Chum Chum Pizzeria & MAKAMAKAN by Serai Group — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

A curious fusion experiment - two different menus representing (perhaps?) two different restaurants in the same space. One focuses on local Malaysian and Indonesian food favorites and the other is essentially Italian (pizza & pasta) with a burger option as well. Cash, credit cards, and probably e-wallet payments accepted. Staff is friendly and English is spoken.

I wasn't sure it was the right place but I was assured it was. I opted for the Italian menu and selected the El Pepe pizza option with a thin crust. Sweet and savory together. Beef pepperoni and sliced, slightly carmelized onions over a thick bed of mozzarella cheese and then drizzled with a slightly spicy honey and (I think) balsamic vinegar. One pizza is more than enough for one person (unless you eat a lot or haven't eaten in a while!) and could be shared with someone else along with an appetizer. The pizza was good. Crust was thin and crisp but handled the toppings well. Toppings were good (though based on the menu description I expected more onion) and the cheese was fantastic. I'm not normally a fan of sweet pizza but this worked.

Basic sodas, coffees, etc.for drinks. Prices are reasonable for KL. Very relaxed ambiance. Somewhat open air but there's AC if you move deeper into the seating space. This wasn't the best pizza I've had in KL but it was fine and a welcome change from the majority of other food options...

Small portion for big price in general. Nice environment. Taste 7/10 overall. Nice service.

Detail review:

Food quality wise, taste is okay. We ordered the wagyu pizza but I think the meat was not soft and hard to bite, though the cheese flavor was great and the dough fluffy. I should have just gone for the mushroom pizza. Small size is enough for one person, while the regular size (RM70) is just okay for two people.

Price is on the higher side. I don’t feel it’s worth it for the food since it’s not truly filling. It’s more of a light pizza kind of meal.

Service was friendly but a bit slow. We received an empty chili sauce bottle, and it took a while before they sent sauces to the table. Increasing speed would be a great improvement.

Seating and ambience were amazing. Comfortable, with a nice vibe and design that makes the café a good place to chill. Perfect for hanging out and gossip, but not really a place to go if you’re hungry and want to eat a lot.

Operation hours are good. I hope MakanMakan can match the timing so that the older generation can enjoy Asian food for dinner while kids can still have Western food.

The place is very aesthetic with an old shoplot vibe.

Menu variety is mainly pizza and burgers.

Waiting time was fine, no queue and not many people.

Parking is available but you need to check the paid parking lot...

I really wanted to like this place, so I’m really disappointed that the food was below average.

We ordered the:

Amalfi Prawn, Clams, Red Onion, Garlic Chips, Italian Parsley, Smoked Chilli Jam, Rocket

Spaghetti Basil Pesto (V) Mushrooms, Roasted Honey Pumpkin, Sun Dried Tomato, Rocket, Parmesan Cheese

Was really excited to see prawns on pizza as that isn’t really common. My fave prawn on pizza is from Domino’s. Pizza Mansion, PizzaLab, etc have yet to catch up. My excitement quickly went downhill though.

The prawns on the Amalfi were not fully peeled and deveined - you can still see the shell around the tail. The prawns were massive which is normally a plus, but not if on pizza - could’ve halved them and that would have made the slices much easier to enjoy.

The tomato base + chilli jam combo was just odd. Clams embedded in the sauce, lemon on top. There were just too many strong overpowering flavours.

Since when did basil pesto = creamy? There was no indication on the menu that the pasta would be creamy, so we assumed it was the traditional nuts, basil, garlic, cheese, oil combo.

The pizza arrived within 10 minutes after ordering so this was already pretty suspicious, so should have seen this coming. Pasta probably arrived a good 15 mins after the pizza and came out...