KUALA LUMPUR: For years, Ashraf Rahmat and his wife Natasha Micaela Hud lived and worked abroad, moving between countries and absorbing different ways of eating, designing and socialising.
When they decided to open a café with their friend and business partner Hakim Sulaiman, however, they weren’t interested in importing things they had seen overseas.
“We wanted to take what we could from all these learnings from all the other markets, but we wanted to create something that was truly Malaysian and bring it to the level where it was competing at the international stage without losing the cultural identity,” Ashraf, who has a background in financial technology, explained.
That thinking became the foundation for Curiosité KL, a café in Kampung Attap that combines food, design and community in a space deliberately less polished than many contemporary cafés.
For Natasha, an interior designer who has worked on hospitality projects in the Middle East and Africa, the years spent abroad were an education in what was possible.
“Dubai has a very diverse F&B scene. It's such a colourful place to be. As a designer going into that, I found that it was very eye-opening. I wanted to experiment and try that in my own time and in our own space,” said Natasha.
“Having lived abroad, we find that there's really no place like home. We wanted to open shop here and we're proud to be able to showcase what we can do as Malaysians,” she added.
But the couple did not want Curiosité to look like a café transplanted from Dubai, Europe or elsewhere. Instead, they kept much of the heritage building intact, from its original floors and walls to its windows, doors and metalwork.
Natasha said the goal was to “beautifully blend in with our surroundings” rather than stand out.
Much of what was already inside was also given a second life. Old rail panels became signage, while mirrors, metal sheets, furniture and parts of the previous bar were reused.
The result is a space that feels way more than a conventional café, with sofas, different seating arrangements and plenty of natural light.
“We wanted to create a bit of a living room experience,” said Natasha, adding that the colour green somehow became the throughline to the whole cafe.
That philosophy extends upstairs, where the couple hopes to eventually create a listening room, while also making space for workshops, private gatherings and creative events.
It is a fitting concept for a place called Curiosité, a play on “curiosity” and “site”, referring to their idea of creating “a site for curiosities”.
Rather than serving conventional fusion fare, the founders worked with a chef to reinterpret Malaysian dishes without stripping away their identity.
The menu began with soto ayam, a dish they felt represented the familiarity and comfort of everyday Malaysian food.
Among the dishes that have since become customer favourites are pan mee asam pedas and the ayam berempah toasty - combinations that bring together familiar Malaysian flavours in less familiar forms.
The Ayam Berempah Toasty was the most satisfying of the lot. Crispy, juicy pan-seared ayam berempah layered between toasted sourdough bread with sambal hijau mayonnaise, creating a spicy, deeply flavourful bite that was wonderfully homey.
The pan mee asam pedas came with roasted aubergines, okra and a fresh, juicy fried siakap fillet. The broth was fragrant, but the fusion felt underdeveloped, as the noodles seemed simply dropped into asam pedas.
The chilli butter chicken with mantou was tasty, while the mango espresso tonic was the standout drink - refreshing, light, fruity and surprisingly coffee-forward, with real mango pieces at the bottom.
For Ashraf and Natasha, Curiosité is ultimately about more than food. After years of living elsewhere, they wanted to build something that reflected what they had learned without losing where they came from.
And perhaps that is what makes the café most interesting: it looks outward, but its ideas keep coming back home.
Follow Curiosité KL on Instagram.
Curiosité KL
88, Jalan Tuba, Kampung Attap,
50460 Kuala Lumpur
Business hours:
- 11am-12am (Mondays-Thursdays)
- 8am-12am (Fridays-Sundays)