Soma Cocktail Bar — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

One of the nicer speakeasy bars around - where there’s no foul cigarette smell indoors or loud music playing throughout. Spacious, good air ventilation.

Drinks are good, bartenders and servers are attentive. No complaints at all.

There is 1 thing where I think they could have done better. This incident made us feel unwelcomed. Hear me out ok - We were greeted by waiters who didn’t really had the best approach, imo. We came in, told them we are a group of 8, and was told “you need to spend minimum of rm400, and this is EXCLUDING taxes.”

I had to ask for the menu. I glance through the menu and did my calculation, let’s say average per drink rm45 - we still wouldn’t meet the minimum spending if we order 1 drink per person. Told the bartender and he did the math, he said it’s fine as long as it’s rm400 INCLUSIVE of tax. Honestly, no harm in minimum spendings set on a weekend, but just the tactic of how it’s being said. “Hi! It’s a weekend today and for large group of 8, there will be a minimum spending of rm400. Here, why don’t you take a look at our menu and you can decide.” Ok Sekian...

Soma has been my regular go-to over the past year. However, the customer service has severely deteriorated. In the past, the bartenders and waiters were warm and welcoming but in my latest visit they were snobbish and could not accommodate us with indoor seating despite many empty in-door tables. I understand if the bar was full, but when I went it was half empty as they did not let us squeeze into a "table meant for 5 not 6". In the end, we sat outside and the empty table inside was empty the entire night.

My word of advice, instead of being overly uptight about the seating arrangement, it is important to prioritise customer satisfaction too.

Overall, I will still recommend Soma for the ambience and I will still be returning as a regular customer, but please improve the customer service.

Soma? more like So-much...

One of my greatest joy is discovering new speakeasies and I must admit that I had thought I have been to almost all of them in the Klang valley. So, to my utter astonishment, I came across an established speakeasy which I had not patronised before. So, needless to say I was extremely excited and read up on their specialty. It turns out, they made tau fu fah with dark rum and that was enough to get me into the car and hop over at the very next weekend. That afore mentioned tau fu fah was amazing and I ordered more. The cocktails were well made and very good. Alas, the MCO had set in again and now I must be patient before I can return for...