RaRa Coffee Bandar Utama — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

Because it's just newly opened, and thanks to social media, this cafe is busy. Large crowds already present by 10.30am or maybe even earlier? Fairly large corner cafe, with seatings for 60pax? Open style interior, lots of natural lighting, high ceiling cafe. A minimalist style with earthy tones color palette. There's a waiting list, so pen your details down so that the staff can allocate tables accordingly, don't just assume they would know who came first, they have to juggle being barista, cashier, waiter-/waitress. Table waiting ~15mins. Ordering is easy, scan the QR code to access menu and also ordering via app. FYI, they only deal CASH TERMS only currently. Food came quick within 10mins. Service is prompt, floor manager is gracious enough to try accomodating our requests even though he's so busy. For the food, we tried their Portobello bites-too small and cannot taste the Portobello. Truffle burger is tasty, coz it's Truffle. Beef patty is well seasoned, juicy. Fries are on point! Crispy exterior, fluffy insides+salty. Most impressive dish in this cafe is the chicken waffle sandwich. Chicken was crispy with it's batter, then the waffles, soft doughy( not the fake Planta smell) taste paired with the runny yolk wins the crown for best dish. You don't taste nor feel the oily-ness coming from the fried chicken, so I know they fried this chick at the right temperature. Maybe it's also because the pairing sauce and the waffle is soaking it all up but it is good. This would be the go-to meal for brunch. Coffee is quite expensive for this area though. RM10 for long black, however they do serve a larger portion than e.g. Rekindle. The volume is similar to Baristar Coffee, or Extraction, but the beans they used feels rather lightly roasted? Probably will taste better if you're ordering milk-based coffee or cold coffee. Had interesting coffee mixtures but most were unavailable unfortunately. Tried the Trio coffee (3 diff ingredients incld.espresso), it's for the adventurous. Taste okay, majority it's the matcha you'd get on your tongue with some espresso and white choc. Maybe they'll need time to do more research with their coffee experimentation before they reached Sudo brew's level or 103 coffeehouse. Not had the chance to try their dessert, but will head back here another time when it is less hectic. TLDR; comfortable environment to come here for coffee and chicken waffle sandwich with friends. Parking is...

Devastatingly disappointed. Not a usual person who would try new cafes but thought of giving RARA a try today, with a weekend carefree mood. Ordered their aussie breakfast and patiently waited for my food to be served. As the plate was tabled, I commented that I noted in the description to have the eggs served scrambled. The waiter then took the aussie breakfast back into the kitchen. He later came back with the same plate of aussie breakfast, eggs unchanged. It came to our surprise that his explanation was that the kitchen THOUGHT the extra egg we ordered was to be served in sunny side up. Then again, I reiterated that I have specifically requested for scrambled eggs instead of sunny side up. The waiter then responded “my manager did not allow”. Wow, for the first time that I received such response, that a customer has to bear with the kitchen’s mistake and yet, not getting the meal served as per my request. Ultimately, the waiter admitted that it was the kitchen’s fault and brought it back into the kitchen. Changed to scrambled eggs. Anyhow, breakfast was not even on par. Salad was not fresh. Quality aside, portion was saddening. When it comes to paying the bill, the cashier apologised and my girlfriend asked for the manager, the cashier responded that the manager was not in. Another wow. So how did the waiter get the manager’s disapproval of changing the sunny side up? The cashier said it the waiter actually CALLED the manager 😉 Splendid experience. Not asking you not to visit RARA, just wanted to share that every customer should ensure due diligence prior to trying out a new cafe. Had to head over to Nasi Lemak Shop at the other end of the shop lot to get some...

I think this cafe has great potential, once they get past their growing pains.

For starters, I visited with a party of 4–myself included–and while the staff were nice, the Aussie breakfast we ordered took upwards of 30 mins to arrive. A staff member was nice enough to apologize to us about it, and hopefully the wait time improves as the weeks and months go by.

Secondly, we were seated nearby the kitchen and our particular table had plants so, so close to the table itself that when we sat down, a couple of us couldn't even lean back or sit up straight because there were massive plants in the way. It's always nice to have a cafe/restaurant embrace greenery, but not to the extent where even seats are eaten up by massive trees, thus ruining comfort.

Side note, the sink placed outside the toilet has a faucet that's so close to the walls of the sink that it's impossible to wash your hands without colliding and touching the sink itself, which isn't a nice experience or hygienic at all–the faucet should be replaced with something better.

The drinks we ordered included coffee and matcha lattes, as well as a ginger tea–they were satisfactory. Overall, it's a nice cafe with nice staff members, but it's clear that they're rough around the edges as they're new, but I have faith they'll get better.

Lastly, parking was atrocious when we visited, but it was a Saturday, the first day of the year at that, so that probably played a part. It's recommended to park at the nearby community center (Dewan Serbaguna) where there is ample space, but it takes a short walk and you'll have to cross a...