V88 Cafe & Bar @ Desa Park City - Not bad at all.

To be honest, I headed to V88 with low expectations. Why? Their low review/rating score on Google – an average score of 2.5/5 from 13 raters. They sure did rub some people the wrong way, huh?

I usually wouldn’t bother visiting but what caught my attention was that this cafe is run by the same folks behind Vintage 1988 in Petaling Street. I’ve visited Vintage several times over the years and my experience there has always been good, never had much issues. Things were smooth sailing. One would think V88 would emulate that. Hence why I was curious… why the low ratings?

First thing I noticed was that despite the low ratings, this cafe was fullhouse and it stayed that way all through my visit. As soon as a table empties, it was immediately occupied. There were customers waiting to be seated and etc.

This cafe sure is visually pleasing. It gives you a feeling like you are surrounded by greens? During peak hours, it is bound to get a tad stuffy, depending on which side you are seated on.

A number of reviews mentioned negative customer service experience. Ours were mostly pleasant. Despite being busy, they were attentive and helpful. Food arrived quickly too, within 10 minutes.

If the cafe is busy and mostly occupied, then you’d most probably be directed to sit at one of these tables. Can you imagine how uncomfortable it would be eating burgers and pasta at a table of this height? Desserts and drinks, sure but main meals – nope. So, we requested for a table change. Apparently there was a waiting line for that but lucky us, we only waited for 5 minutes. It would be nice if they could tell us of this option as soon as we entered the cafe rather than us being seated and then us deciding that we cant eat on this table. Then, having to catch their attention and telling them we would like a table change. It is a waste of time, especially when other customers are also requesting for the same thing. As there is a pattern there, might as well make it part of the seating option, kan? Then again, we were given a new table within 5 minutes and seeing how busy it was, it certainly was quicker than anticipated. So, this was not an issue for us but perhaps something they could look into 🤔🤔

Crispy Aloha, RM 24 + Truffle Aglio Olio, RM 25

This is a vegan dish. It was a plate of pasta + mushrooms + spinach, with a nice drizzle of truffle oil. The dish was simple, tasted good. In most cases, you’d get a ‘barely there’ taste of truffle oil. Here though, they sure give you lots of it. Every mouth you take, you’d be able to taste it. Nice.

This is a fried buttermilk chicken burger. The patty was a little different than other buttermilk chicken burgers I’ve had in the sense that the patty was crispy like a KFC chicken. I prefered eating it without the buns, honestly. It was not just a basic fried chicken, it was rather tasty. There was some addition of spices, you’d be able to taste it. The burger was pretty good. The burger buns were somewhat dry, perhaps some addition of sauce is necessary? The patty was dry and the buns were dry, I think solely depending on the coleslaw to provide the burger with some wetness is not sufficient, hence why we requested lots of chili sauce on the side. Adding the sauce made all the difference. For the fries, we requested for an upgrade. Rather than normal fries, we opted for Truffle fries instead. Similar to the pasta, the truffle oil drizzle was plenty here too. Each fries you munch on, you’d be able to taste it. It came servef in a generous portion too.

All in all, I had a good time. I honestly do not know why V88 has such low ratings/reviews. They were busy throughout the time of my visit, almost every table was fully occupied. Despite that, customer service was good. Besides some very minor issues, there was nothing overly bad that would repel me from revisiting.