KUALA LUMPUR, January 7 — Famous Malaysian food influencer and entrepreneur Khairul Aming has officially launched his much-awaited restaurant, Rembayung, and it is living up to the hype.
The 8,000-square-foot restaurant, located in Kampung Baru, welcomed its first batch of customers yesterday, which is also a sentimental date for the 33-year-old entrepreneur.
“Today Rembayung opened its doors to 450 customers (120 reservations).
“It is also a sentimental date for me because it is on the same date as when we launched our first Sambal Nyet five years ago.
“Look how far we’ve come together guys, thank you so much,” Khairul wrote via Threads, adding that he and his team were all nervous and excited for the grand opening.
It is safe to say that their nervousness was warranted, especially after the hype building up to the official launch — from garnering over 100,000 followers within two hours on Rembayung’s official Instagram account to experiencing website crashes due to overwhelming traffic when reservation slots opened online last week.
The high traffic was also due to Rembayung’s current policy of not accepting walk-ins.
Khairul posted a video apologising to everyone who couldn’t secure a reservation, while sharing that they have already have 3,000 bookings.
Early reviews and high praises
Rembayung specialises in traditional Malay Kampung food including traditional kuih and following its first day of opening, social media was already flooded with early reviews.
One Facebook user, M Ezzat Edros, categorised Rembayung as a ‘repeatable’ spot, giving high marks for the food’s richness of taste and generous portions, while also deeming the prices affordable.
Meanwhile, on Google Reviews, Rembayung currently has a 4.8 overall rating, with the majority of users leaving five-star reviews.
“Excellent food — very flavourful and well-priced for the quality.
“The restaurant is clean, bright, airy, and very spacious, with a beautiful KLCC view from the windows. Extremely family-friendly and comfortable; highly recommended,” user Iman wrote on Google Review.
Aside from that, Khairul also shared a heartfelt story on Threads about one of his lucky customers, who managed to secure a four-pax reservation and decided to offer three seats to random strangers online to dine with him.
“This brother managed to book for four pax, but he was alone, so he invited strangers on Threads to join him. Today he made new friends at Rembayung — they are from Sarawak, Sabah, and KL,” Khairul wrote in his post.
Scammers alert
When there’s hype, there’s also a high chance of scammers and Rembayung is not exempt from this.
A circulating post on Threads showed a screenshot of a fake Rembayung profile, which had around 2,000 followers and was asking RM300 for a reservation from a curious customer. In reality, customers only need to make a RM10 deposit to secure a booking at the eatery.
Another post showed a Facebook user trying to resell their reservation seats for RM150 each; however, the original post has since been removed.
Aside from that, there were also several AI-generated videos circulating online showing huge crowds outside Rembayung.
Previously, Khairul announced that he had invested around RM4 million in Rembayung, which had been in development for over a year.
The restaurant, which follows a semi-glasshouse concept, features a spacious design that can accommodate up to 250 diners at a time with around 40 tables on the first floor and another 25 tables on the second floor.
Among the traditional Malay kampung dishes you can expect to find at the eatery are masak lemak cili api, sambal tumis petai, kerabu, and more.