Ben's General Food Store Publika — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Sorry to say NICE ambience but poor service!! Me and my fiancee are Publika regulars. We just love to hang around there. Maybe main reason we are staying opposite Publika. One fine day, shall I said should be turn we dine in at BEN's PUBLIKA ( we tried almost every restaurant and cafe at Publika ). Yesterday, dated 16 August 2014. We were at BEN's PUBLIKA to have our early dinner. As usual food lover like us, we ordered from appetizer, soup, salad until main course each for both of us. Guess what!! The waiter who attended us first told us that the appetizer "Fruits Rojak" finished!!! After 10 minutes later, the main course "Nasi Ulam" finished as well!! Weekend are the most profitable period for all restaurant specially dinner time. We were there as early as 1720 hours. But already 2 dishes "FINISHED"? Or "NEVER PREPARED"? Even 2 orders are out but me and my fiancee still have 6 orders to enjoy. Let me share with you, this really a SHOW TIME at BEN's PUBLIKA while our dinner served. All of our orders from soup, salad and main course came at once. Out of sudden, less than 10 minutes!! Our small table for 4 seaters full with 6 big plates!!! Means we have to quickly finish all these 6 dishes before it turns cold!! PLEASE!!! IMPOSSIBLE!!! No one can eat that fast!! I'm wondering did the staffs trained professionally? Do they know the meaning of "course by course" or "serve course to course"? The service BEN's PUBLIKA presented yesterday, was very RUDE!! The message indirectly delivered --- " FINISH THE DINNER AT ONCE AND GET LOST "! We dine at other BEN's outlet before. Thought of should let BEN's know about it. We decided to raise it up. But duty manager not on duty on Saturday according to a senior staff from KLCC. And there was no supervisor as well. We waited for 30 minutes for someone to attend us. BEN's whom claimed itself as a established restaurant but with no duty supervisor or manage during dinner peak hour? Seriously, besides of the lips service of saying I'm sorry. We don't feel any serious or sincere recovery action from BEN's PUBLIKA. What should I say more about BEN's PUBLIKA??...

To be specific, I'm talking about the outlet inside the supermarket.

In the past month (as GST has been taken away, but maybe this is just a coincidence) they have hugely increased their prices. For example, the salted beef sandwich has gone from 28 to 36MYR. That's something like a 25% increase. When I asked the waitress why the price had increased so much she first of all said the prices hadn't increased. I told her it definitely has as I eat here every week. She then just grunted 'new menu' at me. So, I said about the salted beef sandwich. She justified it by saying it comes with a side dish now. I said it always did, she told me it didn't. I said 'didn't it come with fries, because you guys always gave me fries with it'. To which she said 'yes, it did'.

Whether they admit it or not, all the other items have also increased in price. No longer good value at all. We'll be going to Red Beanbag from now on. They just got greedy, which is a real shame.

I wonder what has happened to Ben's restaurants. Are they all under new management? Do they all think the reviews are wrong? 4 years ago they were a beacon of high quality, reasonably priced, home style food with a friendly atmosphere and happy staff. Over the past year every outlet has become plagued by terrible reviews. I wonder if they will stand up and listen to their customers or keep their head in the sand until...

Had the Plan B grade A cheeseburger. Unfortunately it did not live up to its name of grade A. The patty was very thin and the bread was very dry. Honestly, I did not like it.

As for the Korean fried chicken burger, the name is very misleading to begin with as it is nowhere near a Korean fried chicken. The chicken was wrapped in a fish and chips kind of batter with the chicken skin still soft and intact. It was quite bad imo. Hope Ben's improves this dish and live up to its name.

Both burger dishes comes with shoestring fries.

The flat white that was ordered had a very milky taste which was more towards a milky latte. The coffee served had also spilled into the plate.

Ambience was nice though and service was okay. Food was the only thing I disliked.

Price wise.. Each burger was around RM38ish with taxes and flat white was...