The Narra — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

The ambiance was not so bad, a bit small but not bad. The food was ok, at least the ones we ordered. But I think the Laguna restaurant near St John's church can give them a run for their money when it comes to the taste of the food. The ordering method is ingenious but clumsy. You had to write with a marker on a plastic covered menu which sometimes you had to mark several times since the marker won mark on plastic. The good thing is that since the marker ink is on plastic, it erases easily. Ingenious right? But the thing that made a big impact with me was the service and the staff. The service was very poor and felt like that the staff were not properly trained? We came there on a Saturday around 6 pm. We were seated for a several minutes and not one service staff approached us to give us the menu. We had to go to the counter to get it ourselves. If this was supposed to be a self service, self ordering restaurant, It would have helped if there were notices on the tables or anywhere in the restaurant if the staff will not help. Its a small restaurant and I counted 4 staff. Ones standing at the counter and the other 3 I'm assuming are servers. All the staff looked tired, flustered and stressed out for some reason. Are they overworked or underpaid or both? Especially the one with the tattoo on his hands, even breaking a glass while he was cleaning up.My first impressions were that the staff were clumsy, stressed out and unsure of what they were doing and needed to do. Another concern I have was about the only girl staff that was there. I paid using my credit card. She gave me back the receipt which i routinely signed but she did not gave my credit card back to me. I had to ask for it. And when I called her, not ones but twice before she turned her head to ask me what I needed. I told her that I did not seem to have received my card back and what I found very interesting was that she took my card out of her back pocket and jokingly said she had intentionally put it in her back pocket and laughed as if it was no big deal. Admittedly I laughed back and even cracked a joke about catching her red handed trying to keep my card, since I was not sure how to react at that time. Bur seriously, who does that? What kind of service staff would put the customers CC inside their back pocket? What impression were she hoping to give me and my friends? And by the way, I told an office mate about my experience at The Narra and was he told me about an equally disappointing service experience. Perhaps investing in training their staff or hiring more if the staff are overworked is...

My first time having Filipino food & I have to admit, the taste is rather refreshing & interesting. Here’s what we ordered:

Beef Tapa: Basically like beef jerky so it’s rather dry & hard & dipping into the sauce provided is not helping either.

Ginataang Sitaw Kalabasa: Assorted vege cooked in some sort of cream? I don’t really fancy this one either, maybe due to the cream. It’s a bit heavy so it tastes weird.

Sinigang na Hippon: Sour soup with prawns. Probably out of everything, this is my favourite. Mainly because I love sour & savoury soup. This tastes a bit like Tom yam, minus the spiciness. It’s just sour, with clear broth and lots of prawns! Very appetising & it was enough for 2 pax.

Sizzling Pork Sisig: As a lean meat lover, this probably doesn’t go with my vibe at all. It’s actually very fragrant, but due to the meat used (kinda like pork belly meat), so I’m not a fan of this dish either.

Overall, the food is okay, it just depends on which dish might go well with your appetite. The atmosphere of the restaurant is okay too (very quiet during weekdays) & they do have a corner where they sell Filipino stuff (dry goods). Also, ample of parking inside the building. Will give it a try...

First time we heard of a Filipino restaurant in Petaling Jaya. So off we went on the Saturday for lunch to The Narra in Millennium Square. The restaurant owner, Sam Lim, a friendly guy, established the business three years ago. After some discussion with Sam , we placed our order.

The bill after our lunch showed the following names in Tagalog

Crispy Pata RM60.00 Rellennong Bangus RM36.00 Pinakbet RM12.00 Tortang Talong RM18.00 Sizzling Pork Sisig RM17.00 Fragrant Rice (big) 2@RM2.00 = RM4.00 Garlic Rice (big) 1@RM2.50 Garlic Rice (small) 3@2.00, = RM6.00 San Miguel Pale Pilsen beer 2@RM15.00 = RM30.00 Brazo de Mercedes pastry (small,) 2@RM12 = RM24

All we knew was that we ordered fish, deep fried crispy pig trotter, omelette with pork (pork neck meat?), mixed vege and they were splendid. The fish, mashed and reconstituted in the shape of a fish, tasted good and unique. The stir-fried vegetable dishes was so so. Sam Lee gave us a piece of Braza de Mercedes - a kind of pastry made form eggs. Its taste was superb so much so that two us bought a packet each as takeaway. However, it would be great if it’s sweetness...