Can’t believe it’s more than a month since my birthday! Where has the time gone? I celebrated my birthday quite a few times this year and probably eaten more cakes than few years combined. The celebrations span through almost the whole month and of course I have many people to thank for organising the parties/dinners/surprises, as well as all of you who have taken your time to send me birthday wishes (I’m sorry I didn’t get to reply each of you on the wall). Of these, I would like to specially thank Traders Hotel for agreeing to host us for a birthday date. The Traders hospitality is undoubtedly warm and very personal, and you might have read my experience of staying at this hotel here, and I’ve also recently dined at Gobo Chit Chat for their Seafood Buffet. This time, we had a meaty dinner at Gobo Upstairs.

Gobo Upstairs prides itself for serving one of the best steaks in town. The restaurant has gone through a small revamp since our last visit, and now the lighting is slightly brighter with an overall blue hue (which you’ll see affected my food photos) but still has a romantic ambience.

The menu is clearly divided and is pretty concise with good options for Paleo diners, while focusing on seasonal quality produce. The beef comes from Australia (though no mention whether it’s Grain-fed or Grass-fed) and you can go for either Black Angus or Wagyu. There are also quite a few seafood dishes too if beef isn’t your kind of thing. We settled down to ponder over the menu for a while before deciding on our orders. While the waiter brought us some amuse bouche.

Tender chunks of beef in a thick gravy, not a bad start to the meal. Though I had to have Frank’s portion as well because he doesn’t like stew meat. His loss, I guess.

Looks like charcoal bread is still a trend, but our favourite was the olive bread of course, with the fruity note and umaminess imparted from the olives, great with the celery puree.

The obvious choice for Frank was the Goats Cheese Salad, which has the perfect combination of beetroot, roasted walnuts, thinly sliced radish, mesclun leaves with a honey balsamic dressing. The sweetness is nicely balance by the slightly pungent goats cheese. I only managed to steal a bite before Frank polished it up.

I decided to totally pamper myself and ordered the Pan Seared Foie Gras (another obvious choice). Here it comes with slices of Smoked Duck Breast atop a Brioche toast and finished with Berries Compote. Berries with Foie Gras are always a winning combination and I like the slightly salty Duck Breast to complete the dish. The Foie itself? Well it’s perfectly cooked with slightly charred exterior and absolutely buttery interior. I was a happy girl that night.

For our mains, we ordered the steaks of course (yes, even Frank who usually go for meatless dishes while dining out). I went for the Wagyu Tenderloin and ordered a Black Angus Tenderloin for Frank, since he likes his steaks well done (it would be a waste to cook Wagyu this way!).

My Wagyu Tenderloin came with a Mesclun salad and Caramelised Onion Relish and I asked for a Bearnaise sauce to go with the steak.

I always say that I like my cow still bleeding (or still eating the salad on the plate) and here they achieved the perfect doneness for me. Tender, juicy, a little smoky, and full of bovine flavours. It is already delicious without the need for sauce, but I do like the rich, buttery and slightly tangy Bearnaise. The caramelised onion goes really well with the meat too.

Lex, Communications Executive of Traders also joined us for dinner and this was his very pretty plate of Grilled Tenderloin with Foie Gras, which induced a pang of dish envy. The Bordelaise sauce looked amazing, I should order that next time I’m there.

We ordered a few side dishes to share as well.

Simply sauteed and then sprinkled with Parmesan, great for asparagus lovers like me.

Though my favourite was the Sauteed Baby Spinach with Raisin and Garlic, simple but so comforting to eat especially with its smooth texture.

The Irishman was happy with the mash, which says a lot.

At this point I was actually pretty full, but it would be a sin to skip dessert during my birthday month (self-imposed rule?). In hindsight I really shouldn’t have though, you’ll know why soon.

The Panna cotta is served with candied hazelnuts and lime caramel sauce (!). It has the telltale wobble and wasn’t too cloyingly sweet, which suits my taste.

Even though this is pretty simple (childish, even), it ticked the boxes for Frank the ice cream lover.

Just when we were about to wrap up our dinner, this appeared:

A whole cake, along with Happy Birthday song. I sure was being spoilt rotten! Even though I could only manage a small slice that night. That cake sat in my fridge for a few days and made Frank a happy boy. I think he had enough Chocolate for a month at least.

So I just want to say this again and this goes out to Hui Zhen, Lex Ariff and all the staff at Gobo Upstairs: Thank you for making my birthday special. Looking forward to visit Traders Hotel again!

Gobo Upstairs Lounge and Grill
Level 6
Traders Hotel
Kuala Lumpur City Centre
50088 Malaysia
+6 03 2332 9910
www.shangri-la.com/kualalumpur/traders/