Howdy Grillhouse — Restaurant in Sarawak

We were looking for a place for New Year’s Eve dinner and found Howdy on Google. It had good ratings so we decided to give it a shot. Boy, was dinner a regular mess.

We made a reservation for 8PM. All food was PRE-ORDERED. Note that our orders were neatly written down on an Excel spreadsheet and hand-delivered to the restaurant. At around 7:45PM, one server (possibly the head waitress) asked if they could start serving the food but we preferred to wait for our last party members, who came 5 minutes before 8. We sat down and someone took our drink orders. Everything went smoothly until about that point.

Let me start with their disorganization. Servers running around all over the place, bumping into each other and haphazardly serving dishes and drinks. There is a great system in grillhouses like this in the United States - ONE server is assigned to a certain area, so he/she waits on specific tables at a given time. At Howdy, we seemed to have all sorts of different people coming by and each time we had an issue, they all appeared lost and uncertain.

Disappearing Drinks.

Like I said, service was haphazard. Our drinks came randomly and intermittently. Not only did they miss out on multiple people's drinks, they added drinks to the bill that we didn't order. We had to ask a couple of times for the missing drinks and slowly, one by one, they came. Except an iced milk tea. I guess iced milk tea is hard to catch in the wild. We waited and asked and waited and asked, multiple servers, at least four or five separate times throughout dinner. The last person we asked, we could even hear him shouting to the kitchen for an iced milk tea. But guess what? Iced milk tea is a very evasive creature. It never came.

The Case of the Forgotten Steak.

Food. I understand, this isn't the United States (as per my reference to restaurants in the US). So I came in not expecting too much from their food. I'm fair - as long as the food was reasonably tasty, I'd write a good review. Even then, I was disappointed. Howdy is supposed to specialize in ribs. Baby back ribs, well-cooked, will come off the bone easily. Their baby back ribs did not. They were much drier and tougher than what we expected. The lamb shank was the same. Dry, tough, hard to cut. Tried someone's salmon - it was also dry and a little rubbery. Mashed potatoes were dry and not very mashed. Well done steaks were not well done… at all. The second steak we ordered was a JOKE. After everyone had received their dishes, we realized one person did not have theirs. So we asked, and the server left and never came back. So we asked again, and the server left and never came back. Finally, we asked a guy who looked like he could be a manager or head waiter. He left and came back with a newly printed bill. That's when we realized they had never made the order. The steak came at 8:58PM, 2 minutes short of an hour of waiting. And yes, like I said, it was not well done as requested. We sent it back to have it fixed. At the end of the night, they charged us full price for the forgotten steak.

The one upside I can think of is the servers were polite. As disorganized as the system was, they were polite and they did (try to) cater to the issues that arose during dinner (emphasis on “try”). Everything else was disappointing. Howdy certainly seemed like a decent place to go. Perhaps they work better with smaller parties and perhaps it is decent on any other day of the year, hence the high ratings. But tonight it certainly didn't live up to the 4+ stars. I won't come again nor will I bring anyone I know. Not...

I had a Valentine's Day date night with my fiancé at this establishment....and I have to say I can't say anything good regarding it from the moment we arrived until we left.

My issue with the place started with a prolonged miscommunication and lack of comprehension with the staff who was dealing with the restaurant's incoming chats. At first, I requested for a table of two and I would like to order from their main menu once we arrive at the establishment. But, according to the staff it is not possible since they already have a Valentine Day's menu and an order from the main menu is only possible if I choose one of the items in the VDay's menu. I would then clear this out with another morning staff and he/she then redirected me to his/her senior. An employee named Sam was able to help me with adding a couple of dishes from the original menu to replace a dish in the VDay's menu. I even asked for him to calculate how much everything is worth just so that I could plan ahead in terms of money. VDay's dishes including a mushroom soup add-on and a pork belly substitution, on top of Blackcurrant Crunch and Lemon Soda cost me RM315(ish) after taxes. Great, everything is set in motion despite my issue was passed from one employee to another.

This is where the disaster happened. Me and my fiancé arrived early at the establishment at around 7pm. We walked to the restaurant at 7.50pm. There were a few individuals waiting to be seated and by the time the staff noticed our presence, it was already 8pm. When we asked for our table and mentioned that we have a booking, he told us that it is still occupied. Shocking since I thought they would already reserved said table for the evening session. We told the staff that we would wait outside for 10-15 minutes until the table is cleared. We even asked if they could give us a text if the table has been cleared. Not a big request and we were not fussy about it trying to be understanding of their situation. Once the 10-15 minutes has passed, we walked in again...AND OUR TABLE IS STILL OCCUPIED. Another staff approached us and we told her of our reservation, to which she asked us to wait. My fiancé asked if they could give us a text if our table is ready. She responded by saying it's not possible and it would be best if we could just stand outside of the restaurant to wait. We instead went to the nearest 7/11 to get some refreshments. After 30 minutes of wait, we went to the establishment again and when we asked for our table, one of the staffs seated us inside saying, "You can choose whichever table you want". Then let me ask you Howdy Grillhouse, what's the point in me making my reservation earlier?

The table that I had reserved was taken by another couple who came just minutes earlier than us. I was baffled and when asked, the employee just said sorry and that they're busy for the night. She gave us a menu and left. We would wait for close to another 30 minutes without our drinks or appetizers being served. Another staff would then came by to our table after asking if we would like for our food to be served🤦🏼 mind you again, in my previous conversation over WhatsApp with Sam, we agreed that the food would be served upon our arrival and it's already 9pm. It will take another 15-20 minutes and my fiancé approaching the counter that our drinks would finally make their ways to our table. Another 5-10 minutes for our appetizers and main courses to come at the same time. I'm pretty sure appetizers should be the first dishes that came, but hey I'm just a consumer.

FOOD...

best pork ribs I ever had in KUCHING!!!

I heard of this yummy pork ribs but never try. This time to celebrate Mother's Day, my sis had booked for dinner & finally I have the opportunity to visit this place. 😁

While entering the restaurant, the crews greet us with smile on their face & led us to our seat. The small act that left good impression to me was that as we were leaving after dinner, one of the waitress whom just passed by the door, saw us leaving, she hurried to the door & open for us(that time was quite busy for them as it was full of customer) 😄 really appreciate her great service to customer. 👍

We ordered fried squid & XXXL pork ribs. The fried squid is fresh, crunchy & scrumptious. After the squid, here come the main character... pork ribs. From the tempting appearance, to the frangrance smell of smoky meat, the meat is tender & the BBQ sauce goes really well with the meat. It is really finger's licking good~ 😋😋

As for drink, I ordered hot honey lemon & I would rate it 9/10, the best honey lemon drink i ever had!

Last but not least, the environment is clean & comfortable, a nice place to enjoy non-halal dinner. 😊

I enjoy dine in here because the services, environment & the food are all very nice. Thumb up~

Will pay another...