Mahogani Roastery Coffee, Bandar Botanic

Founded by two Klang residents who sought to create a genuine neighbourhood cafe, Mahogani Roastery Coffee will celebrate its first birthday within weeks, earning its place as a community favourite at a challenging time.

Stepping inside, it's easy to fall in love at first sight. Founders Meng Loon and Florence cite multiple inspirations for Mahogani, from the beauty of Bali to the reddish-brown tropical timber that's both the cafe's namesake and the name of this street where it's located. 

Every corner is beautifully, lovingly spruced up, with elements of wood and leaves, with elegantly naturalistic flourishes of arts and craft. With comfortable seats lining the walls, it's easy to linger for hours over croissants and cakes, coffee and conversation.

When we visited on a Monday morning, Mahogani was marvellously peaceful when it opened at eleven, with plenty of vacant parking spaces outside. By noon, lunch-hunters streamed in to fill the cafe with chatter and cheer, a promising sign that Mahogani is here to stay for many more years.

Meng Loon and Florence are seasoned hands at helming eateries - that experience helps them create what their customers crave. Mahogani's menu is extensive, with rice bowls and pastas taking the limelight, plus main courses that confidently bring together crowd-pleasing Asian and Western influences. 

Japanese-style rice recipes are hearty and soulful here. The Unagi Don Rice (RM22) is a bargain for its reasonable-quality eel, not rubbery-textured or foul-tasting, served in a fleshy portion with scrambled eggs, heaped with nori strips and cherry tomatoes over fresh, warm rice.

If chicken, egg and rice are your comfort-food combo, try the Teriyaki Chicken Rice (RM15), with succulent, sesame-sprinkled meat made lip-smacking with a house-blended teriyaki sauce, loaded with a runny-yolked egg and vegetables for a balanced meal.

Mahogani's pastas are playful, putting together East and West on flavour-packed plates.

The Salted Egg Pasta with Battered Mushrooms (RM18) is a smooth, subtly savoury showcase for Mahogani's own-made salted egg sauce, while the Sambal Ebi Pasta (RM18) brings on the spice with pasta that tastes pleasurably Malaysian, complete with a selection of nasi lemak accompaniments such as peanuts, anchovies, cucumber and a fried egg, topped off with tantalisingly large prawns. 

Prices are notably wallet-friendly, making Mahogani well worth the half-hour drive from, say, Bandar Sunway, for those of us outside Klang.

Chicken chop fans should be completely satisfied with Mahogani's Salted Egg Crispy Chicken (RM18), with meat that's juicily chunky to the chew and batter that's crackly-crunchy to the bite, extra-addictive with a sauce that's creamy without being cloying. Waffle fries and a substantial side salad make this ideal for banishing hunger.

You'll also need a mammoth appetite for Mahogani's All Day Breakfast (RM28), featuring everything that Big Breakfast lovers want, a scrumptious feast of scrambled eggs with grilled shiitake mushrooms, hash browns and rye bread, protein-powered with a plump German sausage and slick pork bacon. Cranberry-sprinkled yogurt and a leafy salad help to counter the more sinful calories.

Ultimately, there's something for everyone here, from carb-heavy baskets of BBQ Pulled Chicken Bao, stuffed with pulled chicken braised with an in-house barbecue sauce, rounded out with fries galore (RM12), to fibre-rich bowls of the Fruity Salad, a crisp mound of romaine crowned with cranberries, watermelon and honeydew with a zesty dressing (RM13).

Teatime temptations abound. The Salted Egg Yolk Croissant (RM11) and Nutella Croissant (RM11) are two of Mahogani's fun flavours for this trendy but timeless treat, with melty Matcha lava croissants also available for fans of flaky pastries with creamy centres. 

Mahogani bakes up a storm of cakes - the Lotus Biscuit Cheesecake (RM16), Lychee Rose Cake (RM15) and Macadamia Cheesecake (RM17) are all rich and celebration-worthy. We can't figure out whether our favourite is the Biscoff caramel-cinnamon headiness of the Lotus cheesecake or the captivating crunchy-creamy contrast of the macadamia cheesecake.

For beverages, Mahogani's iced coffee and green tea-based concoctions promise fruity-cool creativity. Sip on the soothingly citrusy Orange Black (RM12), the refreshingly tangy Pineapple Ice Black (RM12) or the sweetly floral Lychee Matcha (RM15) for the perfect pick-me-up on a hot, humid afternoon.

Other Mahogani signatures include the Pandan Latte, with robust coffee poured into the fragrant drink (RM12), Iced Mango Date Tea, with aromatic date shavings to nibble on (RM10), and the Iced Grapefruit Lychee (RM11), nicely tuned to be naturally fruity instead of syrupy-sweet.

For more conventional caffeine enthusiasts, Mahogani lives up to the Coffee in its name, brewing the essentials, from steamy, fresh-crafted lattes to take you through the morning (RM10) to bottled cold brews to bring back home if you like (RM12 for black; RM13 for white).

Hand-pours with seasonal beans from local boutique roasters showcase Mahogani's serious side, with single-origin varietals from Ethiopia, Bolivia, Kenya and Costa Rica offered when we visited. Mahogani's baristas do justice to the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Worka G1 (RM18) and Kenyan Kirinyaga Baragwi FCS Guama AA (RM18), retaining all the floral and fruity nuances that avid coffee aficionados search for.

All in all, we might rarely venture to Klang, but Mahogani made this morning worthwhile. Many thanks to the team here for having us.

Mahogani Roastery Coffee

66, Jalan Mahogani 1/ks7, Bandar Botanik, 41200 Klang, Selangor. Daily, 11am-10pm. Tel: 03-3318-0251

This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com

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