AirAsia’s Santan Restaurant Is Not Particularly Good

You know, 11 years ago, I told a friend my big idea of opening a restaurant that served airplane food. Because I LOVE airplane food. Well, not all airplane food. I love Malaysia Airlines airplane food.

Can you imagine, this cute lil restaurant, and you get a cute lil tray, with cute lil compartments, and yummy food in each lil compartment.

I would only have like 10 things on the menu. OR have like 3 different options a day. Meat option, fish option, vegetarian option. Like real airplane. And snackos. Like salted peanuts.

And of course it would be super affordable. Best lunch time meal for working people. Great makan spot for fussy eaters or kids who like their food served separately.

BUT THEN. I didn’t do anything about it and AirAsia opened Santan. Their on-flight meals taken on-ground in little restaurants around Klang Valley. So we went to eat there.

The Food

The food was ok. It wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t like hnnnggghhhhh so good must come back again and again! If it was cheaper then maybe I would go back again and again.

A la carte it’s like RM14-RM16 for like a very basic nasi lemak and ayam.

It’s more worth it to get a set, then you also receive a bottle of juice and keropok. Then it’s around RM10.

Thai Basil Chicken with Rice

Tasted very amateur home-cooked. Tasty, but yeah. Like that lah.

Pak Naseer’s Nasi Lemak with Beef Rendang

I like that they gave lots of ikan bilis and ZERO kacang because I don’t like kacang but I love ikan bilis. The rendang was nice. The rice was nice. The sambal was nice.

It was nice.

But not as nice as the Mak Cik tepi jalan. Her flavours are oommmphhh.

Uncle Chin’s Chicken Rice

I’m sorry my pictures are so bad. The kids were hungry and I’m lazy to take pretty shots.

This chicken rice is supposed to be famous right? It’s nice. The kids ate it. I thought there was a bit too much ginger or whatever it is in the rice. All that yummy flavour stuff. (I don’t cook, can you tell? Lol) Like clumps of it. And it’s inedible. But otherwise, yeah. Solid chicken rice.

Chicken Inasal with Garlic Rice

Ayub had this. And he liked it. If Ayub likes it, you probably will like it to.

Crispy Chicken Bites

Ok, I’m not a fan of popcorn chicken because the ones I’ve had tend to be dry and hard. But these were really nice!

Big fan. Highly recommend these Crispy Chicken Bites. Crispy on the outside, but tender and juicy on the inside.

All the kids LOVED them. And we ordered two sets so got to choose two sauces. Picked buttermilk and some cheesy thing. Both also nice.

Purple Sweet Potato Keropok or something

Aisha’s favourite. She ate pretty much all of them. Little baggies of keropok came with every meal.

The Food: 3/5

The Menu

I didn’t take a picture. So you can go see for yourself here.

The Ambiance

Meh. Low cost? All the food is served in little baskets with wax paper. Makes for easy clean up.

Disappointed it didn’t come in the little on-flight containers. I mean, that’s the best part right? Haha.

It’s kinda like a fast food restaurant I guess. Not particularly clean, nor terribly dirty. They only had one baby chair/high seat in the whole restaurant.

Reminds me of like KFC.

Ambiance: 2/5

The Service

Self-service at the counter. Line up to order. I will say that the staff were wonderful. Very well-trained and super friendly.

Because it was our first time, we were super blur. So the cashier helped us choose our orders and get the best price with sets and stuff. Yeah, top class staff. I hope they are all paid very well coz they were awesome.

They serve to the table and you clean up by yourself.

Service: 5/5

Final Thoughts

If I was in a pinch and quickly needed to find a place to eat and Santan was close by, then I would go eat at Santan. Like, it’s nice. But it’s not something I would plan to go eat. You know?

I would be like “ooo let’s go eat Rakuzen” or “jom makan Absolute Thai”. Regular not fancy places. But I wouldn’t ever be like “I feel like eating Santan today.”

The kids liked it. I put it under the same category as Chicken Rice Shop. Nice to have as an option, will only eat there when there’s no other option. That kinda thing.

Overall: 2.5/5

Santan @ AEON Mall Shah Alam

Address: AEON Mall Shah Alam Lot S12, 2nd floor, Jln Akuatik 13/64, Seksyen 13, 40100 Shah Alam, Selangor

Opening hours: 10am-10pm | Monday-Sunday

Contact: 017-2470470

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If you’d like me to give your restaurant a Mama Review, let me know in the comments below! I write for free and pay for my meals haha!