Damascus Bukit Bintang — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

This place slaps! I can see why it's so popular. Pretty great Syrian/Middle Eastern food in the heart of town. Also think they got a lot more attention lately because of social media food accounts. They have these two massive shawarma spits in front and rjght outside their restaurant, which is pretty eye-catching since it's front and center and right next to a busy road too.

We dined-in during this visit and also had ordered two shawarmas to-go at the end of our meal. I think there's a difference between ordering takeout shawarma from them vs. actually dining in at their restaurant. Seems like they have different menus? The dine-in menu is more proper with a wide variety of meals, whereas if you order to go (AKA "tapau") there's a more fast-food like menu to order from.

For the dine-in experience, I was there during lunchtime on a weekday and service was a little odd and mostly...awkward? They have a ton of guys/staff outside at the shawarma counter but it was as if we were invisible when we walked in to take a seat. We sat ourselves at the table that was right next to the entrance and even after sitting down no one came to give us menus or anything so we thought we were supposed to order outside but when we did that, the guys pointed to the button our table and said "you should have pressed the button". Like yo, no one told us that when we walked in, how are we s'posed to know lah? Anyways, we pressed the button and finally got menus, but had to press the button again to place our order. Very odd and awkward but...okay. Since it was lunchtime their service was very focused on the delivery orders that were nonstop at the front of their shop. Throughout our time there though service was nothing to scream about and food was a little slow to get served. Not good if you're in a hurry.

Food wise: Two of us ordered the Hummus & the Mix Shawarma Rice to split & a mango juice each and it was plenty for a lunch portion for two. Hummus was very decadent, creamy and smooth and has a generous flavor of the olive oil - a different style of hummus I think but I personally love all hummus so it was good enough for me. The flatbread (not pita) that came with it was slightly disappointing though. I did wish it could've been served warm but it felt slightly stale. The mix shawarma rice had a lot of crispy hot, tasty, and thinly-shaved shawarma slices on top of a ton of rice that came with toum - a.k.a. the white garlic sauce (I know it's called toum in Lebanese cuisine but not sure if Syrians call it the same thing - I don't speak Arabic to know enough either so please don't cancel me for this if I'm mistaken). I did wish they gave more side vegetables like the picture in their menu though because we were only given one sad slice each of a cucumber, a pickle, and a carrot... Finally, the mango juice was fresh and it's actually made with real blended mango! Not some mango flavored concentrate with fake mango drink. And since their shawarma was constantly getting a ton of attention, we decided to order 2 shawarmas to-go. They definitely were tasty and I would recommend eating them hot and fresh.

One annoyingly inconvenient part was they do not accept eWallet payments. Only cash & debit/credit card accepted (for dine-in payments at least. Can't speak for delivery/takeaway orders). That kinda sucked and it was very ironic that they were constantly getting a ton of Grab Food orders yet they don't accept eWallet.

Final verdict: Good tasty stuff. Would return to eat again. Can get a little pricey, it was RM94 total for 2 of us for the food we ordered. I won't recommend dining-in at this place for weekday lunches if you are in a rush or short on time. Would not deliberately travel just to eat here but if I'm already in the area, I would definitely return to try their vast range of menu items. They seem like a great place to eat for a heavier...

I got interested in this restaurant because its name sounds similar to the main city's name of one of my favorite video games, and also every time I passed there, there was always a long waiting line before us.

This time we arrived around 11:10am on Thursday, and there was no one lined up in front, so we decided to get in. No regrets, we ended up loving this Syrian restaurant very much.

Only complaints? Prices are rather high and one of the bathroom locks was broken. (By the way, bathroom was beautiful!)

Our orders: Adani Tea Foul Moudamas Shish Taouk Arabi plate with falafel Kunafa

Adani Tea Well-spiced and very balanced tea. Reminds me of the impression I got when I tried a cup of masala tea in a fancy Indian restaurant for the first time. Although the flavor is strong and unique, it does not stay in our mouth for long. Perfect way to clear the pallet for this style of cuisine.

Foul Moudamas A vegan dish warm tomato-based dipping sauce with pickled vegetables. I remember when I first tried American pickled cucumber for the first time, I felt like throwing up. And it took several years to get used it. The cucumber pickles here looked similar to them, but I loved it! It was gentle and refreshing. They matched really well with the sauce. Tomato dipping sauce was yummy. It matched with veggies, pita breads, fries, falafel… just everything! We were torn between hummus, baba ganouj and this dish as an appetizer. I am happy we chose this unfamiliar dish. I love it and they offered much enough to take some home.

Shish Taouk First, the depth of charcoaled chicken tasted so good. Then we dipped those chicken into the fresh salsa which came with it and enjoyed the completely different flavor. Rice was fluffy, moist, and spiced well but not overpowering. It knows the chicken is the star of the plate and I loved and respected their humble-ness. Very thoughtful dish, I think.

Arabi plate with falafel I loved all the components of this dish. French fries are so good, even though they are just simple fries. I don’t know how they make just fries so good but they do this every day. Yogurt dip was flavored with gentle garlic kick, which makes good fries ever better than already good. And falafel was perfect. Flavor, texture, and the wrap was not soggy, just soft. Very easy to chew and enjoy the flavor. I guess the chef does so many small techniques to make this so perfect. I just love them.

Kunafa It is a cheesy chewy dessert with sorbet-like vanilla ice cream. There are a lot of baked fine fibers on it, but I have no idea what I was eating. Surely I enjoyed them though. We were already pretty full, but this dessert dish was gone within 3 mins.

This time, we felt like trying unknown dishes. But they were all good and impressive. Now I would love to come back to more familiar foods like hummus, baba ganouj, shawarma, kebab, and etc. I can rate this restaurant as so far one of the top 3 we have tried in Kuala Lumpur area. And I am happy to know how great those Syrian dishes are. I hope they keep opening up all of new visitors’ minds, so we can get to try more of Syrian foods all...

UPDATE 19JAN2023 Previously, I went there and bought Shawarma which didn’t live up to my expectations (can refer to below comment at the bottom). And I went there again as Damascus is very kind to offer me some vouchers and give them another try. I went there last night with a friend and ordered our dinner as below:

Beef Hummus: 10/10 👌🏻⭐️ This is my favorite! The hummus is SO GOOD! It’s smooth, creamy, nutty and perfectly seasoned. Might be the best hummus I’ve eaten so far. N the beef was amazingly good, it compliment well with the hummus. If I need to choose only 1 thing to eat for the rest of my life, this is it. No cap. A MUST TRY

Lamb Mandy: 9/10 👌🏻 the rice was perfectly seasoned, the meat is so tender it falls out of the bones easily. The rice came with sambal arab n lamb-based soup, and the soup compliments the rice SO WELL that I can just eat the rice with the soup and only that. The sambal is nicely spicy, and the portion is quite big for me. Next time I’ll make sure to empty my stomach before coming here so that I can finish the whole plate of rice. Recommended for everyone to try!

Lamb Biryani: 7/10 the Biryani is actually good, but I’m not really a fan of rice with too many spices in them thus I’m rating it as it is. The lamb is as usual, very tender, and the rice is cooked perfectly as well. This rice also comes with the sambal arab and lamb-based soup. Make sure to try if you like Arab’s Biryani!

Avocado smoothies: 8/10 👌🏻✨ very tasty avocado smoothies, not too sweet as they’re using honey and not sugar. Would recommend as well for you to try!

And we got a complimentary dessert: Crepe served with chocolate sauce and 2 scoops of ice cream: 7/10 it’s a good dessert, too sweet to my liking but I’m sure if you’re a sweet tooth you’ll love it.

Overall, it’s definitely a restaurant that served very good arab cuisine and I’m very thankful for the kind and efficient service provided by them (especially from Rabah and Muhammad) during our dinner. The service here is definitely top notch! They don’t lie when they say Arab’s hospitality is the best, n they’re the living proof. 10/10 would come here again!

END OF UPDATE**

Below is my review first time: Tak sedap, kecik, n mahal. I bought shawarma beef, big size for rm18, spicy flavour. N it’s very disappointing.

It’s small. For rm18, not worth it. It’s super salty. Not sure what sauce did they put but it’s very salty The beef was quite dry.

Went there cuz of tiktok, n now I know not to trust tiktok video. Will instead use google...