We've been going to La Risata in Medan Damansara, KL on and off for years, and it has been consistently good, though it was truly excellent when it used to be just a little single shoplot. But even after it expanded it remained pretty good, until now.Four of us had dinner there two Fridays ago. The place was packed, which we thought a good sign and service was ever-present. We were quickly seated, despite not having a reservation, and drinks came quickly. Our dinner companions who had already arrived warned us not to order the draft beers as "they taste really awful" so we went with the house wine instead, which was okay. We ordered a pizza to share as a starter, along with the aubergine starter. The pizza was excellent; the aubergine not.But the main courses were the main disasters. I ordered the lamb shank, which was truly bad. The sauce had obviously been made separately from the meat; the meat had been boiled in what must have been plain water and then plated up with the sauce. The meat was watery, tasteless and hardly fell off the bone, the way a true lamb shank would. The sauce was plain brown sauce with water added, and with four (yes, exactly four) tiny slivers of carrot. Absolutely nothing else. It couldn't be eaten at all, and I had to order a serving of plain bread to stave off hunger pangs.My dinner companions order a rib eye (pale, rubbery and tasteless) and the house special pasta, which tasted okay but was hardly anything to shout about. The sad thing was despite the ever-present service staff who came quickly enough to clear our plates, not one asked us how come we had so much food left on our plates. Which tells me that no one in La Risata really cares.And that's a real shame, considering how highly this restaurant used to be regarded.
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