Al-Qasar: New BEST Arab Place in Cyberjaya.

FOE's favourite lecturers. Cause we're so kind and generous. And
don't scribble the students reports that much before it flies out the window.

And another one. Kinder one.

Thanks people, for stopping by and looking through my posts for the next best place to take the family. I find writing very therapeutic, and I am glad I could help, even if you just skim through the headlines. I used to write about my cat Koko, and she had a big fan-club going, but she ran out on me when she found out I was writing behind her back. I would love to write about Islam, but I am not learned and would probably implicate myself. I would love to write about my research but three of my papers got rejected in the past and the scars are just drying up. And if I wrote about my life experience, I would probably end up in court or someone's hit list. So lets talk about food instead~~

This next restaurant just baffles me, in the highest sense of the word. I am in turmoil and I am confused. But as an outrageously feminine woman, I need to unravel my confused mind via some complex nouns and FFT transforms in order to see a clearer picture of what the confusion is all about.

Steeping into Al-Qasar is like stepping into an Arab soap opera setting. The place itself is quite spectacular. A visit would propel you into an Arab palace complete with symmetrical arches and water fountain. If a flying carpet suddenly flung me in the air or a squad of belly dancers broke into song, I wouldn't blink an eyeball nor will BP be affected. Hanging from the center of the ceiling is a chandelier that looks ancient middle-eastern-Turkish. The chairs are wide and hard with cushions to lean on. Deco-wise, Al-Qasar makes other restaurants in Cyberjaya look like car wash centres.

Foodwise though -- pretty amazing. The makhzoon lamb was crazy delicious. The humus beiruti made us lick our fingers. My kids fought over the left-overs I brought home of the chicken-baked-in-bread dish -- I can't recall the sophisticated name. Miza was so impressed she vows never to set foot in Saba' again. I wouldn't be so cruel. Saba' has been good to me. But Saba' needs to step up a little now.

The chicken baked in bread dish.
BEFORE

AFTER.

Then what.is.the.problem?

It's the service. It sucked big time. But because the food literally tornado-ed us away, I gave it a second, third and fourth chance before I even wanted to write this review. I can honestly say on an average of 4 visits we were lucky with service 1 time. Thats a 25% probability of achieving a passing satisfaction rate at Al-Qasar. And I did everything on the mental checklist to grab the waiters attention: take out camera, wave hand, smile, act like I'm in a hurry and finally, pull bengang face. Food arrived at a rate of 1 dish per half hour, and drink  (read: just warm water) arrived before we were about to leave. At the second visit, food did not arrive at all, it disappeared like the MH370 and they told us to come back later. I wanted to flood them with my limited repertoire of French words, but I couldn't risk being banned from the place.

Chicken makhzoon

Lamb makhzoon. The meats came in the foil and was so tender.

Yesterday, when I told my husband the girl at the kitchen cabinet store pulled a sulky face at me, he said we'll do our cabinets elsewhere (that was before the ridiculous quotations arrived in email). But I would say Al-Qasar is an exception---the waiters can pull all the sulky face in the world, the cashier can reject your stained ten ringgit note and wave it in your face, and the manager can tell you to leave because your baby is pooping and howling, but you'd still come crawling back for more. Awesome food Al-Qasar. Please just be gentle with us. We Malays don't do kasar-kasar. We are peace-loving people you know.

The humus that captured my heart.
Humus beiruti. It runs out of stock frequently too.

Al-Qasar
Cyberjaya Street Mall

Cleanliness: A
Food: A
Price: A (appropriate)
Satisfaction level: B
Service: F