Boat Noodle at Siam, Publika, Solaris Dutamas, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
Lot30A, Level G3, 
Publika Shopping Gallery,
Solaris Dutamas, Jalan Dutamas 1,
50480 Kuala Lumpur

Opening Hours:
Daily, 11am-9pm

Time Visited:
Around 5pm, Wednesday evening

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
1 Pathumthani Beef Thai Rice Noodle, 1 Ayutthaya Beef Thai Rice Noodle, 1 Pathumthani Chicken Thai Rice Noodle, 1 Ayutthaya Chicken Thai Rice Noodle and 1 Ice Blended Thai Coffee

The place wasn't as nice and cooling as I expected. I'm not sure if there's any air cond but I know that there's fans above. So it's quite warm inside. The wooden furnitures is quite uncomfortable for me but bearable for an hour or so. Despite having sat down without a menu in front of me, the wait staff saw me sitting down but did not notice that I'm waiting for the menu. The best thing that one of the staff ever did for me is smile at me. I had to signal him to give me a menu then only out of nowhere another wait staff from behind provided me one.

Their menu is the steel kind and is quite colorful with some pictures in it provided. It's just a one page menu. They also had recently added a few new items and printed it out on a smaller separate sheet of paper.

In order to order, you have to write down what you want. I didn't fully understand the menu because there were 2 items indicating beef rice noodle but differently named and there were 2 items indicating chicken rice noodle but also differently named exactly like the beef counterpart. I asked the waiter to fully explain this queer naming convention and he clarified for me that the Pathumthani is the spicy dish and the Ayutthaya is the less spicy dish. I was wondering to myself, if that's they case, can't they just add in the word spicy in one of the dish? A quick google tells me that these are Thai Province names.

The Ice Blended Thai Coffee came in a fancy plastic cup equipped with a straw poking out from the cover for easy access to the beverage. The taste of coffee was strong enough but all in all average. Or maybe slightly above average.

When the bowls of noodles came, I had such a difficult time differentiating which is which. LOL. They all look the same! The only thing I can differentiate is the meat which darker one means beef and lighter ones means chicken. But if you were to mix the bowls together, I bet even the staff can't recognize which is the spicy one and which is not.

The Pathumthani is indeed the bowl with the spicy taste and at times even I couldn't stand the lingering spiciness and I'm a cili padi eater! But it's not all too spicy. It should be bearable to most people but not for those who's unable to eat spicy food. As for the Ayutthaya, it contains a sweet taste to it instead of spicy and is quite a weird combo for me for noodles. But nice enough to be eaten by me. A bowl of boat noodle probably took me about three mouthful to finish. The meat balls that represents the beef and chicken are nice but it's merely half a ball. :(

Due to the uncomfy nature of the place, I left after about an hour later.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM18.35. RM1.90 for each bowl of noodle and the coffee cost RM8.90. 6% GST implemented and a 5% service charge as well.

Final Verdict:
4/10. Environment not comfortable and the staff were unattentive, hard of understanding and do very little unless being told by the customer. Despite an easy open situation where one glance you can see all of the tables, some customer still need to catch the staffs attention a few times before being noticed. I know the staff are foreign workers but can't they learn a little bit more on basic English and Bahasa Malaysia? I see a lot of the customers struggling to convey certain messages to the staff including myself. I'm not sure whether this behavior stems from being a low peak period or if it's the same during busy dining times. Well, at least one of the staff smiled at me when he saw me.