Ekkamai • Plaza Batai — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

External atmosphere Good (5 but minus 1 for flies); Not many places in Kl or Selangor have the comfortable feel sitting outside while enjoy your food but Ekkamai is one of that. Overall for the external atmostphere is chill out and relax setting around with greenery wall outside even it is next to the car parking but it does not feel too busy. But the down side is too many flies...until we could not enjoy our food, because we were too busy to chase away the flies.

For food (3): We ordered Pha Tod (Fried Garoupa with Tamarin suace), the taste was just ok, not bad but not so great. It cannot remind me of Thai. I can say, it is just another thai food that adjust the taste to suite local perhap. Payaya Salad, it was ok. It is not very tasty but overall have all the taste should have in the papaya salad. Charchol Prawn On The Shell, The prawn quite fresh, but the seafood sauce not so sparking (taste not strong enough not spiciss, not slaty, not sour) as it should be for thai people but for local maybe good enough?. Kang Kong Gralic Chilli almost hit, if the taste can be abit stronger. Either lesser kang kong but same amount of ingredient or add more ingredients for the same amount of kang kong. Beef Tataki salad was ok. The rice is the heart of everything, the best thai fragrance rice is really support the other dishes. The rice served is the old rice which suitable for cooking fried rice but not for stream white rice. Bubur Chaca is good, soft and chewy, sweet and salty was balance well. Cha Thai standard taste good and not sweet, which is great.

For Service (4 but minus 1 for inexperience staff): We have experience 3 staffs in this restuarant. First front staff who take care the guest when step in, she was ok, not rude but not feel warm welcome as well. One of the staff was great, friendly, show concern and notice that we did not finish our food. He bother to asked is there any wrong with the food. The one taking our order was not so great, when we ask for his recommend for the fish, he just asked us back which fish we prefer. Umm we would like to listen to your opinion, atlease give us some advice about fish texture or today which one more fresh. And if you could not answer, it might be better if you bring someone else who know to attend our order.

Overall for me this restuarlant is ok, but not the the wow wow place that I will drive so far to eat again.

However this is only one time experience and some of the food we did not try. You might read some other...

March 2nd, 2024 @ 1940H

It's my second visit to this restaurant.

We tried to make a reservation at around 5pm for dinner at 7pm, reservation was not attended, therefore we tried to walk-in. The restaurant has ample of seats available while we arrived. No waiting time. Attended by friendly and experienced usher and waiters.

We arrived the restaurant while it was raining. Parking is at the outdoor, expect to get wet without an umbrella when you dine in at rainy days.

Upon arrival, the usher get us seated adjacent to the bar. The bartender boiled lemongrass tea every 15minutes. The aroma was real great. Enjoyed that a lot while dining in.

The restaurant was quiet, comfortable and cosy. The area that we were seated was occupied by 4 tables of two. Quiet diners. Although occasionally talking relatively loud but not affecting the other diners.

Food served always surprise my taste buds. The red tom yum kind of disappointed me this round compared to the taste from the first round. Btw, we ordered red tom yum with salmon belly last round but red tom yum with seafood this round. The soup base had a huge difference. Perhaps it's the different alternatives of accompanied protein that we choose but I wish it's not due to the soup base difference that caused the taste difference. We didn't manage to order salmon belly for the red tom yum because it's out of stock.

Btw, the seafood red tom yum had overcooked shrimp but perfectly done squid. I'm personally very fussy with the doneness of squid.

The steamed fish and the salad that we ordered was really good. Love the taste and texture of salad very much. I'm tolerating well with the spiciness from the steamed fish. Love it so much especially the generous amount of cilantro that topped on the dish.

I love the menu designed by the restaurant owner. They realised there are more diners who are vegan and vegetarian but still enjoying Thai crusine. Love the flexibility of options...

Type: Thai Restaurant Signature: Lemon and Basil Chilli Steamed Fish

Can't believe it has been 5 years since my last visit. Located along Jalan Batai, this offshoot of The Social Group actually offers pretty decent Thai food. I must say the dishes here aren't really authentic thai but its close. Restaurant is spacious covering two units and has a nice ambience and tables are set far apart from each other to provide for pretty decent privacy. Food is average in taste and not the best but the service here is excellent.

We ordered the Signature Lemon 🍋 and basil steamed fish (3.5 🌟) and it's quite good..slightly over lemonish, not enough spiciness for me.. But the fish is fresh. The Mixed platter (3 🌟) which has fried chicken wings, fish cakes and etc is so so only.. But we did like the Otak Otak (4 🌟) which has scallops, prawns and fish. The Red Seafood Tomyam (4 🌟) was also nice.. And pairs really well with rice. Overall, most dishes are above average.

Surprisingly, what we liked was mainly the desserts here. Try the Bo Bo Cha Cha here (5 🌟) which is excellent. Thick and has Tong Yuan kinda stuffs.. One of the best I have tried in KL. The red ruby (4 🌟) was kinda nice and refreshing too. The Thai Jellies (3 🌟) we ordered were somewhat over shadowed by other dessert we ordered here such as the Coconut Jelly (4 🌟) and others. Price is on the upper end and parking is easy for dinner but difficult during lunch. Will definitely be back... At least for the desserts here.

Taste Rating 7/10 Ambience Rating 8/10 Service Rating...