Seputeh’s Kedai Makanan dan Minuman Ah Gan is reborn as AG. Deli & Charcoal Grill, serving housemade charcuterie and steaks grilled over an open flame

At AG. Deli & Charcoal Grill, a European menu and open-fire cooking anchor chef-butcher Logan Terence Lopez’s more personal follow-up to the viral Ah Gan. — Picture by Ethan Lau

By Ethan Lau

First Published: Friday, 25 Sep 2026 9:01 AM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 — When chef/butcher/restaurateur Logan Terence Lopez converted his Seputeh central kitchen into Kedai Makanan dan Minuman Ah Gan last year, all he hoped to do was utilise the space more.

The plan was simple: noodles, rice, and old-school dishes like roti babi.

Then he started serving a garlic pork roulade that really took off.

Viral fame followed, along with the inevitable crash-and-burn of multiple slammed services. Business was good, if chaotic and unsustainable.

It had become a relentless slog, unrecognisable from what Ah Gan had started as.

So it was no surprise when Lopez shuttered Ah Gan early this year.

You could still go to his Lucky Garden stalwart, Wurst, for his unique sausages, steaks, chops and other speciality cuts.

But the roti babi and pork roulade were no more.

AG. Deli is still in the same shophouse that was home to Ah Gan, but the space has been spruced up a bit. — Picture by Ethan Lau

Now, he’s back: from the ashes of Ah Gan comes AG. Deli & Charcoal Grill, still in the same Seputeh shophouse, just spruced up a tad.

The name is a nod to Ah Gan, but the space is much more personal than anything Lopez has opened before, with memorabilia scattered throughout.

A barely used scooter, green and in extremely good condition, sits in the middle of the room.

A cork board in the corner holds a photo of Lopez with Alain Ducasse, taken when he worked at Aux Lyonnais, the legendary Lyonnaise bistro founded in Paris in 1890.

Ducasse acquired it in 2002, but sold it in 2025.

The menu is divided into three sections.

A tapas classic of stuffed piquillo peppers gets a sweet dunk of Sauternes, a French dessert wine. — Picture by Ethan Lau

First, a loose collection of sharing starters reflective of Lopez’s European training, from a smoked burrata salad to stuffed piquillo peppers, tapas-style.

Next come the carbohydrates, including a prawn fideuà, the pasta equivalent to paella that also hails from Valencia, and a beef nasi ulam.

Then there is the grill, focusing on beef (Tajima Australian crossbred Wagyu, U.S. Wagyu), pork (Ibérico, Mangalica, Kurobuta), and lamb (Mottainai), along with a lone sole fish.

Lopez’s specialisation in meat means that, even though every other restaurant seems to have an in-house charcuterie program, the AG. charcuterie board (RM88) reads less like trend-hopping and more like a calling card.

It’s a selection of 90-day cured beef bresaola, coppa and truffle salami, and pork coppa, speck and salami, salt and fat melting on the tongue in equal measure.

A butcher by training, the charcuterie programme at AG. Deli is extensive, including specialty beef and pork cold cuts. — Picture by Ethan Lau

Still, there’s no mistaking one meat for the other: the bovine flavour of beef is too recognisable, as is its relative leanness to pork.

Air-dried and salted, bresaola in particular is a firm, lean bite, in stark contrast to marbled pork coppa.

For the uninitiated, coppa is also known as gabagool, the beloved snack from The Sopranos.

It is traditionally taken from the neck and shoulder of the pig and dry-cured.

The beef version here, too, is slightly fatty. A few bites of the accompanying cornichons will see to that.

Piquillo peppers (RM35), stuffed with pork and sitting in a pool of olive oil infused with garlic, chilli and Sauternes, are about as comforting as tapas gets.

The piquillo pepper is sweet with little to no heat, and Sauternes, a French dessert wine, only adds to the fragrant sweetness of this dish.

The main event is a 200-gram steak of Tajima Australian crossbred Wagyu, taken from the short plate (RM60), a cut from below the ribs that is commonly used for short ribs and skirt steak.

It’s a lean, beefy cut, brilliant with nothing but ample salt, and very reminiscent of a hanger steak.

And though Lopez serves steaks at Wurst, they don’t get the same char and smoke as these do over an open flame.

On the side: a grilled chrysanthemum leaf, slightly bitter and better known to us as tong ho, and a sweet potato.

A local outlier on the menu, AG. Deli’s ‘nasi ulam’ comes topped with Wagyu burnt ends. — Picture by Ethan Lau

One of the outliers on an otherwise Eurocentric menu is the beef nasi ulam (RM45), replete with bunga kantan, kacang botol, serai and ulam raja.

Crispy bits of salted fish add a real salt-boost. It’s topped with roasted Wagyu burnt ends, but frankly, the beef is a bit of a filler.

It’s a shrewd way to use up trimmings, yet the nasi ulam is flavourful enough to stand on its own.

If it was nasi kerabu with some Wagyu lemak bakar, however... now that would be a different story.

Desserts and butchers aren’t typically associated with one another, but Wurst does a pretty good tiramisu.

So I was intrigued enough to try one of the three charmingly old-school desserts: the Eton mess (RM25).

A simple, old-school dessert of Eton mess. — Picture by Ethan Lau

It comes with canned mango in place of strawberries. It’s an admittedly low-effort concoction, yet meringue, whipped cream and sweet fruit, even at their worst, are solid. And this is far, far from bad.

At AG., Lopez is going back to his training roots.

Even as the menu appears “simple”, it’s a more personal, more complete restaurant than Ah Gan was ever meant to be.

Here’s hoping it sticks around longer.

AG. Deli & Charcoal Grill

11-1, Persiaran Syed Putra 3,

Taman Persiaran Desa, Kuala Lumpur.

Open Monday to Wednesday, 5.30 — 10.30pm

Tel: 011-3107 2028

Instagram: @agdeli_kl

* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.

* Follow us on Instagram @eatdrinkmm for more food gems.

* Follow Ethan Lau on Instagram @eatenlau for more charcuterie and steak.