Lot G49, Ground Floor, the Curve, No. 6, Jalan PJU 7/3, Mutiara Damansara, 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Opening Hours:
Daily 10am-10pm
Time Visited:
Around 12:15pm. Sunday afternoon with the Subaru Challenge over yesterday and today is the open to public to win mini prizes but nobody has put their palm on the car yet. LOL
Attire worn:
Casual
Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Iced Coffee (it's mentioned it's hand-dripped), Squid Ink Rice with Assorted Seafood and Omu Egg and Cheese Souffle
Went in through the door and told the person there that I'm a person of 1 and he showed me the table nearest to the entrance. Feeling the heat from the outdoor and seeing that they had no air curtain to prevent cool air from the air conditioning unit leaving, I told the person that I want somewhere further in because it feels hot and the person told me that there's no place even though there's clearly a lot of empty tables inside. Then another guy ask the 1st guy (who shall now be called '1st guy' henceforth) what's wrong and the 1st guy said 1 person. The 2nd guy did the same and showed me the same table to my dismay and walked away. I forced myself to have a table at a much cooler area by asking the 1st guy "Can I sit over there?" pointing to a place indoor and the guy reluctantly moved inside and showed me to a seat that's near the exit that's clearly a very big table that's for 4 persons. I don't mind that place since it's much cooler having the exit door closed for most of the time. I'm not here trying to cause any disruption to their business but can't they just separate a table that's joined together to create a seating for four and let me occupy a table for 2 instead? I'm not sure what's their difficulty in doing this and I can't fathom why this cannot be done but I don't care. I like that big table anyway. LOL. Furthermore, there's no crowd there and there are loads of empty tables.
Anyway, after sitting myself down, I glance through the menu and a separate one that promotes their breakfast. There's also breakfast items that are only available until 12pm which I don't understand why they wanna try doing those items since it's just a 2 hour time period of selling those after opening. Having a cash voucher of RM50 that's about to expire, I wanted to make sure I order up till that amount and don't mind topping up a bit more. This was the sole purpose of me visiting this outlet anyway. After a quick glance around, I decided to try out the surety of their Squid Ink Rice which I heard was delicious. The waiter input my order in a smartphone-like device and showed it to me one final time to confirm my order. I also showed him my voucher and told him I'm gonna use that and after reading out the terms written at the back, he handed it back to me without saying a word and proceeded to key in my order.
A while later, I was served my Iced Coffee which is in a pretty tin cup and 2 tiny pouring jug that 1 contains milk while the other has syrup in it. I see they know what they're doing by serving syrup. Sugar would prove no value since the beverage is cold and it wouldn't melt the sugar but syrup sweetens it just the same although taste-wise would prove different. A sip of the coffee indicates to my palate that it taste great but has a bitter after taste. Pouring in the milk and syrup makes it better.
I noticed that time management is very important for Franco because even the serving time notice is stated and reiterated when you order it. They told me that the Squid Ink Rice has a waiting period of 20 minutes on preparation time and the Souffle 15 minutes. This is great for office workers who has a time limit on their office lunch hour break and will know what better to order to lessen the waiting time for their food. As for me, I'm not in a hurry so that information proves useless to me.
Sure enough, the Squid Ink Rice did had a waiting period of approximately 20 minutes and it looks presentable in that small pan-like dish. The Omu egg provides the brightest color contrast of all whilst the rest of the item of the dish is a big black bunch. The Omu Egg was somewhat fluffy, soft and a bit like a scrambled egg texture but more smooth, creamy and rich. It's seasoning were perfect. The squid ink rice provided the same constant. Although not as yummy as La Cocina in Subang Jaya USJ9, it holds it's own. I detected some hints of concentrated saltiness and am wondering are there salted fish in there or merely just clumps of salt? Either way, the saltiness does not disrupt the overall pleasantness of the dish and am not overpowering enough to declare annoyance. Being such a small dish, there wasn't a lot of seafood in there but enough to cover the dish. There's about 3 shrimps, 3 squids and 2 mussels. Due to the portion of this dish, it's not really that filling.
After finishing off my Squid Ink Rice, the waiter came to clear it off and that's when I indicated to him that I would like my Souffle now. After checking for it, he told me that there's a 7 minutes waiting time. Indeed. A place that emphasize on timing.
Souffle like the other two items I ordered were very presentable. The Souffle rose up beautifully although not perfect but that's how their Souffle is, a little tilted to one side probably happened when they were cooling it off for a bit. Opening it up inside shows a well cooked Souffle and the interior just like the Omu Egg was soft and rich. The cheese flavor permeates through the entire Souffle but all the more so on top with cheese clearly sprinkled atop. It taste great and the cheese were never too much to handle having balanced well with the other ingredients.
Total Wallet Damage:
RM65.35 for the whole total. Iced Coffee comes to about RM10.19, Squid Ink Rice RM29.06 and Cheese Souffle RM16.79. 6% GST amount to RM3.70 which leaves a rounding up of 1 sen. Minus my cash voucher of RM50 and that brings the total that I needed to pay to an amount of RM15.35.
Final Verdict:
6/10. However, it's not lone diner friendly, at all. You will need to ask at least twice in order to get a place and be firm about it. Even with a party of 2, they'll think twice before reorganizing tables to fit your requirement. A party of 2 walked in and they instruct the couple to sit further in at a table of four so that later on they can separate off the other table for another couple. I'm not sure why they can't do that before seating those people but that's how things are done here. They'll welcome you with open arms if you're a family with kids and will give you extra good service when they know you're a foreigner. Another lone diner came and ask for a table of one as I was leaving and the guy at the door asked one of the wait staff and the wait staff said no place even though there's clearly a lot of unoccupied tables. The guy at the door after speaking to the customer of 1 for a while, then proceeded to put him at one of the booth seats where the table fits 2 person.
Bear with me on this longer than usual final verdict as I have more to add. When the wait staff brought back my change for my bill which I paid, he asked me for 35 sen. I guess their cash register is low on change, eh? Didn't mind that. Took my change and off I went. As I was approaching the entrance for my exit, the wait staff again ask me for money and this time he's asking for 65 sen. I thought to myself that this is a bit odd. And ask him to show me the bill. Apparently, he mistaken the change section as the total to pay section since they didn't input in the 35 sen I gave earlier. Pfft. Guess the guy need to go to counting school. The guy who greets people at the door and usher them in just looks on without even bothering to do anything.
Do you know what I think? I think this place is missing a restaurant manager. a good restaurant manager. I'm not sure whether the guy in front is suppose to be it but I would say no since he's of no help at all. All the staff ever do is consult each other for solutions when faced with a problem and all that can easily be resolved when they can just go to a restaurant manager on how to proceed further.
I'm sure the intent of the workers (which clearly all are foreigners whose main language are not English) are not to disrespect the customers but clearly they don't know what customer service is. It should go beyond just conveying pleasantries and knowing when to clear the table.
I can see that they follow instructions that they were taught down to the tee since they're very good in time management (dishing out the food and serving on time) and when to greet the customers and be attentive to when they call you, but that also meant that they're unbending in their ways of seating a customer and rearranging tables to fit the amount of customer seems like something that will get them into trouble. They also don't know how to speak well with a customer with them talking as if they had a problem if someone asks a little bit more. I guess this may stem from not being well-verse in English or how to speak with a customer.
At least they don't have service charge. Despite that, it's still a very pricey place to dine in.
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