Boredworkers.com

A week ago, WL and I were invited to have dinner at Bangsar Seafood Garden Restaurant in Bangsar Village. Its reputed to be a very fancy place with excellent food, great service, and all the trappings that we’ve come to expect of such expensive places. Did I mention the place is expensive? Well, since I wasn’t paying, lets not dwell on that.

So WL and I arrived at 730pm and met up with the rest of our party inside the restaurant which is located on the first floor of a double storey building. We found out later that the area downstairs was dedicated to banquets and the like. There consisted of a hall with the capacity to accomodate 60 tables (if I remember what the groundskeeper said correctly). The entrance and decor outside the restaurant was simple in its design but very well done. I was impressed and was actually looking forward to trying out the food.

A table was already available for us and the rest of the party was already seated. While we were making our way to the table, we saw and overhead several of the staff arguing over something… right in front of the customers. This IMHO is very bad behaviour and shows badly on the establishment.

Flipping through the menu, we found it hard to decide what to eat since we didn’t know what was good and hadn’t done any research prior. The ‘captain’ came along to take our order before we had decided and had to wait abit as we scratched our head. I am VERY VERY VERY disappointed at his attitude when he was made to wait. Instead of being patient and letting us decide, he started repeating the menu to us and making recommendations as though he was trying to force the dishes on us. For such a ‘classy’ restaurant, the waiters and service is NOT up to par. The way he spoke and his manner reminded me of backstreet restaurant waiters in singlet, shorts and slippers. Perhaps he thought we couldn’t afford to eat at such a restaurant since I was wearing shorts and a simple shirt. If that was so, then I believe that the guy should be fired for even thinking it in the first place. That and being such an obnoxious pig. Between the undisciplined staff and the idiot captain, my initial good impression of the restaurant was slowly giving way to disgust.

After much debate, we finally placed our order for the following:

• Four Seasons hot and cold dish
• Loh han jai (Mix vegetables)
• Venison cooked with ginger
• Buttered crab (1.5 kg - apparently the house specialty)
• Spicy Suzhou soup

As an afterthought, we ordered some deserts (the captain that took our order this time was a lady and was much nicer):

• Fa sang wu (Peanut cream soup)
• Hong tao sui (Red bean soup)
• Sai mai lo (Honey dew with sago and ice cream)
• Water chestnut soup

And now all we had to do was wait. It didn’t take long before my desert arrived. My first reaction was to say that the waitress must have made a mistake. Then when she insisted that she hadn’t, I told her that we had told the captain that we wanted our deserts AFTER the meal, which of course the captain confirmed. So there goes my impression of the service out the restaurant window. They took the desert back (and probably served the same damn bowl later on…).

The next thing that was served was the tea. We had ordered fresh chinese tea (I can’t remember the name but this particular flavour is was usually very fragrant). However the tea that they wound up serving was equivalent to the low grade RM0.50 tea that they serve at the local economy rice restaurant. The fact that when they refilled the pot and the tea didn’t get any thinner (usually it takes a while for the tea leaves to steep in the hot water and release its colour and fragrance) made me assume that the tea was coming from a pre-brewed pot somewhere in the kitchen and not fresh tea leaves.

When the food arrived, I was even more disappointed. The mixed vegetables looked a little stale. The sourish baby ’sweet’ corn didn’t help the dish any. The venison had way too much dark soya sauce in it and looked like a blob of black stuff. The spicy Suzhou soup was NOT spicy at all. Instead, it was plain salty. The house specialty buttered prawn was yellow and plain unappetising. It was fortunate that we had good company to chit chat with, cause the food was definitely nothing to shout about. The only thing good was the four seasons hot and cold dish which consisted of prawns, squid, springrolls and one other thing.

Somehow, we managed to finish the food, but we weren’t very happy with either the food or the service. We could only hope that the deserts would fair better. Boy were we disappointed (yet again…). During the dinner, WL’s brother commented on our choice of the peanut cream soup. He said they’d most probably simply buy a bottle of peanut butter and just add water. We hoped he was wrong but as it turned out, he was probably proven correct by the bowl of much that they served. The only thing they did right was the water chestnut soup, which actually tasted nice with a hint of lemon.

Clearly no one was satisfied. But there was nothing left to do but to pay the bill and leave. So how much did this load of crap cost us? Approximately RM 372.60 inclusive of 5% government tax and 10% (non-existant) service tax. Good thing they didn’t charge us for the freaking tea!

The verdict: Two thumbs down + 1 big frown. Never would I recommend this restaurant to anyone whom I give a damn about. I can get better food at a lot of other places. And if I want something a little pricey, I’ll go to Fatty Crab Restaurant near Mines. The restaurant is not classy, it is just plain crap. Additionally, neither the service nor the food warrants the price tag. Methinks its just riding on the name and the reputation (which methinks will start to stink very soon).

Bangsar Seafood Garden Restaurant
One Bangsar, No. 63,
Jalan Ara, Bangsar Baru,
59100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603-2282 2555
Website: Bangsar-seafood.com
Daily operating hours: 12.00pm - 2.30pm, 6pm - 10.30pm