If you are starving and tired from a long day of work, don’t go to the new ‘nasi lemak antarabangsa: kampung baru’ branch at Kota Damansara.
I was starving and tired from a long day of work, and I went to the new nasi lemak shop that always seemed to be teeming with customers ever since it opened a few weeks ago.
It took us at least ten minutes to get a waiter to actually look our way and hand us some menus and another ten to get someone to jot down our orders. Food came at a reasonable pace (considering the exorbitant prices we were paying for what essentially were plates of nasi lemak with heavily spiced livers – came with the combo - and an iced lemon tea – RM10!!), but getting the bill and our change took another 20 minutes.
Being understaffed is one thing; allowing your staff to get away with ignoring customers by blatantly avoiding eye contact is another. Customers who were waving frantically or even standing up to get some attention.
The food was mediocre at best, even at my hungry state. And no matter how good it claims to be, RM10 for a plate of nasi lemak seemed a little ridiculous, if not wrong. Nasi lemak is a local commoner’s food – just because there are some heavily spiced ‘paru-paru’ (which apparently is one of the restaurant’s specialties) plunked next to the sambal does not make it worth RM10.
And the guys agreed that the nasi lemak at a Chinese hawker centre just down the road was much better.
But you have to give it to the restaurant staff. In all the unruly chaos of frustrated tongue-clicking and snapping fingers, the wait staff sure made the gallant effort to call out their thank yous and sila datang lagis almost simultaneously as we made our way out of the shop for the first and last time.
