Tarbush Restaurant Bukit Bintang — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

The worst restaurant experience in KL. My first bad restaurant experience here.

I asked for a hummus platter and clearly said I wanted 4 types of dipping like hummus AND showed a picture just to make it extremely clear what I wanted, and he only brought it with two, and the portion was so tiny you could dip a few pieces of naan and be done with it… When I tried to ask him kindly that I had asked for 4 dipping and he confirmed that, he said “NO I TOLD YOU…” very rudely, like that rude when men use their pointing finger and talk down to women kind of rude, like I’m stupid and need explaining in a rude mansplaining kind of way.

There was some salad on the plate other than a few spoons of hummus and baba ganoush.

Even with the miscommunication and the fact that he got my order wrong, he was not willing at all to do anything about it to make up for it. Telling me I was wrong and that ‘I TOLD YOU’ was all he could do. So, I was tired of trying to explain myself nicely and just had a few bites.

Then, I got the bill and it was 80rm alone for this ONE DISH, ONE, sad few spoons of hummus, baba ganoush, and the little bit of salad… the MOST expensive, I’ve never seen that ridiculous price for a plate of food that’s not even nice, just casual looking and nothing special. Im shocked at the price because I’ve NEVER paid that much in KL for a simple plate of food. There had to have been a mistake charge there. Again, I’m sure he would have lifted his finger again and started telling me I’m wrong. At that point, I was too uncomfortable about this whole situation.

The hummus was plain. I’ve never seen it be charged that high for that tiny portion… There are many other nicer, more delicious, and cheaper cost but still fancy restaurants around that have nice staff as well who will go above and beyond to accommodate if they’ve made a mistake… no care at all.

I wish I had gotten a picture of the sad plate for 80rm that I got…what a rip off. The most I’ve ever paid at even higher end places for that kind of plate was 40-45rm, half of that!!!!! Seriously cannot believe it feel like I just got scammed. I will not be coming back.

I don’t think I would have left this disappointed and upset if he was apologetic about the mistake he made or if he was willing to make up for it or help out or even just be...

Very busy area and below average tasting food. The service was quite fast but staffs were not friendly nor enthusiastic. The place is beautifully decorated with Turkish lights. Got quite busy after some time. Price was very high for the quality of food though quantity was pretty reasonable.

Here’s what we ordered: HUMMUS. Tastes quite bland but generally all Arabic restaurants here tastes like this. Not enough garlic, cumin and tahini.

WARA AINAB. Mostly sour and slightly bitter from the vine leaf. No flavour of the rice or spiced meat inside. Again, how Arabic restaurants tastes like here. Though this was the only dish that actually had some flavour.

FATAYER CHEESE. The bread was actually pretty good. Very light and fluffy though you could hardly taste the “finest cheese” as advertised. Again, it was bland.

LAMB SHAWARMA. Pretty decent, crispy wrapping and juicy, fresh vegetables. Lamb was unsurprisingly bland despite the “spices” they advertised in the menu. Slightly dry but acceptable. The dip was tahini sauce but had no added flavour to help enhance the whole dish like salt, garlic or lemon, so it made the whole thing taste pretty one dimensional. Would have been better to just give garlic aioli.

SHISH KEBAB. Bland tasting with no herb or spices like it mentioned “Chef Tarbush’s Special Spices”. Probably only a sprinkle of salt. Relied heavily on the flavour of the lamb (and there was hardly any aroma of lamb).

AVOCADO SHAKE. Pretty interesting shake that wasn’t even cold. Had tonnes of pistachio nuts and honey so actually tasted more like honey pistachio rather than avocado. It was pretty thick which is good but wasn’t the most tastiest of shakes.

Overall, I would not come back again. I dislike how everything had a lack of spices and the flavour was very one dimensional. I really love Arabic food but this is not Authentic at all nor does it even taste...

TL;DR Good (not great) food, horrifying service.

Maqlooba chicken tastes good despite slightly dry chicken, and not being 100% authentic (thick pieces of eggplant was fried separately and put on top of the rice instead of sliced and cooked together with the rice)

Bad news is, the service makes me VERY UNCOMFORTABLE because:

Condescension - excessive judgemental question towards my choice of ordering a single maqlooba chicken to share with a friend. (Late dinner, didn't need so much food, but I shouldn't even need to justify.) Just to be clear, I'm completely fine with restaurants imposing minimum order as long as they communicate it upfront. They conveyed nothing about it.

Forced consumption - we ordered a single cup of RM15 Arabic tea, but were insisted to be served a full pot "because it's more worth it" that costs RM30. We tried to return it untouched, but the server insisted we have it and exclaimed "he will sort it out later", which we presumed he will waive the extra RM15 imposed without consent. (He didn't)

Forced Google review - under most circumstances, I'd just get this over with and never return. But instead, the very server informed us that he would waive the drinks if we leave them a 5-star Google review, WITH A WIDE-EYED, DEMANDING SMILE. One Google review from my friend doesn't suffice, he stared straight at me and said "you too, Google review"

So yes, terrible experience, and I would advise against trusting most of their google review knowing how it's being farmed.

Not denying that they do upkeep a good standard for their food and I don't wish to generalize their service quality because of one server - this is just a warning if you're looking for a simple meal and not ready to deal with this kinda shit. (And I have to, for the sake of justice, amend my initial...