There comes a point in your life where you could care less about which place would serve the best burger in town. All you could care about is the glorious food that you’re about to have, especially when you’re feeling exceptionally hungry. However, there’s nothing quite like “Buns & Meats”, a relatively new restaurant that will satisfy your craving for some really good burgers.
We’ve heard that this place is often packed during the weekends, but it seemed like its popularity has spread as there were also a lot of people when we went there on a Wednesday night.
Located right next to The Bites Cafe, Buns & Meats is formerly “The Library La Biblioteca”. Robin Lim, who owned both places, decided to transform it into a burger restaurant to introduce his new recipes. It’s fairly easy to differentiate Buns & Meats from The Bites Cafe as the latter gives off a fun and cheerful vibe while the former exudes a calm and peace with its cooler colour tones. We were also deeply fascinated by its stylish setting as it features 2 dart machines and a small stage that could host a live music band.
Similar to The Bites Cafe, there is an outdoor area that allows patrons to smoke while enjoying their meal. Since it’s a non-halal restaurant, a range of wine and alcohol are available at Buns & Meats too.
It is safe to say that our dining experience at Buns & Meats is one that we shall happily repeat as the owner and the staffers here are incredibly friendly and helpful. The moment we arrived at the restaurant, the staffers quickly assigned us a table after we mentioned that we were there for a food review session. It took a while for the main course to arrive, but we didn’t mind it because we had pulled pork fries as our appetiser.
The owner put a refreshing twist to the crispy, hot French fries by topping them with tender slow-cooked pulled pork and spicy BBQ sauce. At RM11.90, the portion is reasonably priced as it is big enough for 4 people to finish it. The taste of the BBQ sauce was so addictive that we decided to get another bowl of it. There are other types of fries available at Buns & Meats too, including the truffle and parmesan fries, the cheesy sauce fries, and the steak fries.
You’ll be having a wide variety of burgers at Buns & Meats as well. Most of them have, of course, used pork as the main ingredient of the meal. If you just want to try the top-selling burger, try the “Char Siew Pork Burger” (RM18.90), which was topped with pork patty, char siew, lettuce, onions, and tomato slices. Each burger comes with sides like fries and salad. You can choose to put additional toppings like cheese and pineapple slices on the patty too.
The burger affair didn’t end there as we were then served with “The Runny Mess” (RM20.90), which is basically a pork bacon and cheese burger topped with poached egg and homemade cheesy sauce, lettuce, and tomato slices. Needless to say, it was a meaty and drippy burger. The burger bun was buttery and crispy, which made the whole eating experience thoroughly satisfying.
But if your taste buds are inclined to spicy food, there’s the “Spicy Korean Ribs Burger” (RM16.90), a burger that comes with pork ribs, spicy Korean glaze, lettuce, onions, and tomato slices. It was actually pretty good and really juicy, but we felt that the flavour came off a bit too strong for our taste buds. You might want to drink a lot of water after a few bites.
As if that wasn’t enough to please the spicy food lovers, there’s also the “Grilled Chicken Burger with Cheese and Black Pepper” (RM16.90) – a piece of grilled whole chicken thigh sandwiched between the crispy butter buns and glazed with black pepper sauce. It was also topped with lettuce, tomato slices, and onions. However, you might also want to wash down its strong aftertaste with one or 2 glasses of water.
Truth be told, we were already feeling quite full by the time we finished our 4th burger. However, they are definitely worth the try and you will notice that after the first bite.
We took a break from the dinner because more food were then being served to us and we couldn’t even resist them! Buns & Meats offers an array of Western food such as hot dogs, pasta, pizza, and pork ribs. For the hot dogs, only premium German pork sausages were used, topped with unique toppings.
We were lucky enough to try the hot dogs that were topped with jalapeño BBQ slaw (RM16.90), as well as sautéed mushroom with onions and black pepper sauce (RM15.90). The sausages weren’t too salty and they had very pleasant textures too. However, according to our friend Sarah (who arranged the food review session for us), the most popular hot dogs are the ones that come with the nachos topping, as well as the mac and cheese topping. No surprise there, because who doesn’t love cheese and nachos? 
Just when we thought our dinner has come to an end, the owner decided to let us try the the “Spicy Korean Pork Ribs”, which was coated with a sweet yet spicy Korean sauce. The ribs didn’t taste any different from the “Spicy Korean Ribs Burger”, but it was definitely finger lickin’ good. You can even dip your fries in its sauce. Though it is good enough to feed 2 – 3 patrons, the price of the ribs is slightly on the high side as one serving of the ribs is priced at RM42.90.
And finally, we came to our last dish of the night: “Aglio Olio with Pork Bacon”. It is a simple pasta dish that used penne pasta, topped with fried pork bacon, mushroom, herbs, and chilli flakes. It was sided with a crispy garlic bread as well. There’s nothing much to shout about this dish, but we think it’d be served as a perfect lunch for everyone as it is priced at RM16.90.
To end the delightful dinner on a perfect note, you might want to try its delicious and unique artisan handmade cakes like Bailey’s cheese cake and brownie with Earl Grey ice cream.
Robin told us that he already tried a few other ice cream flavours and the Earl Grey ice cream from Forty Licks emerged as the one that suits the sweet chocolate brownie the best. No prizes for guessing what was included in the Bailey’s cheese cake, of course. You can taste the Bailey flavour on the first bite, but it wasn’t too strong to the point that makes you feel drowsy. we soon became addicted to it because the texture of the cake was very smooth.
Special thanks to our friend Sarah and “Buns & Meats” owner Robin for arranging the food review session for us.
- Address: 72a Jalan Tasik Utama 7, Lake Fields Sg Besi, 57000 Kuala Lumpur., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Tel: 03-9055 3378
- Opening Hours: Mon – Sun, 11am till midnight
For more information, hit up Buns & Meats’ official Facebook page.