I went to Klm Lian Kee my first night in Kuala Lumpur. The mature female waitress who served me was very friendly and helpful, and spoke pretty good English. As I am a hardcore vegetarian, I asked her to recommend a vegetarian entrée with lots of tofu and green vegetables. She suggested that I order a small vegetarian clay pot with steamed rice. As I was very hungry, I also ordered a small veggie hot and sour soup along with a Royal Tiger, a dark beer. After ordering, we talked for a bit about my itinerary and places to relax in Malaysia. After somebody else brought me my food, she disappeared.

The Clay Pot with tofu was better than average and the dark beer was very tasty, but the hot and sour soup was the worst I've had in recent memory - very watery and hardly any taste. I decided to inform the waitresses about the tasteless soup, but apparently they didn’t understand me, so I insisted that the manager come to my table and hear my opinion - I insisted that either he or one of his young waitresses taste the soup. All he had to do was acknowledge my opinion but instead he just smiled and made excuses. In essence, he said it's hard to prepare a veggie hot and sour soup with any taste. Of course, he didn’t dare sample the soup. So I kept complaining to no avail as he took the soup away. Ok, no problem!

After finishing my dinner, I called over a young waitress to bring me the bill. With a smile on her face, she announces that the bill is 1000 - I was a little pissed off and humored at the same time, so I asked in a rather loud voice (making sure everybody in the restaurant would hear me) is that in ringits, baht or dollars? Now it was time for me to teach this young girl a lesson, so I insisted that manager hear about his waitress’s poor attempt at humor and totally unprofessional conduct. I was really enjoying myself at this point as I played the role of the indignant customer at a restaurant which didn’t have a clue about customer service and relations. I requested that he reprimand his waitress for her unprofessional conduct but he started making excuses again, saying that none of these girls have any training. I told him in no uncertain terms that if she was my employee, I would fire her on the spot without any hesitation, put her on probation or at the very least give her lecture on proper etiquette and customer protocol.

While I’m blowing off steam with the manager, all the waitresses are smiling or laughing at my antics - after all I’m just a dumb tourist, here today gone tomorrow. The perpetrator had the biggest smile of all, but it was quite obvious that he didn’t really care himself. So at this point, I decided I made a big enough (---) of myself (rightfully so) and decided just to just pay the bill and vacate the premises. Being the nice guy that I am, I even left a 10% tip for the overall lousy but immensely entertaining experience. Just before leaving, I asked the manager to give me the actual bill as a souvenir, as he accompanied me outside, seemingly laughing at my antics..

I would never (ever) go back to this joint, as management shows no concern for their mostly tourist clientele. The waitress who initially took my order was pretty nice - other than that and the beer, I really have nothing good to say about this establishment. Just in case, you’re wondering what the total bill was total damage 25.50 Ringit ($7.20USD)!