Healthy and clean eating is often associated with bland and boring food. My husband has the same mindset, as every time he sees a restaurant selling healthy or clean food (think salad bars, keto/paleo friendly places), he avoids it like a plague. So when I was invited by Grand Hyatt KL to the reopening of their Poolhouse restaurant, I very generously opened up the invitation to my husband to be my plus one.
What I ‘forgot’ to mention to him was that the Poolhouse was reopening with a brand new concept that thrives on healthy eating experiences and they were partnering with renowned celebrity chef Daniel Green, a healthy eating expert. I knew we were in for a fun ride!
The Poolhouse
Those that are familiar with Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur will know that the Poolhouse was previously home to the Barbie café. The spherical glasshouse looks out to the pool and is surrounded by tropical greenery – the perfect setting for an all-day dining scene. With the brand new concept in place, it now houses an in-house vertical garden, nurtured by a local urban farming brand, Cultiveat. You can be assured your salad and vegetables will be super fresh.
A world-renowned celebrity chef
Chef Daniel Green is a world-renowned celebrity chef and healthy eating expert. He’s been on Food Network, authored many cookbooks and his simple, healthy eating recipes have been featured in numerous magazines all over the world. With his expertise in clean eating, it was a no brainer for Grand Hyatt to bring him in to curate their new menu that is not only healthy, but hearty and wholesome too.
Let the feast begin!
Poolhouse featuring Chef Daniel Green shies away from processed food and focuses solely on paleo-friendly, keto-friendly and non-processed ingredients for guests to enjoy the best of both worlds – nutrients and flavours. To be honest, before I had a look at the menu, I envisioned being served all sorts of greens (didn’t help that we were served a shot of green juice when we arrived – but it was delicious!), but after having a look at the menu, I knew I was in for a treat (the husband was still a bit hesitant).
Chef Daniel Green kicked things off by demonstrating how to make his Asian beef tartare. All that was needed was a handful of ingredients, like grass fed beef sirloin, soy, garlic, sesame oil, quail egg and the special ingredient to give it that spicy Asian kick: gochujang sauce. To keep things healthy, the tartare was served atop a slice of Asian pear and cos lettuce instead of bread/croutons.
It was an explosion of flavours in my mouth and the spicy kick towards the end made me want to have even more. Everything was so fresh! My clean eating averse husband had a few rounds of this.
Small sharing plates
Next up we were served some small starter plates. Grilled octopus with black garlic aioli, and smoked salmon and crabmeat avocado mousse. The octopus was grilled to perfection and the smoked salmon and crabmeat was a match made in heaven. We were also served two dips – a smokey eggplant baba ganoush served with taro crackers, and a turmeric sweet potato hummus served with fresh vegetable crudités.
I am a big fan of dips and these two dips really blew my mind. We normally have our dips with crackers, but the husband didn’t even mind eating the hummus with the fresh vegetable sticks. Yup that just goes to show how flavourful the dips were. And to think that all these delicious foods are actually healthy? Yay!
Grill and skewers
After our starters, the room was filled with the aroma of grilled meat and seafood. We were presented with a platter of grilled juicy lamb cutlets and prawn skewers. These were served with the Poolhouse signature sauces – salsa verde, Korean BBQ, and white truffle mayo. The sauces complemented the grills very well, my favourite was the mayo as it had a subtle truffle taste and wasn’t too heavy and rich like store bought mayonnaise. We also tried barley wok fried with vegetables and tomato sambal. This tasted like a healthy version of nasi goreng.
Guilt-free sweets
Soon it was time for dessert. I was already stuffed at this point, but we were presented with a beautiful slice of key lime cheesecake served with a piece of honeycomb on top and boy did it look appetising. Chef Daniel mentioned that they do not use refined sugar in their food – only honey or maple syrup as sweeteners. I inhaled the slice of cheesecake in minutes – the sweetness from the honeycomb, the creaminess of the cheese and the tartness of the lime made for an exceptional dessert.
We also had a taste of the homemade guilt-free ice cream and sorbets. What a perfect ending to a lovely meal. If clean eating tastes like this all the time, then sign me up please! Although I was stuffed to the brim, I didn’t get that sluggish feeling you can get after eating a heavy greasy meal.
As we left, I asked my husband if he enjoyed his healthy meal and he sheepishly said yes, so that surely says something about the healthy food at the Poolhouse! To have a look at the Poolhouse menu, please click here.
We were invited as guests by Grand Hyatt KL. As always, our opinions are honest and our own.
