HOJA & HOJITA bring Latin American flavours to W Kuala Lumpur

In Kuala Lumpur, Latin American food has mostly meant Mexican food. Tacos are easy enough to find in the city now, but cooking from countries further south has had far less exposure. HOJA, opening at W Kuala Lumpur this October, sets out to fill that gap.

The restaurant focuses on the coastal cooking of Colombia, Peru and Chile, and includes its own cocktail bar, HOJITA. Chef Diana Matute, who leads the kitchen, wants guests to taste each country’s cooking on its own rather than as one general style. “Latin American cuisine is incredibly diverse, and I want guests to experience that diversity rather than see it as one single cuisine,” she says.

“At HOJA, we are telling the stories of Colombia, Peru and Chile through ingredients, techniques and flavours, while allowing the food to speak for itself.”

Chef Diana’s kitchen

Chef Diana Matute, W Kuala Lumpur's first female Chef de Cuisine. — Chef Diana Matute, W Kuala Lumpur’s first female Chef de Cuisine.

Chef Diana is the first woman to be Chef de Cuisine at W Kuala Lumpur. She grew up in Lima, and her menu features family recipes along with dishes inspired by her work abroad. While Colombia, Peru, and Chile all share a coastline, each country uses different ingredients and cooking methods, and the menu highlights these differences.

You can look forward to fresh seafood, native ingredients, lots of citrus, open-fire cooking, and slow-roasted vegetables, all made with modern techniques. Guests can order à la carte in the main dining room or sit at HOJA Mesada, the chef’s counter with 26 seats facing the open kitchen, where you can watch the grilling and plating.

For a more special experience, HOJA Privado offers chef-led tasting menus of five or eight courses, inspired by the produce and traditions of the Pacific coast. The hotel expects these flavours to suit the Malaysian palate. Given how much citrus, chilli and smoke already feature in local cooking, that is not a difficult case to make.

HOJITA

HOJITA sits inside HOJA but runs as a separate bar, and it does not limit itself to the Pacific. The shelves carry mezcal, pisco, cachaça and Colombian sugarcane spirits, along with regional distillates that seldom make it to bars in this part of the world.

Avai. M oversees the cocktail programme, which takes its cues from Latin American landscapes, folklore and tradition. The menu is sorted by flavour rather than by base spirit, running from smoky and herbaceous through to floral, savoury and citrus-forward. For a list full of names that most local drinkers won’t have come across, that is a sensible way to do it.

“HOJITA is about encouraging people to explore the richness of Latin American liquid culture beyond the spirits they may already know,” Avai says. “There is an incredible range of ingredients, distillation traditions and stories across the region.” Later in the evening, Latin music and curated vinyl sessions take over, and the room is set up to stay busy well into the night.

Alongside FLOCK and YEN

FLOCK is W Kuala Lumpur's all-day dining restaurant. — FLOCK is W Kuala Lumpur’s all-day dining restaurant.

The two venues join FLOCK, the award-winning Cantonese restaurant, YEN, Living Room and WET Deck in the hotel’s line-up. General Manager Volker Burth credits the people behind them. “From Chef Diana’s interpretation of the Pacific coast to Avai’s exploration of Latin spirits, both concepts are driven by strong personalities and a clear point of view,” he says.

He also sees these openings as a response to the way people in the city eat today. “We wanted to create something that feels relevant to Kuala Lumpur today,” he says, adding that the team was given “the freedom to tell their own stories”.

HOJA and HOJITA will open at W Kuala Lumpur in October 2026. You can make reservations on the hotel’s website.