Cong Caphe @Nu Sentral — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Good food, but bad services. I am Vietnamese so I know Cong in VN has a very good services. However, Cong in Nu Sentral is quite disappointed for me.

I go early at 10am today to buy drinks for my team, I know Vietnamese coffee is unique and popular around the world so I choose Cong to let my team have a taste. When I am arrived, there are 2 ladies came first but they still haven’t make a choice yet so they let me order first. I told the employees that I wanted to order 10 cups but I have vouchers in TnG for buying 1 get 1, the employee in charge in this morning explains to me, I appreciated but she/he (sorry short hair but girly voice) worried if I take too much order the other customers will leave so he/she kinda give me an attitude like deep signed. At that time, I understand and just order 4 cups first then I wait for the two ladies finish their order I will continue, then I make order next 2 cups, a couple came so I let them order next, so I pleased the employees for her can quickly support me. However, after the couple, there are some guests come and I thought that I just have 4 cups left and I have waited for 30 mins already need to be back to work soon so I cannot let he/she served them but forgetting about me so I take a steps, I wanna complete my order. But the employee ignored me and wanted to start serving new customers, and I need to say it out loud that I came first. Then he/she said normally we don’t except one customer used 5 vouchers at a time, I said okay I did not know that (I don’t know if it is real or not but if I know it sooner I will choose another brand), I don’t want to be treated like this without warning at first. But after that he/she still finished everything for me, 10 cups with 45 minutes waiting even though I am the second guest in the morning. I don’t know why they don’t give best services, I don’t know why they rather choose to serve 10 customers 10 cups but not 1 customer 10 cups even though I bring the same profit. Maybe he/she is afraid 10 bad feedback than 1 bad feedback. I want to understand and not write this feedback but I can feel annoyed until night time so I need to share it.

To summarize: I want to order 10 cups with coupon and the employees worried that other customers cannot order because of me, even though I came second when they are just opening their store in early morning. They wanted to serve as much as they can but not let me finish my order but ask me to order later and let them serve customers behind me. Respect a person with single order than 1 person with 10 orders.

Cong Caphe will be good for someone who wanted to sit and enjoy the corner the concept of the branch, order a bit of coffee and enjoy but it will not be suitable for other for a whole team due to they are not good at receive much order like Bungkus Kaw Kaw or Mixue beside expensive price and cannot use much coupons. But if you guys wanted to treat your team a good Vietnamese coffee, you guys can consider Kee Nguyen at KL Station Klia Departure Hall, they can make a huge...

This is such a cute little restaurant-coffee shop that I was excited to try. I’ve eaten a lot of Vietnamese food in California (for decades) which has the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam. Sadly, the food at Cong leaves much to be desired if you have ever had decently authentic Vietnamese food before.

The most important thing for Vietnamese food is the fish sauce that goes with almost everything, especially with rice or dry noodle dishes. It must have a balance of saltiness from the fish sauce, spiciness from fresh chili, sourness from the lime (not vinegar), sweetness, and a hint of fresh minced garlic. The sauce I got was 90% sweet and you could hardly detect the other flavors. It’s almost like they watered down Thai sweet chili sauce that you can buy in a bottle at the grocery store :/

I ordered the dry noodle beef bowl. The rice noodle was a little undercooked, and the beef is not what you would expect anywhere I’ve been to. Usually this dish (bun bo neun) comes with sliced grilled beef. Here, it is ground beef that is made into a meat loaf and sliced. I wanted to try some spring rolls, but they said they were not available today, which is a little strange on a Saturday. My kumquat drink was as expected/pretty good, though over priced at about 16RM.

I left feeling like this place wasn’t open by Vietnamese chef (or even hired a Vietnamese chef consultant to help with the taste of the food ), or maybe it’s open by someone who visited Vietnam and really like their trip, and wanted to open a Viet theme cafe in KL.  4 stars for the cool ambiance (but most of the seat are a foot off the ground so when you are sitting to eat, it is rather uncomfortable because your knee is poking up at your chest, especially if you are 5 feet 10” like me). 5  stars for friendly helpful staff. 2-3 stars for the food and drinks in terms of tasting like authentic Vietnamese food that I have eaten for decades. 

OK to try once, but sadly I won’t be...

It was quite full the whole Nu Sentral during lunch time. My friend and I were looking for a cafe to just have drinks and chat. Just so happened that Cong Caphe was quite empty l, we decided to give it a try (it was all of us first visit).

We looked at the menu written on the big board then we proceed to the counter to order. The board didn't mention about the variety per item, with cinnamon, coconut juice, hot or cold etc.

When the lady asked me, do you want abc or xxx for the cocoa? I wasn't sure what she meant so I responded with confusion "huh?"

SHE SIGHED OUT LOUD to us at the counter. For God sake your shop was empty and it was only 1pm. Then she flipped the paper menu and showed us the variety of each item we ordered.

I almost wanted to leave on the spot but I wasn't feeling too well and I was hosting two friends who are not local. I didn't want to make a scene.

For 3 drinks amounting to almost RM45, we definitely didn't deserve such manners. Yes, it was a loud sigh "hai". It was a Chinese lady, the only Chinese lady who was there. I'm not sure whether she is the boss or what. But definitely not coming back and hope the management can look into training your staff well. We didn't even ask unreasonable questions but as first time customers, we don't even know your variety per item.

If you really hate your job, just quit or close the business altogether with...