Chef Ammar Xpress Souk Cafe — Restaurant in Subang Jaya

We’ve been to all three Chef Ammar restaurants in this row since they’ve first opened, first the tiny kebab shop many years ago, the fine dining steakhouse (now temporarily closed) and this nasi Arab restaurant (which has been having a snake line since after Ramadan 2022)

The kebab’s garlic sauce is too sour for me, but the meat itself is pretty good 2/5

The fine dining (when it was around) was exorbitant, but tasted better than we expected.

The nasi Arab… hmm I think every customer should understand that you’re eating Chef’s Ammar’s food, as in it’s his creation, and not expect it to be authentic Palestinian or Arab food. This is his take on his traditional food. The mouttabal we ordered was good, 5/5. The lamb mandi… had minced meat and mixed vege as garnish 🥲 the lamb, some perfectly moist, some a bit dry. If you like textures, I guess you get the best of both worlds. The rice is packed with cashew nuts, whole almonds, raisins, which was nice. We just couldn’t get over paying so much to have mixed vege on our nasi Arab. We really don’t like mixed vege.

Ordered iced mint lemon drink which came in a pretty big glass, but it was crazy sweet, we added ice and water 3x before it was actually edible. Oh, and they don’t serve hot water, only bottled water. This is extremely unfortunate because they do have hot tea, but when eating fatty food like lamb, it’s just better to down it with some plain hot water, which they don’t have.

All in all we paid RM90. One mouttabal (comes with one bread, RM19), one lamb mandi (RM48), one iced lemon mint (RM11? 12?), which came to around 78, but after tax and service charge, it came up to RM90. TBH this is quite expensive, which is why I think we had our expectations wrong. This is not a mere Arab food joint, this is Chef Ammar. Like how you would pay to eat Chef Wan’s food.

Chef Ammar happened to be there while we dined, and happily obliged when customers wanted to take pictures with him. He even asked some of them how the food was and generally all of them loved it and even brought their families all the way from Bangi, Sepang. Unfortunately, you might also be subject to other people’s instastory or tiktok as they take pictures and videos of...

First and LAST TIME for all

My malay boss and I went all the way from Cheras to Chef Ammar Xpress Souk Cafe in Subang Jaya, today, 22nd July 2020. We arrived at 12:00 afternoon with full of excitement and hungry stomach. I was happy to meet Chef Ammar (first time seeing him in person) outside of his café. He was wearing a pink shirt and I greeted him salam and he was very polite and gentleman enough to open the door for me and my boss to walk into the café. He left the cafe then. Guess he had some something on.

We were in a good mood, that was until we were hit with a few disappointments:

First, never mix Arabic tea with sugar or at least have the courtesy to ask whether do we like the tea to be mixed with sugar or not. Please take note on the sensitivity of other people who prefer only tea without sugar. Anyway, we did not make a fuss about the drink because this is our first time to the café and I personally do not want to leave a bad feeling with the staffs nor Chef Ammar on my first visit.

Then the food. Please refer to the pictures below. I ordered Maqlubah Lamb with rice (Pic 1 taken from menu) and my boss ordered Kabsah Lamb with rice (Pic 2 taken from menu). To our disbelief, they served us lamb chop with rice. I cannot believe that I am bringing my boss to a lamb chop rice café. This is a TV celebrity Chef’s cafe. This is Chef Ammar’s café! Is this a joke?

This is crazy. It cannot be so different from the menu. I do not mind to pay for the bill although they are many reviewers complaining that Chef Ammar’s café is overpriced. BUT please DO NOT MISLEAD me and my boss. The pictures from the menu are totally and insanely different from what you have served us this afternoon and look at the pictures yourself. What kind of lamb chop rice have you served us? (Pic 3 is Maqlubah Lamb with rice and Pic 4 is Kabsah Lamb with rice as claimed by your staff) We have eaten both dishes before elsewhere and never have we encountered any Arabic restaurant that serves these dishes with lamb chops!

We did express our concern with the...

A lovely neighbourhood restaurant. Very unassuming from the outside. We received a very warm welcome - the service staff held the door open for me as I approached the entrance and flashed a big smile as he greeted me. Was pleasantly surprised with the restaurant ambience too - it was clean (even the washroom), cozy, well lit and adequately decorated. Service staffs were attentive and anticipated our needs well. Kids arrived before me and had placed an order of 2 large pizzas to share - smoked chicken pizza & beef salami pizza along with 2 mango lassi. Verdict - pizzas were big, great for sharing and tasty while the lassi were delicious. We added to the order: Chicken mandi - delicious, chicken was flavourful and goes great with the gravy served on the side, the rice was tasty on its own (love the cashew & raisin in it). It was served with a side cucumber salad and a tomato sauce (chutney like). Shakshouka - tasty albeit a little too oily to my liking. Kids didn’t fancy this vegetarian dish but I like it. It’s an eggplant dish cooked with tomatoes (chunks / purée), generous amount of herbs and topped with 2 eggs. I specifically requested for the eggs to be well cooked (can’t be runny due to a dietary restriction) but was disappointed that yolk remained runny. However we pointed out to the service staff and he rectified it immediately. Excellent recovery service. :) Hummus with minced lamb - tasty. Kids and hubby enjoyed it thoroughly. My only complaint was - no pomegranate in it. The photo on the menu clearly shows it was decorated with pomegranate. :/ Mushroom soup - very tasty, fresh & creamy Chocolate milkshake - rated yummy by our 11 YO. :) Most of our orders were served with their signature Palestinian bread. It was a lovely accompaniment and goes well with our food. We enjoyed the meal. It’s a little pricey but not quite over the top. Will return to try their famous lamb...