I recently went to the newly launched Racks Bar and Baby Backs in Changkat Bukit Bintang for dinner. This place specializes in pork ribs and also has a menu with a plethora of all things porcine.
I’ve written about this place for Lifestyle Asia – the Nice Racks in Changkat Bukit Bintang article is a piece I did for them as a freelance writer.
The starters
Special pigs in special blankets (RM 24)
The suggestive presentation is intentional. Heh. These are spiced oxfords wrapped in parma ham. Parma ham is a slow dry cured ham from Italy – it takes 12 months to complete and is served uncooked. The result is a sweet slice of heaven with a heavy pork fat aftertaste.
Asparagus under prosciutto (RM 22)
The steamed and buttered asparagus gives a little balance to the food pyramid. It’s quite refreshing after all the pork dishes and asparagus is one of the few vegetables I actually like.
Angels in parma (RM 32)
I love oysters and I love Prosciutto di Parma (Parma ham). What could go wrong with a combination of the both? It’s delicious and the spicy sambal on top provides a fusion twist! I’m a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to oysters – I still prefer it au naturale but this is horizon expanding stuff.
Peaches ‘n’ parma (RM 22)
This is a brilliant implementation that wraps parma ham around fresh peaches before grilling it. The sweet peach juices provides a nice contrast to the savory parma ham. It’s my personal favorite from the appetizers menu.
Racks of Ruin
These shooters comes in a rack of 12 for RM 200 and is also the part of the namesake of the restaurant (in addition to racks of pork).
The Molotov
This Shock and Awe shooter is made with vodka, tequila, Jack Daniels and…Tabasco sauce. The last ingredient will leave mere mortals gasping for breath. It’s one of the stronger shooters and it makes sense to put in Tabasco sauce as it masks the copious amounts of alcohol well.
Test Tube Babies
Vodka, peach schnapps and a dash of cranberry. This is to extinguish the fire caused by The Molotov. It’s sweet and a more traditional shooter.
Illusion
The mix of Midori melon, pineapple juice, vodka and run is positively delicious. I think of it as a holiday drink, something to sip while lounging by the beaches.
Mains
Cut, pickles, jams, mustard and bread (RM 54)
This is a selection of cold cuts with jams and breads (all made in-house). I like the freshly baked bread – it goes very well with their apple-chilli jam and the slivers of cheese and cold cuts provides the savory twist to the sweet jam slathered bread.
Racks pork burger (RM 28)
Nestled among the buns is a 7 oz juicy home-made patty. The pork patty is juicy and tender, one of the best pork burgers I’ve ever had. Don’t be fooled by the deceptively simple presentation – this is great stuff. The burger has the works, the only beef (
) I have with it is crispy bacon. I’m a soggy bacon kinda guy but I’m sure they’ll switch it if you ask.
Racks big BAD sandwich (RM 26)
The BAD stands for bacon, avocado and dried tomatoes. The fascinating thing about Racks is that they use their own oven to dry the tomatoes – it’s not something you get off-the-shelf and it shows in the taste. I found the bread a bit too much though but that may be coz I’ve been eating a lot of it in the previous dishes.
Hot & Spicy Pork Ribs (RM 52 full rack, RM 32 half rack)
The piece de resistance. It reminds me of this pizza place near my campus when I was studying in Melbourne. They make the best hot and spicy pork ribs ever and I’ve struggled to find an equally good one since. This fits the bill. It’s really something you can get your hands into – a sticky, messy but delicious eating experience.
Sweet & Sticky Pork Ribs (RM 52 full rack, RM 32 half rack)
This is my favorite dish of the night. It’s the marmalade glaze and scallions that sold it for me. The pork ribs at Racks are slow braised and glazed on the spit for six hours and it shows – the meat literally falls of the bone and melts in your mouth. This comes highly recommended from me – the sweet marmalade sauce complements the pork ribs nicely.
Racks Bar and Baby Backs will be coming up with more varieties of pork ribs in the future. I can’t wait to try it – the Sweet & Sticky pork ribs had me craving for more. Thanks for the invite Winnie, Shu Min and Paul! They also have an an all-you-can-drink apple martini breakfast on weekends – just add on RM 48 for free flow drinks. I like how Racks makes their dishes to order and most of the ingredients are made in-house too.
Racks is located beside Finnegan’s on Changkat Bukit Bintang.
omg i love parma ham. this resto use a lot in the dishes. must pay a visit. where can you get parma ham in kl?
Yeah, it’s great stuff eh? Parma ham reminds me of Iberico ham for some reason. It has the same sweet pork fat notes. 🙂
I don’t know where you can get it retail though.
Yeah, it’s worth a try – check out the pork ribs too, those are the best! 😀
This place looks good, very good. Well organised menu, good food, two thumbs up.
Is that your missus?
Yeah, I really liked some of the very inventive appetizers! My favorite is the peaches ‘n’ parma. 🙂
No la that’s Wei Zhi of kampungboycitygal.com
She was there and I wanted to show the scale of the full rack of pork ribs. 😀
met her once in person.. she change her hairstyle?? nearly cannot recognize her
Well, the last time I saw Wei Zhi she had a different hairstyle so I guess you’re right. 🙂
yeah having a short do now. having receding hair line is not fun so gotta trim trim trim! 🙁
she married?
Nope, but she’s in a relationship (which is where the kampung boy bit comes in). Heh. Not available bro. 🙂
food was awesome, but that molotov was a bit too nasty for me. nice seeing u again! 😀
Yeah, loved the pork ribs and the starters – awesome stuff. I particularly liked the Parma ham. 🙂
Yup, great bumping into you again!
Haha! Yeah, The Molotov is a bit intense eh? 😀
Wow my stomach is grumbling now! They really took the effort to present the food nicely.
And oh, did I see a heart shape in the Hot & Spicy Pork Ribs photo?!
Hello Charmaine!
Yup, I liked how they use Parma ham in a lot of their dishes. It’s my latest favorite food. 🙂
I think it’s just the way the photo came out – but there’s lots of nice touches, like the slivers of cheese in the asparagus. 😀
Too porky mate. Too porky.
No way! There’s no such thing as too porky! 😀
I’m totally into this Parma ham, it’s like Iberico ham in some aspects. Lovely stuff, Michelle. 🙂
wah wah wah.. more food. never really tried the test tube baby (both actual and the drinks) .. but the molotov is definitely fascinating..
call me pervert but misread “Asparagus under prosciutto” as “Asparagus under PROSTITUTE”.. wtf.. speed reading kills..
Haha! I’ve never tried real test tube babies too. 😉
Seriously though, the drink is pretty good but the one that stands out is The Molotov.
Heh! It happens to me too! I’ll read a headline or caption and do a double take coz I thought it was something it’s not. Cheers bro! 🙂
Wow wow.. another place in the list to go for porky..
all these food looks delicious.. must give it a try on my next KL trip.. hehehe..
Hello Rose!
Yup, this is one of the better pork places I’ve been to in KL. I like the usage of Parma ham (it’s awesome stuff) and their pork ribs.
Hey, buzz me next time you’re in KL, will bring you here. 🙂
Great article. Yes – not many great places to go for PORKY food. I am a HUGE fan of Parma Ham & Prosciutto myself.
My favourite appetiser is the Asparagus & Parma Ham. It feels less sinful cos it’s balanced with some vege. Hahahaha. Also I love asparagus.
Glad you enjoyed yourself. Must do this again sometime.
Me too! I love Parma ham, can’t stop thinking about it.
It’s like Iberico ham in some aspects, at least it reminds me of that. 🙂
Yup, I like asparagus as a vegetable too. It was good to meet up, yeah, let’s do it again sometime.
Have a good weekend Winnie! 😀
Oooo…the ribs!!! Certainly looks like to die for! Must go and try when in KL. Drool! Drool! You can take me there? Wink! Wink! LOL!!!
Indeed! 😀
The use of marmalade as a glaze and topping it off with scallions made it stand out. I personally prefer the Sweet & Sticky pork ribs over the Hot & Spicy pork ribs.
Sure bro, just buzz me when you’re in KL, I’ll bring you here. No problems. 🙂
this stuffs is bad ass..should try it soon *drooling……..*
Yeah, it’s smack dab in the middle of KL too.
It’s definitely worth a try – dishes I recommend would be peaches n parma and the sweet & sticky pork ribs. Those two are the must-have orders.
Tell me what you think once you’ve tried it bro. 🙂
HB, of all the dishes which one did you have for your meal? I thought the baby back rib is the one that is so huge of portion.
I had all of them. 🙂
I ate every single dish and all the shooter. I obviously didn’t finish everything but I sampled everything. 😀
The huge one you see in the first and last photo is the full rack of pork ribs. The other photos depict the half racks, which is about half the size of the full rack. 🙂
The food looks good. Thanks for dropping by my blog, you’re awesome.
weird that I was unable to access your blog from my company network. Blocked for some “nudity” reason. Hmm
Yeah the food is great! 🙂
Heh! Yeah, I covered SEXPO (an annual sex exhibition) when I was in Australia, they’re one of the social media pioneers – got a media pass from them after they discovered my writeup on the blog and they also featured me on their site. This was way back in 2002, blogs as media was very foreign then.
oh, hi WeiZhi long time no see lol. It’s good that we see more and more porky goodness appearing in KL. Finding good pork ribs is sure hard in Malaysia when Tony Romas is Halal here :p
Yeah, good pork ribs are hard to find!
I like the Hot & Spicy pork ribs coz it reminds me of this pizza place run by an Italian guy near campus when I was in university back in Melbourne. They’ll chuck it into this wood fired oven, same contraption they use to make their pizzas and the sauce tastes exactly the same. 😀
However, at Racks I prefer the Sweet & Sticky pork ribs coz I really love the combination of marmalade with scallions. It’s delicious! 🙂
i want to try the parma ham!Looks delicious…
Oyster with sambal is something new to me..
Yeah the Parma ham is awesome! I loved it too.
The oysters with sambal is pretty unusual for me to. I had oysters over the weekend too, huge fan of the things. 🙂
oh damnnnnnnnn the repertoire of procine goodness. Too good! if you ever need a +1 you can always call me =P
Yeah, Racks has those in spades! 🙂
Sure thing mate, will buzz you if I need a +1 for food! 😀
Looks like Malaysians will be obese soon with that kind of serving portion. Damn American size.
Haha! Well, we do have the metabolism to take care of it though! 🙂