La Bodega Bangsar — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

I love Rack of Lamb and when I heard that they served it, I made a reservation the very next day. Located in Jln Kurau in Bangsar, I was surprised to learn that the single row of shops have transformed to almost an entire row of restaurants. Definitely worth a return.

The Mangiiare (pronounced 'Man...geairyyy') is a 2 storey shop with impossible parking. The ambience was nice; simple and unpretentious. They served us bread and vinaigrette almost immediately but vinegar not being a favourite of mine, I left it alone. The missus found it interesting. I ordered the rack of Lamb and my other half, the spaghetti, which she found to be tantalising and it was decently large. The Lamb was served breaded, with cut potatoes and tomatoes in a relish type with a fair bit of gravy. The latter was a tad too salty and that overpowered everything else. Unfortunately for me the lamb was impossible to cut, even with a serrated sharp knife. Then came the chewing which was also impossible. I called this to their attention and the took it back. They apologised and said that it was not cooked right and then served me a fresh plate. This was a little better. I do think the dish has imperfections and it can be improved. Especially with the gravy and the relish type thing. I ended with the tiramisu which was good and I was very tempted to order another but the missus was rolling her eyes at this point. Service is average as my order of a water refill nvr arrived from the male waiter and had to request it from another. My request for ice was turned down by one and then offered by another. The establishment has potential, it just needs to work on...

I am a fan of La Bodega when they were in Telawi and in BSC, from those days. When I found out they had opened at Lorong Kurau, I booked a table for a group of friends to celebrate their birthdays.

Unfortunately when we went at 6.45pm, we were told that they only had dough for just 1 pizza because the dough had not risen, and they did not have a few tapas in their menu. Then they said we had to wait for an hour plus for the pizza as the dough was not ready. We had to cancel that one pizza we ordered and had to order something else. 🙄

In the menu, we saw that one could call for a round of drinks for fellow customers at the bar for RM100 if the person told the staff to play the Macarena and rang the bell. When we asked about this, the manager said they had not started this yet as they were unclear. Not sure why it was on the menu if they did not know what it was for or when they would start. 🧐

To be fair, the limited variety of food that we ordered was palatable. Service by one of the waiters was good and she was apologetic because there were many items that were unavailable. And they did give us two free desserts for my two friends who celebrated their birthday.

The ambience though nice did not compensate for the many unavailable items on the menu.

My friends and I went there because we know the food is good and they have a variety of tapas and pizzas.

So, don't expect anything when you go, so that you won't be disappointed.

I am not sure if I will go back...

We went to this La Bodega on Jalan Kurau which open just couple of months ago here. It was a bank holiday and at 1pm it was empty. We order 4 cheese pizza among other things only to be told later they didn’t have the ingredients! Then was informed all other pizzas was available so we order a different one - 5 mins later was informed it was also unavailable though was informed by waiter everything else was available! At that point - we decided to leave as didn’t want further disappointments and lost confidence of anything else being available or fresh. I have been advised by a few friends to avoid La Bodega as it’s not the same as before but thought we will give it a try as it’s a nice neighbour place. Sadly disappointed. Don’t the manager or supervisor get available daily? Sadly we will not go back given many options out there. Hope something is done to step up and change the...