Italian Dining With a Kuala Lumpur View: Inside IL Forno
There are Italian restaurants you visit for the food, and then there are places where the setting becomes part of the meal.
IL Forno, located on Level 19 of Hyatt Centric City Centre Kuala Lumpur, falls into the latter category. Named after the Italian word for “the oven” — the heart of its kitchen — the trattoria brings together the familiar pleasures of Italian dining with an elevated Kuala Lumpur setting.
Here, dinner is not confined to a conventional dining room. The double-height venue is designed around four distinct spaces — a lounge, bar, alfresco terrace and main dining room — creating different ways to settle into the evening.
And while the city view provides the backdrop, the food remains at the centre of the experience.
A Modern Italian Trattoria Above Kuala Lumpur
IL Forno’s identity begins with its name.
Translating to “the oven”, the restaurant takes its cue from one of the most important elements of an Italian kitchen. That focus comes through in a menu built around handcrafted Neapolitan pizzas, handmade pastas, signature Tiramisu and regional Italian favourites.
The emphasis on handcrafted pizza and handmade pasta gives the restaurant a distinctly trattoria-inspired character — approachable enough for a relaxed meal, while the elevated setting adds another dimension to the experience.
Neapolitan Pizza, Handmade Pasta and Italian Favourites
At the centre of the menu are the classics many diners look for when craving Italian food.
The restaurant serves handcrafted Neapolitan pizzas, alongside handmade pastas and regional Italian favourites. The offering is rounded out by signature Tiramisu, giving diners a familiar Italian finale to the meal.
Rather than positioning Italian dining as overly formal, IL Forno’s trattoria concept lends itself to the social rhythm of sharing a meal — whether it is a dinner with friends, a date-night setting or simply an evening spent lingering over pizza and pasta.
The food is also designed to work naturally with the restaurant’s different spaces, allowing the experience to move beyond a single dining-room format.
Four Spaces, One Italian Dining Experience
One of IL Forno’s most distinctive features is its double-height dining space, which is divided into four areas: the lounge, bar, alfresco terrace and main dining room.
That layout gives the restaurant a sense of movement.
The main dining room provides the traditional setting for a proper Italian meal, while the lounge and bar offer a more relaxed environment. For those who prefer to dine with the city around them, the alfresco terrace brings the Kuala Lumpur skyline into the experience.
It is this flexibility that makes IL Forno feel less like a restaurant designed around one particular occasion and more like a place that can adapt to the mood of the evening.
Where Industrial Design Meets Italian Dining
The restaurant’s interiors are also closely connected to the visual identity of the hotel.
IL Forno occupies the Level 19 dining space created as part of Hyatt Centric City Centre Kuala Lumpur’s adaptive reuse of the building formerly known to many Malaysians as Wisma KFC. The transformation introduced a double-height dining space for IL Forno, giving the restaurant a particularly striking architectural presence.
Industrial design details and graffiti artwork by Malaysian artist Jefr bring a distinctly Kuala Lumpur character into the restaurant. The artwork forms part of the wider hotel’s design language, where industrial textures, exposed structural elements and contemporary finishes reference the city’s history while giving the spaces a modern identity.
The result is an Italian dining room that does not attempt to recreate Italy literally. Instead, IL Forno places Italian food within a distinctly Kuala Lumpur setting.
Dinner With the Kuala Lumpur Skyline
Perhaps the most compelling reason to put IL Forno on the city’s dining radar is its location.
From Level 19, diners can take in sweeping views of Kuala Lumpur while enjoying their meal. And the experience does not necessarily end when dinner does. An outdoor spiral staircase connects IL Forno on Level 19 with the rooftop experiences on Level 21, allowing guests to continue upwards from dinner to drinks and skyline views.
The staircase itself becomes part of the journey. Inspired by the spiral staircases of Kuala Lumpur’s historic shophouses and incorporating references to the city’s tin-mining heritage, it is painted in the red, white, blue and yellow of the Jalur Gemilang. Openings along its landings frame views of the Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur’s skyline and surrounding greenery.
It is a small but memorable transition: from an Italian dinner above the city to an evening surrounded by Kuala Lumpur itself.
It is a small but memorable transition: from an Italian dinner above the city to an evening surrounded by Kuala Lumpur itself.
At IL Forno, the attraction starts with Italian comfort — Neapolitan pizza, handmade pasta and tiramisu — but the setting gives the experience a distinctly Kuala Lumpur identity.
The double-height architecture, Jefr’s graffiti artwork, multiple dining spaces and elevated city views make the restaurant feel contemporary without losing the relaxed character associated with an Italian trattoria.
And for anyone looking to turn dinner into an entire evening, the connection to the rooftop level adds another layer to the experience.
Come for the pizza. Stay for the view. And let the Kuala Lumpur skyline become part of dinner.
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