There are rooftop bars with a view of the Petronas Twin Towers, and then there's Marini's on 57, which sits 267 metres up in the same cluster of buildings. Since 2012, founder and Italian restaurateur Cavaliere Modesto Marini has packed three venues into that one vertiginous perch: a Michelin-selected Italian restaurant, a rooftop cocktail bar and a whisky lounge. You can realistically arrive at golden hour and not leave until closing time.
The restaurant is the serious draw for food-focused travellers. It's an intimate 80-seat dining room wrapped in floor-to-ceiling windows over Kuala Lumpur, serving contemporary Italian cooking built on traditional recipes — artisan pasta and imported beef are the signatures, and Michelin has flagged both. There are à la carte and tasting menus, backed by an in-house sommelier, Christofle silverware and oversized wine glasses designed to let the wines open up. The kitchen has a sense of humour too: the tiramisu arrives in a caviar tin, topped with pearls of coffee "caviar". Abstract paintings by Italian artist Rosalba Mangione warm the room up further.
Below, the rooftop bar does exactly what you'd hope — cocktails, Italian bar bites and one of the closest elevated sightlines to the Petronas Twin Towers anywhere in the city. Time it for sunset and you'll watch the towers flicker on as the skyline shifts; the bar team can also build bespoke drinks around whatever you like drinking. As the evening goes on the music lifts and it turns properly lively, especially on weekends when it stays open until 3am.
If you want a slower landing, the lounge on the same level trades glass and daylight for velvet, leather and dark wood. It's built around an extensive collection of single-malt whiskies, with staff on hand to steer you towards a pour — a civilised last stop instead of another round of cocktails.
A starry guest list — Lewis Hamilton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Nicole Scherzinger, Jimmy Choo — has passed through over the years, but the reason to book is simpler: it turns a dinner reservation into a full evening out. If you only have time for one part, make it the restaurant, where the cooking and the view work hardest together.
Practical bits: the restaurant runs daily from 7pm to 11pm, while the bar opens at 5pm — until 2am Sunday to Thursday and 3am on Fridays, Saturdays and public holiday eves. Book ahead for dinner; that's the slot that fills.
