Brasserie Léon — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Not even sure where to start but maybe the positives first. We did read the reviews on here and they were 50/50 so we decided to give the benefit of the doubt. (I hate myself for this).

Our bill for 2 came up to almost RM700.

Bread basket - 5/5 Honestly the best thing served here. Fresh, hot, soft but crispy. Only the bread deserves the full 5 stars.

Service - 4/5 Russell was very nice and accommodating. However, when we first walked in, he literally gave us a table for 3 when there was a table for 2 next to it. I asked if we really had to sit there and then he said “or you could choose anywhere else” so we opted for 2-seater. I’d understand if the restaurant was full but it was only 10% occupied when we came in.

Steak - 3.5/5 We ordered 2 steaks here - the striploin (rm119) and the tenderloin (rm159) - so that we could try 2 different sauces.

Tenderloin arrived maybe 5 minutes before the striploin which was odd. Could’ve brought them out together no? We were a little nervous about the doneness based on the reviews on that note they came out perfect. Sauces on the other hand were just mehhhhhh. We both literally said the ready-made sauces from Marks&Spencer are miles better than this. They were slightly tasteless and runny.

Our fries were combined into ONE plate without even asking. This also came out slightly later than our steaks and they weren’t hot. 5 guys fries is better.

Enough with the positives.

Butter - 0/5

Ffs ya’lls french restaurant, why your butter tastes like Anchor?! There was a whole gimmick on mixing butter all - nonsense. We use Le Gall at home and imagine coming to a restaurant to be served Anchor. The salt herbs whatever pepper didn’t even add any flavour to the butter. INVEST IN PROPER BUTTER MAN!!!!

Chicken liver paté - 2.5/5 Meh.

Flame-Cured Mackerel - 2.5/5 Meh. Not sure if the fish was fresh, tasted extremely fishy especially when paired with the wine. The sauce (?) was surprisingly tangy but a bit tasteless still. Grilled saba from your nearest japanese restaurant is fresher and better.

Mesclun salad (side) - 1/5 I usually love my side salad but this defo came out of a bag and the dressing was sad. We had one bite each and that was enough.

House white wine - 2/5 So glad we decided to try glasses first and not a full bottle coz i usually am not the biggest fan of french wine. Was alright. My partner had 2 glasses but i just couldn’t wait to try the cocktails (as recommended).

Orange wine cocktail - 1/5 Oh boy. This signature cocktail was recommended to us. The fermented oranges did not taste fermented. Tasted like the oranges you left too long in the fridge n then one day you found them and decided to make orange juice with them. U know that bad bitter orangey taste? Yep. Also we had to wait for 15 mins for this to be served and maybe 7 mins after my cocktail. Again, why can’t our orders be served AT THE SAME TIME?

Pear Martini - 1.5/5 Oh god this tasted like your first homemade cocktail at home. If you’ve done that before you would know exactly how imbalanced the taste is like 😂 We are huge cocktail people and i should’ve known when i saw how ya’lls keep the bottles at the “bar”.

We went to Brew House immediately after for a vodka sprite to wash our palette 🥲

Overall not worth it. Food’s below average. Service is hit and miss (they didn’t clear our plates towards the end of our meals and almost knocked down our glass when they eventually did) and would not recommend or...

I am usually not one to write reviews whether I had a good experience or a bad one, but for some reason this one really pushed me over the edge.

I’ll start off highlighting my positive experience

Atmosphere (1/1). Upon initial response, it appears to be a cozy and quaint restaurant. Warm lighting, visually welcoming, and has a nice rustic-modern vibe.

That’s it. That’s the only positive thing I can say about this restaurant.

Now onto why my rating is as low as it is:

Food (0/3). What I ordered: Seafood Bisque, Steak Frites, and a fizzy peach and rosemary cooler. Still water (lol)

Seafood Bisque. The absolute most disappointing dish of the night. On the menu, it’s described as “rich and creamy seafood soup with diced prawnS”. What I got was a watery seafood broth with a SINGLE dice of prawn. When I brought it up to the waiter, he had defended the dish that it was not supposed to have any seafood but rather the broth contain the essence of the seafood used to cook it. Also the single dice of prawn was merely a cherry on top. I would have been fine if that was how you had advertised it on your menu. Why mislead customers into thinking they would get a thick seafood broth (as they described “rich and creamy”) while also getting a decent amount of prawns (as it was described on the menu)?

Steak Frites. Ordered a black angus strip-loin, medium rare, with their signature sauce. What I got was a rare steak. Normally I would be more forgiving and I wouldn’t have cared as much until the service staff that I brought up the minor slip up was more understanding. If the cook and wait staff cannot tell the difference between rare (red center) and med rare (pink center), then there should be some form of reeducating the staff to something as basic as this.

Fizzy peach and rosemary cooler. It’s fine, probably the only thing that hasn’t disappointed me all evening.

Bonus: Still water. What a joke, you served me a 1L bottle of still water for 21.9 rm without even letting me this would be on the tab? I understand that bottled still water is not something that should be free, but my wait staff simply asked if I wanted sparkling or still water. Naturally one would assume going for still water would be tap water, not from a 1L bottle that you secretly added onto the tab.

Service (0/1). This is supposed to be a French restaurant with some standards right ..? What are you doing working in this industry if you don’t have any aptitude of professionalism unless everyone here just doesn’t care and waiting for their next paycheck. Go work as a grab driver or McDonalds if you’re simply looking to put minimal effort without a care for anyone else but yourself.

Overall (1/5). Probably the worst restaurant experience I’ve ever had in Malaysia. I’ve been to a few French restaurants in KL, and this just doesn’t even compare. My frustration as to why this restaurant even exist is beyond my comprehension. Would not recommend to anyone, just go elsewhere if you do not wish to feel like you got robbed paying 200+ rm for a...

Update : 4/1/2024

After writing the first review, Kelvin was very efficient with the follow up. Their customer service is second to none. We decided to returned one more time after.

We ordered Beef Tartare Le Classique - well seasoned and flavors were well balanced. Russell was very friendly with the tableside service and explained very well. 5/5 ⭐️

Bread Cervelle de Canut - still good as ever 5/5 ⭐️

Steak Hacher - I liked it! It's not for everyone; It's almost like digging into a pile of seared tartare. Flavors might be a little too rich and definitely too much for 1 person. 4/5

Baked Brie Cheese with apple compote - nothing to shout about, cause it's just Brie cheese but well heated and gooey to the center. 3/5

Baked Stuffed Aubergine - Some parts of the caramelised onions were burnt, some parts of the aubergine was hard and some parts soft. Even without the skin, it had a bit of a bitter aftertaste. Cheese was not fully melted. Middle of the eggplant and cheese were room temp and not warm. 1/5

Summer Vacherin Glacé - I'm super surprised that the meringue is not overly sweet since sugar is the critical point in a meringue. Coulis was actually sweeter than the meringue but the tartness cuts through. Well balanced 5/5 ⭐️

Would I be returning again? Maybe in the future.

We ordered

Apps : 1 dozen Escargot - Underwhelming. Under seasoned. 2/5

Bread with Cervelle de Canut - the highlight of the meal; soft and springy inside, crunchy crust. Cottage cheese dip was pretty flavorful 5/5 ⭐️

Seafood Bisque - 🚩🚩🚩 DO NOT ORDER THIS. When we opened the puff pastry, my friend and I were both disappointed in how the broth looked like, only 1-2 DICED prawns. Bisque was not creamy but had a fishy ammonia smell. After drinking the soup, when the dessert came both of us felt sick to our stomach. We had very bad food poisoning that night itself and my friend had to go to the hospital whereas I just had very bad bouts of vomiting. 0/5

Cheese Specialties : Raclette cheese (Traditional; Plain) - nothing to shout about. Potatoes were under seasoned; but cooked thoroughly. 2/5

Mains : Meltique Beef Striploin with Herbs & Butter Signature Sauce - also nothing to shout about. Meltique beef did not taste like what meltique beef suppose to. Meat was cooked well, but also again, under seasoned. The herb and butter sauce was so so. 3/5

Dessert : Tarte Tatin - not bad pretty ok. Loved the crust. This was well prepared but we were already feeling nauseous towards the end of the meal because of the bisque 5/5 ⭐️

Chocolate Tarte - chocolate ganache was rich and base crust is good too 5/5 ⭐️

Service was ok. Food is a little overpriced for me with the quality that was served. We literally had to add salt to most of the dishes because of the under seasoning. Service was ok ok. Would not be returning here ever. Took me a while to write this review after the episode of food poisoning.

1 ⭐️ for the bread...