This beloved Bukit Damansara cafe now serves pasta for the first time, from garlic-driven aglio olio to herbaceous house-blended pesto, prepared with the care of a family-run kitchen.
New salads lean on founders Athirah and Samira’s Persian heritage, laced with saffron chicken, creamy Iranian goat’s milk cheese and more. Brunch brings Turkish-inspired eggs with herb yoghurt and chilli oil, plus avocado toast with charred tomatoes and Iranian cheese, while the Persian love cake and Persian rosewater latte furnish a fragrant finale.
Fun fact: Cousins Athirah and Samira sourced their cosy cafe’s distinctive decor from family vacations in Iran, spanning carpets to ornamental windows, paintings to ceramics. Fari & Ali’s is named for their grandparents, whose photos line the walls.
By day, Fari & Ali’s serves the neighbourhood from breakfast, bright and early at 8am. From Thursday to Saturday night, the space turns into Nooshe Jan, a romantic setting that spotlights a fuller expression of the family’s Persian culinary roots, courtesy of Samira’s mother, Leily.
Start with Fari & Ali’s fully loaded, full-bodied salads, colourful with creaminess and crunch.
The Nourish Bowl (RM36) lives up to its name, vibrantly vegan-friendly, naturally earthy-sweet with roasted chickpeas, sweet potatoes, carrots, corn, avocado, kale and pumpkin seeds with luscious green goddess dressing. A rich representation of the land’s robust harvest.
The Mixed Green Salad with Grilled Chicken (RM28) layers saffron-marinated chicken over cherry tomatoes, cucumber, walnuts and cranberries, with Iranian seasoning that lends softly spice-dusted depth to the meat, balanced with the citrusy verve of a lemon dressing.
The Beetroot and Feta Salad with Mixed Greens (RM28) is the boldest pick, pairing pickled beetroot with Iranian goat’s milk cheese on pesto-tossed leaves for a savoury basil undertow, bringing these contrasting characters into surprisingly lively harmony.
The Turkish Eggs (RM28) prop plump poached eggs on house-herbed yoghurt, streaked with chilli oil, served with buttered sourdough. A thick cultured tang cuts through the molten yolks before the spice builds up with a finishing heat.
The Avocado Toast (RM22) thoughtfully layers mashed and sliced avocado with charred cherry tomatoes, balsamic glaze and goat’s milk cheese, its lush smokiness and light salinity turning a cafe cliche into an Iranian interplay of softness, sweetness and scorch.
Crowd-pleasing new pastas are well worth the pursuit.
The Aglio Olio (RM24) is a brisk tangle of cherry tomatoes, coriander, parsley, garlic and chillies, freshened with leafy aromatics and finished with a flicker of fieriness. Top up with large prawns and squid (RM8) for seafood substance with briny bounce.
The Creamy Pesto (RM28) cloaks pasta in pesto and cream for basil-rich body, punctuated with cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. Smoked duck (RM10) adds dusky dimension.
The Persian Love Cake (RM15) is Fari & Ali’s fuller-sized interpretation of yazdi, Iran’s rosewater-and-cardamom-scented response to the cupcake. Rosewater, cardamom and almond flour are folded into a butter-cake crumb with a floral perfume, blanketed in icing sugar.
The Carrot Chocolate Cake (RM18) creatively enriches a familiar favourite with chocolate chunks embedded through its carrot-cake base, bringing cocoa luxuriousness to every forkful.
The Pistachio Tart (RM10) is a petite pleasure, packing a crisp shell with pistachio-vanilla chantilly for a silken, fragrantly nutty conclusion, showcasing why Fari & Ali’s is a popular stop for bakery buffs.
The Rose Latte (RM15) weds Iranian rosewater with Brazilian Cerrado coffee, making its milk-chocolate and wafer-biscuit caffeine profile feel more buoyant on the palate.
The Mint Lemon Cooler (RM14) recasts sekanjabin, the Persian mint drink, as a citrus-charged thirst-quencher for sweltering KL afternoons.
Fari & Ali’s also brings in nabat, Iran’s crystalline rock sugar, for gentle sweetening, traditionally stirred into tea.
65G, Jalan Medan Setia 1, Bukit Damansara, 50480 Kuala Lumpur.
Fari & Ali’s Kitchen is open Monday-Saturday, 8am-5pm.
Nooshe Jan is open Thursday-Saturday, 6:30pm-10pm.
Closed Sundays.
Tel: 011-2408-9838
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