COMMONS by Food Journal Group — Restaurant in Sarawak

More like 1.5 stars. Locals: I'd advise you NOT to come here. It's hands down a tourist trap 🙃. Located right in the midst of downtown, by the waterfront, and near many hotels, Commons has a fusion menu of Western and local dishes that are overpriced. If you're earning USD, Euro, or some other currency stronger than the Malaysian ringgit, you likely won't have an issue with the prices. But if you're earning Ringgit, you may as well burn a hole in your pocket and let your money dance its way down the street while you dance to put the fire out 💸. Our party paid an average of RM40 per person.

I s'pose RM40 could be considered reasonable if the environment and service were enjoyable. The place was hot 🌡️. I believe the circular vents I saw on the super high ceiling were a/c vents so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say they had functioning air conditioning, but it was still really hot. I thought maybe I was the only one but my friends felt the same and I saw several people using menus and hand fans to cool themselves off.

The food was fine. It came out pretty quickly, so their kitchen was well-staffed, and it was decent so that gets .75 stars. The service, not so much. I understand they were understaffed today (I guessed as much and confirmed it when one of our servers mentioned it). Two of our friends arrived 15 minutes before the rest of us did and the first things they ordered were drinks. One of them didn't get her drink and by the time the rest of us arrived, she had asked for it 3 times. All of our drinks, in general, were very slow because they only had one guy working behind the bar. It seemed they didn't have anyone to wash up either, as dirty glasses were piling up behind us the entire time (I tried uploading a pic of this 5 times but it won't let me 😠). The one friend whose drink didn't come initially? She never got it. We asked a 4th time and discovered they hadn't added it to their queue. We requested that they do so but the drink still hadn't come even after she'd finished her meal. So we cancelled the order.

The only thing that deserved the other .75 star in this rating were the servers who were working that day since understaffing isn't really their fault - it's management's - and they worked hard to serve everyone and accomodate our needs. However, I just found out that when we'd ordered the missing drink for the 5th time, instead of bringing my friend her drink right away, they added it to the bottom of the super long queue. So, as mentioned, we CANCELLED the order. But THEY STILL CHARGED US 🙄 So confused - does this order not exist until it's time to pay up? 😂 (We asked them to take it off...

Standards have fallen.

Most of the board games are no longer available. Even the UNO stacko is missing too many blocks and the dice. The only thing playable games are 4 in a row and janga.

The condition of the crayons and colour pencils are also poor. The stock and variety of colouring paper was also lacking.

We ordered: 1 ice mocha 1 slice of tiramisu cake 1slice of chocolate cake 1 nasi lemak 1 spegetti bolognese 1 chicken sandwich

My ice mocha was more than half ice. With the other half tasting watered down even before the ice melted. I felt no hit of caffeine and tasted no chocolate except for the half teaspoon of chocolate powder sprinkled on the top.

The chicken sandwich was very disappointing. It was supposed to be multigrain bread, and I was hoping it would be a bun or reminiscent of a baguette, seeing that their burgers are described to have the same multigrain bread... I got white bread. And the exterior was burnt. Not from the toasting after slicing, but the exterior of the loaf. Bad enough that after a bite I had to cut off the burnt areas. The chicken was very dry. The oil it fried in taste old/overused. The only spread in it was margarine? Besides that, just finely shredded coleslaw - thankfully finely and evenly shredded, mixed and tasting fresh. But there is nothing else to balance the dryness and the otherwise lack of flavour in this sandwich. No pickles no lettuce no tomatoes no onions no cheese. The fries undercooked and could use abit more salt and some vinegar.

The spegetti was nicely andante but the bolognese sauce looks to have been on the high boil for a while... or perhaps too many repeat reheats. More brown than red, the tomato puree wasted.

The chocolate cake and tiramisu are nice. So as the pumkin soup and nasi lemak. But not enough to justify a final...

We came here after reading good reviews and that it sat near the promenade and a walking distance from our hotel. Sadly, though it was located at a much historical place, it cheapens it with the horrible and slow service. The service crew knew we came in close to 4 pm and that being in between meals time, it should be an easy and less customer time to attend to us. They were not lacked by staff as I saw one, probably a supervisor and above, who constantly stood up and checked at the cashier table with another behind the counter, making drinks. Another at the cake counter, cutting, arranging, and cleaning the cakes tools. A lady server was constantly walking to and fro from the kitchen, delivering food and drinks to customers. They only came for our orders after close to 20 mins of being left alone (I did some hands waving too, but no one noticed us). We ordered a cold latte and a flat white, with a bowl of fries in truffle and parmesan. The bowl of fries was totally covered with parmesan. They got too generous with the parmesan, which overpowered the truffle taste. It was so horrid, and the parmesan made the fries taste bad. A simple dish came so bad. It was an unforgivable mistake. Don't let me start with the condition and state of the furniture. Stains on the sofa and chairs, I couldn't not look. The glass doors hinges need to oil as the end one next to the cake counter kept being opened all the time despite I kept closing it every time a service crew or customers goes in and out. The air cond air kept flowing out, making your air cond unit working hard to lower the temperature. It was not a wise decision. I hope the management looked into my comments as I was truly looking forward to a good teatime at this...