POUND — Restaurant in Borneo

Came here once in awhile, really enjoyed the food here, but sadly today will mark my last visit here at pound. The atmosphere here and service is so bad that I feel like it's not worth all the money I paid for. It's a pity, because the food here is actually pretty good.

The restaurant is not full at all today, I have no idea why the server/waitress kept on rushing us to take order. We mentioned more than 3 times we are still waiting for a friend, but they keep interrupt us and ask if we're ready to order. How can we order when everyone hasn't arrived? (We are not late, I booked a table for 730pm. I arrived slightly earlier, my friend arrived quite on time.

When she arrived, we took some time deciding what we want and later the lady came up and ask what we would like to order. When taking order, the lady seems very annoyed, not friendly at all. Didn't even repeat order.

No one came and check if we have enough cutlery, when we finish one of the dish, they just came up all of sudden and take away one of the plate/bowl without asking if we are done? If it's ok to remove that from our table?

I feel like in a classy restaurant like that, I expect more detailed services. When they want to clean the table at least give some interaction, even eye contact is fine. Don't just came up from nowhere then start cleaning the table. When you clean the table you can actually ask if the food was ok. Small interactions like that really make the difference. Until when we leave no one talked to us. Feels not welcomed at all tbh.

Overall experience today, everything seems very rush. Rushing us to take orders, rushing us to pay, rushing us to leave. But the restaurant is only closing at 10pm. Come on... By 9.20pm they rushed us to pay. We haven't even finished our desserts. Very disappointing. Also spoilt our long...

POUND is located in a rather quiet mall and not easily noticeable. After some in depths research fortunately I managed to find this gem of a place in Kinabalu.

The first time I had them was via takeaway, on their site there was a link to a WhatsApp account which we placed our order from a person. The option for payment is via bank transfer which made it difficult as I wasn’t local. Fortunately I managed to get a Malaysian friend to help me otherwise I might not be able to order from them that evening. The food came well packed but they forgot to pack utensils. I enjoyed every item ordered that night - the soft shell crab aglio olio, pizza, prawn dish and burnt basque cheesecake. Everything was seriously so good.

It was that good that made me want to visit their restaurant so I went there on a Tuesday late morning when they opened. I was the first customer and shortly a few more groups also came for brunch. I however opted for the lunch option and went for some seafood calamari, a beef burger, a ragout pasta and ended off w a tiramisu. I had all this solo which was quite hard to finish off but I still managed to. The tiramisu wasn’t as impressive as many others I had, I felt the cream or mascarpone used probably didn’t taste like it’s of very good quality. It was also a mistake ordering the pasta. I’m not sure if it was because I was too full but the pasta texture and sauce both didn’t cut it for me. I however did enjoy the burger a lot as well as the seafood calamari. The beef patty was perfectly cooked, and very juicy.

Overall definitely not cheap for Malaysia pricing, it was around 160RM...

Top notch. Fantastic. Chic deco & environment.

Crew putting their hands together for welcoming and memorable dining experience - kitchen, bar, waiters/waitresses; organised and systematic management. House full of customers at the peak hour.

At entrance - Freezers full of display of meat varieties - shank, rib etc. awaiting culinary skills of the kitchen squad of chef and sous chef, I believe.

Another freezer displays of wine and liqueurs for customers' picking; a special dedicated seating area for this as well.

Clean air and neat table arrangement. SOP observed and adhered to.

Menu was either scanned from hard copy or QR code for those who are tech savvy.

The options picked ~

Mushroom truffle pizza was outstanding, loved the smell; tantalise taste buds. Will repeat this item when I come back again.

At the recommendation of service crew - lamb loin and peri-peri chicken with 2 sides each were picked from the lists in the menu. The sides chosen were sauteed broccoli, sauteed mushroom, sweet potato fries and Kurma rice. The meat was well marinated and flavoured; tender to the bite and texture was just right for the palette - loved it. The sides and dip were just the right companion to the meats.

Peach frizz drink had sweet cocktail of peach slice & highlighted by edible sweet longan pieces - a very awakening drink after the meat dishes.

There wasn't room for dessert, it will be spared for the next trip.

Well done to the whole service crew whichever sections you're in as you're putting your hands together for pjmapamt & enjoyable meals for customers.

Thank you Chef, Sous Chef and the...