Singapore's 'Pince & Pints' Open With Large Success In KL

BANGSAR – Lobster is the only thing on the menu as Singapore’s famous Pince & Pints restaurant and bar franchise opened in Kuala Lumpur last weekend.

Freshly flown from Maine, the lobster-only restaurant had simply 5 things to order from and their very own custom-made beer, rapidly becoming a favourite among local restaurant hoppers.

Located at Telawi 5, Pince & Pints is strategically placed nearby one of the largest food hubs in Kuala Lumpur, and three shopping malls – Bangsar Village, Bangsar Village 2 and Bangsar Shopping Centre.

The cage-inspired décor, wallpapered ceilings, wooden floors and matching hues only added highlights to the cozy atmosphere, and giving such a quirky feel, with two booths, four long tables and a bar as soon as you walk in.

Pince & Pints’ unofficial opening gave the restaurant a chance for ‘role play’ – guests are invited to come at around six in the evening and will be seen as a ‘test’ crowd and give feedback to the staff, owners and also comment on the food and service.

“Today is actually the 4th day,” says Mr Din Al Manaf, one of the partners and owners of Pince & Pints KL. “We officially open on October 9, but we would like to see how the crowd feels about our food first and whether the market can accommodate to this kind of food.”

Pince & Pints KL began their unofficial ‘role play’ opening on the 1sr of October 2015.

When asked about the reception of the restaurant and bar, Mr Al Manaf says he does not want to jinx it but everything seems to look very good.

Pince & Pints KL is owned by 4 partners of which one is the founder of the original successful Singaporean franchise Fred Yap.

“I was actually looking to do something related to the food & beverage industry but the usual cuisines (bakery, Italian, burger bars) just didn’t interest me,” says one of the owners Dato Hafez Mohamed.

Lobster feasting is popular in American culture but those beyond America are starting to catch up, so they had reached out to several lobster bars like Burger & Lobster in London, a very popular and successful lobster-themed menu and kitchen.

“We quickly reached out to Fred who responded within a week and he said ‘I don’t know why I didn’t think about Malaysia’ – you see, he was thinking about Bangkok - and thus we went to Singapore to meet Fred and we already felt the good vibes that he would be one of those people who would be so pleasant to work with.

“Fred smiles a lot and he’s so accommodating, not demanding, which makes negotiation and partnership so simple.

“After all, the goal is to make Pince & Pints a big success and to help it grow in Kuala Lumpur.”

As the partnership fell into place, the vacancy in Bangsar had just popped up by luck and it took them six weeks to get the place running and furbished and it took only nine months from the negotiations to the start of the opening of the restaurant.

When asked why Bangsar, both owners agree that everything was based on timing, availability, price, size and location.

“We actually wanted Bangsar Shopping Centre, the Batai, Damansara Heights and Pavilion,” Mr Al Manaf tells us. “We brought Fred with us but we also wanted somewhere accessible.”

If they had opened their restaurant at a larger and more spacious location, it might not only discourage them but it may also discourage their clients: ‘what if they walk in and the restaurant seems half full even though it’s simply the scale of the place and not because of popularity?’ they were fond of saying.

The cozy one floor restaurant and kitchen also helped build their confidence and helped them test out the market crowd properly and thoroughly.

“We’ve been getting very good reception. By design, we were supposed to only have family and friends for feedback but we’ve already gotten people who have asked if they could come in and we say the more the merrier – especially if they don’t mind sitting at the bar, the food is the main event anyway,” says Dato Hafez.

Dato Hafez also said they have engaged a Public Relations agency to promote the brand and spread the word on social media so that the buzz spreads everywhere – and it works.

Pince & Pints KL have already had Time Out!, Malaysia Tatler and Eat Drink KL visit and write their reviews.

With their competition so far to just be Red Lobster (situated at Double Tree), Pince & Pints KL aim to have a unique theme with only 5 items on the menu – grilled or steamed lobster, Chili lobster, lobster roll with fries and lobster with noodles.

When asked about the quality of the lobsters, Pince & Pints manager Mohd Rukhizat reveals that they are caught in the Atlantic Ocean and are air flown from Boston to Kuala Lumpur, where the three storage tanks filled with very cold water can fit about 1800 lobsters.

“What makes us different than any other restaurant in town is that they don’t have their own facility like we do.

“We are able to bring in our own lobsters and control the pricing – we don’t change the prices, s they remain the same because we have our own.

“What’s more important is that we can control the quality as our lobsters are only killed when needed, not killed and frozen in bulk and then stored like other places do,” Mr Rukhizat tells.

The warehouse of where they store the lobsters is also strategically placed in between Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Bangsar to ensure good quality and the freshness of the lobsters.

“Lobsters can stay out of water for 48 hours. Custom clearance takes 5 hours, flight is 23 hours.

“Our warehouse in Puchong will ensure that the hours they are out of the water are minimized as much as possible,” Dato Hafez tells us.