We had high expectations for the Friday night seafood buffet, 7 of us for a birthday celebration. To start the evening off we headed to Arthur’s bar & grill on the first floor for cocktails. The long passageway to Arthur’s is carpeted and it’s clearly a carpet that’s seen better days, rucked and raised in several spots. The ladies with heels in our party having to weave their way carefully to avoid tripping. Arthur’s itself is long due a makeover. I remember visiting when it first opened many years back and there has been no noticeable change in that time. We were the only folk there at 6.30pm and the place reeked of smoke. The place needs the soft furnishings and carpets replaced with materials that don’t absorb smoke and perhaps a smoke extraction system needs installing. Service, however, was top notch. En route to the Lemon Garden cafe, following drinks, the ladies needed to visit the nearest bathroom, that being outside Arthur’s on the first floor in the very odd and entirely deserted shopping atrium. Again, the whole area needs a complete over haul and smacks of faded glory with decrepit looking mannequins in what appeared to be abandoned retail outlets. The bathroom was even worse apparently. One stall only and in a bad state. Then the main event: again, excellent staff but hugely let down by the cramped interior, bright lighting and badly configured serving areas. The noise was deafening and the place felt more like a school canteen. The food, though satisfactory, was unfortunately not at a level to overcome the issues with the surroundings (the desserts a few years ago were much better quality) and for the price the overall experience was a let down. Apparently the adjacent bathrooms to the Lemon Garden weren’t much better and also lacked space. I’ve seen other comments which appear to mirror our experience and the managements response has been they will look to rectify shortcomings immediately. My two cents worth; the only way you can rectify these problems is by wholesale renovation, upgrading and repurposing of space. I wish them luck as the Shang in KL should be of a much higher standard. Much work is needed before we’d give it another go.
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