Reka:Bar — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

I give Reka Bar a 4.7/5. I came here with my friend and tried out five drinks and an appetizer. It was a very unique and interesting experience, and the place had a really cool atmosphere.

Presentation, customer service, and atmosphere all get 5 stars. Some of the drinks themselves, while highly creative, were a bit…too much in my opinion—just too much going on. Still, I only had a handful of items and there is so much to try—it will take more visits to give a proper estimation of everything.

When you walk up the stairs to the bar there is a large blue light going up the wall next to the door that also travels across the ceiling. The first thing you see is a lit-up white 3/4-walled room with a little white stand that dominoes are sitting on. You turn left and find the very long bar and lounge area.

The first thing I noticed after sitting was the impressive area of fermentations, boiling liquids, beakers, and other unusual laboratory-esque equipment lying on the table behind the bar. They are literally doing alcohol science experiments in here!

The menus are very interesting and incredibly creative. The staff will explain everything in detail. My friend and I had the Watermelon Sugar High, Dusun 2.0, Liquid Ambra, a mezcal espresso martini, and a shot of Esperanto Blanco tequila. I loved the tequila and the mezcal espresso martini. The Dusun 2.0 was wild, and had just too much going on in my opinion. The Watermelon Sugar High was interesting and kind of fun, and the Liquid Ambra had nice plum salt, though the drink itself was perhaps very sweet and sour. The vegetable and pita chips with olive hummus was very good. Hummus was different, but was pretty awesome with...

Summary: I enjoy the vibe, and some of the dishes are pretty great, but I just can't get behind the drinks. If you go, I'd opt for classic cocktails, which were all good, if not cheap. 3.5/5

It's a cool upstairs bar on Jalan Setia Bakti with on point lighting and decorations. The food menu is kinda cool - I had a clam and potato dish which was really excellent. The next time we tried some other dishes which weren't great (sorry I can't recall exactly), so overall kind of hit-and-miss for food.

They have a neat cocktail menu concept which ties all their drinks together, and encourages you to link them. However, I've tried a few and the flavors were just not my style: too sweet, one was WAY too sour (i love sour drinks), and a foamy one tasted a bit artificial. That could be just me though.

Their craft cocktails are 45$ each which is fine for a real cocktail bar, though if you order anything off-menu, it's higher than that. I've tried their Martini and White Lady, and both were good: about $55-60 each if I recall.

Service is wonderful at Reka, and they do listen to your feedback quite closely. I told them how their cocktails missed the mark with us and they gave us a complimentary drink the next time we came in.

Overall, it's a nice stop if you're on Setia Bakti for dinner, but I just don't like the drinks enough to justify a trip...

Taste: 5/5 ⭐ | Service: 5/5 ⭐ | Ambience: 5/5 ⭐ Price: RM45 per cocktail | Number of pax: 2

Reka is definitely one of the cocktail bars you should visit in KL. We had 5 different cocktails and they were all unique and good!

Drink Your Toast was a warm cocktail that really reminded us of the Malaysian kaya toast. The biscotti with an earl grey tea sort of spread paired well with it too. Naughty Congee was a cocktail with ginger spiced oriental flavours. The salted sprinkles of toasted coconut and ginger powder gave the cocktail even more depth. The Cloud & Clear had a rich finish from the milk tea and clarified salted caramel. The citrusy meringue cloud complemented the drink with a tinge of sweetness and tang. Bubble Trouble had fermented flavours from the kombucha foam and a roasted rice aftertaste from the genmaicha. Mari Berangan had a local old school mata kuching drink vibes with a hint of banana aroma. The genmaicha sphere in it doesn't do much though.

The bar is spacious and the service is good. We really appreciated that the bartender took a little bit of time to explain the cocktails even though the bar was busy on a weekend.

Best item of the visit: Drink Your Toast and Naughty Congee Will we return: YES

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