Kota Kinabalu Restaurants: Tavern Kitchen and Bar @ IMAGO Shopping Mall

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Next time you are shopping at IMAGO, one of the hottest shopping areas in Sabah, you would be pleased to know that there’s a great place at IMAGO called Tavern Kitchen and Bar for you to experience something uniquely Sabahan!

Tavern has both indoor and outdoor seating ~~ as they are both a bar and a restaurant ~~ it is a pretty popular place to have drinks and chillax here ~~ be it after a good round of shopping around IMAGO or just a group of friends and family just wanting to get together.

The ambience and decor is a collaboration with Sabahan artists as well as KL based interior designer Ben Firdaus, host of season 2 of Casa Impian. You can admire the Sabahan influenced art on the walls of Tavern.

The other side of the restaurant ~~ gotta love the ambience of this place ~~

Inspiring quotes before you go into their restrooms ~~ in case you need some inspiration before you do your business ~~~

Tavern was packed when we dropped by to check out the place. Lucky for us – reservations were made earlier!

Now enough about the gorgeous ambience and now let’s focus on the food ~ their head chef Gray Roysten has worked for many years at 5 star Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore as well as a chef cum cooking instructor at Peak Market in Kota Kinabalu, and at Sutera Harbour Resort in KK.

There was excitement in the air as you can see the amount of attention on that delicious looking Mac & Cheese Burger from all around the restaurant ~~

I mean ~~ who can blame them? That’s like combining two of my fav things together! Mac & Cheese and The Burger ~~ served with fries ~~ *droools*

The burgers uses their in house made charcoal bun ~~ this Beefy Burger certainly does look good ~~ Can you say no to this? That would be a #foodcrime! These burgers would go down so well with a beautiful pint of draft beer!

Their Spicy Chicken Wings with Crispy Tuhau is one of the star dishes of the restaurant with a pleasant spicy kick and the uniqueness of adding Sabah Indigenous ingredient Tuhau to it. Thumbs up for this and this is a must try at Tavern!

Tuhau is actually made from the shoots of wild ginger, giving it a unique exotic taste to Sabahan dishes. Tavern’s use of Tuhau in some of their dishes allows diners to enjoy this unique Sabahan ingredient, such as their signature Nasi Goreng Tuhau, in which the rice is stir fried with Tuhau and dried to give it an aromatic fragrance and taste, and served with sunny side up egg, fried chicken and Bambangan (local Sabahan mango). It was really a dish that one can proudly declare as a Sabahan creation – so be sure to try this!

Instagram tips from Sabahan Foodies Ken and MeiTze ~~

This is where Italy meets Sabah ~~ They call it the Spicy Sabah Seafood Pasta, marrying the spicy seafood with Italian Pasta ~~ Mamamia Bah~~~ *LOL*

This might look like a Western dish but it’s actually very Malaysian – creamy butter chicken which is actually fried chicken slices tossed with a creamy butter sauce and the touch of curry leaves for aromatics.

Their Wild Mushroom Soup is one of their popular creamy soups ~~ give it a try!

Or would you like a soup with more of a Thai influence ~~~ go for their Tom Yam Seafood Soup!

The Papillote Al Salmon was an off the menu dish that they recommended us ~~ the dish basically means Baked Salmon in Paper Parcels ~ the paper traps the flavour of the seafood and releases it as you open it at your table to give a fragrance sensation ~~ mmm ~~ this one has other seafood added to it for more Ooomph!

Now Tavern is a Kitchen and Bar ~~ so naturally there are mouth watering drinks to wash down all the food!

The bar area ~~ where all the magic happens ~~ hu hu hu ~~

Infused Water of the day is pretty refreshing especially on a hot afternoon ~~ or for you to detox after drinking too much alcohol ~~

What got our attention was their Coronarita ~~ it’s really an Instagram worthy drink! ‘'

Seriously ~~ doesn’t that make you want one?!

I decided to check out their Crazy Long Island – it’s like a normal Long Island but with double the alcohol ~~ you gotta be crazy not to have this ~~~ *cheeers*

Fancy a refreshing Mango Mojito? Yes please!

Ahhhh ~~~ refreshing! They actually have virgin mojitos too ~~ which are non-alcoholic ~~

Now if you want dessert but you are thirsty as well ~~~ go for their monster shakes ~~ that’s basically dessert and drink in one! Say hello to this Strawberry Sensation! OMG!

Strawberry? Mmmm ~ Limpeh prefer Chocolate de ~~~ this one Limpeh Like ~~ chocolate paradise sia ~~~ (use Singlish slang)

Their Boom Boom Sizzling Brownie is indeed a crowd pleasing star ~~~ a good happy ending to our dining experience at Tavern!

We had quite a lot of fun chilling and catching up at Tavern ~~ so the next time you are in Imago ~~ do drop by for some Sabahan inspired cuisine and have a few drinks to chillax at Tavern Kitchen and Bar!