The Ice Cream Bar Hartamas — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

Had one of the worst dining experiences of my life here on 6 Mar 2022, all due to a female supervisor named Jane (according to one of the other staff) who scolded my group of friends and I.

We had 5 people in our group and wanted to sit together but were informed by the staff that, due to Covid-19 SOPs, there was no table large enough to accommodate our group at the time. Immediately we could tell the place was busy that night and they were understaffed. We first pointed to one table and asked if we could sit there, and were informed that table could only fit 3 people. We asked if we could take the much larger table at the rear of the restaurant, where only 2 customers were sitting at. We were informed by a male employee, no, and that it was "First come first serve". Two customers then left a larger table near the counter and so we asked if the 5 of us could sit there. A female employee then very curtly snapped and said no, it could only fit 4 people, as otherwise the 5th person would be blocking "her walkway". At this point, we could already tell that she was in a foul mood. But we did not pay much mind to it and we split our group between the 2 tables. We were genuinely completely fine with that.

Just as we were about to start eating our ice cream, a large group of 6 customers left a larger table next to us. As the place was starting to fill up, I quickly stood up, walked towards the larger table, looked at the staff at the counter and was going to ask whether our group could move there. However, before I could even say anything, the female employee just exploded out of nowhere and started berating us. She went off at us in front of the whole restaurant, shouting about how she'd just cleaned those tables for us and now she has to clean another table for us, she had been working from 11 a.m. that day, it's been a busy day for them and that it was causing her anxiety. She shouted loudly and scolded at us the whole time while she cleaned the larger table, effectively embarrassing us in front of all the other customers.

We were completely stunned at first by this. Then we started arguing with her how her behaviour was extremely rude and completely unacceptable. She tried to defend herself but then gave a very ingenuine apology, clearly not meaning it. It ruined our entire night. We sat there for awhile, fuming at what we just went through then left the restaurant. As we left, we bumped into another staff outside the restaurant and demanded to know that female employee's name. He informed us that it was Jane and that she was actually a supervisor! We complained to him about how rude she was and he actually tried to defend her behaviour. He even told us that we can complain to the founder, Edmund, about this - as if he knew that the management was not going to do anything about it.

All of this was completely unacceptable. I understand we all can get frustrated and stressed at work. But that DOES NOT EXCUSE YOU SCOLDING AND SPEAKING SO RUDELY AT A CUSTOMER. I also understand that the customer is not always right - there can be some horrible and rude customers. But we were never anything less than courteous and polite up till the point when Jane unwarrantedly exploded at us. Extremely unprofessional.

What's worse is this - I've noticed that there have been other 1-star reviews in the past about a female employee who has been rude and scolding them/other customers. This either means (1) Jane has had this attitude problem for a while, The Ice Cream Bar is aware of this, and has done nothing to address this (hence why the other staff was so emboldened to tell us to lodge a complaint to the founder); or (2) The Ice Cream Bar has multiple employees who have poor customer service. I don't know which is worse. Never going...

4 of us went for this after a Korean dinner nearby. 4 star to the queue management 😅 cuz it's packed to the door, and the queue arrow sign is not visible. But we could still make sense of it. And everyone just jam at the counter to order. I thought there was tasting, that's why took so long but no.. the crowd was just taking their sweet time to see each tray through the glass, discuss with friends, then only order. It would be best to let them take the menu and think about it at their seat, before coming over to order at the counter, since there's no tasting involved.

But of course! 5 star to the taste of these lovely desserts! We ordered double scoops in a cup - rum & raisin and smoked cognac. While rum & raisin is typically good without surprises, the smoked cognac was surprisingly impressive, chocolate base with cognac. Can't go wrong with chocolate I suppose! 🤗

The other is strawberry cheesecake and Chivas peanut butter on a waffle pancake. The Chivas peanut butter on its own is too strong imho, but to go with waffle, viola! I could taste perfection, with a little peanut butter crunchy texture.

A place definitely worth trying but carpark would be a nightmare in this area, so pick your time to...

Very special ice cream place, could be the one and only in KL. It’s already my second visit to this shop. They have ice cream with alcohol, have tried 4 flavors so far and all of them taste great ! So far I like the crunchy coffee whiskey and chocolate rum. Wanted to try their waffle this time but so unfortunately it was sold out when we reach there at night. Currently they selling Christmas limited flavors and a cool minimalist Santa ice cream cake. They were lots of people on weekend, be mentally prepared to wait a little while for seats and queue. Environment is okay, clean but the aircond is not really cooling. It looked quite christmassy and it was playing christmas songs too. Waiters are really friendly and helpful, willing to explain and recommend you some popular flavors. Downside is some of their ice cream were not really well freeze and too soft and easily melt. Their ice cream can be slightly expensive too if you prefer those with alcohol. Eg. you need to add RM 3 for each scoop of alcohol ice cream that you chose. Lastly, hope they will come out with more creative ice cream with alcohol as we can have more choices, maybe like white...