Kuchingites have been clamoring over themselves for a spot at the new restaurant in Roxy hotel and I’m here to tell you if it’s worth the hype.
It is a kind of fusion restaurant, with a quirky menu served on unusual crockeries (literally had spaghetti served in half a vase in an attempt to be unique with no rhyme or reason). Being up on the 7th floor, it gives us a new perspective to view the city from. It is a perfect venue for an intimate dinner or a party.
However, I’m sure you’ve noticed the one star rating I gave this promising new establishment. It is simply because the service was incredibly off putting. The waitstaff needs to undergo strenuous retraining or be replaced.
Case number one: We double confirmed our booking to include a baby chair but upon arrival, there wasn’t one at the table. No big deal. We’ll just inform them we need one. Unfortunately, some guy came to explain the situation to us – without an introduction to tell us who he is, no smiles or apologies – telling us that the one they had reserved for us was “taken by another customer” and “we only have four baby chairs” and “there is nothing we can do”. I told him off by saying we double confirmed the booking and dismissed him with some sarcasm. I’m not proud of the way I handled it but the baby chair wasn’t for me and I get very protective over the people I care about. If you need someone to step up for you, I’ll be front and centre and ten times as pissed.
Case number two: Our grilled ribeye showed up less than rare. I’ll let the photo speak for itself below but you know, I don’t expect some obscure restaurant to show up with Masterchef skills but at least don’t take the returned steak back to the kitchen, slice it open and try to convince us that, “the middle is cooked”. No. You do not handle a customer’s food in that manner. Furthermore, the waitress who took our order never even asked us how we would like the steak.
Having a successful restaurant relies heavily on two things: food is king but service matters. If your food is magnificent, your service can be shit because there’ll still be people who will put up with your attitude for an awesome meal (however, you will most definitely lose customers who will not put up with it). If your food is sub par and your service is great, you will probably get a few more returning customers than the previous example! However, if your food is shit and you have the best service in the world, sorry my friend but nobody can save you.
In this instance though, the food ranged from awful to not bad, but the service was so horrendous I wouldn’t even recommend the place to someone I disliked. Bye, bye then. You’ve lost not only a customer, but the patronage of my friends and our families.
Now that I’ve gotten my gripes with the place out of the way, on to the food! Shall we?
After more than an hour of waiting, we got our first pasta: Mushroom Aglio Olio @ RM23
It was surprisingly tasty but I thought aglio olio is supposed to be served warm, if not hot? Because this tasted as though it’s been sitting out for an hour!
The next dish was: Cured Salmon & Poached Egg Pasta @ RM35
This was hot and yummy! But… It kinda tasted similar to the dish before, except this has runny egg yolk all over it.
The Teriyaki Chicken came at @ RM28, served with a side of bland quinoa.
What is it with pretentious fine dining establishments and their tendency to undercook their chicken? It tasted alright, but quite frankly I’d rather go to Chef At Home for some chicken chop instead.
We thoroughly enjoyed the Red Chilli Crab Pasta @ RM34
Finally a pasta that doesn’t taste pretty much the same. It’s an interesting flavour, but if you’re not keen on new tastes, you should definitely steer clear.
The next pasta to follow through was the Sichuan Spicy Chicken Pasta @ RM26
We were pretty sick of the same tasting pasta by this point, and the sichuan pasta was no different from the mushroom aglio or the one served with the cured salmon. To top it off, the chicken tasted of Maggi sauce and was hard as a rock.
The last two that arrived were disasters: Grilled Ribeye @ RM70 and Margherita Pizza @ RM31
The margherita pizza was… A fail. The base was so soft there is no chance of you picking it up and eating like an actual slice of pizza… It was more like a thin sheet of lagsana skin smothered in cheese and served on a block of wood.
The ribeye was even worse, as mentioned above. And! It was served with a dollop of ICE CREAM. We made them take it back for being pretty much raw and it’s a relief they had the foresight to cancel it from the bill.
Guys, a little humility would work wonders for your poor food or inexperienced waitstaff… In light of the rudeness, I have no choice but to chalk it up as careless management.
We ended the night on a good note though, drinks at Barber coupled with Junk’s delicious cheese pizza.
