Sunday Roast - Healy Macs at Publika

Sometimes I find I can go years without visiting a local place, Publika Mall being one of them and recently lightning struck twice during a weekend when I had to visit on both a Saturday and Sunday.

Publika is an upscale neighbourhood shopping mall located in Solaris Dutamas, Sri Hartamas, a sprawling up-and-coming residential development. The basic layout consists of a mall and some shop lots on each side of it but at different levels due to the hilly nature of the adjoining land.

I was due to meet some friends for lunch at a cafe and other than the name and that its in block D I had no idea where exactly the cafe was so I tried checking the website only to find that it was down. Upon arrival at the mall I found that the information screens were also down and when I approached a security/info counter their outlet list is only for units inside the main mall and not in the adjoining shop units.

The next day I had to return for something and decided to stop for late lunch. After looking for somewhere to eat, deciding to try Red Bean Bag, then being perplexed that it shuts its kitchen from 4-6, we then found an outlet of Healy Mac’s and to our delight they were serving Sunday roast.

After taking our seats and being given a menu the issues began. A common problem I find in KL is that when a restaurant isn’t particularly busy the staff become oblivious to what is happening around them and that day we seemed to just become invisible. The staff seemed to be a mix of different nationalities (usual places) who didn’t really gel together and communicate well which compounded the problems.

Eventually we managed to call somebody over and asked him where there menu for the Sunday Roast however he had no idea what a Sunday roast actually was. After getting some help he finally took the order and a while later the chef came out to see us and check what we actually wanted due to the clueless waiter getting it all wrong.

I’m certainly no connoisseur of Sunday roasts however what was served up wasn’t impressive. The 2 slices of beer were cut so think they were like gristly steaks accompanied by 2 mini potatoes, 2 mini mash scoops and some other veg.



It tasted average I have to say I wasn’t impressed and will be in no hurry to order another one from here. The service didn’t improve after the meal and the staff were happy walking around ignoring people and forgetting orders.

On the positive side live Irish music was provided a group of people who seemed to just turn up, sit at a table and jam which was pleasent and the Guinness wasn’t bad either.