Penang Village, Hartamas

As mentioned in my main post today that we had lunch at the Bangsar Village branch at Hartamas Shopping Center. Clearly undeterred from the bad experience we had at the branch in Great Eastern Mall, we decided to give the franchise another chance. At least now we found out that the chain is consistent. Consistently bad.

Despite the neat interior and nice cosy space, the food there left a lot to be desired. Being a Penang boy, there were not much Penang-ness on offer here. The menu looked appetising enough when we went through it. So let’s start with the positives.

They had a dedicated kid’s menu. Irfan had nasi goreng with fries on the side and it came free with drinks. We had some sirap bandung for him, all for a very reasonable price. Idlan wanted some chicken chop, and it was pretty OK. Irfan’s nasi goreng was also nice, but the portion I must say was a wee bit small. We sat by the entrance, with plenty of space for the restless boys and the ambiance inside was welcoming. The washing area was very good and clean. We had a small insect in Irfan’s drinks, and after pointing it out to the waiter, we got it changed, no question asked.

My iced mocha came with a scoop of vanilla ice-creamIrfan's nasi gorengThe service was in general very good. Food came within reasonable time, and the waiters got all the orders correctly.

Idlan's chicken chop

Now came the not-so-good part. The waiters were mostly foreigners. I have nothing against that, but the problem against that, but the problem was they were not able to speak Malay or English at all well. We ended up having to show the items from the menu. Luckily, the manager for the day communicated very well and cleared up all our queries. He was also the one who got Irfan’s drink changed. Irfan’s food was OK, and so was Idlan’s chicken chop. Both Anita and I decided to have some rice with three orders. They were steamed fish - we had assam steamed garoupa, salad - mango with soft-shell crab, and fried calamari. The fish cost us nearly RM70, and it was awful. The mango salad was the best. The calamari was overcooked, and almost tasteless.

The oh-so-expensive garoupaThe mango saladFried calamariDespite the food being well-presented, there was not much to shout about. We decided to skip the dessert, and later had some tea elsewhere.

Maybe the joint was better at noodles and nasi goreng, but not traditional Malay dishes. But to be honest, we won’t be going there any time soon. If I had to endure the place again, maybe I pick a mee goreng or something similar. The restaurant was located at the ground floor of the shopping complex should you hazard a try - Lot G8B & 9, Ground Floor, Jalan Sri Hartamas 1, Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Tel - 03 6201 9816