Weekend Brunchin' in KL - Part 2: Acme Bar & Coffee

So a couple of months ago a friend and I decided to try Acme (or ABC, as it is sometimes called) at The Troika.  A lot of people had been telling me about it, and I knew it is a very popular place, so I made sure to make a booking.  We got there at 12.30 (the time of my reservation), only to be told that our table was not quite ready yet.  So we waited…and waited…and waited.  The couple in front of us (who had also made a booking) were also waiting.  We ended up waiting for a good 20 minutes before we were taken to our table.  Not a good start at all.

Anyway, we got down to ordering the food and decided to share a couple of starters.

From L-R: fried prawns; salted egg yolk chicken strips and a variety of bruschetta.

The tiny fried prawns were rather odd, I must say.  I think they were meant to be eaten whole - I.e. shells and all - but I don't think they were crispy enough for that to be done without fear of choking!

The salted egg chicken strips came highly recommended, but they were just OK, in my opinion.  The meat was rather tough, though anything covered in salted egg is fine by me!  

The middle bruschetta - comprising smoked salmon and scrambled egg - was rather good, simply because of the classic combination of flavours.  However, the other two (made up of olives, anchovies and feta, I think) were WAY too salty and truly quite inedible.

For my main course, I had beef tenderloin.

Beef tenderloin

Now, i don't mean to be rude, but doesn't that just look real messy and not particularly appetising?  I mean, the beef was just swimming in oil!  And there were those mushrooms tossed around it, plus that uneven streak of sweet potato mash really did not complement the look of the dish.  The beef itself was hard and tough (I know I had asked for it to be done medium-well, but that does not - and should not - equate to hard and tough).  

My friend had the smoked duck breast pasta, which she wasn't too pleased with either.  Apparently it was practically swimming in cream sauce which made it rather sickly.

Smoked duck breast pasta

For dessert we went for the sizzling brownie and oreo ice cream.  I have to say this was probably the best dish of the day.  I really enjoyed the unusual "charred" taste of the brownie paired with the sweetness of the ice cream.

Brownie

Sadly, however, the service at ABC was pretty bad.  The food took ages to arrive and we had to keep motioning for the waiter's attention to get served.  It also didn't help that several waiters did not understand English very well so speaking to them was a bit of a struggle.  Quite apart from that, during the meal I'd wanted to order a cake to take away (it was meant to be a gift).  I'd tried speaking to several waiters about it (but was unable to get my message across fully due to the language barrier) so I'd asked them to get hold of a manager for me.  This was not done, so I had to literally walk over to the main counter for assistance.  After much to-ing and fro-ing, a Malaysian lady came over to take my order.  She told me that she'd have to check what cakes were still available, but did not return for the next 20 minutes or so.  I then had to get up and go to the counter AGAIN to check what was going on.  I did eventually get my rainbow cake, but only after A LOT of hassle.  

As a result of the below par food and seriously below par service, I will not be going back to ABC again.  It was also very expensive (the meal was in total a couple of hundred ringgit and the cake alone was another couple of hundred).  

Rating: 3/10 

Acme Bar & Coffee: Unit G1 The Troika, 19 Persiaran KLCC, 50450 KL, Malaysia - +603-2162-2288 - www.acmebarcoffee.com