Naili's Place

Naili's Place is a small chain of (currently) 3 stores around Kuala Lumpur. For the sake of disclosure, I have never been to the Taipan--Subang Jaya branch. But I have been to the Ampang Point and Sentul branches and will base my reviews based off of these two. The Ampang Point location is at the end of shop lots next to the Ampang Point shopping center in Ampang and tries to cram too much character into its small location unfortunately. If you want the best experience, go to the Sentul branch. It is somewhat isolated but in an increasingly popular dining area. It has even opened for lunch recently.

The Sentul branch is all about ambience. The tropical setting is nice. Trees, stylish decorations, leaf-roof huts, and tree stump tables. In some cases, private dining hits were built around large trees that were there before the restaurant was built. Sometimes mosquitoes can be a problem here, but you will hardly notice as you take in the scenery (and sometimes even a DJ).

Naili's Place is popular for functions and parties but individual diners or "lepakers" fill up the rest of the tables or bar stools. The food is better than average...not out of this world...but the ambience makes up for that easily. A range of sheesha flavors is also available. It is a good place for (Malaysian or Western) dinner or just hanging out over a few drinks and maybe a snack.

My rating: 4 stars

Naili's Place
116C, Kampung Chempedak
Jalan Taman Dato' Senu
Sentul 51000 Kuala Lumpur

Ampang Point
39, Jalan Memanda 9
6800 Ampang

Taipan
48, Jalan USJ 10/1B USJ Taipan
47620 Subang Jaya

Web site: http://www.nailisplace.com/
Telephone: (+6) 019-202-0755
Open from 5pm until 2am
(the Sentul branch has recently started lunch hours too)

The Castle

The Castle is a Middle Eastern restaurant that has recently closed its flagship store on Jalan Damai and opened two in other locations. The one more popular with the local Malaysian crowd is now located at the edge of Kg. Baru. The one more visible to tourists (and reviewed here) is the branch on Jalan Imbi, across from Berjaya Times Square and next to the Imbi Monorail station.

The Castle attracts a good crowd for late dinners, and on weekends it is packed till the early hours of the morning. Smoking shisha is common with 'diners' here. The Castle on Jalan Imbi has replaced a mamak (Al-Esfan), so there is plenty of open-air (but roofed) dining space as well as an air-conditioned room in the back if you can't take the KL heat.

As with many Middle Eastern restaurants in KL, food prices are considerably higher than most other restaurants. It is best to come here in groups to order a number of plates and share over some bread or rice. The menu is not very helpful unless you eat Arab food often. But some of the waiters were able to explain the difference between the dishes.

We ended up getting some naan bread to eat with the other dishes we ordered, which were among the best-tasting Middle Eastern dishes I have ever had. The only thing that was good but not great were the falafels...a favorite of mine. The salad was delicious too. Our drinks were fruit juices mixed in some odd combinations...whether you like it or not will vary greatly depending on your personal tastes as most of these combinations they have are not too common. Still, it is good to try.

Overall, the drinks, naan, falafels, salad, stuffed grape leaves, and humus-type dish we had cost about RM60. It was typical price for Middle Eastern food, but it tasted great. While I wouldn't come here all the time, I did enjoy eating at the Castle.

My rating: 4 stars

The Castle
Plaza Berjaya
Jalan Imbi
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Open till very late (5am?)