Kampar Restaurant — Restaurant in Philadelphia

I was a big fan of Sate Kampar, their old restaurant. I went all the time. I was so sad when it closed. But now they have this new place, which is different, but also incredible.

We started at the bar, with a signature cocktail and a samosa coated in paint-like rich and tangy sauces, a pile of chopped chives on top. Then, we ordered the chef's tasting at the table and everything was so good I forgot to take pictures because I was too excited to dig in. It featured familiar ingredients like noodles and beef and chicken and rice, plus things I'm not accustomed to eating, like goat kidneys and goat lungs.

Everything was great. Kampar's flavors balance perfectly. Sweet and savory and curry and cumin and spice--with tons of umami. Fragrant coconut milk shows up everywhere: in the rice, the braised beef, the tapioca dessert. Sweet and sour pickle-tang veggies cut through the richness and heat.

But what I find most impressive about Kampar is the variety of textures. Each dish has a unique mouth feel. Crunchy. Noodly. Creamy. Tender. Chewy. Crisp. I don't really know if this is the norm in Malaysian food, but I know it's delicious.

The service here is also top notch. All my interactions with the staff were friendly and welcoming. The host. The bartender. The servers. Everyone seems super happy to work here and self-expressed. The chef/owner made multiple visits to our table to tell us about the food. She also gave us a lesson in Malaysian history. She laughed with us and made is feel like old friends.

My only criticism is that the dining room is very loud. It was sometimes hard to hear my companions. So, if you go to Kampar, expect great food and service, an outstanding and magical culinary experience, but don't imagine you'll have long, deep and nuanced dinner conversation.

I'll be back again, no doubt. I'm already fantasizing about sitting at the bar and ordering their Ramly Burger. This place is a...

Let me start off by saying the food we ate here was quite good, HOWEVER, the prices and portion size are horrendous. My family—husband, mom and toddler, went here for dinner after scouring south Philly for halal eats. We liked the atmosphere of the restaurant and the waiters were very friendly and helpful. When we asked the waiter if the portions were enough for more than one person (the beef Randang is $18 a plate, so we really didn’t want to spend an extrodinary amount of money if we didn’t have to) and he said it was enough for 3 people. Ok, great! So we can order 2 meals and a couple satay sticks and everyone will be happy! Wrong. When the waiter brought the food out, I wanted to cry...and laugh at our stupidity of be duped so easily. The amount of food we got for $65 was shameful. In the midst of eating I said to myself, “looks like we’ll be going to McDonalds after this!” because there was barely enough food for the 3 of us! I honestly wouldn’t mind having smaller portion sizes IF the price wasn’t so high. $11 for a banana leaf filled with a scoop of rice and a boiled egg?! One scoop of rice?! That’s outrageous. I was expecting more of a meal for that price. Not a side dish. Although the food was pretty good, we absolutely will NEVER return to this place, and will advise against it unless you have the appetite of a bird and don’t mind throwing cash around. It’s a real shame too, because their food isn’t bad and is really unique, but I can’t help but feel...

8/31 - Ignore the menu that google shows, prices are very inaccurate. Might have changed by the time this post is read though.

Let me start off by saying that the food here is good! We had ordered the Sate Kajang Chicken, Sate Melaka Pork, the Rendang Daging, and 2 side orders of coconut rice. The meat was tender, spiced very well and delicious. This place is great if you want to mix it up with your restaurant choices!

First problem I had with this place is the service. The staff is friendly enough, but they're kinda lackadaisical and slow. We had been ready to order for about 10 minutes, before our server finally walked back over to our side (there was only 3 other tables served when we walked in). At this point, the only thing we had been served was warm tap water and no ice. After waiting another 20 minutes for our food, our order was wrong; they gave us the wrong sate. The good part is that the staff was friendly and helped fix the order.

Second problem is value. Ordering 5 sticks of sate is about 16-20 dollars. This isn't accompanied with any sides, just the peanut sauce (delicious btw). It would be nice to have some kind vegetable, or starch accompanied with their dishes. Since the menu we saw on google at the time was wrong, this was misleading in terms of...