An Evening at Madam Kwan's

I have heard so much about Madam Kwan's, passed by it countless times during my visits to 1-Utama and only now have I had the chance to visit.

It was our usual Friday date night and my partner wanted us to eat at 1-Utama so that we can collect One Card points (to convert to parking fees). I am not much of a shopper, hence my points are rather low.

We were undecided where to eat until we chanced upon Madam Kwan's as we ascended via escalator to the second floor.

It was a busy night but we got a table soon enough. I must say that service was rather disappointing as the wait staff looked as if they would rather be somewhere else. It took awhile for our orders to be taken.

For drinks, my partner had the Lychee and Lemon Cooler.

His madam selected the Lemongrass Mojito.

My partner was hankering for fried rice and his wish was granted that night. No complaints from him and I assume that the fried rice must be good. 

It came with some cili padi and you know what happened to it 😎

I had the Nasi Bojari, described as "Madam's tri-colored rice with assam prawns, beef rendang and deep fried chicken drumstick". I noted the "TM" sign (trademark not Twilight Man) after the name of the dish. So this recipe is trademarked?

To me, the taste of the rice was rather mild. I was expecting to taste some sort of spices and I thought it was quite plain. The deep fried chicken was unremarkable (and dry) and the assam prawns were just all right.

The beef rendang was passable, I would have preferred them in tender chunks rather than all disintegrated like that. So you could say that I was a little disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too high.

Since we were very hungry, I also ordered the Madam's Starters for 2. The starter came after we were halfway through our mains >.<

What you have is 3 deep fried chicken wings, 3 deep fried dumplings, 3 otak-otak and 3 chicken satay. I detected a strong taste of five spice powder in the chicken wings (perhaps too much). The dumplings were quite oily and soggy, so I did not enjoy it.

The otak-otak did not leave much of an impression but the satay saved the day. It was well seasoned and I loved the thick peanut sauce.

The starter is quite ample, perhaps better for 3 persons (so you get an item each) and since it filled us up (including our mains), we did not order desserts.

We came back the following Friday (because I wanted to taste the Nasi Lemak) and I am afraid that it's not going to make me come back.

I have read some good reviews and not so good reviews and I do understand that quality control in the kitchen and consistency in the quality of the dishes served can be a challenge.