Chakri Palace @ Kuala Lumpur City Centre, Kuala Lumpur

Located on the fourth floor of Ramlee Mall in KLCC is a restaurant that needs no introduction, Chakri Palace. This restaurant has been around for a number of years now and has been featured in a number of International Food Festivals as well as magazines. It seems that every print media praises this restaurant but in the cyber world, there is so much negative comments about this restaurant which is both around it's food as well as price. This is surely interesting as these renowned print medias should be reporting the truth and not some advertisement and those bloggers in the internet have nothing to gain from their blogs except sharing their views. To most of you who have been following my blogs, I am sure that you are aware that I report the actual experience and never articulate false impressions about any of the restaurants I visit. As such, I was very keen to explore this place and today my brother and I head here to check out the place for ourselves.

The Entrance on the far end of Ramlee Mall

Just Arrived and about to order

Being in KLCC, I expected this place to be much more grander in design but was disappointed. This could also be because the decor was old and definitely needs some serious renovation or refurbishment. Bearing the rental cost in KLCC, I would say that they have a relatively large restaurant space but it seemed too cramped and that again must be contributed by them having a buffet line for the Buka Puasa which starts around dinner and that arrangement had occupied a relatively large space internally.  All their staffs were Thai nationals and they spoke good English. I only had a problem at the entrance as I had made prior reservation and the person who had taken my reservation over the phone a few days ago spelled my name wrongly and that caused a small confusion which is negligible. We were then ushered to our table that was located at the far end of the restaurant. 

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The Menu

The above are just some of their pages from the menu. They surely have a wide array of offerings. What impressed me further was that they had an almost repetitive menu for vegetarians comprising of almost the entire offerings except that the meat be replaced with vegetarian mock meat which I felt was great. On the contrary, compared to many of the Thai restaurants out there, their prices were really high and were on par with places like Ayuthiya in Jalan Damansara or De Chiangmai in Sungai Buloh. It is evident that their target market is purely the upper middle class, the affluent and foreigners. 

Coca Cola @ RM 6.90

We ordered a Coca Cola each and it was priced at RM 6.90 . Initially I wanted to have some plain water but all they serve are bottled mineral water so I thought that I would rather have a Coke instead. 

Khaw Ob Sapparod @ RM 18.00

We started of the meal with the above Pineapple Fried Rice with Shrimps. This comes in two sizes, small and large. Small is good for one and the large is good for four. The small one is priced at RM 18.00 and the large one at RM 55.00 . We ordered the small one and it was really small. I would have expected the Fried Rice to be spicy but this one was sweet, really sweet as it had loads of pineapple and raisins inside. I would not say that it was bad but I just felt that it was not as good as it should be. I would only rate this dish at 6/10 .

Steamed Fragrant Rice @ RM 3.90

Their Plain White Rice comes at a fixed price of RM 3.90 per serving. Please do note that they do not serve these in a bowl but serve it from a huge pot. So if you are thinking of taking a small serving first and then topping up if you felt hungry, then that would be another RM 3.90 and so it is best to ensure that you have taken the right amount in the first instance. 

Poo Ja @ RM 11.90 / pc.

Poo Ja @ RM 11.90 / pc,

This is a very interesting dish. Although it may seem like a crab dish, it is very much a poultry dish which is served in a crab shell. This is a Crab Shell that has been stuffed with a mixture of minced chicken, crab meat and egg yolk and has been deep fried. It is sold per piece and it is priced at RM 11.90 per piece. As it was the two of us, we then ordered two of this. It is served together with sweet chili sauce and the method of eating is to simmer the sweet chili sauce on the meat before having it. I must say that this was good and a very creative concept. The minced chicken blended well with the crab meat and all three were held in place by the egg yolk. I would surely rate this dish at a 10/10 .

Tau Hu Phad Gung Hom @ RM 18.50

This is one of their recommended Bean Curd dishes. It comprises of Fried Japanese Tofu, minced Prawn and Shitake Mushroom in a light sauce. To me, this was a very average dish and it did not have a great flavour to be voted as the chef's recommendation. Even the light sauce was flat and there was no eminent taste that emanated from the dish. And for the price of RM 18.50, there were only five pieces of the Japanese Tofu which I think was a tad too expensive. I would only rate this dish at 5/10 .

Gaeng Phed Ped Yang @ RM 21.00

The above dish is their Thai Red Curry with Roasted Duck. Honestly, this dish was not good. Even the duck tasted very odd. I have tried this dish in Thailand and it was lovely. I would not recommend this dish to anyone. It was a total disappointment and a waste of RM 21.00 . I would rate this dish at 2/10 only, and that too I feel is very generous.

Chakri Tom Yam Gung Mae Num @ RM 21.90 per bowl

This is another one of their Chef recommended dishes and this truly deserves the recommendation. This dish is the Sour and Spicy Lemongrass Soup (Tom Yam) which comes with a King Prawn, a few pieces of squid and mushrooms. You have a choice of either the Red Southern Style Soup like the above or the clear Lanna Style Spicy Soup. Although on the high side of price at RM 21.90 per bowl, I felt that it was truly worth it although I would not spend that kind of money every day. The Soup was not overly spicy but the flavours were just perfect. This is definitely a dish that I would highly recommend here and I would give this a rating of 10/10 .

Generally, this place is definitely expensive as we spent RM 170.00 for just the two of us over a single lunch. However, the food is not all good. There are some dishes that stand out and there are some that are really bad and hence if you are a first timer here, you can tend to be totally disappointed if you end up ordering the wrong dishes and at the same time, they could sweep you off your feet if you order the right dishes. One thing that I must say here is that their staffs are all super slow and it can take them as long as 25 minutes to bring the bill and another 20 minutes to return the change. This also applies to the food delivery. If you have all the time to sit relaxed and have a decent meal, then this place is suitable where else if you are looking for a quick meal on the fly, don't ever come here as they work at snails speed.  

Address: Lot 417 B, Level 4, Suria KLCC, 50088 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Opening Hours: 1200 - 2200 Daily

Telephone: +603 2382 7788

Website: http://www.chakri.com.my/