% Arabica Kuala Lumpur The Exchange TRX — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

I hope this comes as a constructive criticism where improvement can be made.

On 16 September 2024 (Monday), around 4.30pm, we ordered two drinks, Hot Dark Latte and Hot Latte.

We have higher expectation on the coffee as we have tried Arabica located in other countries (Singapore and Qatar) and they tasted really good. As a regular coffee drinker (where we have tried fair amount of coffee to provide a fair feedback), the taste of the hot Latte from TRX branch is really bad because we can’t taste the coffee at all. It is like we are drinking warm milk.

As it was so bad, I have to queue again and communicated to the guy that I can’t taste the coffee at all, instead of looking at the coffee they deliver to us, he said that their coffee is pretty strong. As I can’t be drinking “warm milk”, I asked him to add more coffee shot. I ended up paying additional RM12 for the extra shot in my existing coffee. On top of that, I have to continue to wait with other customer (2 rounds of waiting, instead of fixing the problem there and then) where my existing coffee is not warm anymore.

Based on our observation, the grinding station is very messy with grinded coffee spilled everywhere on the platform. A female barista grinded the coffee and placed the grinded coffee in the portafilter, she DID NOT press/apply pressure where I think it might be the cause of the weak coffee as the grinder coffee is not compact. The expresso shots from the machine looks watery too.

Therefore, a few suggestions as below: (1) To retrain the staffs (coffee maker) to ensure they know the proper steps in making coffee. (2) To ensure you have an experienced personnel to oversee the shop. It seems like everyone there is inexperienced. (3) To train staff to provide the right services. Extra charges should not be impose on the customer when they complained and they should immediately rectify the problematic drink instead of asking the customer to queue again.

Hopefully management would consider my suggestion as such bad quality coffee will ruin the...

Went there on 12th February, there were only two staffs on duty, a girl and a man.

We waited about 40 minutes to get our coffee, and it's not worth the queue at all, it actually is a discredit to the brand name itself.

If you are here and there's more than 8 person ahead of you in the queue, expect to wait 30+ minutes

As a coffee lover and I know the process of Expresso making myself, as the queue was long I was able to observe how they made the coffee. No proper tampering was done, the barista just lightly place the tamper over the puck without even pressing it.

The girl barista which didn't tamper her puck, was pulling the shots faster, but she left halfway while we were still in queue, maybe her shift was over. The male barista looks a bit fresh and not able to cope at all, serving speed dropped a lot after that.

He took a long time just to dose 20g into the portafilter.

Overall, it's not worth the queue, and the time. Unless you must have the % Arabica brand coffee, you are better served elsewhere until the situation...

Do I recommend Arabica? Well—yes and no.

It honestly serves some of the best coffee I’ve ever tasted. The quality is top-notch and you can really tell they take their coffee seriously. But the price… that’s definitely a pain point. It’s not just on the pricier side—it’s kind of absurd by Malaysian standards. So whether it’s worth it or not really depends on what you’re looking for and how much you’re willing to spend on a cup of coffee.

The design of the place is really nice—clean, modern, and very aesthetic. But keep in mind, there’s barely any seating, and the seats that are available aren’t exactly made for comfort. It’s not a place you’d go to chill or hang around for long.

So all in all, amazing coffee, beautiful design, but the price and lack of comfort make it hard for me to say it’s totally worth it. It’s something you’ll have to decide...