Illustration by Fig & Ginger, drawn from the review. The venue's own photo is on its way.
Cocktail bar in Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur
Reka:Bar
Fermented Durian, Seriously
Reka:Bar was named Best Innovation in Tatler's 2026 bar list, and the room backs it up. The back bar is crowded with bottles, glass jars and what look like contraptions from a high school chemistry teacher's garage. The cocktails follow the same impulse, reimagining Asian flavors with sustainable mixology practices.
What makes it Malaysian is the ingredient list. A 2026 guide mentions Sarawakian rice wine and lacto-fermented durian in the drinks, which is a sentence that would have ended a menu meeting twenty years ago. Fermenting is the thread running through a lot of the best cooking in this country, and here it goes into a glass. The entrance has a rule, too: follow the circle.
It is in Bukit Damansara, the same area as Jungle Bird, so you can do a short crawl on foot or in a short ride. Go in early, order something odd, and ask what is in it. If the bartender lights up, you have picked well.
- Order this
- A drink with Sarawakian rice wine, A fermentation-led cocktail
- The damage
- $$$
- Go
- Early evening, so you can talk to the bartenders
- Find it
- 67M Jalan Setia Bakti, Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur 50490
- @reka.bar