Gula Cakery@KL East Mall — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Tried a variety of dishes at this cafe and overall, the food didn’t disappoint. I started with the nasi goreng kampung, which came with sambal belacan, keropok, and ayam berempah. The portion looked small at first glance, but it turned out to be quite filling. The rice had a nice wok aroma, but surprisingly, it wasn’t spicy at all, which might be a plus or minus depending on your preference.

Then there was the signature nasi goreng, which had the same sides as the kampung version. Visually, it wasn’t the most appealing, the rice looked a bit plain and pale. But taste wise, it was the winner. It had a nice kick of spiciness and a more well rounded flavour overall.

For desserts, I tried the almond brittle cupcake. The texture of the cake was quite dry and hard, which was a bit disappointing, but the cheese topping on it was superb, rich and creamy, definitely the best part. The tiramisu was good too, possibly one of the best I’ve had. It leaned slightly sweet, but the coffee flavour balanced everything perfectly. I also had the pavlova, which I loved for its light texture. It wasn’t overly sweet or muak, and there was no strong eggy taste, which I really appreciated.

Overall, I genuinely enjoyed all the food I tried. However the staff were not friendly at all. Though they really got their job done, I didn’t feel much warmth or friendliness in their approach. No greetings, no thank yous, everyone had put a sour face. The cashier looked grumpy the whole time, with a constant frown on her face, like she really didn’t want to be there. Bet a little extra hospitality would’ve made the experience...

Ambience and staff's attentiveness was okay. I'm just gonna write about the food.

I made an order and paid for it at 1pm for my iftar today. Arrived an hour early and had to wait half an hour past iftar time to get my food, which made me think what's the purpose of them taking early order if they gonna make me wait so long. But it's okay, I tried to be understanding and didn't make a fuss about it, I can wait for my food. There's two things in my order, chicken mushroom aglio olio and mussels chilli butter cream.

The aglio olio was so dry and lack flavour. It was so disappointing that it's hard to finish the plate. This is a very simple dish, and shouldn't be hard to executed properly.

And the mussels. I can't even begin to explain the flavour, it is just, off and not enjoyable. It's too spicy, despite the creaminess. Flavour not balanced. I remember having this dish previously and it didn't taste anything like the one prepared yesterday. There was also accidental pasta strand and a calamari in my dish. I guess they didn't clean their utensils properly in between cooking different dish. And to make things worse they didn't clean their ingredients properly. The mussels still has those hair strands on its shell. I attached a picture for reference. Yuck. And my partner found garlic's hard bottom on his aglio olio.

It's saddening that I read so many wonderful reviews but can't share the same experience...

A home grown cafe that started with cakes and now has ventured into a full fledged cafe and ice cream parlours with a few outlets all over klang valley.

Having only tried their cakes before, decided to give their hot food a try. Saw their creamy butter clams / mussel went viral a couple of weeks ago, decided to give it a try. Also ordered the masak lemak cili beef spaghetti. The spaghetti was fragant from the lemon grass and tumeric but was quite mild on the ‘cili’ heat. The creamy butter mussel was definitely the highlight, the gravy was savoury with a perfect balance of creamy, spiciness and tangyness. The warm mantao was a perfect accompaninment to the dish. I was practically wiping the dish clean with the mantao. However, i was quite dissapointed that almost half of the mussel were not edinle as they were not open after cooking.

The desserts weren’t too bad either. They weren’t too sweet and hence we were able to finish them off quite easily. Only thing that the pandan gula melaka cake was quite dry.

The servers were efficient and quite friendly. When i was paying the bill, the cashier asked about the meal, and having told about half of the mussel weren’t edible, she did not respond or acknwledge the situation. I guess the training of the staff is limited to just asking and not addressing customer’s issues. On the basis, i’m giving this...