes take them down the path of Asian cuisines often remain blissfully unaware of the culinary joy that awaits them should they take one or two more steps along the track to discover modern Malay-Asian food. It is an accommodating way of guiding your taste buds to dance a fandango surrounded by the warm glow of candlelight, the authenticity of décor which discards uniformity in the interests of a bohemian/chic combo that plays to a Malaysian theme.

A winter dinner menu at Champor-Champor could start with stir-fried frog legs with ginger, galangal and XO sauce, Taro and Chinese celery cake with coconut granules and lime relish, or tender Calamari satay with pickled water chestnuts and a Thai chilli and cucumber dip. By this time it will have dawned upon even the most adventurous that this is not a place for the faint-hearted, though an inter-course, and be assured the waiting staff have heard them all, of say lemon grass and ginger granite goes some way towards adjusting the palate in time for the main event.

There are generally about seven choices here, and I hesitate to direct you down any particular course for fear that you should miss something you might enjoy even more. So let's be very professional about this. Shall it be the sea bass fillet curry with sour mango, bell pepper sambal and lotus leaf rice parcel, or does the pan-fried calves' liver in green curry sauce with cumin and honey-roasted sweet potato strike a slightly more homely note?

The completion of this what might almost be described as a 'boutique repast' could be achieved through a choice of four desserts, from which I would commend the caramelised banana with star anise and black pepper, and oolong tea ice cream, though the Pandan sponge and butter pudding would be less than half a length behind.

Tasting menus are a feature of the house, with canapés to wake up the digestion before tackling a five course meal and a selection of those devilish desserts.

An elegant wine list ranges itself all over the world with Lebanon, Brazil, Uruguay, India, Chile and Taiwan standing with all the usual suspects to provide a selection that repays most certainly more than one visit. And should all this culinary sparkle fill you with an insatiable desire to impress your friends and relations Chef Adu Amran is prepared to nobly devote his Saturday afternoon to a three hour tutorial teaching more about traditional Malay cuisine to minimum two/maximum four participants.

Champor-Champor stands alone on its own pillar of excellence. One click on their Website will bring you up to date on their seasonal menus and open the door to, for many, a completely new and delightful experience.