OITOM Restaurant — Restaurant in Borneo

Short Summary: Avoid for special and/or occasions due to very poor food consistency, weak planning and abysmal hospitality. Team may want to consider getting hospitality training from our local providers - T&T Business Solutions or Blue Elephants Training.

Due to google's limit the review is cut and photos don't seem to fit.

This is a review of a dinner on 8th Jan 2020. I have postponed this review because I want to give an objective constructive review without anger and rancour. There is a possibility that team did their best on the days of the 5-stars reviews. My review is based on having dined at many fine dining and Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe and Asia and Oitom having labelled themselves as "casual fine dining".

My first complaint is the booking system. After payment, you need to chase after the team for a confirmation of your booking lest you end up like the other two reviewers who did not even get a seat.

Secondly, the team neglected to deal with the seating appropriately. On arrival, we were told there were no tables available and made to sit at a makeshift bar table which had very uncomfortable chairs -- sitting on it required me to either dangle my legs in the air or hunch up like an annoyed monkey-cat-bird hybrid.

Questions: If we booked after the other tables, why did the team not tell me that there were no tables left? If we booked before the other tables, why did the team not call me to ask if I minded to give my table up to another party? One table had a guest that was pregnant and the other had someone who was too fat to fit the chair. The other empty tables were reserved and unavailable (which remained unoccupied until the end of dinner service)

Hence, the makeshift table (which the team was using for their sauces). The lady spoke to us as though we should be grateful for being allowed to sit there instead of the tables as - its better to sit here since you get to see the food being prepared.

Thirdly, during the dining the team did not know that I brought my wife and my sister-in-law to celebrate their birthdays despite writing it in the "Special Request" box in their booking form. Thus, there was no happy birthday greetings (until the end when they noticed the bouquet of flowers) and while waiting for my SIL, they asked if "he or she will be coming soon". It seems nugatory to place a special request box if the team does not act on the information given.

No apologies were given by the lady (even until the end of the dining) and after about 30 minutes of death stares from me (and possibly my wife) the chef built like Mt Kinabalu realised something was up and apologised for the mess up (a complimentary cake was given at the end).

Fermented Rosti & Ikura. The name is a misrepresentation as the "rosti" served was neither fermented nor a rosti at all. A rosti is a swiss pancake made up of shredded potatoes. What we were served was a dish known as "hasselback potato". Taste-wise, the toppings and sauce did not compliment the taste of the potato and the potato itself was bland due to lack of seasoning. Also my wife's potato had a black dirty core.

Corn. Decent but if you follow the suggestion to eat it by holding it up with the napkin it is served on note that the napkin had a odd/bad smell which blocked out the aroma of the corn while eating.

Cheese n Beetroot - Cracker had burnt black bitter parts. Needs something to refresh palate and cut through richness of cheese.

Cauliflower - Exterior should be crisped to give sufficient texture to dish

Clam tart- Butter in pastry overwhelmed the taste of everything else.

A1 local - Big nono to divide one piece to 3 people. Wife's part had tough chewy tendons that should have been trimmed away during food prep. Also team did not ask about preferred doneness.

Prawns - from Ramsar Kinabatangan not Ramasar Iran. My prawn was raw inside.

Chocolate/Oyster - See photo caption.

I asked if there was a special meaning behind the same flower petals being used in the dishes. The answer given was - every fine dining restaurant in the...

Corn - tartlet a bit chewy, very unpleasant experience, corn sweet and can detect smokiness, truffle scent is good. Aebleskiver - a bit chewy and too heavy, need something citrusy to cut through the heaviness and Thai basil is missing. Hinava - fish is fresh and pleasant eating. Sauce was good but the spoon is not practical for us to collect the sauce for the bite. Can't fully enjoy the caviar, it's overpowered by the sauce. Love the scent of the dish when it's out. I like this dish. Scallop - the charred on the scallop is awesome. It tasted good on its own. I had food orgasm from the first bite. It's very fresh. The salmon eggs overpowered with the sauce. The dishes was good for the first few bites, it's becomes too salty towards the end. Needs something to brighten up the dishes, maybe something citrusy or spicy. Chicken- skin a bit charred and not crispy to my liking. The chicken breast is dry, the vege is good. But the dishes needs more sauce for a better experience. Overall, my least favorite of the night. Brioche - taste like biting into cloud. The tepache rub is sweet and it offset the salty from Nori butter. It's my favorite of the night. Ikejime Grouper - the cook on the fish is good. The sauce is good, it reminds me of Cantonese steam fish. The malabar spinach is a bit slimy to my liking, the mushrooms is good. The dish needs more lemon zest to brighten it, I just got like 2-3 pcs of it. The bite with the zest is phenomenal. Overall good dish. Wagyu - first bite and I fell in love with it. It's like biting into butter. The whole dishes is top notch. Nothing to complain. Strawberry - everything is good. The strawberry compote below complement the whole dishes. And the tuile give extra texture for the dessert. My favourite. But, they need to change the wooden spoon to dessert spoon as the wooden spoon is to dull to cut the fruit. Chocolate - I love love love the single estate cacao ice cream. It's the bomb, chocolatey and full of chocolate goodness. As for the fried bambangan, sadly is my least favorite dish of the night. And the best part, the Oitom team managed to surprised me with a birthday dessert. I love it. The whole team was the best, very warm and friendly, the atmosphere is relax and romantic. I love it that they have an open kitchen. Highly recommended for special occasion or just for a date night. Will...

So I ate here last Sunday. I’ve had the ideas full experience + wine arrangement. It costed me around 510rm excludes service fee of 10%

If you don’t know the mall the restaurant can be kinda hard to find. It’s not as big as you might think!

First of all I need to say that i really like the lay-out with the open kitchen and then the tables centered around it. Gave it something extra. especially because I was on my own so i had some entertainment.

Then the food, which was absolute phenomenal. I really liked the fact that they used so many common local ingredients. All the food was plated well, and every plate got presented by one of the chefs. You also get a card with every plate with more information on it.

They told me they were after going for a star one day. So Then the wine pairing. This needs to improve in my opinion if they want that star.

You get 5 glasses for 14 dishes, so sometimes you have 3 dishes with 1 wine, even though the plates taste completely different so the wine doesn’t match al. You also don’t know until when you will use that particular wine.

I would advise tot poor smaller glasses, but really look into which wine pairs well with which dish.

The staff is all very friendly and welcoming, so cheers to...