Soylab Damansara Utama — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

We made a reservation at 10.30 and reached there at 10 to try our luck. Full house but its fine since we were early. The staff said some customers were sitting at our reserved table and would be done at 10.30. Waited till 11pm .Went in and noticed that the customers finished eating and were sitting there playing with phones. Went out and told the staff that since the customers finished eaten, why not politely ask them to leave as there were at least, at least 30 customers waiting outside. At 11.15pm , still sitting there playing with phones. Told the guy at the cashier that he should do something as so many customers are standing outside waiting. The "nice" Male cashier whom I assumed is the owner said " SINCE FIRST DAY I OPENED THIS SHOP , MY PRINCIPLE IS TO LET MY CUSTOMERS TO SIT AS LONG AS THEY WANT" . I asked him " what if 30 customers come and sit at 1 table each and order 1 drink , sit for 3 hours? You are ok too ?".... he replied " it's my principle "..... well from the business point of view , you will want your table to turn as many times as possible but of course that's none of my business, I just wanna go in and eat. If it's not crowded , doesn't matter. More than 30 customers standing outside( I saw a few left angrily after waited long b4 we arrived ) and u enjoy seeing customers standing outside waiting as if the business is really really good. Look , if u can't take reservation or don't know the meaning of reservation , don't do it. Just do it as a first come first served basis. And I really admire when he replied " that's my principle ".... I rest my case and eat some where else. Hope they will learn from customer dissatisfaction before it...

Tried the signature soymilk beancurd with ginger syrup and glutinous balls, soymilk beancurd + black sesame and the signature pancakes today. No queue on a weekday at around 3pm. Liked the system where you order outside and dine inside. The space is cosy and quiet, imagine it gets full fast on wkends. The beancurd were delicious especially black sesame. Only feedback is it would be nice if it was served hotter as the bowl is a little wide and ac is strong. Didn’t need the brown sugar with the black sesame+beancurd combo. The glutinous balls were thick and soft and chewy with delicious filling. Also wished it was served warmer to offset the ac surroundings. I also noticed the way the staff work, polite and could explain clearly different parts of menu from the front counter staff. Clearing of plates and bowls happened quietly and quickly. Made the visit enjoyable actually. Well done :) the fluffy pancakes was nice. A suggestion- perhaps the pancakes could be made without or less sugar as the cream on the side was already sweetened and there was already icecream too and maple syrup (served in jug). Too much sweet from the pancakes overwhelmed any soymilk flavour. The standout was the soymilk Icecream though- thick and strong soymilk taste. Yum. Not sure if a wafer under the icecream was needed as though it looked nice, it slipped and slided as we tried to dig into the icecream. Small things that can easily be improved. Otherwise a good experience. Good thing to note is that there’s a 10% discount if you bring your own bottles/cups when purchasing their drinks. An initiative I was looking for too when having bubble tea. Good on you for encouraging...

Yesterday, I decided to try Soylab after hearing all the hype surrounding it. There was a half an hour waiting time for dine-in. I tried the two drinks in their Satisfying Soymilk series. ‘Bean Looking for Her’ was regular soy milk with brown sugar pearls. Honestly, the drink tasted very diluted and watered down. The pearls were not bad, but still could not save the drink. ‘Bean Looking for Him’ on the other hand, was a black soy milk drink with brown sugar pearls. It was my first time trying black soy milk and it did have more taste and body than their regular soy milk, but the taste of the drink still wasn’t that pronounced. Aside from the drinks, I also tried their regular beancurd. It was okay, but nothing to shout about.

After trying out Soylab, I didn’t feel like it was worth the hype, so I wrote an honest & negative review about them on Instagram. Unfortunately, they did not take the feedback well at all. Instead of asking how they can improve, they retaliated by blocking me. Only after I called them out for blocking me, they unblocked me. This was followed by a series of defensive messages by them, which I responded with my point of view. I was very willing to return once the hype died down to give them another try (because some of their desserts do look good), but after the unprofessionalism they displayed, I’m not inclined to support their...