Marble 8 Steakhouse & Fine Dining Restaurant — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

I really wanted to like Marble 8. I really do. I had fond memories of the food and attentiveness of the staff from 4 years ago, but unfortunately our experience this time left a burnt taste in my mouth (pun completely intended).

It started with the reservation process. We called at around 6, and was told they only had tables at 9:30. Really late, but ok, fine, it’s a popular restaurant, right? So my husband asked to be put on the waiting list, and to please call us if a table becomes available. Reservation centre says ok. We go hungry waiting, and having walked the entire G and basement floors of KLCC, decided to head over to the restaurant at 8:45 to wait.

We got there, and to our (first) surprise, we were told there’s a table! Oh ok, fine, that’s actually good right? But we walked in, and the place was HALF EMPTY. So empty in fact, that we got the coveted corner window seat! Uhm, what happened you ask? Well we wanted to know too!

But we were hungry, so we decided to eat first and feedback later. Ordered the Bistecca all’s Fiorentina, a side and a couple glasses of red wines. Apart from some hiccups with the wine ordering as we were told our first two choices were out, ordering was fine. Bread basket was good, complementary wagyu slider was pretty yummy, so that got us excited for the steak!

Perhaps we got too excited, because the steak was pretty much unpalatable. The outside was extremely burnt and hard - so hard you could hear the clinking noise as you lightly tap it with the side of your fork. We had to cut off the outer layer in order to even eat the meat (which was okay).

We wondered, like you who is reading this, how this happened. So we asked the assistant manager. We cook quite a bit of steak at home, so we knew this was NOT RIGHT, especially for such a high end restaurant. Asst manager have a long explanation, and tried to tell us that it’s so dry because they dry aged it. If you know dry aging, you know the outer layer is inedible anyway (because, you know, mold and bacteria and that crazy stuff), so we were not eating that layer. And if done right, the meat should be super tender because the dry aging process would’ve broken down the protein. So that was just not right.

We decided, since we had him there, that we’d give the feedback about the reservation process. To our surprise he tried super hard to explain that it’s because we called on the day so they could only take us in at 9:30. If that’s the case, the reservation Centre should’ve told us and not agree to put us on the waiting list. And secondly, is this really how you run business, to make your potential customers wait till 9:30 even though the restaurant is half empty?

All in all, it was a very disappointing experience. We had such high hopes because of all the good reviews and my own personal experience, and it just all fell flat. For a restaurant touting itself as a fine dining establishment, Marble 8 has a lot of soul...

paid RM1.2k for 2 pax & probably will not come back without any special reasons.

1. arrived and find the ambient quite nice, dim lights & romantic ambience but greeted by a staff that wasn’t too friendly. asked if there are sides that comes with the steak and replied with “u can if u want” (?) which was confusing because usually there are some sides but it wasn’t stated in the menu so i asked to be sure & he didn’t answer directly to my question (which wasn’t hard). so i asked again “how many sides can i choose” and again, gotten a reply of “how many do u want?”. not the kind of respond/service we are expecting from this place.
2. we also ordered lobster (which was charged by gram). ordered the 700g lobster because that was what the waiter said was left and when the bill came we were charged for 800g lobster (no clarification made at all until we checked the bill & asked why is it written 800g instead of 700g). waiter went in and checked and came out saying chef said the one left was only this. we were left quite speechless tbh but we didn’t make a scene and just paid. But it would be nice to at least have the courtesy to ask if we are ok with the extra grams (since we are being charged by grams) or at least explain to us when the bill is here and not just kept quiet until we asked. and also the lobster didn’t feel very cooked at all. the texture looks raw but we didn’t even bother to ask due to the poor service we are getting. this dish alone costs us more than RM 500.
3. we were also being asked numerous times if we wanted wine or not - which we said we will think about it first and maybe order later on because we already ordered water & juices - we honestly wanted to have some wine but just wanted more time to decide since we also ordered other things ald. waiter probably came and asked at least 3 times and there was once he also asked “glass or bottle?” when we said we might order later. why does it matter? and the 3rd time after he asked, and we still did not order yet (he proceeded to keep the wine glasses away) - that was even before our mains came. probably just the breads served. don’t understand what’s the urgency here and not letting ur customer have some peace and enjoy the moment?
4. food overall was okay but wouldn’t have gone back for this service and this hefty amount paid.

left with a huge disappointment. could’ve went to other places for steak/lobster with much...

Second visit to this place my first visit was all the way back in 2019. Where it was definitely a true 5 star experience. The waiter was very attentive and an excellent conversationalist and the steak was very nicely cooked with medium rare perfection. It had depth to its flavors from the way it was cooked

However it seems that the recent chefs have not recovered from covid because clearly, they have no sense of taste or smell.

For about 150 usd per pop of a dry aged wagyu steak, they lack the depth and taste that should have come at such a premium price. Their standards clearly dropped over the years it is disappointing to see that. However the starters were still pretty decent, hence the two stars.

Unfortunately, in a single night they managed to get not only the steaks badly done. They messed up orders as well. delivering wrong food items and mixing sauces was one minor thing. But they forgot a starter entirely as well.

While those are minor, it did not help that when the steaks came. One was dry and over-cooked and the other was far too rare to enjoy.

Tenderloin was supposedly 350g but served less then 200g as seen from the picture when the waiter promised that the bone was only 20g.

Ribeye was served too rare to enjoy that we left the steak unfinished, the fats of the ribeye is supposedly the best parts of the steak , however it was tough to cut as the fats was still uncooked. While it looks amazing up front, cutting the steak proved to be a challenged due to how rare it was.

The only salvaging experience was your starters which still had the standards from before, it still has the depth to its flavors and your steak Tartare the best thing that we had that day.

It's no surprise the best thing you served me, was raw beef. I think the chef missed their calling as a sushi chef. Since cooking food clearly isn't their strong suit.

Unfortunately, after spending over 500 usd for two. We couldn't say we had a great experience in particular as compared to the one we had in 2019 that made us come back.

Hopefully, you guys pay more attention your not your starters but your actual main sellers. Because I found my steak to be a lot like my life. Not to bad looking from the outside, but nothing but disappointment to my parents on the inside.

I should have brought...