A new menu, a new room, a new reason to stay out. Five places in Kuala Lumpur worth knowing about this month.

A new menu, a new room, a new reason to stay out. Music runs through a good share of this month’s list, from a hotel bar where the drink follows the record to a menu with a cocktail named after a Queen song. The rest range from a barista’s timeline of the day in a glass to a brewpub set in the year 2085. Here are five places in Kuala Lumpur worth knowing about right now.

Coda

The highly anticipated Waldorf Astoria Kuala Lumpur opened on 30 October, and its pseudo-speakeasy on the fourth floor is where the music decides the order. Coda is named for the passage between a song’s last chord and its end, and each night it plays vinyl and matches albums to signature cocktails, every drink with a story about its record. The pairings span eras and moods: Guru’s Jazzmatazz Vol. 1 comes with a jammy gin and black sesame drink, Groove Armada’s Vertigo with a savoury shochu and tuak cocktail, and Cassius’s 1999 with a bitter-bright tequila and Campari pour. Hotel bars tend to treat music as a backdrop, so the house rule to keep phones silent—to let the soundtrack stay the loudest thing in the room—is the clearest sign that Coda commits to the idea.

Coda is on Level 4 of Waldorf Astoria Kuala Lumpur, 73 Jalan Raja Chulan, open daily from 5pm to midnight. @coda_kl

Bar Gaya

Award-winning mixologist David Hans’s personal bar in Bangsar launched a new menu on 6 November, rooted in the classics and drawn from childhood memories and ordinary moments. Bar Gaya, taken from the Malay word for style and character, sees its menu playing with local comforts: Soup of the Day blends his mother’s bitter gourd and coconut chicken soups accentuated with the briny pop of latok-latok or sea grapes, the Musang King Martini uses distilled durian for a potent sip that ignites all senses, and Bohemian Rhapsody turns the song’s five musical styles into five flavour notes. The one to order is the Gaya Kopi O, a local coffee cocktail served hot with buttered toast. It is nostalgic, it recalls an espresso martini, and it may be the first hot cocktail you try.

Bar Gaya is at 11A, Jalan Telawi 5, Bangsar, open 5pm to 1am and closed on Sundays. @bargaya.kl

Sun & Moon

Sun & Moon is a cafe by day and a bistro by night popular for its brunch experience and small sharing plates, and its new cocktail menu follows the same clock. Zax, a master barista turned bartender, arranged From Barista to Bartender as a timeline from bright, fizzy daytime drinks to dark, bold nightcaps, with coffee technique showing up in an Espresso Martini that is blended, not shaken. Start with the Houji-Peach Fizz, where roasty houjicha tea meets the sweetness of peach, with an edge from tequila. The Negroni sits softer on the bitterness, which will please anyone who avoids Campari but may leave a purist wanting more. Apart from the imported spirits, the non-alcoholic ingredients are local or made in-house.

Sun & Moon is at 10, Jalan Delima, open from 11am to 11pm on weekends. @sunandmoon_my

Hojita

Hojita is an intimate Latin cocteleria beside HOJA, W Kuala Lumpur‘s new restaurant for Colombian, Peruvian and Chilean coastal cooking, with vinyl sessions setting the mood. The cocktail menu is organised around four Mayan elements: land (Lu’um), sun (K’in), fire (K’aak) and sea (N’aab)—with three drinks under each, and it leans on mezcal, pisco and cachaça. Start with Sol, from the sun chapter: cachaça with tropical fruit, bright and citrusy, with a subtle heat from jalapeño that makes it a good first drink on an energised night. Further down the list, K’iik’ pairs clarified mezcal with beetroot, chimichurri and chamomile, and Ha’ combines pisco with watermelon, aloe vera and sea salt.

Hojita is on Level 12 of W Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Ampang, open from 6pm to midnight, Tuesdays to Saturdays. @hojita_kualalumpur

242 by PaperKite

242 by PaperKite, the craft brewer’s first experiential space, opened on 23 October on Level 50 of Conlay by E&O, in a Hanging Gardens story where survivors of a toxic-aired Kuala Lumpur in 2085 have found refuge 242 metres above the city. The main draw is beer, not cocktails, and it puts Malaysia first: the launch menu pairs local kuih with PaperKite’s award-winning brews, such as onde-onde with an oatmeal stout and ma lai ko with a copper ale. The Copper Ale and Pale Ale are the ones to reach for, light and fresh, and the Pale Ale won gold at this year’s World Beer Awards, with the IPA taking bronze.

242 by PaperKite is at Hanging Gardens, Level 50 of E&O Conlay, Jalan Conlay, open Tuesday to Sunday, 5pm to midnight, for non-Muslim visitors aged 21 and above. @242.paperkite

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