I was invited to attend on a talk in Carcosa Seri Negara reasonly and got to know that this 20 years old hotel soon close its door end of this year.
True, this hotel is a little old and tired but the management has done the best to keep up the maintenance and service.
The restaurant is still serving the best tradional English cuisine and English Afternoon Tea for the guest.
Kudos to the staff of all department of Carcosa Seri Negara

High tea at Carcosa used to be such a treat. We'd always take our visitors there. But I went last Sunday (30th August 09) and it was simply appalling. The waiters had no idea how to serve tea (there were leaves floating in my very week tea), the food was stale, the service was non-existent. The waiters were obviously new and had received no training, they couldn't even locate the mosquito coils (actually they couldn't understand what mosquito coils were). It was just embarrassing. And at 80RM/per person... It would take a full re-launch of the hotel for me to consider going back.

We wanted to take our business colleagues in Kuala Lumpur out for a special evening to thank them for all the help they had given us with our new project here in Malaysia. Having had a very enjoyable English afternoon tea at Carcosa Seri Negara earlier in the year, we thought it the ideal place to take them.

We called about two weeks in advance to make our booking. We wanted a Friday night, 28th August, but were told the restaurant was closed due to a private function; but that they could offer us a table on the following Saturday (29th) - to which we agreed.

On Thursday 27th August, in the evening, we received a call from the hotel to say that they would have to cancel our booking on the Saturday since the dining rooom was 'full for a function' !! I have NEVER had what purports to be a five star hotel cancel a guest's booking at such sort notice - or even at all. We were offered no explanation, and they could not offer us any suitable alternative date. How on earth could the restaurant suddenly become 'unavailable'? Was it unexpectedly commandeered by the King, the Prime Minister or the Army for their cronies? The fact that the hotel was not prepared to tell us why they had to cancel on us rather leaves us to draw unfavourable conclusions.

We did manage to get a table at short notice at the 'Sensa' restaurant at the Hitlon hotel in KL Sentral, which was very good indeed. Not quite the ambience of Carcosa Seri Negara, but evidently, those who don't know people in the right places in this country can't be choosers. Just a warning if anyone is planning to entertain important business clients at this hotel: elsewhere might be more reliable.

The afternoon tea at the drawing room is classy. Table setting is beautiful, atmosphere relaxing and services heartening. Antiques decorate every corner of the hotel. The quality of food though is average. Afternoon tea starts at 3 pm and advance booking at weekends is necessary as this place is very popular with locals and Japanese tourists.