POULET - KOMTAR JBCC — Restaurant in Johor

We decided to try Poulet at Komtar since we have never been to the restaurant before.

We ordered 2 half chicken sets with Diane sauce, one of the sets with fries and aglio olio pasta and the other with the pasta and sweet corn. We also had a quarter chicken set with mushroom sauce, the salad and aglio olio pasta.

One thing we noticed is that the half chicken seemed to be on the smaller side, like a spring chicken or a griller, while the quarter chicken thigh was from a much larger chicken. This made it such that there wasn’t a huge difference in the amount of meat between the half chicken and the quarter chicken. The quarter chicken was abit tougher than the half chicken though.

Otherwise, the food was pretty tasty. The salad was a tart vinegar base with cranberries, assorted leaves and cherry tomatoes. The fries were served hot and somewhat crispy, while the sweet corn was good.

The aglio olio side dishes were excellent. The pasta was al dente and not the soggy ‘nua’ affair most places produce nowadays. It had excellent garlic flavour, olive oil and surprisingly had copious amounts of heat, which was right up my alley and what really made it stand out. They get a good uprating for that.

For the faint of heart/palate, be warned this would have been a trial indeed. But for a chilli addict like me, it was a very welcome surprise which provided a wider variety of flavours from the traditional savoury and umami affair one gets when normally eating at these restaurants.

The sauces were ok, with the Diane sauce having turkey bacon in it. If anything we missed the cranberry based sauce you can get in Singapore which we liked for its hint of sweetness/tartness and umami flavour.

Overall would have been a 5 star if the chicken thigh had been as tender as the half chicken, but I guess due to the size/age difference in the chickens, the thigh from the larger chicken was bound to be abit tougher. It was by no means unpalatable, but one could tell the difference since we had a side by...

I was honestly stunned—my chicken came out in just 10 minutes! Ten! I barely had time to open my phone and pretend to check the weather before it was steaming on the table. Took a bite, and instantly regretted every bit of excitement I had. This wasn’t the glorious, slow-roasted, fall-apart magic I remembered. No, this was “high-heat express chicken,” dry, tough, and clearly a gym enthusiast. My teeth had to stage a full workout just to get through it.

Now, props to the waitress—still lovely, still the MVP. She handled it with grace and took it back without fuss. I was told the replacement would take 30 minutes, which gave me hope. When it finally came out, I could tell it was a step up—an improvement from a 2 to a solid 5, compared to the first time’s effortless “tear-and-eat” sous vide chicken. This one still needed some convincing from the knife, but hey, at least it wasn’t a fight to the death. The 2nd photo was the aftermath of the battle with the chicken with a 5, which obviously isn’t anything near the sous vide chicken I tasted prior.

On a brighter note, the mashed potatoes paired with the fries were an unexpected joy—fragrant, crispy, and oddly comforting. Honestly, they kinda stole the show. At this point, I might just come back for the sides and let the chicken figure out its...

Came in at 2.40pm on a Saturday, the restaurant was relatively empty. My order was keyed in at 2.48pm. However, the food took about 25 minutes to arrive which was very long considering the crowd. The restaurant wasn't understaffed as well. Subsequent customers received their orders shortly after mine even though they just arrived. It's unfortunate for me having to wait longer than usual because my order happened to be the first of the "batch". The staff are friendly but they had no sense of urgency and empathy. They could have inform me the situation when they knew that I've waited longer than usual. My whipped potato was also served cold. For RM35++ for half a chicken and two sides is a pretty good deal. However, only when the dish arrive then I realise that it is spring chicken they are serving. Not that it's a dealbreaker, but they could have make it clearer on the menu. I think it's a full-sized chicken served in singapore Poulet. Count myself unlucky to dine in at such timing, but I wouldn't want to visit this place again because of this...