Putera Puteri — Restaurant in London

If you like to waste money and feel cheated, you think it's fair game to pay 10% service charge for clowns to serve you, you have very low culinary expectations where the menu is pure fiction, don’t mind eating with unhygienic hands or enjoy public toilets, this is the place for you.

We saw this place a few months ago and thought we'd try it when we were really in the mood for Malaysian food. The day we went, it was quite empty but as it was a very hot July Saturday lunchtime, we thought that might be the reason it’s not crowded…

BUT probably the real reason is that the food was quite carelessly made, extortionately overpriced, meanest portions and the service was outstandingly sub-standard.

We ordered: 2x Apple Juice (£3 each) – it had the same taste you get straight from those big, cheap, long-life cartons.

1x Roti Sarang Burung (£8.95) "Cooked in a doughnut shape filled with a sunny side up egg served with dhal and sambal" – the roti was very greasy and soggy and didn't have the proper flaky texture, the egg-white was left too raw and the whole thing was not very hot, it was served with a small amount of plain dhal, but no sambal.

1x Sambal Udang (£14.95) "Malaysian all time favourite chilli prawn in our slow cooked chilli sauce" – the prawns were the springy medium-sized, ready peeled, frozen ones with little flavour, the sauce tasted very like the shop bought jar I sometimes use for a quick flavour hit at home for a mid-week stir-fry!

1x Kangkung Belacan (£10.95) “Morning glory stir-fried in a spicy chilli shrimp paste” – I always order this dish whenever I see it on a menu, but this was such a tiny portion for the price, the plate diameter was about 7” and was not full. On the positive side it tasted nice.

The waiter didn’t look very confident in his job as we were ordering, and he missed entering the Sambal Udang on his tablet. Fortunately I was carefully listening to him repeating the order back and that it didn't sound right, but as he was not coherent in the first place, we went up to the manager afterwards to check our order, and we were right.

I then asked the manager if there was anywhere to wash my hands, as this is an "authentic" Malaysian eatery, washing hands to eat with hands would be very normal, he then pointed to the sanitiser by the till, to which I must've looked aghast, the thought was disgusting! Once he realised I wasn’t going to be fobbed off, he then brought a water jug & bowl set the kind you would automatically get on your table in Malaysia! Why didn’t he think to offer this first considering we are about to eat roti? They do not have their own restrooms to wash in, surely they don’t expect people to go to the underground public toilets outside where they could bump into crack addicts?!

The waiter brought our juices followed by a Roti Canai and the Roti Sarang Burung, we pointed to the Roti Canai and told him we didn’t order that, the manager then came over and took the plate away.

Then I realised that the Sambal Udang might not come with rice, so we checked the menu and again we had to go up and order that as extra (£3.50), surely they should have mentioned the main dishes don’t come with rice?

After we had finished, my partner went up to the till to pay and as we don't tend to question restaurant bills when we pay contactless, we paid and left.

Then I asked what the bill total was, we realised that we had just paid nearly £60 for a snack! (£59.73 to be exact.) When we checked the receipt, they had added £9.95 for the Roti Canal which was their mistake and they knew we hadn’t eaten it. We went back and questioned the manager about it and he claimed that their system couldn’t do refunds. He offered to give us the old roti to take away! What an insult.

Eventually he gave us £10 in cash from the till, but only after many awkward minutes of...

What a shamble of a place. I hardly ever comment on a restaurant but this one i had to. I came for dinner on the 21st of July 2024.

I waited to be seated asked if the free table next to the fan was OK to sit on, they didn't answer so the second time upon repeating myself in a louder voice to be heard and not ignored they said yes. After sometime reading through the menu they then shifted us to the next table stating the cupboard may need to be accessed and therefore we needed to move. Which we understood and did although it would have been nice to be told about upon seating there.

Thereafter as we ordered, a nasi lemak with beef rendang for myself and my pregnant wife ordered mee goreng mamak.

I was asked by the waiter to think about changing my wife's order as the stir fries will take a lot longer like 30 minutes as they were having backlog delays. We said we're fine to wait and she can share mine till her's arrive.

Then when my food was cooked it was offered to 2 tables before realising its for me, as he was randomly then asking tables. Anyway, upon my food arriving more quickly as he suggested, i now know why. My food was luke warm to cold at best and the rice was completely cold. However, my the flavour was OK but the anchovies seemed cooked many hours ago and just warmed up again for serving.

Also, after 40 minutes, the waiter then decided to tell us my wife's order cannot be cooked!!! They did apologise. However, after waiting 40 minutes when knowing there were delays due to some faulty issues is unacceptable.

My gripe is that when you knew you had issues with the machine, why take people's order just seeing the money aspect and thereafter 40 minutes passing, you decide to then say sorry. Then after failing to provide decent customer experience leaving some hungry for 40 plus minutes you then ask the full balance be paid for those that ate. I would have thought for the inconvenience one would have the common decency to apply a discount for the appalling experience. Non whatsoever given.

My only advice is that there are plenty of other Malay restaurants around, save yourself the stress and just go elsewhere for a decent meal where everyone get their food amd none...

Having eaten at this restaurant before, I was keen to go back for some more of their rendang and roti. A free-standing sign outside the entrance read "please wait to be seated". Dutifully, I stood by the sign and waited. A middle-aged, English looking and speaking man in a white shirt (which I later found out from a member of the waiting staff was the manager) shouted across to me (he was leaning on a chair at the time by one of the outside tables); he had evidently assumed I was not hearing impaired and was English speaking. However, with the noise of the rush hour traffic (it was approximately 5.15pm), I miss heard him and thought he said to wait (apparently he had said "go ahead in", or something similar. He then spoke again, this time louder, with no attempt to come closer, and with an expression that came across as one of annoyance, saying "do you want to sit inside or outside" , to which I replied "inside". He then led me to a table saying "you can sit here", and left me. Shortly after, a young asian member of staff in a black shirt took my order; thankfully, he was very pleasant and attentive. While eating, the manager in the white shirt reappeared and gathered the waiters and waitresses together and spoke to them at considerable length about a customer's tab and how to treat customers which was loud enough that it was impossible for me to ignore. Fortunately, I was eating alone and not trying to have a conversation with a dinner date. Sadly, although the rendang is good, it is not good enough to make me want to go back to this restaurant again. I do not appreciate being shouted at from across a restaurant so that I have to strain my ears to hear and raise my voice in response so as to be heard. Perhaps the sign "please wait to be seated" should be changed to "please wait to be...