Review: Nook, Aloft Hotel KL

5 Jalan Stesen Sentral

Kuala Lumpur, 50470 

Tel# (60)(3) 2723 1188

Site

A friend was saying how working in hospitality meant starting right from the bottom even if you  have graduated from a swanky university in Switzerland. The hours aren't great. The pay isn't exactly top notch either. But once you have risen to ranks, the money may not follow suit but there are other non-monetary perks e.g. free hotel stays (because you can only do system upgrades in the middle of the night), free meals (because they need you to be on-standby 24/7), free uniform (branding), free laundry service (more the reason you don't need to leave the hotel). Lets face it, hospitality or any service industry is only for those who are truly passionate about it. Why would you want to be facing irate irrational customers for a paltry sum? Maybe you just sucked big time in life when you were younger so you can't go anywhere else. Sorry for you, man.

This friend has a customer working in a 4 star hotel downtown and he usually invites her to dine in the hotel's restaurants since he has been allocated with an allowance of few grands. Any restaurant, anything. So much so that my friend got sick and tired of hotel food and would excuse herself by saying she had her lunch already. I really wouldn't mind living on hotel food alone. Plus it's free. You can customize it. What's to complain? But, after awhile, too much of a good thing may backfire and you'd wish for the dirty local food. Actually, too much of anything is bound to make you bore of it. But you know what I'd never get bored of? Free food.

I was in this hotel on an assignment. It was  a rather simple job. Pick a couple of pictures. Get them editted (this wasn't done on the spot). I get free hotel dinner. Simple enough, right?
Except when there were few thousands to pick from. It took few hours and even that, my eyes were getting tired and they were all starting to look the same. Some were decent, some good. There was a particular set which made my eyes want to bawl out. It was blindingly painful to look.

Thankfully, there was dinner to look forward to. Can you guess what this is?

Not a Japanese bento but our very own nasi lemak with fried chicken. My client ordered it because he missed this much after years of being away from this country. He said it was not bad. I just find that it looks a bit miserable. Chicken so puny like it is near anorexia.

Shrimp aglio olio. This had a local touch from the cili padi which made this spicier than usual. the shrimps were a major letdown because as a reputable hotel, I'd expect your seafood to be fresh. These weren't very fresh, overcooked that they were dry. Overall, the pasta was all right but seafood certainly could be better.