When you get to the top floor of 163 Retail Park, Mont Kiara, you’ll find Golden Screen Cinema’s (GSC) Velvet nestled in a corner beside a skating rink.
Launched in November last year, it’s a themed cinema that reimagines retro cinematic experiences, complete with vibrant F&B and lifestyle offerings.
The entrance looks like any other F&B establishment, with square tables and leather-clad chairs. But venture further in and you’ll feel transported back to a 60s, swanky gentlemen’s club.
Coming in shades of teal and tangerine, the booth and solo seats are made with velvet fabric. Rows upon rows of framed photographs featuring classic cinema icons line the walls.
Taking centre stage is the karaoke screen that allows customers to belt their hearts out. Topping it off is a classic bar at the side that completes the retro look GSC aimed to create.
Overall, the old Hollywood-like environment seems to be enticing us to just kick back and relax. So that’s exactly what my colleague Claudia and I did as we dined at the cinema’s in-house restaurant.
A wide selection of Western delights
Contrary to what you might think, the restaurant is actually open to everyone. So you’re welcomed to grab a bite here even if you’re not planning to catch a movie in one of its 163 seats.
The menu is a curation of hearty Western dishes that lived up to our expectations with good portions.
Velvet served us some of its house specialties as an introduction to its kitchen, namely:
- Tea-Smoked Duck Salad (RM35)
- Ocean Trio Sharing Platter (RM79)
- Fish & Chips (RM59)
- Cajun Chicken Quesadilla (RM32)
- Lancashire Lamb Hotpot (RM39)
We kicked off the meal with its Tea-Smoked Duck Salad, which is an Asian-inspired XO-marinated salad topped with Italian dressing. This was a good start that prepared us for the fusion medley ahead.
Then we moved on to the Ocean Trio sharing platter that had battered fried calamari, and grilled Cajun prawns and sea bass fish brochettes. The perfectly cooked grilled prawns were topped with garlic sauce that reminded us of the garlic-ginger paste you’d typically pair with Hainanese chicken rice.
Velvet’s Fish & Chips uses Hoki fish (also known as Blue grenadier) from the Netherlands. It has a higher fat content compared to most other white fish, making it flavourful.
If you’re like me and dislike strong fishy tastes then this would be a good bet because it has none of that. The same goes for the Ocean Trio as well, but I believe adding pineapple instead of leek to the fish brochettes would add a good tangy kick to the dish.
The dish was served with tartar sauce which tasted more eggy than usual and had a bit of texture. In place of mushy peas, the restaurant uses what tasted like mashed roasted Japanese peas to me. It also came with mildly sweet pearl onions that were a good palate cleanser.
The Cajun Chicken Quesadilla was what you’d expect a classic Mexican quesadilla to be—warm, cheesy, and packed with just enough flavour.
But my favourite dish of the night had to be the Lancashire Lamb Hotpot. It’s basically a braised lamb shoulder stew cooked with thinly-sliced potatoes. The meat was tender and flavours robust, though I wished there was more broth to slurp up.
To quench our thirst, we opted for our server’s recommendations—a Galaxy Yuzu Lemonade soda (RM17) and a Black Swan mocktail (RM26). The latter is inspired by the 2010 film of the same name featuring Natalie Portman.
Both of the beverages weren’t too sweet, and they tied up our meals beautifully. Alcoholic concoctions weren’t available yet at the time of writing.
Food for the soul and the community
Aside from those, Velvet also has other dishes like Double Wagyu Matcha Burger (RM59) and desserts such as English Trifle (RM25). Its kids menu has quite sassy dishes like “I Don’t Know” (mac and cheese), “I’m Not Hungry” (bangers and mash), and “I Don’t Care” (chicken katsu burger), phrases you might hear a sulky child mutter.
But it seems that Velvet wants to emphasise itself as being a communal space with all three sharing platters being a restaurant signature.
Back during its launch, GSC’s CEO, Koh Mei Lee, told Vulcan Post that the brand hopes to create an intimate social space for residents living around the neighbourhood. “My aspiration is that people from the community will come here often. It’s kind of like a cinema where everybody would know your name because you’re a regular.”
In fact, we noticed this happen during our visit when one of the diners had a personable conversation with the manager. We also found the service to be friendly and quite accommodating, so don’t be shy to voice out if you have any food allergies or preferences.
Looking at the bigger picture, it seems like opening an in-house restaurant is GSC’s way of keeping the crowd in their establishments, because people usually hang out elsewhere while waiting for their movie halls to open up.
Converting the usually vacant corridors into a more functional space helps bring in more traffic and adds another revenue stream to the brand.
This is an approach that GSC seems to be committing to with its latest Aurum Theatre at The Exchange TRX also sporting several restaurants for everyday diners. It helps that they’re not taking the F&B aspect lightly either as the menu doesn’t serve your conventional cinema snacks.
While the USP of Velvet Cinemas is the combined experience of a good meal and a movie in one place, we wouldn’t be opposed to the idea of GSC simply launching more standalone F&B establishments. Perhaps that’s already in the works, and they’re just doing market validation with Velvet Cinemas and Aurum Theatre.
