Late last year Italian food scene stalwart Neroteca suffered a bit of an ownership shake-up. Fans of the charmingly laid-back local take on a classic Italian enoteca (wine bar offering food) will be glad to know that it hasn’t translated into a change for the worse.

A recent lunch of simple but well-prepared standards left us feeling that some of KL’s more high-falutin’ restaurants could learn a thing or two from Neroteca about letting good ingredients speak for themselves. The antipasti plate for two was as good a version as we’ve had outside of Italy. Featuring a surprisingly abundant selection of seafood (not-too-salty cured anchovy fillets, spicy pepperoncini stuffed with tuna, slices of lovely silky smoked fish, fresh prawns, tender squid rings in a piquant tomato sauce, flakes of grilled fish), along with two varieties of olives and grilled and oil-preserved veggies, it made for the perfect accompaniment to slices from a pleasingly crusty, chewy loaf.

The Mediterranean salad, big enough for two to share was, as advertised, full of ‘healthy’ ingredients: grilled zucchini and eggplant, slices of red and yellow pepper, carrot, and asparagus. The curly leaf lettuce, we think, might be served a bit less dressed (read ‘limp’) and augmented with some of the fabulously perky arugala that crowns the antipasti.

Lunch calls for sandwiches and here Neroteca, drawing on a rich Italian heritage of things on and between bread, bats with the rest of them. The Tirolese, a piadini (think super-thin, very lightly toasted pizza dough) topped with gorgonzola, speck (a variety of cured ham most often associated with Alto Adige – the Tyrols, get it?), and arugala was by alternate bites salty-super creamy and blue cheese funky (as fans of stinky cheese we mean that in the best possible way), delightfully oozy to the end.

We’d recommend that Neroteca consider going a wee bit heavier on the pork fat for the homemade sausage stuffed into its grilled Campagnole panini (the meat was fantastically porky but a might dry), but we loved the flavourful and quality olive-oil rich eggplant caponata slathered on the bread. To minimize the possibility of grease-covered fingers the sandwich is served wrapped in paper, just the sort of attention to detail we can appreciate.

Though we arrived with the best of intentions (a thorough appetiser-through-dessert review) the most we could manage après sandwich was a couple of coffees. For the rich crema sported by our espresso we say, ‘Grazie very much.’

Rating: 4/5










Neroteca is a finalist in the Time Out KL Food Awards 2009 Best Italian Restaurant category. The Time Out KL's food awards are 100% voted for by the people of KL. This way, we guarantee that popularity and consistent performance is rewarded.

The Time Out Food 40 is our regular definitive guide on where to eat in the Klang Valley. Establishments will only appear in the TOKL Food 40 if they rank amongst the best and most satisfying dining experiences according to our team of independent, honest and experienced food critics.

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