An Honest Review of Lavish Spa at Fahrenheit 88, Bukit Bintang

---------------UPDATE--------------------
The management has recently gotten in touch with me to apologize and to compensate for my ill experience there and even though I rejected their compensation, I truly appreciate their effort. I was also made aware that they have made a number of changes to their system and operations which means my review may not align with their current standards, do give them a try and let me know how it went for you. :)

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I have not experienced a proper spa session before, needless to say I was excited to visit the new, soon to be 24 hour spa in Fahrenheit 88 called Lavish spa. A day spa as I was properly lectured by my girls is a recreational spa in which you pay a fixed amount to enjoy the facilities for the entire day. I have heard of the ever popular Ossoto spa but came to know about this new spa through Fion and we decided to give it a go since they are having their opening promotion at RM48 nett on weekdays for ladies. 

Their current promotion rates are:

Weekdays (Mon-Fri) - RM48 nett for ladies, RM68 nett for men

Weekend (Sat-Sun) - RM78 nett for ladies, RM98 nett for men

But, if you check out from the spa within 5 hours during the weekend, the weekday rates apply, so make sure you time yourself if you're aiming for the weekday rates on Saturday and Sunday.

Traffic to KL from PJ was horrible on the Monday (1/12/2014) that we went and we arrived at about 1.30pm and decided to park in Fahrenheit 88 since we are not too familiar with the area. The parking rates there were unsurprisingly ridiculous and we were charged RM18 for about 8-9hours.

Anyways, once you've arrived, just take the elevator up to the 5th floor to Lavish Spa. Not sure if we took the wrong elevator but we took the elevator from the carpark that has a sign that says "Lavish Spa and Fahrenheit Suites", and when we arrived at the 5th floor we had to walk a little through a rather unkept corridor to get to the spa, it might be the staff entrance, so I am not too sure. 

When we first arrived, the spa entrance and lobby was nice (as you'll see in my review video) but it was rather small to my expectations. Checking in was a breeze and the staffs were efficient. But it was here that we came to know that massage and mani-pedi will incur additional charges. We were then given a wristlet which is also our locker key for our belongings. The female locker and changing room was really pretty even though it was considerably small, but that did not really matter. We were then given our Spa outfit, disposable innerwear and strikingly pink robe to change into. They just launched on November 21st, but the spa outfit was already pretty crumpled which we definitely 

noticed. 

The spa was a little stuffy and we were told they were having some issues with their air-conditioning. :/ We then proceeded to Lavish Cafe first since we were famished and we were excited from the few food reviews in the spa that we saw on their Facebook page. The Cafe was again, relatively small and I can't imagine the crowd on a weekend if the management does not have a quota of visitors. It was not very crowded when we were there but it was already a bit noisy. Only a couple of tables had a good view of the pool as well but that did not bother us.

Fortunately, everything on the food menu was enjoyable and they had a good selection of western and local cuisine but the beverages can definitely be improved, their nescafe was so diluted, and the hot lemon tea was wayyyyy too thick and bitter. To our dismay, the service was not lavish at all, the staffs were obviously untrained and it took them forever just to bring us our menu and we self-service in the end since the menu was just at the other corner of the cafe. I was rather annoyed to find that pasta was not in the menu since there were photos of pastas served in the cafe on social networks. It took the staff quite a while to attend to our table for orders and when a waitress took our order, she was not friendly and wrote down the orders really slowly and when we glimpsed at what she wrote, she wrote the entire name of what we ordered instead of the code. It was also really unfortunate that the coffee machine was out of function that day and I honestly felt at that point that the spa was not ready for opening. We also ordered a serving of fish and chips which also failed to be serve after asking about it twice and we decided to cancel it in the end as we were already full. Throughout our meal, it was really stuffy and the lights were constantly flickering and again we were told they were having some electrical issues. We didn't mind, but being Malaysian, the heat bothered us. 

After the rather unpleasant meal, we headed to the jacuzzi and sauna room. 

No photos taken in the jacuzzi and sauna cause I didn't think it was ethical to be snapping away as some visitors may be particular about privacy. When we first stepped into the jacuzzi and sauna room, the unpleasant smell of chlorine was the first to greet us. The entire spa was considerably small which is why the jacuzzi was also relatively small but since there were less than 10 people (including us) in the jacuzzi at that point of time, it was still a comfortable crowd. I enjoyed the hot jacuzzi ad we soaked in it for about 15 minutes and was already sweating so much before heading to the sauna. The sauna was extremely hot and we were only there for about a minute or two cause we couldn't take it at all and some of us were wearing contact lenses and decided not to take the risk of staying in the sauna for too long. We then proceeded to shower and they only had 3 shower stalls since as I mentioned the spa is relatively small and we had to wait for quite a bit before it was our turn. Toiletries were also provided both in the stalls and at the dressing table which was nice.

When we were done we then headed to hang out at the Lavish bar which had really nice chairs but again, the beverage served was not good at all. Milo ice was too diluted, Horlicks ice was too sweet etc. Anyways, we hung out there till about 7 and decided to check out since we all had plans after. We did not utilize the other facilties like the theater (cause it was full, only about 15 seats), pool, internet room cause we just didn't feel like it. Anyhow, check out was also a breeze and staffs were friendly. I should also note that most of the staffs here seems to be more well versed in cantonese.

Final thoughts

From my entire experience in Lavish Spa, will I visit again? Unfortunately no. 

Why?

Even though food was pleasant and jacuzzi was enjoyable, I did not enjoy my experience there but thank goodness the company made it a pleasant visit. To sum it up, aside from the lobby and female changing room, the spa did not feel lavish as the name claims. I understand that the size of the spa is not exactly the management's problem but there were other factors that could have definitely made the experience better. F&B staffs were not trained, beverage menu must be improved greatly, the pool could be aesthetically enhanced, air-conditioning and electrical issues should be resolved. 

Some may say I am nitpicking, but I am only giving my honest review, and the spa was just not ready for opening yet, but I noticed that they mentioned that they are in trial operation which means they are open to feedbacks for improvements so hopefully the management looks into these issues and work towards a better spa in the near future and who knows, I might change my mind and visit again.

Here's a simple video (and terribly filmed) of my experience there.