29 Jalan Berangan, Kuala Lumpur
I wanted to like this place. It opened some time ago in KL to as much hype as any new venture of Paolo Guiati’s, ex-Neroteca, would be expected to have. We genuinely liked Neroteca back then; it was a chilled out space at the ground floor of Somerset Apartments in Jalan Ceylon, away from the madding crowd, had free wifi, lots of Italian wine and beer, decent Italian food (for KL anyway), and real pig. Bar Italia seemed to be taking a page out of that book. At first glance, the swanky but understated shophouse lot on Jalan Berangan (a stone’s throw from Changkat Bukit Bintang) appeared promising.
To cut to the chase, not only do I dislike this place now, I dislike it so vehemently that I am breaking one unsaid rule of Popagandhi.com: to use my site as a platform to complain at length about it. The quick verdict: the food sucked. Bad food is not criteria enough for me to devote such a long space to this. I guess you can put it down to this: Bar Italia had horrible food AND the worst service I’ve ever had in my entire, entire life. Period.
I won’t spend much time dwelling on the food. There were plenty of huh? moments. The menu was as insipid as the wine, but with a table of 8 we ordered, I suppose, a sampling of just about everything. Pastas, lasagnas, fish and meat mains. The food was an absolute let-down — nothing one would expect of ex-Neroteca talent. My fish main gave me the impression that I was better off eating fish and chips from a Malaysianized Western stall. Their pastas tasted of not very much. Fine.
[Reading some forums and blogs, and comments left by Bar Italia defenders (who sound suspiciously like each other), it seems like anybody who complained about the food was told, "you just don't know what Italian food really is!" I write and photograph food for a living; I'm supposed to. But if only the food was my primary complaint!]
Bar Italia has the worst service in KL, which is not an easy throne to ascend to so quickly in several months. You essentially have to out-suck the inattentive, impatient, incompetent and aggressive service levels at all the other restaurants in Malaysia, which is a fair number of them. But that was the one thing Bar Italia did very well.
How well? We weren’t sure anybody spoke English in that place. For an upmarket establishment, that is unacceptable. It wasn’t even like anybody spoke Malay. Service staff chattered to each other in Cantonese, mostly ignoring customers. The Italian dude (was it Paolo?) spoke English, but was more or less incoherent — it wasn’t the accent, it was just how he flitted from table to table mid-sentence without completing any, and went off without properly understanding what anybody was saying.
Since the menu was so badly put together, most of us came away not properly understanding what our options were, and needed assistance. Assistance that wasn’t rendered. Simple questions like “so which pasta has which sauces, tomato or cream?” were greeted with blank stares by the waitress. Did she speak English? Did she speak Malay? Maybe she’s was Burmese? Nepali? Maybe she really just didn’t understand English? Who didn’t even know how to say “I don’t know, I’ll ask,” so we had to ask for her. “Can you get someone who knows to serve us?” Another long, blank stare. It was the same with every other waiter, including Italian dude. Questions were cut short, requests (even for water, or the bill) either never arrived or took half an hour to, nobody was interested in doing business. Dumb (and I mean this in a literal, not-talking sense) waitress went back to chattering in a corner in Cantonese, probably complaining about all her customers. Great — if only she knew we all understand Cantonese too.
Just as we thought the nightmare was over, the bill came and had an additional entry for 80 ringgit for 3 glasses of wine we never drank. A simple “can you look through this again” request was pointedly rejected by Italian dude, for no good reason other than him saying “no”, flatly. We’d tried to take the bad food and terrible service in our stride all night, but this was too much. Only when 8 angry people glared at him did he abruptly throw a hundred ringgit back at us… literally.
No matter how bad food was anywhere, I don’t think I’ve ever felt “I’ll never come back here ever again and you don’t deserve to call this a restaurant”. Well, I’ve found that place, and Bar Italia — 29 Jalan Berangan — is it.
17 Comments
I never got a chance to visit Bar Italia (still wasn't done when I left KL), but you're definitely not the first to complain about the service.
For awfully grouchy old waiters (that counts as part of the charm), there's always the coliseum! too bad it's halal now. Pork chops, no moaaar.
Thanks for the post. I met up with two of my friends at Bar Italia for our quarterly get together and found the whole place quite chic and a great example of the sort of refurbishment that can happen to an old shophouse. We ordered dishes based on the owner’s recommendations.I’m not the type to be dramatic but sheer arrogance and bad food and service cannot go unnoticed.
So this is really 'mai hiam si bei pai, ai hiam ka na sai'…. !
Kuala Lumpur, 7th of August 2009;
Hi to everyone!!!,
Is Max, here, Paolo Guiati partner, ex-owner of Neroteca and actual Chef owner of Bar Italia,
Is very nice from all of You think and talk of Us in this “wonderful world of blog”!!!!…even so bad is okay no problem…we use to that as well!!!…and as a famous song say “they more they talk, more I succeed!!!”
But let me explain something to all of You;
Food and Hospitality is not virtual as it is a blog, is about humanity, love and passion, all things that lack deeply on the net…human is also prone to make mistake, as we made in the past, especially on the opening, is not cause We bring Nerovivo and Neroteca to a top level that we open Bar Italia to be the same, sometimes human (Us…) follow different path and different desire, that's Bar Italia, a concept Bar that in few more weeks will be complete, with beautiful (and real people that can forgive our mistakes…) and lovely atmosphere as always is been in the past,
Me and Paolo We travel and live in the World opening and selling successfull business since more then ten years already, and with 20 years of experience and appreciation from customer We got already our proud very high, and not only cause We are Italian (as many people believe…) but cause We have passion and We are everyday for You serving and caring…
If maybe someone got bad experience is cause maybe also is not been nice to Us!!!!….is not always cause You pay us that we have to be nice with You!!!…
You always give a second chance to people…and even three…cause again mistake is human, as long as You repair…I am writing this letter at midnight after a beautiful night with happy friends and lovely customer…and I read Your blog just before 7pm and keep me so occupied in my mind to reply to You…
I have a very good customer from Neroteca, cannot say the name sure, he love me, he love my food, i don't see him in Bar Italia until only last week, when I ask to him why, he told cause read a blog saying that we been horrible…so I ask to him, “why You believe that”?,..You know me since long time, and now You believe virtual people that You don't know about me?…he was sorry, and very happy for the night that he and his friends have…
So again, let's get real and think human, go outside in the real World and be human cause again nobody is perfect, mistake is human…
Sorry also for my english…but again, mistake is done by human…
Ciao and Love to All
Max and all the Bar Italia crew…
Max, thank you for taking the time to write here. We were very excited to try Bar Italia as we have been silent fans of yours for some time.
Yes, those of us who are involved/interested in the restaurant industry know about the importance of second chances, especially for new outlets. Maybe the restaurant needs more time… I'm willing to give it that. I just wish you could fix that terrible service, because such things as what I just described (and every bit true) are unacceptable in this industry. Good luck.
Max, the power of technology is real . Bad food is real , bad service is real , inability to swallow your pride , own up and apologise graciously … is also very real.
Word of mouth ( or word of bytes for that matter ) is real … and travels fast, thankfully faster nowadays because of … hey , the power of technology.
good luck.
Oh my god…this guy is the worst owner ever…and oBviously he is not trained to deal with a complaint. What sort of nut job says…..give 2nd chance or maybe 3!!!!!!!!!!hahahahahah….so funny that I feel like I should visit the restaurant and ask the crew so many questions about their menu for like 30minutes then order sky juice and garlic bread and pay with coins……Max and all the Bar Italia crew…if any of you are reading this please note that the path to a successful business is not passion and IGNORANCE but it's more of passion and politeness and Customer Services…..even Mamak shops are practicing that these days…no reason why you should be oblivious to these basic rules of starting an establishment….I mean…hahahaha…..here is my suggestion…..hire a local dude who can speak English….make sure you pay him well which means he would have been from another established restaurant……at least when your customer wants information he would be able to provide it based on his experience…..why do you hire a bunch of people who cannot speak English at all??? Really now??? From Adrianna’s post I can only imagine the crew were a bunch of Chinese girls who probably grew up speaking very little or no English…..you need to change your crew…..or else change the location of your restaurant…..Jalan Alor is just a stone throw away….you can actually carry the pots and pans and run over…..In Jalan Alor people will probably adore your Amocan look and ignore your rude services and awful meals ……
God bless these idiots,
Jason D.
max makes pt that guests have to resp d restauranter too. fine, if u did not think we were worth ur time. throw us out and dont take our money.
Sorry mate. I've been to Bar Italia, three times in total, which is the amt of chances you wanted, and it was horrible all three times. If you sit upstairs in the garden, just forget trying to get anything. A pot of coffee took 45 minutes the first time. The bill took an hour the next time. And your waitresses are so sullen and sulky, and they know nothing about the food! They didn't even know about something as simple as olio for God sakes!
It's a damn shame the service and the food is awful (except the gelato which is divine,I'll give you that), because otherwise the place is absolutely fabulous. Your corkage prices are ridiculous, and your staff especially Paolo walk around with sheer arrogance and no humility or professionalism, whatsoever. The first time I was there, he screamed at a female waitress in front of the entire floor of diners and stripped her apron off her, while she ran to the back, visibly upset. How is that in any way a world of 'love and passion' as you seem to think Bar Italia is. If you want to sack/tell your staff off, do it away from me and my guests who are trying to eat our dinner.
Shape up or ship out, seriously.
“If maybe someone got bad experience is cause maybe also is not been nice to Us!!!!….is not always cause You pay us that we have to be nice with You!!!…”
Seriously? Why are you in the service industry? Disappointing that your chain has worked elsewhere… I've not given Bar Italia a try, but seeing that comment alone, tells me maybe I probably will never give it a try.
I just curiously clicked on a link my dissatisfied friend posted on facebook to see if any of his claims could be justified.
After reading the initial complaint / review of your restaurant I thought, maybe alot of what was written were motivated by angst and alcohol and hence could have been a little exaggerated; I always would wanna listen to both sides of the story.
I was simply shocked by your ridiculous reply.
You could have simply apologized and said you'll improve (and obviously you'll HAVE to improve). Maybe even challenge the critiques to come give your bar Italia another try, amaze them!! Change their point of view!! Make them go: hey maybe I was being a little harsh, this place isnt that bad!! Instead of saying ya ya papaya ..my bad english …. bla bla bla …human this human that …
Reading on made me almost puked in my mouth: how could you even uttered or type in this case (If maybe someone got bad experience is cause maybe also is not been nice to Us!!!!….is not always cause You pay us that we have to be nice with You!!!…) I guess I'll take my money somewhere else where the service and food is good cause we're paying good money here!!! My goodness, this is so hilarious I'm just gonna stop. I could go on but really there's no point.
PS: you're not explaining yourself you are tryin to justify your ill-mannered service, quality of food and your arrogance, which will reinforce what the critiques said and keep customers away.
If you get bad reviews there must be some truth to it especially when there's so much, have the wisdom to accept them and strive to improve.
Good Luck.
hmm…thats weird, though i agree the food sucked, we got to our table and got served quickly sometime back in august. But you are right about the service being slow, but we got a waitress who could speak english :P
anyways, yeah,….food sucked, guess only thing i enjoyed were the olived and rocket salad. something i could buy at cold storage too !
I havent try neroteca, been meaning too. soon. :)
Paolo (the owner) said, “This is how we do it in Italia” (and proceeded to walk away) in response to a person's complaint about the food in Bar Italia.
After reading your entry about their service in Bar Italia, I guess this is also how they do it in “Italia”. I guess “Italia” must be a pretty shitty country by Paolo's standards then.
It's one thing being a proud and arrogant foreigner in another country, it's another being proud, arrogant, stupid, while quoting your beloved “Italia” for all the world to know.
Who can blame them anyways, coming from “Italia”, a country known for a PM who cavorts with 18 yo, fascism, and racist fans in football. Yes, that is how it's done in “Italia”.
Wow. Do you speak English? You must be a very good chef to be able to succeed as you did and not being able to be coherent in English. Props up to you Italiano.
This is so interested! Where can I find more like this?
Have u tried Giovino's on Changkat? It's run by a much nicer person, Giovanni, opened last month
Some very good stuff in that post. I just facebooked this and I hope my web buddies come and check this out. If others read this you could share this with with your online friends. A great way to say thank you to the web owner of the site.