Eat and Cook - Best Fine Dining KL — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

The dishes at Eat and Cook were decently executed, and my family of 4 (who have eaten our way around the world) did like our food. Applying international cooking techniques to locally-sourced ingredients continues to be a trend, and Eat and Cook manages to ensure what they cook is not contrived or awkward. The free range Ipoh mountain duck was particularly delicious, and we relished every morsel of it.

If I may nit-pick:

For a restaurant that obviously has lofty ambitions, it needs to do better in its selection of crockery. We did notice the Laguiole knives (albeit from the cheaper range), but we could not help but feel that our otherwise decent dining experience was punctured by the use of alot of crockery that are clearly cheap, China, mass-produced knock-offs. Frankly, putting expertly-cooked food on cheap ware takes a fair bit of shine off the dining experience.

Malaysia has several noteworthy pottery companies, and the least that Eat and Cook could have done was to commission some of these companies to create a range of handmade pottery. That would be yet another nod to the celebration of Malaysian craftsmanship.

At last night's dinner, one of the cold platter dishes was served in a rather ugly, mass-produced, machine-printed repro rooster bowl that would not have cost more than a few ringgit each. The price range for rooster bowls is very large (antique ones cost a couple of hundred ringgit, while those that are about 70-80 years old cost about a hundred ringgit each). The least that Eat and Cook could have done, if they really wanted to use rooster bowls, was to acquire some of the vintage pieces made in the 70's and 80's (40-50 years old) that are still hand-painted. These cost a few ten-ringgit each.

Asia's 50 Best (even if wannabe) and cheap crockery do not go hand in hand. Discerning diners want to see art from the beginning to the end.

Chef Yong was mainly the one who explained what the dishes were about. While I appreciated that the chef himself was introducing the menu, I could not help but feel he was a tad tired from having to repeat himself so many times. It can't be all that fun - to cook and say rhe same thing for 3 months. Unfortunately, the fatigue showed through. If as a guest, I didn't seek to ask the chef more questions to elicit responses that were less canned, the whole experience could well have degenerated into a high-class food factory, where things were done in an efficient, sterile manner, and Chef was jadedly rolling a memorised script off his tongue like an automaton. I didn't feel he was interacting with me as a guest. It felt like I was eating something for the first time but the dish had been cooked and explained 100 times by the chef. It is a missed opportunity for guests seated around a show kitchen.

Diners look for soul.

Why not train a few staff to take turns to explain the menu, so that each of them can be less tired and more passionate, and Chef can then pipe in with a little more enthusiasm, more personal anecdotes, more stories to tell? What inspired the dish? Did the chef travel somewhere? How gruelling was the search for a particular ingredient? Was there a funny story behind trying to perfect the dish?

As I said at the beginning, I am probably nit-picking. And then again, perhaps I am not. If the restaurant boldly plasters the Asia's Best 50 logo all over its marketing materials, then I think it is probably my prerogative as a diner to hold them to account for the standards they put themselves out to ascribe to. There is clearly some talent there, but it will take some meticulous attention to detail on the entire dining experience for them to truly make their mark on the international dining scene. You dont want to feel as if you have just dined in a restaurant put together by some nouveau riche businessmen with some money to throw at 2 technicaly accomplished chefs. Regrettably, right now, that is how it feels. I was looking for magic, artistry and passion. I got a sleek, well-run kitchen. Eat and Cook has the potential to do and...

My dining experience at Eat & Cook

I booked for 11 course dinner on 29 Oct 2021 (6-8pm slot). However, we were late for 20 minutes, therefore we started our first course at 620pm. The restaurant representative was kind enough to allow us dine until 8.20pm (2 Hours Dining). At 820pm, the restaurant manage to serve till the 8th course and here comes the problems.

When we were having the 7th course 'bow zai fan', one of the waiter came to inform us that we still left 20 minutes to complete our meals as they will need to serve next batch of customers. We certainly know that we will not be able to complete the remaining 4 courses in 20 minutes. However, we somehow try our best to 'swollow' off everything as soon as we can although we were suppose to enjoy it like an Omakase / Fine Dining style.

You wouldnt believe that we actually manage to finish 3 courses in 20 minutes + chef's explanations in a rapid way just like eating fast food. In fact we were forcing ourselves to eat as fast we we can without enjoying the taste and chef's effort.

At last our last course is gonna serve and again the same waiter came and informed us that we will need to go outside and complete our last course as next batch of customer coming in soon.

Our previous experience of Omakase / Fine Dining taken about 3 hours to complete 8 to 11 courses and no waiter / waitres chasing or rushing us to complete the course

At first, we were ok with the arrangement as we thought there will be a proper table to wrap up our dinner. You will never expect that the restaurant eventually send us to the waiting area next to the main entrance and reception table to finish off our so call omakase / fine dining in a congested environment (No Social Distancing) as there were a bunch of guests at the waiting area (Approx 4 to 5 pax) in less than a 50 Sqf area. My mood was totally ruined and felt embarrassed, because it was for my friend's birthday celebration but end up we did not enjoy it at all. We were seating at the waiting area for approximately 30 minutes and nobody cares on our feedback to the menu or etc as non of the restaurant's staff approach us on it.

Another big issue which I would like to highlight : While i was having my meal, the waitress keep on annoying us by wanting to take off the plates although there are still food on the plate. (Please do understand that we would like to slowly enjoy the taste and good food, again not gonna have it like a fast food way)

However, I did not finish the 11th course as just feel like leaving the unpleasant place. In fact, I did not plan to express my unpleasant experience but after had a chat with my friends who also went to the same place last week, then only i got to know that we were being treated differently by the restaurant. (We called it double standard) My friends did enjoyed their courses with no time limit and not in a rushing way to complete their meals. After sharing my experience to a few friends, they felt bad for us by getting such a rude service from the restaurant and encourage us to share our dining experience to others.

A friendly advice for you, if you are planning to try out this restaurant :

Try it only if u think u can finish 11 courses within 2 hours.

Do not expect good customer service even though you pay for the service tax 10% of total bill (Paid for RM 81.00 for Poor Service)

Thank you Eat & Cook for such an unpleasant...

Biggest ever disappointment at such premium prices.

Probably this would be the first ever time I would ever discourage people from even going to this restaurant. Well anyway they are closing this place and planning on a bistro and also new location which they are scouting.

Came with full anticipation and was left wondering how the heck this guys even deserve 2 Michelin star or top 100 best Asia. Especially I just ate at Cote few weeks ago.

Head chef can't really be bothered with the whole setting. We had 4 couples in total.

On one of the dish, there was a hair which they didn't pick it up prior to serving and when it was served, still not picked up, at least they did apologies which I think is fair considering that human error or stuff do occur.

Next the chicken was so salty, not evenly seasoned. This can be confirmed by the next table when I butted in to the conversation. Chef couldn't careless with all the couple other than the one he was engrossed talking to for the wholw evening. Upon immediately checking on their Google review, seems someone commented such about a year ago too once. Then again the head chef couldn't be bothered to check with the other couples or apologise. What kind of restaurant is this?

Further their so called signature duck is under cook obviously, which he only bothered talking to the same couple and explained that it was medium rare and people not used to it and they do check internal temperature. Well hello, it's obvious your duck is undercook where there is heavy uncooked duck taste on the thicker side whereas towards the middle or thinner side, it was just good without the raw taste, and colouring seem the same. Well questions beg, where did you stick the thermometer? Further the supportive couple head chef was talking too pointed that asap, should the head chef even check with the other couples, noting that we intentionally even didn't finish the last piece (big chunk) considering we finish all the other dishes without a drip. Chef didn't even bothered with anyone else.

Even as an earlier couple left and us, first ever time I was not approached by manager or head chef or any chef, asking how was the dinner tonight or feedback considering that they already had a fault with chicken.

Especially with such a premium price being paid in Malaysia standard context.

Honestly spoiled my night overall. Worse ever experience I had in my life so far.

It's not only the focus on food standard but also service level, don't even deserve a star in Michelin on and...