We run two outlets in the Klang Valley. Dissolved Solids in Damansara Kim, opened in 2019. Soluble Solids in SS2, opened in 2023. Both bars build every drink to taste. Neither has a fixed signature; the back bar changes weekly. We are listed in Tatler Asia's Best 20 Bars Malaysia in both 2025 and 2026.
2019: The first outlet.
Damansara Kim, October 2019
Dissolved Solids opened above MyNews on Jalan SS20/11 in Damansara Kim, on a stretch of street that had recently filled with serious independent food businesses: Table & Apron, Kompassion, Universal Bakehouse, Piccoli Lotti. The idea was a beverage bar rather than a cocktail bar specifically. A coffee programme during the day. A cocktail programme as the sun came down. A non-alcoholic menu treated with the same care as the alcohol. Tea, when asked.
The space took its design cue from the same workshop aesthetic as the better third-wave coffee shops: tiled floors, cement counters, exposed ceiling beams, open wood shelves. A horseshoe-shaped bar at the centre. Half coffee station, half cocktail station, with the same bartender working both depending on the time of day.
At Dissolved Solids, alcoholic beverages are only part of an extensive menu of "all sorts in liquid form" . . . Teetotallers are not left out, as there is a meaty menu of non-alcoholic beverages that have just as much care and thought behind their flavours as the cocktails. Lakshmi Sekhar, Options/The Edge Malaysia, August 2022
2020: The MCO pivot.
March 2020, Movement Control Order
Three months into 2020, Malaysia shut for the pandemic. Bars closed. We were six months into trading at one outlet. The pivot was to bottle the cocktails for delivery: separate the spirits from the ice, package the garnishes separately, hand-label each bottle. Negroni, Old Fashioned, Sazerac, our own house drinks. Delivered to homes across the Klang Valley. Cappuccinos, kept hot, on a courier dispatch.
It kept the lights on. It also gave us a small mail-order following that survived the reopening. Tatler Asia covered the format at the time.
The pair launched a delivery service offering handcrafted beverages ranging from cappuccinos to cocktails. Their innovation involved separating cocktails from ice and packaging garnishes separately to preserve quality during transit. Samantha Sowerby, Tatler Asia, March 2020
2023: Soluble Solids opens in SS2.
SS2 Petaling Jaya, early 2023
Soluble Solids opened on Jalan SS2/24 with a different premise from the original outlet. No printed cocktail list. Every drink built bespoke to the guest's preferred strength, base spirit, and flavour profile. The house specialty: a custom range of spirit infusions branded "Hornbill", made by macerating gin, tequila, whisky, and other base spirits with botanicals and fruits. The two main lines: Florum (osmanthus, chrysanthemum, jasmine) and Evergreen (torch ginger, tamarind).
Eat Drink KL covered the opening in March 2023.
The bar infuses tequila, gin, whiskies and other spirits with 'soluble solids' that span pistachios and ground nuts to apricot, star anise and cloves . . . Florum (osmanthus, chrysanthemum and jasmine) to Evergreen (torch ginger and tamarind). Eat Drink KL, March 2023
2025 and 2026: Tatler recognition.
Tatler Best 20 Bars Malaysia
Dissolved Solids was listed at #6 in the Tatler Asia Best 20 Bars Malaysia 2025 (April 2025), and at #9 in the inaugural 2026 list (March 2026). The recognition placed us alongside the established KL cocktail bars on Tatler's list and a handful of newer arrivals, which felt meaningful for a small Petaling Jaya room above a convenience store.
A space with something for everyone, Dissolved Solids is a hybrid bar that caters to every palate, offering everything from cocktails and mocktails to expertly brewed coffee and tea. Tatler Dining Malaysia, April 2025
The full press log is at /press/.
The idea.
The thread through both outlets is the same. A bar should not be a single-format venue. A coffee at three in the afternoon, a vermouth at six, a cocktail at nine, a non-alcoholic spritz when the friend across the table is driving. All of it considered, all of it built to the same care, all of it served in the same room.
The drinks themselves change constantly. The back bar is reset weekly. The infusions at Soluble Solids rotate seasonally with what is in the wet markets. The journal we publish (read it at /journal/) is where we work through the bigger questions: what gula melaka tastes like at different grades, how to use bunga kantan in cocktails, what makes a kopi sour work, how to host a Hari Raya open house without alcohol.
The bars are open most days. Walk-ins are welcome; reservations are easier through WhatsApp. Tell us what you like and we will build it.