Monograph Dining — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

We visited Monograph yesterday evening (Friday - reservation for 20:30) as a party of four relatively hungry adults. Monograph is on the first floor with stair-access. First impressions were good: good location (you can see Monograph from the Pasar Seni MRT station); interior design that heavily leans towards Industrial; good air conditioning (very important in the current heatwave that we are experiencing).

We ordered two appetisers to share: the "Smashed baby potatoes with homemade truffle Parmesan mayo" and the "Japanese kombu tempura fish bites". Mains were "Sicilian style Morocco sardine spaghetti", "Creamy smoke duck carbonara fettucine with onsen egg", "Japanese beef curry with turmeric rice (add-on omelette)", and "Japanese Hamburg beef with demi sauce and fried vegetables". We also ordered drinks from the Soberside bar menu.

Our order arrived at a good pace.

In general, I feel I understand what Monograph is trying to achieve with their menu: a combination of ingredient-forward dishes ("Spain olive oil", "Morocco sardines", "Indonesia baby potatoes") prepared with minimal fuss and Japanese-fusion dishes. I will say that Monograph is on the right track to achieving this, though more headway is probably being made on the Japanese-fusion side of things. I appreciate that every dish on the menu comes with a description of the components/ingredients that make up the dish.

For the dishes which sung last night (the Sicilian style Morocco sardine spaghetti - a memorable dish; Japanese Hamburg beef with demi sauce and fried vegetables; and Japanese beef curry with turmeric rice (add-on omelette), there was consistency between the dining experience and the description of the dishes. However, there were a few items on the menu which I felt did not quite live up to the description, for example the smashed baby potatoes with homemade truffle Parmesan mayo (the scent/taste of truffle was absent) and the Japanese kombu tempura fish bites (cooked well, great for sharing, but could not appreciate any hint of kombu).

All in all, it was a good dining experience. Portion sizes are on the "smaller" side, but this is completely expected of the kind of establishment that Monograph appears to aspire to (casual elevated dining?). Some teething issues with service: one member of staff said we could order dessert after the last order notice had been called; when we tried ordering dessert from another member of staff, we were told that this was no longer possible. My suggestion to Monograph would be: be careful not to overpromise and underdeliver. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing Monograph grow....

The food was good, we had prawn bisque pasta, which was amazing, and the carbonara was delicious too. However, we had a VERY unpleasant experience due to the rude service from one of the staff members.

We moved to the table beside us just as the food arrived, before we ate or even touched the utensils provided at the table. We didn’t inform the staff because we didn’t want to bother them since we had only moved to a nearby table, and there weren’t many customers yet (only two tables occupied aside from us), so the cafe was NOT busy, and there were plenty of tables available.

The staff member, who had short hair and wore spectacles (I believe in charge of the utensils), decided to give us attitude. I didn’t get a She/he came to the table we initially sat at, took the utensils, and threw them aggressively. It was so obvious that the staff member was throwing a tantrum, slamming the utensils onto the plate that she/he brought with her/him. She/he then returned with a table cleaner and sprayed the table multiple times, again aggressively, clearly showing how mad she/he was.

It was completely unnecessary to act that aggressive to your customer since we hadn’t even made a mess at the table, hadn’t eaten or touched the utensils, and hadn’t done anything wrong. I’m not sure why this staff member reacted in such a rude way since it was just a minor thing, and not a big deal. The cafe wasn’t even at peak hours, and the staff member’s behaviour was completely out of proportion.

This made our experience really disappointing. We could have left feeling satisfied since the food was good, the ambiance was beautiful, and the other staff members were excellent, but because of this one individual, we wouldn’t consider returning.

Please address this issue with your staff, as we saw many other reviews mentioning similar poor service. We’re not the first to have this experience, and we may not be the last if you don’t...

I do not recommend this restaurant at all – not for the environment, food, or service.

Let me start with the environment. My girlfriend and I visited during the afternoon. The moment we sat down, we could feel how hot it was inside. It was so warm that not only us, but several other customers had to use their own portable fans to cool down. There were two air-conditioners in our area, but only one was turned on. Despite seeing so many people clearly uncomfortable, the staff made no effort to turn on the second unit or adjust the fan speed.

Next, the food. We ordered the Beef Bolognese and the B&W Spaghetti Vongole. The portion size was disappointing – even my girlfriend found it insufficient. The clams in the vongole were not fresh, and some still had sand in them. As for the beef bolognese, it tasted extremely average – just some tomato sauce with minced beef tossed with pasta. Nothing stood out, and it honestly felt like a waste.

Lastly, the service – probably the worst part. It felt like the staff were untrained and randomly hired off the street. We ordered a matcha dessert from Niko Neko. After finishing our mains, we called a waiter to serve the dessert. He took away our plates, and then… nothing. We waited a full 20 minutes, and the dessert never came. When we went to the counter to cancel it during payment, the staff had the audacity to ask, "Didn't you inform your server?"

Isn't it their job to follow up once they clear the plates? We did inform them. Now they're turning it around on us? No wonder there’s no service charge here – because honestly, they...