Icon Brewings @ Cheras — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Icon Brewing is owned by a husband and wife. However, the wife takes care of the hair salon, Belleza Hair Studio, which is connected to the IB cafe. I had come here on a weekday for lunch and it wasn’t too busy, however, the owner had said it is usually busy on weekends. The cafe is Muslim friendly and their chef is a Matsalleh Muslim.

The atmosphere is nice and cozy. My friend and I had ordered their Mushroom soup and Butter chicken chop. Both were superb! The mushroom soup was well balanced in both taste and texture, and it was filled with chunks of blended mushroom instead of the typical creamy/watered down mushroom soup. The only improvement we can suggest for the mushroom soup is maybe it could be served with garlic bread instead of plain toasted bread, regardless it was a delight. The Butter milk chicken chop was crispy, large, well-seasoned and not oily. The buttermilk sauce is the perfect consistency and well balanced, you can even choose from 4 level of spice (not spicy, mild, spicy, very spicy). It comes with a side of fries that stays crispy even when it’s cold, and salad with balsamic dressing which was perfectly paired with sweet pomegranates.

For desserts we had ordered two types of strudels. Their peach strudel and banana Thai milk tea strudel which crunchy and not too sweet. Personally, my friend and I found the pastry a little hard BUT! the owner had said that this is their style (I.e., some places you’ll find soft strudels but their style is on the crunchier side) which is reasonable as it ensures the pastry does not get soggy and holds its shaped after being topped up with cream and fruits. I really liked the Thai milk tea cream as it’s not overwhelmingly sweet but you can still taste the tea :)

The service was really good! Staff members were fast and polite, 10/10 would come again :))

The only difficulty with the location is their parking but we just ended up parking at a nearby mall and walked a little to the cafe

Note: they have 2 floors however the 2nd floor is only opened on Weekends. On weekdays they until 7pm+ and...

I paid 37RM for a cup of coffee (13RM), and a stiff, not so buttery like it should be, normal quality but expensive strudel (19RM)

You see I was charged extra 5RM for tax + service charge. I'm ok with the tax, but there is no service offered there to charge my money. The coffee shop didn't have many customers, but everything was super slow. The female staff with pony tail ignored me eventhough I called her 3 times. I'm sure she heard my "Excused me" sound while it's just 1 meter from me to her, even the table she was serving at that moment those customer could as they looked at me when I called her but she still ignored and acted like nothing happened.

Then I went to the counter, asked for sugar myself, and they gave me their sugar jar. Yes it's a whole jar, at least you can put it in a small cup, I'm sure you have, so unprofessional.

Ok then talking about the payment process, it's that impolite female staff again made the payment for me and she said nothing, litterally nothing, just kept being silent. She just showed me the screen with the bill, with her emotionless face. Girl, I don't know what happened to you or whether you feel uneased, that's not how you treat the customer and not the way which you deserve for the service charge, because you offered me no service at all.

Other comments: The coffee shop is cozy and small with a few tables (which is ok but not enough to win the competition with other coffee shops in town), but about the staff, rather than standing there and chit chatting so loud to eachother like this afternoon, you guys should pay your attention to your customers and the service you are offering. You are not KFC that has no service charge and the customers pick the food themselves, you are charging your customers extra money for the service charge, then doo something that is worthy. Not like this, breaking a beautiful afternoon of your customer. I saw you on Instagram ads and came here, but rest assure, there won't be the second time, and of course I won't recommend anybody...

Updated:

I am quite appreciated to see the reply from the owner, and that's why I do update my comment here.

Understanding that there will be a lot of concerns to run a restaurant during any festival and pandemic which might cause "relatively" slow and terrible user experience, yet, to a normal customer, I have to say, personally, this should not be any customer's concern, otherwise it will be inappropriate for people to visit any merchant regardless of the type of the business for the time being since the pandemic will still be still lasting.

I am not sure whether if Grab or the owner do something wrong with the App, it is not my responsibility to find out whose fault is it, and this thing should never be happened indeed.

And of course I did comment on Grab, yet, I think this will be a better channel to communicate directly and address the issue. At least the public can see the owner does take reviews and ratings seriously which results in improving service quality.

Anyway, the rating and review can be changed from time to time as long as there is reason to do so. I could be just an one-time customer, therefore it is impossible for me, or even most of the reviewers to rate and review if going twice or more, this is not something unfair but real, things could be changed in future, and then the ratings and review could be...