Pentos & Basil • Bukit Jalil — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Food - If you're okay with 'localised' Italian to suit local tastes then you'll probably think this place is great. We felt everything was msg loaded, salty, cheesy and complicated, losing the essence of key ingredients which is a shame as I think the chefs try their best.

Ceasar salad - would have preferred for the sauce to be mixed up with the giant salad leaves than drizzled on top. It was a bit hard to eat to be honest as their was way too much sauce. Had to constantly try to scoop some out and it meant that everything was overly rich sour and mayonaisy and cheesy. Overload. And takes the limelight away from the otherwise very nice duck bacon. Sometimes less is more. Especially for a starter which shouldn't destroy your taste buds and have u go all 'jelat'. 5/10

Baked eggplant - took a bit of time to arrive but really nice smoky flavors. Maybe a bit more eggplant would have been nice to balance the overly salty tomato sauce. You need more bread to balance things out but there's the issue as we didn't want to get full before other dishes came in.. maybe just order this as a main and it would be good enough.. 7/10

Aglio chicken - at this point we were getting dizzy from the excessive salt and msg so we gave up and ordered more bread.. the garlic was extremely salty and it took us quite some time to finish the dish... Maybe as a dish in its own without everything else it might be ok. But combined with other dishes. It was too much saltiness and no contrast of tastes from one dish to the other .. 5/10

Pomodoro pasta - probably the better of the lot along with the eggplant. Sauce was nice and freshly made. But the excessive cheese on top of the salty sauce made it too much. The pastas as it is are again probably ok. But with all the other sides and extra roast chicken which we added in there was way too much going on. 7/10

Aglio Olio pasta - at this point our taste buds had died so this tasted confusing... We were really hoping for a clean crisp garlicky taste of a simple aglio olio but what we got was again a creamy textured saucy pasta probably from excessive cheese that just took away all the flavors. Sometime just stick to the original recipe guys. Also I think this ok on its own without the added sides.. we had chicken but the teriyaki type glaze just didn't work with this. 4/10

Drinks - we had the longan melon. Basically just blended water melon juice and some longan at the bottom. Not worth rm17 and not what I call a mock tail.

It's also a pity that they charge rm2.50 per glass of water which isn't refillable. You're not a fancy posh Italian restaurant. Don't behave like one. And know your customers... 1/10

Ambiance - was packed and noisy. Not the place if you're looking for a cozy vibe.. bday songs every 20 mins didn't help. And they were blasting some weird remix pop dance type music really loud which really made it overwhelming with the noise across an already tight setup. They're just a one shop lot size big. So you can imagine.

They also cook with an open kitchen so you get good views of the cooks.. but the waiters never closed the serving window. So the smell from the kitchen is all over the dining hall. And this means you're likely to smell after leaving this place. Which we did. 3/10

Service - one thing they got right was timing of the dishes. You don't see that a lot in mainstream restaurants and cafes at this price range. We had our salad first. Then appetizers and finally pastas. All at very nice intervals which meant we could relax in between chat while waiting for the next course to arrive. Also we Had our plates replaced once and offered tissues when things got a bit messy with lots going on. So thumbs up to the front of house and waiters. All smiley and attentive. 9/10 minus 1 point as they should be serving cool lemon water I feel..

Damage. 4 pax. Rm190+ we didn't do desserts. Didn't see a menu and didn't feel we wanted to 'chill' any more as the noise from all that music and bday songs and the smell was just pushing us to go try to shop next...

I visited this restaurant again today because I had a good impression of their food from a few years ago, and I had confidence in their quality.

When I first arrived, the service staff were friendly and welcoming, which I appreciated. However, the experience with the food this time was very disappointing. I believe perhaps the chef was having a bad day, because everything we ordered tasted off.

The most unacceptable part was the grilled chicken that came with the pasta. The chicken was undercooked—completely raw in the thickest part. I suspect the kitchen was too busy and only checked the surface temperature of the meat without confirming if the inside was properly cooked.

I informed the staff about the issue, and they said they would bring it back to the kitchen for inspection. But after five minutes, no one came back with an update. When I asked the waitress again, she told me they needed more time.

Eventually, the manager came over. She insisted the chicken was fully cooked, but I explained that the thickest part was clearly raw when I bit into it. I also noticed the cooking method looked more like pan-searing than grilling, and I strongly believe the internal temperature did not reach a safe level.

The manager’s explanation made me feel quite frustrated. She said the texture felt cooked and there was no pink color when they checked in the kitchen. But from where I sat, the chicken was pink and had a strong raw chicken smell.

In the end, they only refunded the price of the chicken, but the whole experience ruined my evening.

I really hope the kitchen will pay more attention to food safety, especially when it comes to chicken. And to anyone planning to order the grilled chicken here—please check it carefully...

Overall 4.75/5

Environment 5/5 I am impress with the interior design, it was so aesthetic, i think its a good spot for taking instagram check in photos

Cleaniness 5/5 The place including lavatory are clean and hygiene, i didnt spot any dirts and imprints around the place, can see how the restaurant maintain its cleaniness, shout out to this cafe

Food 4/5 The food is quite salty for me, maybe not my cup of tea, but statisfy with the quite variety of food, for the menu part i would like to suggest the cafe to add some image to had some guide on food visual reference i have spot some food was same with chinese food for example chicken "al-aljito", and it make me feel like it have reminiscence on it and i like it, just it better with stir fry or less olive oil. Since its italian restaurant, so some food are serve with bread, so the bread can be dipped together with the sauce. I love the tasteness of their bread, pretty italian style. For me personally i like their aglio olio, i order with seafood opt, it was satisfied, it served with mussel and crystal shirmp, i like how it match with aglio olio. I am highly encourage to try their dessert, especially dark forest with a tiny cune cone and dark chocolate pandan cake, it was delish.

Service 5/5 The server are very politeful and they willing to give me the guidance on the menu, they are warm and lovely.

Price 4/5 For the price i think still acknowledgeble, since is a bit medium class restaurant, the pricing of most of their food is start with 20+, still valuable although...