Whimsical Gelateria & Caffe at Solaris Dutamas started out as a gelato place before expanding their menu to offer a very interesting combination of gelato with hot dishes. It all sounds very exciting, new and interesting and thus we dropped by over the weekend to check it out and have a late breakfast.
I actually first heard about this place from Sean (who provides a very up-to-date listing of Klang Valley restaurants) and was intrigued at the unusual menu. It’s molecular gastronomy, in a sense, or rather modernist cuisine. I originally thought it’ll be somewhat gimmicky but I was proven wrong.
They don’t just put gelato into every single dish, they only do it if it makes sense and adds to the experience. I thought that shows remarkable restraint. The dishes with gelato are helpfully marked with an ice-cream symbol and we ordered ALL the unusual ones.
Tomato Basil Salad (RM 20.90)
Cielo Dolci Basil Gelato manifests as cooling dressing on a garden of large Japanese cucumber strips, Romaine lettuce, red + cherry tomatoes, chive & goat cheese, with the complete touch of balsamic reduction.
This was the salad that we ordered to share and what dispelled my initial thoughts about gimmicky use of gelato. We had sharing plates and tasted everything and it was amazing! I don’t usually give rave reviews for salad but this one works very well.
The crunchy bits of baguette adds sweetness to the juiciness of the salad, and the balsamic vinegar works well for a touch of acidity but what made the dish magic is the basil gelato – it wasn’t sweet and it wasn’t savory, it just tastes strongly of basil and I was surprised at how well gelato goes with salad to provide a textural contrast and a delightful mouth-feel.
Rise & Shine! (RM 24.50)
Cielo Dolci Beef Bacon Gelato shining upon a bed of pancakes with beef sausage, scrambled eggs & strips of beef bacon. Rounded up with salad on the side.
This is pure genius! The classic hot full breakfast with eggs, sausages and (beef) bacon is given a touch of magic with a scoop of beef bacon gelato! I didn’t quite like the usage of beef bacon but that was the only beef I had with the dish. 
The beef bacon gelato goes very well with the hot breakfast, which I didn’t expect. I thought it’ll all become a messy gooey mess but it didn’t melt that fast, surprisingly. I ate this by cutting up the bacon, putting some eggs on it and scooping some beef bacon gelato into the eggs before popping it into my mouth. The pancakes soaks up the melted gelato well too!
Duck on the Run! (RM 23.90)
A stack of smoked duck, caramelized onion & poached eggs on waffle & finishes with house hollandaise sauce.
We couldn’t find any more hot dishes with gelato so my better half ordered this instead. It’s okay, albeit the pancakes were slightly too thick in comparison to the (admittedly) paltry amount of duck.
Maybe this didn’t come across as interesting with the other contenders with gelato thrown into the mix so I gave it an honest fair try but I simply can’t recommend this dish. My dear couldn’t finish it either so we’ll try the other fare on offer next time.
Cotton Candy Affogato (RM 13)
This is a delightful concoction which rivals the best affogato I had in Sydney about a week ago. It consists of Cielo Dolci Coconut Gelato with gula melaka (palm sugar) which is topped with a nicely spun web of cotton candy!
You pour the shot of espresso into the mix and it’s puzzlingly categorized as a dessert over here (I was asked if I wanted it now or after my meal, at brunch) although it’s served as a standard coffee drink in Australia and Europe.
Nevertheless, it was a great affogato, the second best I’ve had in my life, and that is high praise indeed considering we just came back from France earlier this month and I just came back from Australia a couple of days ago.
We also had a scoop of Cielo Dolci Bailey’s & Chocolate Gelato (RM 10.90) for dessert.
I asked for a recommendation and the lady there suggested this flavor. There is a RM 3 surcharge for flavors with alcohol ingredients, which I thought was well worth it. I thought it was very good, as did my dear.
The service is attentive and good, and there is a current promotion where you get 30% off your bill if you fill in a survey form (which we didn’t get, but we still got the discount). I also strangely got a complimentary Whimsical Lemonade (RM 13) which no one told me about, but which I had asked about since it was so good. The total came up to RM 71.75 for the two of us after the discount, which is quite significant, considering the original price is RM 93.20.
Overall, I’ll say this is a great place for brunch on the weekends. It can be a bit full at times though, and besides the one miss on our order, I thought all the hot and salad dishes with gelato was delightful. I’ll like to see them do something with their nasi lemak gelato in a dish someday. Do note that they take cash only so no credit card facilities are available at this place.
It can also be a bit tricky to find if you’re not very familiar with Solaris Dutamas, and there’s no signage up yet, so here’s the address:
Whimsical Gelateria & Caffe
D2-G3-05, Solaris Dutamas,
No. 1, Jalan Dutamas 1,
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-64190966
Nice place, i’ve seen this place from Sean’s blog… i like the idea of using cotton candy 🙂
Yeah, it’s a really interesting place! 🙂
I like how they use gelato with hot dishes in the Rise & Shine! breakfast platter. I didn’t quite like the Duck on the Run dish but everything else is great!
oh my goodness.. this place is like a dream!!! too bad the price is a little steep, eh.
you know, you always make me smile a little too hard whenever you leave a comment back at mine— many references are made to when you were using/an addict. i’m quite amused & there’s a small part of me that wonders why. but it’s amusing, nonetheless.. & thank you. for taking the time to read & comment & for the smile. lol.
The price is actually very cheap considering it’s 30% off! 🙂
It’s a lot cheaper than other similar restaurants and it serves up better food too!
Haha! I think it’s coz it’s such a central part of recovery, at least for NA/AA – you go to meetings every week (or at least you’re supposed to) and you say “Hi, I’m xx and I’m a recovering addict” that it becomes such a central part of your identity.
However, that said, I don’t think it’s very healthy, which is why I don’t really follow NA/AA, but some of their 12-steps to recovery stuff is really solid, and you learn a lot about yourself and others from it. I guess I tend to use a lot of NA/AA stuff to give advice coz that’s where I learned most on how to be supportive coz those people were the most supportive and non-judgmental bunch I’ve ever met.
Anyway, do check out this restaurant if you have the chance, the 30% off makes a lot of difference, it’s like having 1 free main! I highly recommend the savory dishes with gelato but can’t recommend other “normal” mains since we just had Duck on the Run and it wasn’t that great.
well, certain items on the menu that you’ve tried have certainly intrigued me enough to consider wheedling Bay into going with me (since we’re both brunch people! lol) however, it’s going to be on a day where we’re both okay with a little splurging.
thanks for writing back (: appreciated your insight & i guess it makes sense now. lol. i always thought you might’ve considered me a user of some sort. lol!! i know that’s not the case though! it was just a possibility that kinda crossed my mind & i mused over it slightly. in any case, thanks for the support. it really does mean a lot.
No, I never thought you were a user! 🙂
It’s just advice that I’ve received and thought was good enough to pass on. Hope that helps!
Yeah, I quite liked their basil gelato salad, it really is very interesting and works very well! I don’t know how long that 30% discount lasts though and the surprising thing about them is that they calculate the 10% service charge *after* the 30% has been deducted, not *before* and even though it’s a small difference, it shows that they really care about having people in.
Saw this place in a friend’s blog. The salad is almost as expensive as the mains? Rise and shine looks good with the bacon but no, the scrambled eggs are not done the way I love mine – gooey and creamy. I’d settle for the duck – wonder how big the serving is.
Oh? You didn’t like the duck? Sighhhhh!!!! I think I’ll pass then…
Yeah, that dish was a bit of a disappointment to be honest!
However, they have really good gelato based mains though and we’ll be back for more! 🙂
The serving is huge! 🙂
The Duck on the Run dish is two huge waffles with duck and caramelized onions on top. However, we didn’t find it that good though. There’s not a lot of meat e.g. duck on the dish itself.
I liked my Rise & Shine big breakfast though, and the beef bacon gelato just seals the deal. The scrambled eggs are creamy, just not gooey coz they need to cook it to a certain degree before serving.
There are a lot of main dishes which *doesn’t* have gelato on it, which I thought was what made me not like Duck on the Run but that wasn’t it – there just wasn’t enough meat and we didn’t get a chance to feedback coz we didn’t get the forms at the end.
Gelato and vege? Weird combo… lol
It’s a very delicious combo! 🙂
The gelato is basil gelato, which is neither sweet or savory, it just has a strong basil flavor and taste. It goes very well with the sweet croquettes and the balsamic vinegar reduction (very nice) and the juiciness of the salad.
I thought it’ll be gimmicky at first, but it tastes really good! The basil gelato really adds a lot, more than if it was a traditional salad dressing, it’s pure genius!
“…. They don’t just put gelato into every single dish, they only do it if it makes sense and adds to the experience…”
What? Really, HB? Gelato can be found in most of their dishes? =O That’s, like, the first I’ve heard of someone doing as such.
Cotton Candy Affogato? That sounds delicious! ^^
Well, yes and no! 🙂
Gelato can be found in most of their desserts but we were interested in gelato paired with savory dishes. There are 2 such dishes only, unfortunately, the salad and the breakfast with basil and beef bacon gelato respectively.
Yeah, that was the second best affogato I ever had!
Waaah! So damn mahal lah the menu but I am one who would pay any price when the food is good & heavenly superb! Since you assured, I will go try under your warranty okei. Wakakaka
I love Gelato! The salads attracted my healthy eyes!! Your GF is so lucky as you know what is good life all about truly……Mmmmmnn
It’s actually quite reasonable for breakfast in KL! 🙂
Plus, there’s 30% off which makes it even more affordable. The pub breakfast joints are around the same price and they offer the same boring stuff each time, so I would prefer going here next time, if they expand on their savory gelato pairings.
Haha! Yeah, I’m sure you’ll like it, bring your wife along!
After eating the first piece of waffle, I couldn’t eat the second one . I thought it will be nice if the second pcs of waffle to top with gelato! Nevertheless I enjoyed all other dishes very much. Thanks dear. ❤️
Yeah, I thought it’ll be great if they can make hollandaise gelato! 🙂
Then it can be on top of your waffle and poached eggs and I would think it’ll make it more interesting too, if not better. There should be more duck in that dish.
Love you always dear! <3
Wow…all the good food there !! Looks so yummy !
Yeah, most of the dishes are very good! 🙂
I quite like the savory gelato pairings.
love your thoughtful descriptions of your experience with each dish here 🙂 and yay for the second-best affogato ever (that’s definitely a statement that Whimsical’s team would really appreciate hearing) 😀 i like this place because it’s making people happy 🙂
Cheers for letting me know mate! 🙂
Yeah, I thought it was a very interesting place too, with the savory gelato pairings, I just wish they had more of them. I wonder if they’ve experimented with hollandaise gelato and if they’re considering a local twist and incorporating their nasi lemak gelato into the same dish!
When I saw your first picture, I thought the dollop was mashed potatoes, haha..
From your pictures, my favourite has to be the last one, with smoked duck+egg+hollandaise sauce.. Portion not very big, I can finish that, plus that pancake, plus that salad – all by myself! Teehee..
The portion is actually huge! 🙂
That’s part of the problem – too much waffle, too little duck. I guess it’s the angle at which I took the photo, but Duck on the Run is a bigger portion than Rise & Shine, which has a more reasonable serving of starch (two thin pancakes).
Yeah, I’ll recommend you go for the salad, the basil gelato is awesome!
HB, I still unable to tell the different between ice cream and gelato. Now all over in states sell it in supermarkets ready made gelatos. My friends try to see me blind fold to tell the different and no to me all the same.
Gelato is just the Italian word for ice cream! 🙂
You *shouldn’t* be able to tell the difference between high quality ice cream with proper amounts of milk fat coz there is NO difference. It’s the same thing, gelato is just made in the traditional Italian style but American ice cream (at least the premium brands) with high milk fat/buttermilk content should taste the same.
well, having gelato is quite expensive for me~ >.<~
Well, it’s an occasional treat! 🙂
It’s the same price as a coffee from one of the chains anyway, and Cielo Dolci has some really interesting flavors, like nasi lemak gelato. It’s worth trying!