S'moll Private Dining — Restaurant in Kedah

Terrible experience. I’ve booked a table for 2 for birthday celebration on the 16 of August. While making the reservation, they requested me to pay a deposit of 50 ringgit to secure the booking. Which is understandable. But then, they never told us the dining duration of each table. Me and my friend reached there around 6.45 pm which the booking is on 7 pm. The waitress guided us to our table, and we started to order the foods and etc. After we took our appetiser and main course, and while having our dessert course which the time is 8 pm all of a sudden the waitress told us that we have 15 minutes left to finish our dessert and leave the table because the next reservation at our table will be on 8.30 pm. I was astonished, and speechless. They never told us anything while we were guided to our table before. It was disappointing.

(REPLY TO THE RESPOND BELOW)

We respect your dinning hour restrictions. But please do not assume all customer are regular customers who are aware of the dining duration, there is always a new customer before he/she could become regular and to be familiar with your house rules!

As a customer, we should have been informed of any time constraints during the time we have made our reservation or at the very least at the beginning of our meal! This would have allowed us to plan accordingly and avoid the inconvenience we experienced by not booking a reservation at that specific time in the first place if this information was known.

Unfortunately, with only 15 minutes remaining in our meal, we were abruptly asked to leave the restaurant. This unexpected request not only disrupted our dining experience but also left us feeling rushed and unwelcome. Personally, I feel that this place is only trying to cram as many customers as possible within a time frame and in turn neglected their customer service.

Well, hope that my post ‘might’ help to inform other future customers about the house rule you have then, since you don’t typically inform when they are visiting. Hopefully they...

Savoury Delights with Service Surprises.

My family decided to treat ourselves to dinner at S'moll Private Dining by Dhubai. The place seemed promising from the get-go. As we walked in, we were greeted by a waitress who seemed a tad unsure, maybe new on the job, but still friendly.

The ambiance felt exclusive, with just a handful of tables adding to the private feel. They kicked things off nicely with complimentary chilled infused water, which was a refreshing touch.

For starters, we went for the marine croquette served with panipuri and spicy tomato sauce. It was an interesting combo, although the plating seemed to favor the panipuri a bit too much.

Now onto the mains – I went for the grain-fed ribeye steak cooked medium rare. It was juicy and grilled to perfection, with a sprinkle of some delightful pink peppercorn giving it that unique numbness feel. Mom tried the chili buttermilk seafood, a huge portion with prawns, mussels, and squid in a creamy, slightly spicy broth. Dad went for the seafood kantan pasta, which had a light broth but a tad too much seafood for our liking.

One thing we noticed was that the green mussels didn't quite hit the mark in both seafood dishes. They felt out of place compared to the rest of the dish.

Dessert was a winner though – sticky dates with pistachio sauce. A perfect sweet ending to the meal.

The strangest part came when I suddenly started choking on a piece of food. I quickly gestured for help, but when I asked for more water to clear my throat, the waitress refused, citing their policy of one serving of infused water per customer. It was a baffling and somewhat alarming moment. Thankfully, my dad offered his glass of water, saving the day. But it left us all feeling a bit unsettled.

Overall, S'moll Private Dining has its highs and lows. Generally good food, but portion is too big and service could use some...

Food no doubt, taste good. However the service a bit spoil for me & friend. We booked 5 days early, booked 010925 for dinner 060925, 8pm but we still got table near to door (2nd level) which a bit spoil in terms of “privacy”.

As general, they might need to improve certain area in terms of service. Staff to be alert with customer need - we need to notify everytime we need something - want to order, want to get our dessert, ask for replacement serviette.

Then, we were serve plain water & complimentary bun & butter prior wait our order done. This one is very new & good initiative which can act as intro to obtain customer trust.

Once food arrive, all taste good, wisely in terms of food quality; all delicious & big portion.

Then, we were a bit taken back with the way staff response to one of my friend who need to refill a plain water, “no refill plain water”, yet we still decide to accepted and make an order of ice plain water. But before ordering, 2nd staff came to inform same thing which made us look so bad as we were craving for free plain water.

Staff - should have choose correct words & ways to explain when talking to customer. We a bit disappointed & ask for bills and few times ask if this ice plain water included; suddenly the ice plain water did not include in bills and staff goes with the words ,”his treat”.

Anyhow, if the ice plain water is on services, staff should just explain accordingly. No one also explain the menu, likewise they should share which is the best menu or recommended.

Nevertheless, it was a rare experience. Hopefully the staff treat all customer equally regardless which menu they ordered in...