If you just want to sit somewhere beautiful and don’t care that the food kinda sucks, this is the place.
Bo Dining is one of the prettiest restaurants in KL that I’ve seen. Lots of flowers and the tropical theme brings the wonder of the Malaysian rainforest under a bug-free, air-conditioned roof. With its colourful yet opulent ambience, Bo All Day Dining looks like it belongs inside a five-star hotel.
Ambience & Amenities
Bo All Day Dining is a beautiful, Instagrammable space whether you sit indoors or outdoors. On the patio, there is a collection of high bar tables, regular tables and charming wicker booths with a view of the century-old ficus in the central courtyard.
On the inside, Bo Dining looks like an upscale hotel lobby. Marble topped tables and counters reflect the light from the tasteful light fixtures overhead and makes it look very bright inside. Vases full of colourful flowers draw the eye, but look out for the mischievous white monkey sculptures around the room.
There isn’t a bad seat in the house. Comfy booths run down the middle of the room, while the regular tables on the periphery have a window view. The centrepiece is the circular booth inside a large black birdcage, surrounded by fake roses. Snagging this table is a must for a glamourous brunch with the girls, but it won’t be easy. There is also the section through the Harriston Chocolatiers window that is likely only open for special events.
There is no toilet in the restaurant. Guests have to use the public washrooms in The Linc. Exit Bo Dining and go through the glass doors on your left that leads back into the mall. Turn left again down the first corridor to get to the washrooms. The public Linc toilets have sitting toilets, but the toilet paper dispenser is outside the stalls.
If you just need to wash up, there is a handwashing sink in the restaurant. It’s on the wall where the open kitchen is, in the left-hand corner. There is soap, lots of mirrors to freshen up with, but only bar napkins to dry your hands.
Service
The service at Bo Dining is astoundingly incompetent for such a popular establishment. For some unexplained reason, everything in the “Brunch” section was unavailable even though we were here specifically during the stated dates and times. When ordering the chicken, the server insisted that all three sauces come with the meal. When the chicken arrived, it came with only one random sauce, which we had to correct.
Whoever oversees their reservations is a halfwit. I tried to make a lunch reservation two days ahead but was told that every table in this very large restaurant was completely booked. I was incredibly skeptical about this, so we tried a walk-in at exactly the same day and time as my rejected reservation. The restaurant was goddamned empty, and we got a seat. I messaged the restaurant, asking why they refused my reservation. It was only then that they informed me a wedding had booked up the entire venue, but walk-ins were available until 2 pm. This is the sort of information that should have been revealed when I first tried to make the reservation! If we hadn’t tried a walk-in, we never would have eaten here, but Bo Dining seemingly doesn’t care about our business.
Menu
The Bo Dining menu is to-the-point with just two pages of food and two pages for drinks. What made us want to try this place was that every item on the menu was not just a generic dish – there was always a distinctive ingredient or twist to it. The food is Mediterranean style with Malaysian classics under their “Asian” section. The food at Bo All Day Dining is pork-free, but they do serve alcoholic drinks.
Click on menu pictures to enlarge
Food
Both of our drinks were pretty shit. Their menu descriptions sounded better than what we actually got. We’re quite sure that The Honolulu Queen (RM19) was 100% dragon fruit juice and did not contain the other fruits that the menu claimed. We didn’t taste a hint of any cherries or mango. Similarly, the most interesting element of the Kaya Tropicolada (RM31) – the kaya – was missing. This expensive cocktail mostly just tasted like rum and pineapple juice.
The Red Duck Curry (RM38) contains an entire duck leg. I wouldn’t call this a curry, though. I didn’t care for the broth, which was oddly sweet. The flavour is more like spicy barbecue sauce. The curry had potato chunks, roasted eggplant strips and lots of dried chillies to give it more heartiness. A bowl of white rice with crispy fried onions on top comes with this dish.
Other duck curries I’ve had used sliced duck, which made it easy to get a scoop with everything. With Bo Dining’s Red Duck Curry, I had to use a fork and knife to cut a piece of duck off the bone. It wasn’t easy most of the time either and required some effort. Then, I had to switch to the spoon, manoeuvre a cumbersomely large piece of duck onto the spoon, and then scoop some rice. The bone-in duck made this entire dish messy and simply a pain to eat.
The Roast Chicken (RM38 for a Quarter) was so large that we were afraid that the restaurant had accidentally given us the half chicken portion. It was no mistake – this is actually how big the quarter chicken size is! The menu description claims this dish comes with “2 deli side salads,” but we got mashed potatoes and a sauteed vegetable medley with zucchini, broccoli and carrots.
The chicken was a bit dry but very tender. The staff messed up and gave us a jug of chicken jus, but we also got our original order of basil mint pesto. The chicken jus is tasty, but the basil mint pesto is much better and is the sauce I recommend. It turns out that this roast chicken was not as much food as we thought. The big rib bone fills out a lot of the plate, but there’s not much meat on it.
Saturday Worthy?
I do not recommend Bo Dining. This place seems to live off of people who get more joy from sitting in a luxurious, pretentious space than actually eating great food. At Bo Dining, you’re mostly paying for the ambience and the “Instagram fee.” There are other brunch spots in the city that look nice but have much tastier food.
Price for 2 Pax: RM146.15
Red Duck Curry: RM38.00
Roast Chicken Recipe (Quarter): RM38.00
Honolulu Queen: RM19.00
Kaya Tropicolada: RM31.00
10% Service: RM12.60
6% SST: RM7.56
Rounding: (RM0.01)
Bo All Day Dining
Address: Lot 1-10 & 1-11 (First Floor, next to Ben’s Grocer), The LINC KL, 360, Jalan Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur
Opening Hours: Closed on Mondays, Tues to Fri 12pm – 4pm & 6pm – 10pm, Sat & Sun 12pm – 10pm
Alcohol Served: Yes
