In the News

Abirami Durai - The Star
Feb 16, 2016
5 min read

Clink the picture above for link to the original article.

Robert Gilliland could charm the pants off Ebenezer Scrooge himself. The owner of Drift Dining & Bar, tucked along Jalan Bedara and behind Hotel Istana in KL, Gilliland is a Hugh Jackman lookalike with charisma oozing out of his pores. He drifts through the crowds at his aptly named restaurant, weaving his magic wherever he goes. People burst into laughter, smiles are aplenty and food and drinks are ordered at record-breaking speed, because well, who wants to leave a place like this?

The son of a professor of geo-informatics and a social worker, Gilliland deviated from family expectations, opting instead to quit school at 15. He then embarked on a string of jobs, eventually becoming a well-regarded sommelier with stints in Australian strongholds like Flying Fish and Marque.

In 2007, he came to Malaysia to set up the Straits Wine Company, a fine wine import company. The idea to set up his own eatery began fermenting from that point onwards.

“What I love about Malaysia is that people love food here. It’s a very social place, people are always out. And I very much believe that modern Australian dining is like that. It’s laidback,” he said.

And so Drift Dining & Bar came to be in 2014, with Gilliland as CEO and Angus Harrison (who has worked at top Australian restaurants like Longrain and Jimmy Licks) in the kitchen.

Gilliland’s personal touches are evident throughout the eatery, the most prominent of which is a giant black and white photograph mounted on top of the bar, which at first is hard to make out, until you realise it’s a picture of Gilliland in the bath (fully clothed, in case you’re wondering!). Then there is the crockery, custom-made in Bangkok and so beautifully understated, it almost feels like a crime to scrape your utensils across the surfaces.

“Everything here is here for a very good reason. We thought about it for a long time, so every-thing is designed to enhance your experience,” said Gilliland.

Swipe Right is a playful take on Tinder that is a great perk-me-up.

Since the restaurant opens late, there are a great deal of people who come simply to drink. If you’re one of them, do try the Swipe Right (RM44), a delightful riff on the popular dating app Tinder.

“It was inspired by a friend who used to sit at the bar and swipe right. I was going to do a Swipe Right and Swipe Left drink, but Swipe Right is more positive and I’m a positive kind of person,” said Gilliland, laughing.

The drink is built with Hendrick’s Gin as its superhero, with kaffir lime leaves and elderflower acting as trusty sidekicks. It is refreshing and zesty and quickly awakens the senses.

The Passionfruit Mojito (RM38) is just as good, a thirst-quencher with mint and lime that will no doubt find fans in those who like their cocktails to free them from the shackles of the daily grind.

The dapper Gilliland is an effortless host – vivacious and

bursting with energy.

And what of the food? It is clear that the eatery favours simplicity, opting for fresh produce that does all the talking without the need for fancy flourishes. “Beautiful simplicity comes through intrinsic knowledge and understanding,” said Gilliland, a statement which obviously means a lot to him because he repeats it no less than three times during our conversation.

The Beetroot Salad (RM25) is a great testament to the restaurant’s belief system. Cubes of cooked beetroot are tossed with labneh, walnuts, honey, goat’s cheese and mint. It is so simple, you might feel inclined to turn to the person next to you and say, “It’s elementary, my dear Watson.”

But here’s the thing: it all works together well. The crunch of the walnuts, the lusciousness of the beetroot, the soft saltiness of the cheese – all these sensations and textures roll around your palate like a Ferris wheel – with all the requisite euphoric highs too.

The Beetroot Salad is a clever lesson in simplicity, which allows the core ingredients to shine.

Decadence has found a new best friend in the creamy Fried Polenta.

The same can be said of the Fried Polenta (RM19), which is creamy, rich and decadent. Blocks of deep-fried polenta (cornmeal) are topped with Gorgonzola cream, mushrooms, sage and parmesan shavings. It’s simple but also simply delicious – one of those addictive guilty pleasures you’ll want to eat with a beer in hand.

Perhaps the best dish on the menu is the 250g Australian Black Angus Strip Loin (RM109). Served with chat potatoes and wasabi butter, the strip loin is thinly sliced and rosy pink in the middle. The beef is superior (melt-in-the-mouth tender), but then what else would you expect from 130-day aged grain-fed Angus beef? While the strip loin is divine on its own, you must, must smear some of the pungent, putty-soft wasabi butter on it.

The 250g Australian Black Angus Strip Loin is a prime example of simplicity done well.

While the Pan Roasted Baby Emperor shows glimmers of promise, it is ultimately rather underwhelming.

If you’re after a perfect happy ending to a simple fairytale meal, the Rosewater Semi-Freddo is just the thing for you.

The Pan Roasted Baby Emperor (RM59) is a dish that Gilliland is very proud of. “This dish, it’s just so good!” he exclaims. Despite Gilliland’s reverence for this offering, I can’t quite summon the same enthusiasm. The fish is cooked with enoki mushrooms, burnt butter and sumac and served whole.

The burnt butter is hard to discern and while the combination of fish and enoki mushrooms is great texturally, the baby emperor itself is under-seasoned and the overall dish is underwhelming. This is a dish where simplicity works to a point, and then you can’t help but feel as though a little more flavour would have taken you to the gastronomic point you needed to get to.

But the faults are few and far between and redemption arrives quickly in the form of the Rosewater Semi-Freddo (RM24) with brandy and chocolate ganache. This is sumptuous and oh-so satisfying (the chocolate ganache is the gastronomic equivalent of nirvana) and the perfect ending to your meal.

Throughout the meal, Gilliland keeps pointing to the tattoo which graces his right forearm (another body part reminiscent of the hunky Hugh Jackman). It reads Amazing Things with Amazing People and exemplifies what he believes hospitality should be all about.

“Hospitality should be like magic, you shouldn’t know the effort that goes behind everything. Ultimately, we don’t sell food and wine; we sell happiness,” he concludes.

And that’s the feeling you get at Drift. The food’s good and the alcohol is too, but it’s the company (i.e. Gilliland the Hugh Jackman doppelganger) that really makes it a notable pitstop on the gourmet landscape.