Sabato's (Kimpton Naluria KL): Kuala Lumpur Travel Guide

Why go

Sabato’s is the restaurant everyone in Kuala Lumpur’s Tun Razak Exchange has started name-dropping. Tucked into the ground floor of the Kimpton Naluria KL, it’s an Italian-American red-sauce joint dressed up as a 1970s New York disco, think low amber lighting, mirrored surfaces, and a soundtrack that makes you want to order another round before you’ve finished the first.

It’s the kind of place designed to be photographed, but it doesn’t lean only on looks. The food is generous, shareable, and unapologetically rich, the sort of menu built for a table of four splitting everything.

The vibe

You walk in off the TRX lobby and the temperature of the room changes. Banquette seating in deep jewel tones, brass accents catching the light, a bar that looks lifted straight out of a Studio 54 fever dream.

It’s loud in the best way, clinking glasses, a hum of conversation, servers moving fast between tightly packed tables. This isn’t a quiet date-night whisper zone. It’s a room built for energy, and by peak dinner hours it fills up fast.

What to expect on the plate

Sabato’s leans into Italian-American comfort food rather than delicate fine dining. Expect shared plates of pasta, red-sauce classics, and the kind of hearty, saucy dishes meant to land in the middle of the table for everyone to dig into.

The exact menu and prices shift as the kitchen settles in post-opening, so don’t hold onto specifics you’ve read elsewhere. Confirm current offerings and pricing directly with the restaurant or the Kimpton Naluria KL’s website before you go.

Getting there

Sabato’s sits inside Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), Kuala Lumpur’s newest financial and lifestyle district, built around the TRX MRT station on the Sungai Buloh–Serdang–Putrajaya (MRT Putrajaya) line. Step off there and you’re a short walk from the Kimpton Naluria’s lobby entrance.

TRX itself is worth building time around. It’s anchored by the TRX City Park and a large retail mall, so a night at Sabato’s pairs naturally with an afternoon wandering the district beforehand.

• Nearest transit: TRX MRT station (Putrajaya Line)
• Location: ground floor, Kimpton Naluria KL, TRX
• Good pairing: TRX Park or TRX Mall beforehand

When to go

As a newly opened, buzzy hotel restaurant, Sabato’s is drawing crowds while it’s the topic of conversation in KL’s dining scene. Weeknight early evenings tend to be calmer than Friday and Saturday dinner service, where reservations are the difference between walking in and walking out.

Because this is a recently trending spot, opening hours and reservation policy are still worth double-checking close to your visit, call ahead or check the Kimpton Naluria’s own booking channels rather than relying on secondhand listings.

How to visit like a local

Book ahead rather than walking in, especially for dinner. New, talked-about openings in KL fill their books quickly, and a hotel restaurant like this one will prioritize reservations over walk-ins once word spreads.

Dress a notch above casual, the disco-glam setting invites it, and you’ll feel more at home in the room if you match its energy rather than turning up in shorts and sneakers.

Go in a group if you can. The menu’s built around shared plates, so a table of three or four lets you order more broadly and actually experience the range of the kitchen rather than one plate in isolation.

Payment is standard hotel-restaurant practice in Malaysia, cards and contactless are the norm, and a service charge is typically already added to the bill, so tipping beyond that isn’t expected. If you’re unsure, ask your server directly rather than guessing.

The mistake most visitors make: assuming it’s a quiet hotel lobby restaurant. It’s not. Arrive expecting noise, energy, and a scene, and you’ll enjoy it far more than if you came looking for a hushed dinner.