Food Blog | Cotta | Mont Kiara | Kuala Lumpur
If you’re looking for a hidden gem in the Mont Kiara area, there’s one that even I didn’t find out about until around late last year. It’s a hidden rooftop café in Mont Kiara that’s perfect for events and a cozy meal!
Disclaimer: I’ve eaten here on my own dime previously, but a lot of this post will focus on their new dinner offering that they’ve recently launched. This is a sponsored post (in the form of a free tasting—no money or obligation to say anything included).
Is it Halal?
Cotta doesn’t have halal certification, but they fall into that Muslim-friendly café territory, with food sourced from halal suppliers. However, they do serve alcohol in the form of a selection of beers.
Home-made Snacks
Where It Is
It is located in Verve Shops Mont Kiara—on the backside of Garden International School. The row of shops is most easily identifiable by the Jaya Grocer on the ground floor (not to be mistaken with the Jaya Grocer at Sunway 163 Mall). I’d still recommend going with the paid parking—enter just after passing the Jaya Grocer—because it’s a bit difficult to park on the narrow roads nearby.
Address: L6-1A, Verve Shops, 8, Jalan Kiara 5, Mont Kiara, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur
Operating Hours: Daily: 8am - 10pm
What it Costs
Here are the prices of what I’ll be sharing in this blog post:
Chuck Mooris Ricotta Tartine | RM35
Peruvian Chicken | RM29
KL’s Harvest | RM28
Mushroom Ricotta Pasta | RM31
Seafood Stew | RM70
Homemade Ricotta Ice Cream (Classic) | RM19
Cotta’s Sorry “KJ” Lemonade | RM15
All of these are subject to a 10% service charge. They’ll also offer you a water jar for free.
The full night menu can be viewed below!
Cotta KL Dinner Menu
A few important things to note: there are some limited dishes here—they only serve 10 portions per day before it runs out.
I think price-wise, it’s quite in line with most of the other Kuala Lumpur cafés in this tier, especially considering the location. The uniqueness of this place and its environment makes it perfect for larger gatherings (book beforehand) or a nice dinner date. For context, I was actually brought here for my birthday last year by my girlfriend—so just imagine that this was the place she brought a foodie!
Their home-made Lemonade. Refreshing!
Ironically, I haven’t actually paid out of my own pocket here, so naturally, there may be a bit of bias. But I think, apart from the seafood stew—which admittedly is a bit steep—the prices are definitely reasonable.
Flower Bar
How it Tastes
The first thing I’d say is that although this is sponsored, I genuinely like this place. I walked away from my first experience thinking, that pasta is so smoky and aromatic that it doesn’t make sense! So I’m not just writing this because I’m doing them a favour and they’re doing me one too. The only reason it wasn’t on my blog earlier is that there wasn’t enough content from that visit to make a full post.
Chuck Mooris
Let’s start off with the appetizers: the Chuck Mooris Ricotta Tartine. A classic. I’ve had their daytime menu regular Chuck Mooris as well, but this variant is much better for sharing, given they split it into three smaller portions. I think the meat really is tender and has that savoury bite that all meat lovers would love. I think the star of this dish is definitely that 6-hours slow cooked Australian beef! The ricotta also adds a nice twist to this dish that is a bit more muted in nature.
One thing that I should add since I’m on the topic of their ricotta cheese. For those people who are scared of those strong cheeses, the ricotta cheese offered at Cotta really doesn’t have that strong / smelly typical cheese characteristics. I’d say the creaminess and slightly savoury nature are the things that really stand out about Cotta’s variation. Definitely something that should be ordered - especially considering it is the house specialty!
Peruvian Chicken
Next up—what would be my favourite dish of the night: the Peruvian Chicken. What can I say? Absolutely bursting with flavour. The chicken is almost melt-in-your-mouth. It’s just one of those dishes that, from the first bite, you’ll absolutely love. It has that small tinge of spice, saltiness, and lots of umami. For me, if you had to order just one appetizer, I’d say this is the one—though the Chuck Mooris is a close second.
Now, that’s not to say the third appetizer is any slouch either. The third appetizer we had is their rendition of a KL salad feast: KL’s Harvest. It has a unique freshness that makes it delicious in its own way. Given how I’ve described the meats so far, you’d probably guess I’m a meat person—and not someone particularly fond of greens.
KL Harvest
But one thing I’ll mention is that one place they source their vegetables from is Cultiveat—a farm I’ve come across separately at a corporate event and generally enjoy fresh greens from. It’s really fresh produce—the first flavour that hits you is probably the mint. The dressing is light and keeps the dish refreshing too.
Mushroom Ricotta Pasta
Now onto the mains! I’ve already mentioned that I absolutely love their Mushroom Ricotta Pasta. It’s so smoky and savoury—but that’s nicely balanced out by a slightly bitter touch from the arugula. The egg really adds to the thickness as well. I’d say this is definitely on the more jelat end of the food spectrum—basically meaning it’s super rich in flavour and very filling.
Seafood Stew
I think their Seafood Stew will definitely be a hit-or-miss dish for a lot of people. There are generally two parts to it: the seafood component—you can tell it’s good quality, and they’re not holding back on giving you your fair share—and then there’s the gochujang base. This is where opinions might split. It’s on the thicker side, so it’s quite far from a typical seafood jjigae you’d find in a Korean restaurant.
This leans much more toward a Western-style seafood stew, with a bit of Korean influence sprinkled in. Personally, I think it’s still pretty good—maybe not fully worth the price point, but a solid dish overall. That said, I can definitely see why it might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
Homemade Ricotta Ice Cream
Last of all, the dessert! We had the privilege of trying their home-made Ricotta Ice Cream. This is also a new addition from their night menu and I think this is the perfect example of what I said earlier - that the Ricotta Cheese isn’t that strong to the point that you would be frightened of it. This is another one of their very unqiue dishes that really stand out in terms of not having tried it anywhere else, whilst being a really unique and delicious experience!
Star Rating
7.5/10. I really would honestly give it an 8, BUT I recognize that there will be inherently some bias from having a sponsored meal, so I will just deduct a 0.5 just for a bit of consistency across scoring in my blog posts. I think this cafe does really stand out for being unique - in the form of dishes that you really won’t typically find anywhere else - as well as being a really cozy cafe!
As I mentioned before, I really think this is a great place for special events or a short date night. There’s some other things as well, such as their flower bar to order custom flower arrangements (only available during working hours on certain weekdays).
But all in all, I really think this is a great place for some unique food experiences!