I have gone to Kuala Lumpur (or KL as it is also called) for a number of years now and I normally stay at Traders hotel in KLCC. Over the years I have seen new buildings pop up around the area and one of the latest edition is tower 3 or menara 3 right next to the Petronas Twin Towers. When I was visiting a client in the Twin Towers in June 2012 I looked down on Menara 3 (which is 57 floors by the way) and it seems like there were tables and chairs setup there and I decided to check it out. When I went there the same evening I discovered that you enter this place by going to the main entrance of menara 3 (facing towards Mandarin Oriental hotel) and there is a lift up from there. I was a bit surprised by the lift…high ceiling, lots of buttons as it seems to have the potential to stop on every floor and it felt a bit slow. Well, it only takes 60 seconds to the top so I guess you can’t really complain

The first night we came after sunset and we were thrilled to see that you can get a table both inside in the bar (which has glass walls and a great view) and on tables outside. When seated outside you can of course enjoy the KL heat while enjoying the great view. The restaurant and the cigar lounge was not open at this stage so this is just a review of the bar itself – the restaurant is due to open in July 2012. But back to our visit – we went there with some friend and we were a group of four. As an avid traveler I have been fortunate enough to visit a few places around the world and for some reason I love rooftop bars with a view. On this night it was easy to see that the staff was a bit inexperienced and it is no wonder as they had only been open for a week. One example is that the waitress managed to serve the wrong drinks to all of us. The tapas/snack that we had was OK but I think the staff needs to know a bit more about the food…as a trick question I asked the one waitress what kind of cheese we had on the cheese platter and she had no idea. I have to admit that I didn’t really expect her to know it either so it was a bit mean of me to ask a question like that. When we ordered the panna cotta I think they totally forgot about it so in the end we had to ask for it a couple of times but it was worth waiting for: the panna cotta was very good and the same goes for the tiramisu and dark chocolate that came on the dessert platter!

We also went there a couple of days later when they had a soft opening for the sunset happy hour. We got there about 6 PM so this time the sun was still up and we sat outside again. From the outside you get an amazing view of the sun setting in KL and at the same time you are also so close to the Petronas Twin Towers that it almost feels unreal. Once again we tried some of the snack and also tried some of their cocktails and the drinks were very good. I think this will be a great place once the staff gets a bit more experience. The location is great and from the 57^th floor you get an amazing view of more or less the whole city and if you get there on a nice day you will experience a great view to the sunset in KL. I’m already planning to go back to Marini’s on 57 to check out the restaurant and the cigar lounge when I return to KL in September J Thanks to Ginny Lotto for the invitation to the soft opening and for introducing us to some new and exciting cocktails. This place is going to be one of THE places to go in KL. Check out the webpage or their facebook page.

Regards
Gard
gardkarlsen.com – trip reports and pictures