Madam Kwan’s Imago — Restaurant in Borneo

I was recommended by families and friends that Madam Kwan's delicious dishes in Kuala Lumpur. To find it in Sabah's new shopping mall. I just tell my self I must try before my flight back. Walking pass the door, the deco all seems like the 70's bar with no hint of Nyonya or baba's theme. Sat down with my family onto a faux green leather sofa with what looks like make shift plywood table. The waiter are all nice except looks a little busy at 6pm with just less than half of the tables occupied.

Looking at the menu, price are unbelievably a few steps higher that what I normally eat. Starting with my ice 3 sour. It looks just like any normal 3 sour beverage. After my first sip, it taste like ice-cream soda, with a very very light taste of lemon. I thought they must have forgotten to squeeze it. I was not given a stirrer or spoon. Using the straw given. I was like having a slight tug of war with the thick layer of ice floating above. After squeezing out every last drop of lime, lemon slices. There is not much of an improvement. The my son ordered a spaghetti alfredo. I was surprised that they tasted like canned Campbell's cream of mushroom soup with canned mushroom and about 6 small nuggets what taste like minced chicken! This is the most highly rated Madam Kwan's and this is what I get?

My wife ordered 2 sets of chicken rice which my kids loved. Another "surprise" kicked me. They did not finished it. Tasted like sesame oil mixed with normal cooking oil, slight scent of chicken. LOTs of sweet soy sauce and dried chinese mushroom. To top it up with nicely molded half cooked rice??? The soup given tasted like any other economy rice stalls out there.

After kicking myself with Mushroom chicken rice. I have to slap myself with fish head curry which they forgot. And insisted us to wait even after we are struggling to stuff ourselves in those uncooked chicken rice!

Its a big bowl of curry soup with a fish head in the middle. The curry tasted mild thickens with milk for westerners maybe? (I am lactose intolerant) I can buy this premixed curry fish sauce from any grocery shop, and can taste much richer with coconut milk. That's my rm3XX. Maybe I am unlucky to be given a fish head that was at a very deep part of the fridge. Or maybe not much people liked fish head curry. Sorry but I won't be. This will be my first and last to any...

The food was truly excellent but the Manager's attitude was extraordinarily appalling.

Her name is Jane Luk as her name tag says. She was a huge Chinese woman, manly looking, bespectacled and spoke Cantonese. And she was no spring chicken.

Her replies to all my queries were very curt and extremely unfriendly.

But astonishingly , when a group of what appeared to be her friends arrived, she was immaculately polite and looked genuinely sweet.

Absolutely tragic for the rest of us. She even sat down with them, to have a happy chit-chat, forgetting all about her role as a shining model for her employees.

I do feel very sad for the image of your legendary restaurant, not to mention about the morale of your staff. And I was told by one of your staff that this very unfriendly manageress even oversees your other restaurant in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah as well.

By the way, we, my wife and I, had lunch at your premises today at about noon time, Wednesday the 16th, 2023.

We are happy-go-lucky tourists from Singapore , and I must admit that I was very impressed with the general customer service of people from all your service industries across the board in your beautiful state of Sabah, until meeting this "exceptional" manageress of yours. Just the hard luck of my beloved wife and I.

Once again, the food was excellent, bar none but her service was far from even being remotely desirable.

Thank you for reading this but please do some internal investigations. Feel free to contact me anytime.

Yours...

Poor service quality. We went for two times. First time went was brought by a frown faced young lady who doesn't seem to like about her work. Does seem to have basic etiquette, dragged the chair unwillingly and making noise. First time we tried cendol and bubur chachacha, two of the dessert tasted WAY OFF than franchise in Kuala lumpur. Cendol and bubur chacha were sweet AF, pardon me but there are no better way to describe the disappointment. We went for second time, that time was for hi-tea. The guy who helped us order seemed very unwilling as if someone is forcing him to do the jobs. He came, staring at us speak nothing, as if asking for us what do we want. Again, is this the service quality of Madam Kwan's restaurant ? We ordered rojak, banana fritter and cendol for this time. Rojak awfully tasted with literally SOS BANJIR. The banana firtter and cendol this time were good.

After the second visit I will not, nor recommend my friends to dine there anymore. Price is expensive, but service quality and product quality are NOT UP TO PAR. With such inconsistent quality I would say Teo Chew Cendol gives much better satisfactory for the price you pay, they are not bad, but they are consistent.

P/S I am not sure whether the restaurant is willing to serve with proper glassware in the future ? Serving cendol in a plastic cup is so roadside gerai...