Tapaz Langkawi — Restaurant in Langkawi Island

hi! :)

i'm not usually the type of person to send reviews to any restaurant, but this one in particular was so... interesting that i just had to.

PROS: the food is great! there is a decent variety of tapas available. the location is also great! its located nearby the beaches, where you can get the occasional breeze.

CONS: where do we begin...

the service is, frankly speaking, terrible. my family and i arrived at the restaurant at about 6pm. there were barely any people in the restaurant so we were hoping to quickly get our food. imagine to our surprise that we had to wait a whopping 3 hours for our food to arrive! sure, the food was good and all, but that unfortunately doesn't excuse us waiting 3 hours for it to arrive. remember, there were barely any people in the restaurant when we first came. the food is heavily overpriced. i would slightly understand if its to get money from tourists and all, but unfortunately its covid season. this especially applies to the paella. it costed us a whopping rm118 for it, and was barely enough to feed us. there are other places elsewhere you could get less expensive food and still have the same quality (or even better) than Tapaz. the owner. i have seen reviews about the owner on google but told myself to come with an open, non judgemental mind. he would prefer to prioritise the livelihoods and experiences of the foreigners than entertain the locals. they sat down later than us, but were treated with their main courses and their tapas first. would this be racial discrimination? perhaps. after we were done with the food, my mother went to talk to the owner about the service. she talked about how the food took so long, and how the service was bad. he sarcastically responded with "if you want your food early you should have ordered in advance." and "we are understaffed.". should we have known that there was an option to order in advance we would have done so, instead of waiting 3 hours for our food. maybe update your Facebook page to have that option instead? my family and I came here approximately one year ago and we were still treated with late food and the "understaffed" situation. it's been a year. has there truly been no one wanting to work or is it you? covid restrictions (as far as I'm aware) has reduced considerably over the course of the year. maybe you're the reason why there's no staff willing to work alongside you.

IN SHORT: do i recommend this restaurant? yes, if you have:

1. a lot of money to spend,
2. the patience of a saint to wait for the food,
3. the heart of an angel to tolerate a rude, sarcastic owner.

if not? please don't waste your time and effort. there are better places around langkawi...

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Tapaz — where food meets heart.

Tapaz has always been our favourite restaurant in Langkawi — not just for the food, but for the warmth and heart behind it. But what happened recently took that to another level.

I was in Dubai and my partner was in Langkawi, alone on his birthday. He had a full day of work and couldn’t go out for dinner. He has been ordering in every day, but the options were limited. I wanted him to have a delicious comforting dinner on his birthday, so out of desperation, I reached out to Alex — knowing full well that Tapaz doesn’t offer delivery. But I thought… no harm trying, right?

After I explained the situation, Alex replied immediately and said, “Let me arrange it for you.”

And he did — all while cooking lunch for his family in Austria.

He WhatsApped me the menu, coordinated everything with his team, and even made sure the food was plated on real dishes — “so it looks presentable,” he said. Before sending it out, he shared a photo of the beautifully plated meal so I could feel part of it too.

I was lucky enough to book a Grab driver who took great care in transporting the food. We live 30 minutes away. When it arrived, everything was perfect. Liam was genuinely surprised and touched — and he absolutely loved the meal. Not just the flavours, but the care behind it.

Tapaz has always meant a lot to us. But now, it’s part of a memory we’ll carry forever. Alex didn’t just help deliver a meal — he helped deliver love.

Thank you, Alex — from...

Pinch me, I must be dreaming

We stopped in for a drink while waiting for a ferry, and - based on the service, menu and view - decided to book dinner for the next night. I'm not sure I've ever made a better impromptu decision.

Location-wise: I'd struggle to find a better place to watch the sun set over the ocean.

Service: honest, kind and thoughtful. Not a place to visit if you're in a hurry: having said that I'd never want to rush through a meal here.

Food: between the four of us we ordered a bit of everything and I'm so glad we did. The pizza was amazing: crumbly chunks of chorizo spread over a puffy-edged wood fired base. The pesto chicken pasta (not my choice) was al dente with a clingy and balanced sauce.

We also ordered a series of dishes from the tapas menu - focaccia, ceviche, squid, prawns, lamb ribs, spicy potatoes and barracuda - and this is where the restaurant really sparkled. The considerate combination of flavours in each plate was just lovely ... delicious without being pretentious. I'd wholeheartedly recommend having a chat with the staff if you're not sure what to order.

We shouldn't have ordered dessert ... but we did and I don't regret it. The dessert menu isn't huge but - again - simple and perfect.

I've always thought that the beauty in life is small, hidden and unexpected moments, and tonight's dinner was definitely...