Molina

A Dutch connection on the 51st floor

Molina is on the 51st floor of The FACE Style hotel on Jalan Sultan Ismail, with views across the Kuala Lumpur skyline. It opened officially in June 2024 and belongs to Datuk Alex Tan, owner of the hotel.

The name comes from the Latin for mill, a nod to the restaurant’s Dutch roots, and the M of the logo stands for two windmill arms. The roots are real: the restaurant was created with Sidney Schutte, the Dutch chef of Spectrum in Amsterdam.

The chef in the kitchen

The kitchen is run by Guillaume Depoortere, a Belgian head chef still in his twenties. He joined Schutte’s kitchen in Amsterdam in 2018 and was working in Germany when the call came; Molina is his first restaurant in Asia and his first time leading an opening team.

He did not set out to cook. Depoortere, whose family runs a pub in Wevelgem, started in front-of-house before an internship moved him into the kitchen. Building a team in Kuala Lumpur was hard at first, he has said: “No one knew us.”

Humble ingredients, European technique

The cooking is European in training and leans on vegetables and seafood, with Asian and local ingredients worked in. Michelin’s inspectors described a blend of French, Nordic and Asian traditions; the kitchen likes to take ingredients often seen as humble, and make them the centre of a dish.

Brussels sprouts, for instance, have come with sea grapes, sunchoke and a coffee sauce, alongside sea urchin and Malaysian caviar. Depoortere’s first dish for Molina was a potato with vanilla, sour cream, pear and caraway, served with Irish oysters. Michelin singles out Dutch mussels with pickled banana and cauliflower, and a dessert that sets chanterelles against rum-soaked raisins.

A fast start

Recognition came within months. Molina won a star in the 2025 Michelin Guide Kuala Lumpur and Penang, together with the guide’s Opening of the Year award, and it keeps its star in the 2026 Michelin Guide Malaysia.

Sources: Michelin Guide; The Peak