Beneath a clock that tells time in light, Peacock Alley reimagines the Waldorf salad, eggs Benedict, red velvet cake and Rob Roy for Kuala Lumpur, with a durian cake as the standout and a look at the hotel’s other venues.

Past the second set of glass doors the city drops away, and the eye finds the clock before anything else: a ring of light crawling from bulb to bulb across the far end of the lounge, ticking without a sound. Expectations run high for a name like Waldorf Astoria, and standing at the edge of the platform beneath the vaulted ceiling, they are met before a table is reached.

Keeping Its Own Time

Arrival at the Waldorf Astoria Kuala Lumpur begins beneath a soaring covered porch patterned in songket motifs, the same weave that recurs across the property, and continues through two layers of glass doors, less like checking in than entering. A large botanical display stands just inside, the first of the arrangements the hotel’s in-house florist curates, and Peacock Alley waits on an elevated platform beyond, its ceilings rising in vaulted squares rimmed with more songket.

Presiding over it all is the clock, a bronze and glass installation inspired by the astrolabe at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, which curates the art throughout the hotel. Roughly 2.5 metres across, it hangs from the ceiling at the far end of the alley, off to one side, unlike New York’s original, a tower in the middle of the room, and it tells time in light: three concentric rings of bulbs, the innermost for the hour, the middle for the minute, and the outermost, the most dynamic, moving with the second. Almost every table has a view of it, giving the saying “Meet me at the clock” a more personal meaning.

Taking its name from the corridor that once joined the original Waldorf and Astoria hotels in New York, Peacock Alley has served as the social hall in every Waldorf Astoria since. At lunch in Kuala Lumpur it is a quiet affair, four or five tables of coffee and dessert. The lobby lounge is a pleasure to find on the ground floor of a new luxury hotel, when so many are climbing into sky lobbies. Round tables for four with armchairs fill the floor, a few couches wait for those who prefer to sink, and between the tall ceilings, the soothing palette and a gentle scent wafting across, long hours pass easily.

Greens run through the hotel in emerald, jade, viridian and pine against browns, terracotta and beige, and marble spans the walls in textured layers until almost no surface is plain. The bar counter at the opposite end from the clock is dressed in green marble from the Italian Alps, while behind Peacock Alley a white marble corridor opens onto the manicured lawn where the all-day dining room, Istana, spills out at breakfast. Lights stay low and warm, better for lounging than for photographing, and the soundtrack of contemporary soft rock is an unexpected choice for such a room, neither sleepy nor distracting.

The Signatures, From NY to KL

Waldorf Astoria is a name steeped in history, its original New York hotel dubbed the most important hotel in the world and called “the greatest of them all” by Conrad Hilton, a line that became the brand’s slogan. The pride shows in the details, from the WA insignia tipping the skewers to staff who know the brand’s legacy and wear that pride openly. Four of the world’s most recognisable dishes and drinks—the Waldorf salad, eggs Benedict, red velvet cake and the Rob Roy—are credited to the original in New York, and Peacock Alley brings them back with the hotel’s kitchens putting a new hand to each.

Born in New York as chunky cubes of apple and celery, the Waldorf salad is julienned here, plated as a tall cylinder crowned with tuille leaves of walnut purée and a dome of caramelised apple. The first bite lands sweeter than expected, and for a moment the salad starts to argue with itself; by the third, crisp apple and celery have been interrupted by the woody richness of walnut, raisins return the sweetness to the front of the palate, and the argument settles into a conversation. It is a more refined presentation, one where the eyes feast before the mouth.

Eggs Benedict, another New York original, arrives with ham, English muffin and hollandaise all in good order. Chef Vijayakant, Director of Culinary, points to a Malaysian rendition exclusive to Istana’s breakfast in which cucur udang, fried prawn fritters, take the place of the muffin. Red velvet cake, also a New York original, becomes a petit gâteau, a cube enrobed in tempered chocolate that cracks open onto a thick layer of cream cheese mousse standing in for the icing, over a fudgy red velvet sponge. Each spoonful eats closer to cheesecake than layer cake, and it is not sweetened to excess.

Kuala Lumpur alone claims the standout of the table, a durian and coconut cake filled with actual durian flesh scooped from the seed. Many durian desserts purée the fruit into custard and lose its fibrous creaminess, and this one keeps that texture intact, lightened by chantilly set around the fruit. It is among the best durian desserts I have eaten. Durian is typically contraband in hotels, luxury or not, so a dessert of real durian flesh in the signature lounge speaks to the hotel’s mould-breaking ambitions. If Park Hyatt is where Kuala Lumpur goes for a damn good mille-feuille, Waldorf Astoria is staking its claim with a durian and coconut cake.

Beyond the signatures, the smashed beef burger arrives thick and cooked to a medium rare, its coarse grind adding texture, with cheddar, pickles and beef marmalade on a potato bun. It is juicy, though more seasoning and pickles would help it stand beside the dishes above. Medium-cut fries arrive golden and crisp beside four jars of Andrésy sauces, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, ketchup and chili sauce, and there is an exceptional luxury to sauces served this way.

A Dram of Tamarind

Peacock Alley’s cocktail menu combines Waldorf heritage with Kuala Lumpur’s history, its signatures folding Malaysian ingredients into familiar classics: cham, the local pairing of coffee and tea, in an espresso martini; kelulut honey from stingless bees in a margarita; Penang nutmeg in a French 75; pandan and citrus leaf in a highball. The Jungle Bird, a tropical classic born in Kuala Lumpur, returns home on the same list.

The Rob Roy, credited to the original Waldorf Astoria, is made here with Dewar’s 12 Year, sweet vermouth and aromatic bitters, and tamarind folded in. Its final sip tastes of sweet, earthy black tea, which caught me off guard and held my attention longer than anything else. Named for the venue, the Peacock Martini is described as a reinterpretation of the historic Astoria Martini, pairing Gin Malaya with dry vermouth and orange bitters under an expression of orange peel—dry and unmistakably classic, for those who love gin undisturbed.

Peacock Alley sits in the grand lobby of Waldorf Astoria Kuala Lumpur at 73 Jalan Raja Chulan, open through the day and into the night. Guests can look forward to the name’s signature afternoon tea ritual later this year.

Elsewhere in the Waldorf Astoria

Beyond Peacock Alley, the hotel’s other venues fall into place by hour and mood: Istana is for breakfast and refined Malay cuisine through the day, with breakfast reserved for the hotel’s residents and walk-ins welcome subject to availability; acclaimed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s JG KL is the fine dining room, open for dinner; abc kitchens KL, JG’s casual counterpart, is focused on ingredients; The Bar by JG is for a drink before or after a meal in the JG dining rooms; and Yaari, Garima Arora’s refined Indian restaurant on level 3, is open for dinner. CODA, on level 4, is a vinyl bar inspired by the 100 best albums to drink cocktails to, with a stairwell leading into a listening cove where guests pick albums off the wall and spin them on vinyl players, headphones on.

Find out more at Waldorf Astoria Kuala Lumpur / @waldorfastoriakualalumpur

Selected images courtesy of Waldorf Astoria Kuala Lumpur.

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