One of the recent openings in town is Broom, at Jalan Sin Chew Kee. I’ve been seeing quite a bit of social media coverage on this eatery of late and I figured, why not give Broom a go. I was even more excited to drop by when I got to know that this was their second outlet, the first being at Taman Paramount – Broom Artisan Bakery & Kitchen @ Paramount Garden, PJ – Good stuff 😍 (Pork free) . I recall liking the food there and was soooo looking forward to experiencing the same feeling again.
Solely based on the various posts online, I can immediately tell that it would be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Unlike their first outlet, this one here occcupies 2 floors and is located right next to another popular cafe – The Breakfast Spot Breakfast Spot at Jalan Sin Chew Kee, KL (Pork free) and opposite one of my favorite cocktail bars – Pahit KL. I like this area, like the vibe and feel here, the old school charm it exudes. So, seeing another eatery pop up at this very stretch I fancy was yet another reason to give it a go.
Ooooo yes, certainly aesthetically pleasing. I liked it. They’ve definitely put alot of thought into it.
At the door, we were warmly greeted and ushered upstairs as ground floor was fully occupied. To place your order, you have to head downstairs to do so. They will not inform you of that fact unless you ask. If you keep waiting and waiting by your table for someone to take your order, no one will. You have to head downstairs.
They will also not inform you that during peak hours, food takes almost an hour to reach your table. I kid you not. We placed our order at 12.26 pm and was served our food at 1.15 pm. In most cases with eateries that have a waiting time exceeding 30 minutes, they’d usually inform you beforehand but not this eatery. This eatery do not care. There are many things they should inform us customers but failed to do so. I guess they think us customers do not work or have plans and that perhaps eating at Broom is a privilege ? 🤔
At first, I did not mind the wait but when it reached 30 minutes, I did ask the waiter upstairs to please check with the kitchen regarding our order. When a customer makes these sort of request, they usually want an update. Is it coming or did they forget my order? How long more was it going to take? No updates regarding the status of our dishes were given despite us asking. I do not think he even checked with the kitchen as he simply continued on with his work. Anyways, we continued patiently waiting until we noticed a table that came after us being served all their dishes. Huh?? Whatt??? One of the dishes they ordered were croissant with scambled eggs which was the exact same dish I ordered except rather than croissant, I opted for a sourdough bread. At this point, we were getting pissed. Not only did we wait so effing long and then having to see the table that came after us receive their dishes first…. what the hell is going on here laaaaaa???
Now, we were pissed. By then, it was already a good 40 minutes of waiting. As asking the waiter on the first floor was not helpful, my friend headed downstairs to speak to the manager? The manager was told of our predicament two different times and just like the waiter, did not bother checking with the kitchen. His reply to this issue was that food will arrive within 15 – 20 minutes. The second time around, obviously food did not arrive within said time but he did not care. Again, he mentioned that food will arrive in 15 – 20 mins. Man, some of the folks working here clearly need some retraining. I got the impression that the manager thinks certain task was beneath him. He simply did not care. As a customer, they sure did manage to make me feel like shit. Furthermore, service charge here is 10%. We paid RM 7.20 for a mostly shitty customer service, long waiting time, lukewarm food and etc. Something I honestly think we should not have had to pay.
No one apologized. No one cared accept for the philipino waitress. She apologized on their behalf and told us that she will inform the kitchen of this blunder. I do not know if she did or if it was just something to appease us but her coming to check on us and apologizing was nice enough.
Broom, the eatery looks nice and food, despite being lukewarm, tasted good. It is only your customer service that was bad. There are things you can do to make us customers lives easier which in turn will make your lives easier too. Lesser misscommunication, lesser issues and problems. There is a reason why other cafes and restaurants usually inform their customers beforehand that food will take 40 minutes to an hour to be served. I am sure you can figure out why.
Menu
Let’s Do Brekkie, RM 24 + Proudly Malaysian, RM 33 + Iced Chocolate, RM 15
This Iced Chocolate was the first item to arrive. I generally like my drink chocolatty and this one here hit the right spot for me. It included 80% Cellabaut Cocoa. Not too bitter but with pleasant hints of it.
On top of the almost an hour serving time, they also served us lukewarm food. After all that long wait, we did not even get warm food. Good thing food tasted good. So, okaylah. I did not bother getting their attention to request that they reheat my food because who knows…. they might take another hour to serve me 😵💫😵💫😵💫
Anyways, Proudly Malaysian was a dish I’ve had before at their first outlet in Paramount Garden and I recall loving it. I told my friend about it and he decided to give it a go. It tasted good here too. The Chicken Rendang was lovely. It had good flavor and the meat was tender. There was also a piece of Otak-otak and Acar which we enjoyed. The tricolored rice was a combination of white, yellow and orange rice which resembled biryani. It was a good choice to have with the rendang. The dish also included ulam, fish crackers, egg and sambal merah, hijau.
I went with Let’s Do Brekkie because I wanted something simple, not too heavy. This dish came with a choice of croissant or sourdough toast. I opted for a sourdough toast. So I was served a plate that included 1 piece of sourdough toast with scrambled eggs and a serving of butter. The turkey ham was an add-on. It would have been great if they served me a toast bread that was still warm, which was not the case here. Other than that, the dish was okay. The scrambled eggs was nice and eating it with the turkey ham was tasty.
Would I head back here? I dont think so. Not anytime this year. This whole episode made me feel shitty. I am a paying customer and all we wanted to know was how long for our dish to arrive. We enquired about it 3 times. If they actually did their job and communicated with the kitchen, they would have known something was not right. It did not feel good at all how they handled the situation. I need to forget about this episode. So, nope. I will not be back anytime soon.
Address: No. 4, Jalan Sin Chew Kee, Bukit Bintang, KL. (Next to The Breakfast Spot)
Opening hours: Mon, Wed – Sun, 8.30 am – 5.30 pm. Tuesdays Closed.
Contact num.: 012 – 277 5212
Signing out now, Ciao.
