Bocado — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Food was very good; I can't fault the place on that. We enjoyed our selection of tapas, paella and desserts. However, service and general experience was a letdown.

We arrived for our reservation at 6:30pm, and the place was half full. We were shown to a high chair table outside, despite at no point in the booking process being asked where we wanted to sit. High table was not ideal and we could see numerous other tables available! When asked if we could move to a regular table, we were told the restaurant was fully booked and this would not be possible.

Imagine my surprise and annoyance when 10 minutes later, another pair of guests that were given a high table were escorted to one of the regular tables... Perhaps because they were older, or maybe they complained louder than we did. What's even more frustrating is that at least two regular tables were completely empty during our entire stay at the restaurant - we left at 10pm. No one sat there during this entire time. Utterly ridiculous.

Now for the service. As mentioned before, it was not full, especially in the outdoor section. Despite this, staff still managed to go to wrong tables, take a long time to come over to take our order, some couldn't take orders and took a while to find someone else that could. It also took a while for us to receive cutlery after our desserts arrived.

Finally, we had read the glorious review on the Yum List that clearly stated sangria and sangre were both available. I asked for sangria and was told that they don't serve it, and instead only serve sangre - much more expensive... So obviously an upselling tactic. An hour or so later, guess what the table behind us ordered and received? Sangria.

Inconsistent and unfair treatment of customers, or untrained staff that don't know the menu? I don't know, but either way, as good as the food was, the overall experience outweighs this and we will not...

Celebrated a friend’s birthday at Bocado. Nice little place. Ambience was nice but we had some ‘guests’ with us at our table; mosquitoes. Had to inform the wait staff only then they provided us with a repellent but until at the end of our meal now and then I could feel mozzies around my leg under the table. I hope the management will do something about this matter soon. Food was good and I was happy to see padron peppers on the menu, the gambas prawns were fresh and springy too. Croquetas had a subtle hint of truffle in it which was not too overwhelming, the lamb meatballs were great too. We were given complimentary bread to mop up the oil in the prawn tapas dish. The roasted baby potatoes were yummy too. We were served complimentary red sangria at the start of the meal which was an added bonus. Then we ordered their peach white sangria which we enjoyed. We ended our meal with some churros and crema catalana. The former had three dipping sauces; chocolate, berries and a unique pistachio sauce which looked like our local kaya. I wished the churros was abit thicker as the ones we had was slightly on the skinnier side but the crunch and texture was there. Was a tad disappointed with the crema catalana as it was runnier. We were expecting a slightly set cream custard. It was borderline like a thick liquid. Otherwise it world have easily been a favourite. The chef even came out to ask us how was our food; he was friendly and courteous. The wait staff was friendly throughout the dinner. But since we chose the last slot of the night ie 830pm; we were still seated when it was almost closing time. You could see the staff starting to clear and set up for the next day which also was a sign for us to leave. Overall we enjoyed our food and experience there but the menu was slightly on the pricier side; not a place we would frequent often but was glad to have tried...

Whatever you order here, don't order steak! Read on

The night started out well, showed us to our table and ordered our food and drinks. Tapas came out very fast and was good.. Reason for 2 stars. Then came the incidents that soured the dinner. The tenderloin that we ordered was very dry.. When the waiter enquired, told him it was dry.. His reasoning for that was tenderloin is usually dry and should have ordered rib eye. Guess we have never eaten tenderloin in our life. If we ordered rib eye what he would say?? 🤔

While having the dry steak, the girl from the restaurant called, sir what time are you coming as your reservation is at 8.30pm. mind you this is 9.23pm. told her that we are already having our summer inside. Guess the guy who took us in and the guy who told us tenderloin is usually dry, didn't log us in. Later the captain came and apologize for the tenderloin, said they have issues with the oven. Said we should have gone with medium rare or rare. Looking at our steak, it looked medium rare. They likely just served cheap cuts.Told him they should have told us that, so we will not have ordered the tenderloin or told us tenderloin is usually dry, then we would have not ordered. Thank God didn't order the wagyu cos their oven will screw it up.. Don't order beef here!!

Final straw, a knife fell from the mezzanine floor right next to our two tables. Thank God it didn't hit us or the girl on the next table. But it frighten the hell out of her. Never have we encountered this ever. They offered 10% discount and a cake. We paid and left without the cake. Promising never to return. What a disappointment and messed up the...