Double A Cafe, Pacific Place Commercial Center, Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
E-1-3, Block E, Pacific Place Commercial Centre, Jalan PJU 1A/4, Ara Damansara, 47301 Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Opening Hours:
Mon:
12:00 pm-10:00 pm
Wed-Thu:
12:00 pm-10:00 pm
Fri:
3:00 pm-11:00 pm
Sat-Sun:
10:00 am-10:00 pm

Time Visited:
11am. Saturday. Although this place is quite near, I refuse to visit on a weekday where the volume of cars that pass by the road here is getting higher by the day.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Posh Sandwich and a Hot Latte

This place in general is quite worrying to me because it's housed at the route where I use to access to my home from work. And once the full fledged construction of the buildings here are complete equipped with the concept mall called Evolve and the full occupancy of the apartment and suites here, it's gonna be a nightmare congestion during rush hour. At least that's the premonition I have when I realized what they're doing here. It just saddens me over the over-development on quiet places. At least have a good plan over the traffic situation because as of yet, the Old Subang Airport road in front of SPCA is still congested as hell with the already 5 lanes squeeze into 2 dilemma. If they can't even solve that problem yet and they're further contributing to the issue, I see a congestion imminent. Sure they've widen the road at the front there which is why I'm enjoying a traffic jam free drive home. Sure there's gonna be an LRT stop here in the future which don't really stop the traffic congestion factor in my opinion. But come rush hour, with the many people living here and the many people wanting to have a look at the new mall, I don't see how it's not gonna be a problem. Besides, why build such a thing when Citta Mall nearby is facing issues with not many people visiting? In turn, that will only bring the downfall of the shops there and if they're not a franchise unit, pretty soon they'll be closed down due to insufficient funding.

Anyway, enough rant with that over-development issue in PJ. Let's get back to the cafe visitation. This cafe is very inviting in it's appearance and looks bright and cheery. Even in the interior itself with minimalist appeal. It was a cold morning as I waltz into this place and just merely opened for over an hour and being a weekend morning, there's totally nobody there except for the staff. I gaze upon the three item food menu (which I guess they're trying this out since they started off with merely cakes and coffee when they opened) and decided upon the Posh Sandwich. Seeing that I've not been ordering coffee in cafes for quite awhile, I craved for one and decided to order a latte.

The price over here is moderate in nature. Should the suites and mall open up, I wonder if they'll increase their prices? For now, it's moderate. Being a place that focuses more on dessert and coffee instead of competing with the 2 mamak stalls on both ends, I guess their 3 item food menu will do for now.

When the coffee was served to me, I had to admit that I was impress with the guy's skill. He conjured up a swan for me with skillful freehand pouring and he did it in such a short time. The coffee is mild in taste but pleasant. A little too milky for such a mild coffee taste but that is to be expected of a latte. I like it. However, I would say that the burr grinder and the extraction of coffee from the machine may need to tune further because at the end of my coffee, I had a little chunk of sediment in em. I'm not sure whether it was accidentally dropped in it or what, but there it was. It's not that big of a deal though. Didn't ruin the coffee experience one bit.

The Posh Sandwich arrived quite quickly too. The nicely toasted bread buttered to perfection sandwiching scrambled eggs, sauteed mushrooms and cheese in between were excellent. Above average in taste that came as a surprise to me also. At the side, there sits a little bit of greens with some cherry tomatoes doused in those Japanese sesame salad dressing. Average on those but didn't deter the great taste of the sandwich itself. Scrambled eggs were fluffy and buttery and the cheese enriches it. Married together with the soft toasted bread, it's a matchmake in heaven. Almost perfect.

The quiet atmosphere with hit songs softly coming out of the sound system created a serene scenery with the ideal sunrays beaming in. The only problem would be the blast of chilled air from all of the air conditioning unit turned on at an already cold morning. Other than that, it serves as a good place to just relax and chill. WiFi was excellently fast too. Not too shabby.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM32. RM10 for the Latte and RM22 for the Posh Sandwich. No GST nor service charged here......yet.

Final Verdict:
7/10. Nice ambiance, great place to chill. Once there's no more ongoing construction around it may be perfect for a lazy weekend morning.

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Brooklyn B Bagel Bakery & Cafe, SS15, Subang Jaya, Selangor

Address:
No. 41, Ground Floor, Jalan SS 15/8A, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Tues to Sun: 10am - 10pm

Time Visited:
12:30pm. Just in time for my lunch hour. XD

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Set C (Tuna Melts + Mushroom Soup + 100 Plus / Coca Cola. I chose 100 Plus)

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience. My colleague decided that she needed a driver for lunch that day when I've already decided to try my luck to search for a parking at this dreaded area in order to try the bagels here.

With the disclaimer aside, my colleague advised me to head to Asia Cafe's awfully limited parking. Miraculously, we managed to find a very cramped parking but large enough for me to squeeze into and get myself out. With that we headed off to the opposite side to head on inside Brooklyn B.

Brooklyn B is a place that is self service so orders are done at the counter. The menus are also placed over there alongside the cash register. With that in mind, the set menu is actually a separate menu altogether and it's placed beside the full menu to emphasize on it. I took a quick glance on it and decided to go for their set menu. Set C in particular. This set contains the Tuna Melts, Mushroom Soup and 100 Plus.

After paying for the bill, I took the number that was provided to me and sat myself down. There's free WiFi available here and the speed is considerably fast with the password printed on the receipt and also on the waiting number that they gave to you. The mushroom soup came together with the 100 Plus fairly quickly and it's no surprise why. The mushroom soup to me tasted like Campbell Mushroom Soup. Only more watery. Probably is that instant crap that's why it's so quick to be served to me.

My fellow colleague weren't so lucky in that because even though we mentioned to the server twice to check on the order on why is it so long, they still didn't get the hint that my colleague was missing her 100 Plus drink and mushroom soup. Until the time came that my colleague got her bagel-wich. That's when my colleague asked the person serving, "Where's my soup and drink?" With that, only did they realized that they missed out on serving it to her. LOL.

To be fair, when we entered, it was almost a full house with only the bar stools and 2 tables left that's unoccupied. Perhaps that's the reason for their mishap. They were way too busy till they don't even notice on a missing order. Anyway, no harm done.

Being the person who ordered before my colleague, naturally, I got my food before her. The bagel-wich has a side of potato chips and coleslaw. The coleslaw tasted to me like the ones that are served at KFC, only a little milder on the dressing taste. The potato chips, I can easily recognize that it's Jack N' Jill potato chips which I had no complaints since that's also basically the chips served at O'Briens and I do like that chips. The bagel-wich though, is not up to my expectation. Neither was it up to my colleague's expectation. If I'm not mistaken, the tuna that's slapped on top of the bagel is out of a can due to the familiarity of the taste to me. So that only leaves me with their bagel to evaluate which should be their signature. But the bagel also disappoints me. It's too hard for my taste. Maybe I'm too old and do not have strong gums and teeth to chew anymore. LOL. But the bagel definitely isn't the taste I was looking for.

The atmosphere is a little cramped in that wooden shack-like kind of setting with faded sunrays beaming in through the front glass double doors, the only place that it could shine through. The walls are painted dark and fake bagels (I think) are hanged on ropes as decoration at the front board area.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM13.95. From 12pm - 3pm on Weekdays, they give 30% discount off your bill and that's exactly what happened to my bill. Original price is RM19.90 for the Set C. No GST nor service charge imposed.

Final Verdict:
4/10. I'm sorry. I'm truly disappointed with the food. There's just nothing I like about it except for maybe the potato chips which I can easily buy it from hypermarkets and convenience stores. Aside from the food, the staff are quite polite and young. Probably those college students doing part time since it's so near Inti. I really don't find a reason to come here at all even though their WiFi is pretty fast. Maybe their coffee is good but that's something I didn't try since it's not with the set. Pity.

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Restoran Prosperity Bowl, SS2, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
19, Jalan SS 2/30, SS 2, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 7am - 9pm

Time Visited:
At about 6:30pm. Wet Tuesday evening

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
A1. Chicken Noodle Soup and Honey Lime (or was it lemon lime? Just remembered the word lime but came a drink that I totally didn't expect. LOL)

Voted as the Star's People's Food Awards Best Chicken Rice shop, I went over to try out their chicken. Although being near to my home, I had never tried out the food there and didn't even know it existed. LOL. Since it was voted as the best by a lot of people, I decided to go try it out and judge for myself.

That day was a wet evening and there were two phases of heavy downpour occurring but upon the time to depart from my office, the rain had already subsided. As I was driving, the rain came again but this time wasn't as heavy to be categorized as a downpour.

Despite the earlier 2 heavy rain happening, the roads were still quite clear to me. The only part that's congested came from the LDP area which isn't exactly something new. I reached the location about 40 minutes later from driving and I decided to park at a distance and walk to scout out the area there. Although these rows of shophouses aren't exactly unfamiliar to me, I still wanted to look around to see if there's anything new. I then arrived at the shop with the faded sign greeting me.

Upon arrival, the place was almost empty. This probably is because it's rush hour and most office workers are usually rushing their way home and stuck in the horrific Klang Valley jam instead of loitering around and having early dinner. This shop amuses me because all I saw at that moment were old hats manning the place and they were shouting to each other to communicate with one another. When I sat myself down, the old lady at the cashier noticed and yelled out to another old lady who's peeling vegetables where she upon hearing the call, immediately got up, went to the counter to grab a menu and pass it to me and got ready to take my order. I went with their Chicken Noodle Soup and opted my drink to go along with it. She asked me do I wanna add on anything else like vegetables and I declined.

She then went to the back and shouted something which I had no idea what. The next few minutes were them shouting to one another and forgetting certain things which I reiterated my drink order. LOL. This scene just amuses me very much. The place is quite homely although it's a restaurant and with the few old people working, it just provided the homey atmosphere even more. The woman at the cashier actually had a big screen TV next to her to watch shows and before watching a show, she was playing some games which kinda reminded me of my dad playing computer games every night at home.

When the drink arrived to me, it surprised me because it wasn't exactly what I expected it to be. It's more of a sour plum drink than a lime drink. I guess they deemed the sour plum as a lime. LOL. Nevertheless, it was very tasty. They use the real sour plum fruit instead of the preserved ones that you normally find at hawker stall restaurants.

The time for the food to arrive is moderate, I guess this would be considered fast for them since they are of very advanced age. But I like dealing with them. Despite of old age, they're still very respectful towards me unlike so many younger generation individuals who sometimes are disrespectful towards me as a customer. They were also very patient awaiting my order as I normally take quite a long while to decide on what I'll have.

One thing unique about their Chicken Noodle Soup is that it contains three different types of meat ingredient in them although it's called Chicken Noodle Soup. Obviously, there will be the chicken slices in them, there's also fishballs in them and the one thing that makes it very unique is that it also contains pork meat in them. I quite enjoyed the pork me in the mix. In fact, I enjoyed that even more than their chicken meat. Maybe because I favor eating pork more than chicken. But I have to say, their chicken is not bad as well. Tender and chunky slices that accompanies the noodle well. The chicken are without their skins. The broth that all of these were soaked in was very delicious. I saw the bottle of dark soy sauce at the condiments tray and I couldn't resist pouring it over the noodle dish.

Another thing that I also find unique is their very fresh cili padi. When I lifted the cover, I actually caught a whiff of the cili padi's freshness and tasting it also yields the same result, very fresh indeed. It seems as if they just chopped it and put it onto the small container but it couldn't be so since there were so little of them left in the small container I was handed.

Anyway, all the while that I was there, it was a very quiet evening with occasional loud chatter from the shop's staff with neighbors. I wonder if this is the case every night or just so happens that it's that way during my time there? I also noticed that they actually had young foreign helpers but I guess they didn't appear before me earlier due to them being busy in the kitchen.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM11. RM7 for the noodles and RM4 for my drink. That's about it. No extra charges. :)

Final Verdict:
7/10. Nice place to chill and take it easy. With the old folks there, it felt as if I'm with my own kind. Haha. Food is good enough but I just felt that people has overhyped it a bit. It's not all that great nor is it the best that I've tried. But it's certainly unique. I'll give you that.

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Restoran Kar Heong, SS14, Subang Jaya, Selangor

Address:
60, Jalan SS 14/2, Ss 14, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 9am - 9pm.

Time Visited:
Around 12:30pm. Working Monday Afternoon

Attire worn:
Business. Not that it matters.

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Steamed Chicken Thigh with Roasted Pork and Hot Kopi O

Despite being a joint that specializes in their steamed chicken and their Hor Fun, this place run their restaurant in a more professional manner than a usual hawker stall style restaurant.

They have a lot of hired foreign workers working as wait staffs there alongside with members of the family that setup the restaurants. Of course the important roles are all manned by the family members such as the cashier. LOL.

This place gets pretty crowded on a weekday afternoon since all the office workers throng to this small area to have their lunch in addition to the other nearby vicinity area. Parking is a nightmare so best park nearest to the Proton centre where the distance puts most people off from parking there.

Restoran Kar Heong's layout is quite small on the ground floor with them already maximizing the number of tables they can fit there with minimal walking space for the patrons. The back area is occupied by the kitchen with their chickens and so with such a small space, you can imagine it being filled up quickly once lunch hour comes. But fret not, for there's an upstairs seating area where it's way more spacious than the cramped downstairs area due to them being able to place tables all the way to the back since the kitchen is only downstairs and so is the cash register.

I'm considered arriving fairly early to beat the lunch crowd and already more than 50% of the downstairs tables were filled. As I spoken earlier, they run the place in a professional manner and once you sit yourself down, they will bring you the menu to browse through. Unlike the traditional hawker stall Chicken Rice Stall, this place is equipped with prices on which part of the chicken that you want as well as different parts will racked up different prices. I pointed to the chicken thigh to go with the pork roast and requested for their lovely steamed chicken. Not wanting the wait staff to stand next to me long, I quickly decided to go for a kopi o without thinking.

One thing good about this place is that even though they may have the crowd, the service is very fast. Your food will arrive most of the time about five minutes time no matter how crowded it is (unless you're with a lot of people with you. LOL) As for my experience that day, it was no different. Within minutes, my orders were laid out at my table.

Although there's not much styling to the chicken and the rice with soup, yet the taste is succulent. The chicken was silky smooth (though a tad oily) and tender and tasty which always leaves me craving for more. I like eating it with the dark soy sauce that they put on the table along with the chili. In fact, I could just eat the dark soy sauch with the rice. LOL. Imagine having the juicy chicken in there as well.

This place may not have a really nice ambiance due to the cramped layout of the ground floor, but it's worth visiting for their food. If you want a much more spacious area, just head on upstairs if it's not too troublesome to climb the stairs.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM11.15. RM8.50 for the chicken (which comes with rice and a free soup), RM2 for the coffee and there is 6% GST imposed, unlike the hawker stall chicken rice shop.

Final Verdict:
8/10. Ambiance matters not much to me for this place and the price of the chicken rice may be much dearer than your other chicken rice hawker stall place. But then again, this place is air conditioned and to me, it serves one of the best steamed chicken rice that I've ever tasted. Parking may be a nightmare too and the place gets crowded and hard for a lone diner to get a place here but their chicken makes me crave for more. Hence the high score that I've given despite the many things that I should minus some points out of. Who am I kidding, this is definitely a place that I would love to return just because of the steamed chicken with me smearing dark soy sauce on the rice.

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Frisky Goat, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail (TTDI), Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
72, Jalan Burhanuddin Helmi, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 8am - 10:30pm

Time Visited:
Around 2pm(?), I can't recall. But it's definitely a Saturday afternoon.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Salmon Scramble and Strawberry Pomegranate Ice Tea

I actually was too lazy to move when morning arrived that Saturday but after surfing the Internet for quite a while planning for my next trip and also food adventures and to see if there's any events that I would be interested to get involved in, I got pumped up and decided to head out after all. So wade through my extensive list of where to try next and ended up picking Frisky Goat located at Taman Tun Dr. Ismail or TTDI for short.

Now this is a place that I've actually been before once and didn't quite like the food they serve but I decide to give them another try, this time in an 'official' review. When I got to the place it was packed - full house. I somehow got wind that this place is always pack now when it comes to weekends. You're better luck getting a place on weekdays because that's when the people are working and the working class would rather avoid this place during lunch time for some nice cheap and good eats like the Pan Mee at the corner shop called Restoran OK. It's one of the stalls there and that Pan Mee comes with Green Chili paste that's delicious and packs a punch. Or the same shop that has the Chicken Rice Stall. That chicken rice is nice but sometimes will depend on it's mood and will close. LOL.

So being packed at that time I was recommended to join at the communion table instead and so I did. I ordered the Salmon Scramble with a Strawberry Pomegranate Ice Tea.

Although it's serving a full house, yet the orders came quickly which is quite a surprise. The strawberry pomegranate ice tea was nothing unusual nor unique about it. In fact, all I could taste is strawberry with sediments of pomegranate in the ice tea.

The Salmon Scramble didn't look nor appear very impressive but it's dutifully passable in it's presentation. I noticed the Bridel Salted Butter that I like consuming which was served at Monte's, Bangsar as well. But due to the bread being buried under the salad, I kinda wonder why they even bother serving it with a butter. However, due to my liking for that particular butter, I proceeded to dump off the greens at the already crowded plate and spread the butter on the wet bread. The bread was quite nice in taste even though being doused by a bit of the salad dressings. The scrambled eggs were cooked okay but could be further improved way more. I just wish somebody could've beaten that lovely scrambled eggs that I ate at Hotel Berastagi in Indonesia. It was quite a shocker for me because due to the shabby appearance of the hotel, I wasn't expecting much. When the guy cooked the scrambled eggs for me at the cold weather outside, it looks fluffy and golden with sprinkles of additives to give the taste even more exciting. When I ate it, it was the best damn scrambled eggs I have ever tasted in my life. Nothing has came close to it. Seasoned to perfection, nice texture, good temperature for eating and the buttery taste of the scrambled eggs. It's just heavenly.

As for the scrambled eggs at Frisky Goat, well the taste is okay. But there are parts of it which are a little too runny for my taste. The salmon lacks the fresh taste that I simply adore from eating sashimi at Senjyu but it's not all that bad. It's still edible at worst.

I couldn't stay long because I was the only left later at the communion table and I was hogging that big table all by myself. LOL. Pretty soon, there was a family who needed the space and so the waiter told my to move to a corner of the table. I told him to bring me the check because I was about to leave anyway. I was again encouraged to stay by another staff by asking do I wanna sit and hang around at the bar area but I turned it down since I was about to leave anyway. Nice, courteous and considerate staff, I must say.

Total Wallet Damage:
I think I dropped the receipt somewhere but I think I can estimate up the bill. In total it should be RM33.70. RM19.90 for the Salmon Scramble and RM9 for the tea. 6% GST and 10 % service charge imposed.

Final Verdict:
5/10. This place is far too crowded on the weekend and I don't really understand why people love coming to this place. The food is nothing fantastic, it's just average. But I must admit, it was an improvement over the last time I tried. And their service has improved too but then again, you are paying for the service. Unlike Monte's in Bangsar, they still give you an excellent service even though there's no service charge.

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3 Bags Full, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
38, Jalan PJU 5/10, Kota Damansara, 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Tue-Fri:
11:00 am-10:00 pm
Sat-Sun:
9:00 am-11:00 pm

Time Visited:
About 7:30pm. Tuesday evening

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Pineapple Bacon Roll (special appetizer of the day), All Day Breakfast and Ice Caramel Latte

It was a long and hectic day. Started off by awaking at 3am again despite the late night midnight start of sleep. But unlike other days, I was unable to doze off back to sleep again even though I tried by lying in bed the whole time with my eyes closed. By 5:45am, I decided to wake up a little earlier since it's just 15 minutes left till 6am. Unusually, today wasn't as tired as I used to feel throughout the day.

Planned for a trip back home during lunch hour to grab a power nap but failed to carry through my plan today because I was late in going out and so I decided to just stay in the office. My colleagues along with my HOD were so surprised at me staying put during lunch hour. After all, I'm famously known to rush off early to lunch every day to de-stress. I couldn't take life like I used to anymore. Not as strong willed as before. Hence the need to do so. Especially after my meltdown episode back in February 2015.

Well, back on topic. My original plan for coming to Kota Damansara was to visit the Bonjour Garden Cafe but I'm unable to locate it. Maybe they closed down? I can see the food court and I tried looking for it from all sides but fail to find it. I'm beginning to become as blind as a bat. LOL.

After trying for a while, I decided to give up and head for 3 Bags Full instead. Bonjour Garden Cafe can wait. In fact, I think I'll visit The Intermark branch. It should be beautiful there.

So I backtracked to where I was and went to 3 Bags Full. Upon entering, I was greeted properly and were seated. At the time I was there, the whole staff team were Filipinos. LOL. But they're polite and were attentive to my needs. They also know the menu well and spoke reasonably well where I'm able to understand them. The first thing they do when I sat down was to draw my attention to the Special menu board after handing me a menu. I also noticed that they serve alcohol as well. Interesting.

I looked around for the WiFi password and the waitress saw me doing so and cleverly passed me the password. Good job. :D That's some great observation. After inquiring about the Pineapple Bacon Roll on whether if it's a main (which is not. It's just an appetizer), I decided to order it to try out anyway along with the All Day Breakfast and an Ice Caramel Latte.

It took quite some time for any of the order to surface, even the drink but I was handed a glass of drinking water to quench my thirst first which is good service. The Pineapple Bacon Roll came out first which coincidentally, another table ordered the same as well. So both came out at the same time despite them ordering earlier. It was nothing special. Just a clever design. The taste is very much expected and didn't deviate from expectations. Pineapple with bacon taste. Which I admit did work together. Just no wow factor.

The Ice Caramel Latte was also the same, expected taste. It was a bit sloppy when they slap the whipped cream on top along with caramel syrup drizzled on top. So sloppy that it oozes off the cup and made my hands quite sticky. So I wiped the cup off instead. LOL.

The All Day Breakfast consists of Mushrooms with greens, sauteed tomatoes (which were horrible and so I refrain from finishing it off after eating one), supposedly Scrambled Eggs, Baked Beans, Sausage, Turkey Ham and Bread with salted butter on top. Actually, I'm not really sure if it's bread or not. It tasted more like croissant material and that's the best thing about this dish - the pastry. The sausage was unique. They had cream cheese squeezed in it and it does enhance it's flavor. But the sausage has lots more to improve on. The ham is ordinary. The mushrooms are okay along with the salad greens. Baked beans goes without saying are the can ones. While the scrambled egg needs way more improvement. It does not have enough taste and texture is a little here nor there. The pepper that was sprinkled on top were far too concentrated on just one area and that got me choking when I got to the part while achieving none on the outer portion.

The cafe looks good and mostly couples and families dine in here. They draw a sizable enough customers and throughout my time there, there's no lone diners. The ones who seemed to be lone diners are actually acquaintance of the owners of the cafe whom came later that evening and they are actually people who's doing some work there for them. Well, that's what I gather. Nevertheless, it is quite a single friendly cafe with ample seats for a lone diner like me.

Total Wallet Damage:
The price is far too much on the high side. RM50.15. With 6% GST imposed and 10% service charge. Even the service charge has a 6% GST charge. The ice caramel latte by itself is already RM12.72. Quite high for it's price if I may say so. Kota Damansara shouldn't have such a high priced food for a cafe.

Final Verdict:
5/10. Although I must say, the service rendered towards me was impressive enough to me. Not as great as Monte's that I visited the other day but they're different ball parks altogether. I gave them such low scores (which a 5 means so-so and will only return if dragged by a friend who wants to try) due to their pricing which I feel it's expensive and the deliciousness of their food and drinks.

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Wondermama X, Avenue K, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
G-8C, Ground Floor, Avenue K, 156 Jalan Ampang,
50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 10am - 10pm.

Time Visited:
About 6:43pm, Monday night.

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Sp. Cham with Kopi Jelly (don't ask me what is Sp. Maybe it stands for special?) and Super Potato Salad

Today, I seemed to have this weird want of eating healthy. Very unlike me. Maybe I'm sick. I guess I am. I am sick in my head. LOL. Insane in the membrane.

So with that note, I ordered the Super Potato Salad. Of all the things in Wondermama X, I ordered that. No meat at all. Very unlike me. Oh well. I must be really going crazy. But in balancing up, I did order the Cham with Kopi Jelly.

Over at Avenue K (which I opted to take the LRT instead of driving all the way there since I don't want to be caught in KL traffic during rush hour), everybody seems to be heading the opposite direction of where I was heading. LOL. This is because most of the office workers are rushing to go home by LRT for those who work there but as for me, I'm heading into their work location. There's a small Japanese food fair there and also a small Doraemon fair immediately coming up from the escalator. But I went straight to Wondermama X instead.

There weren't a lot of people during that time hence the easiness of me to obtain a place. But Wondermama X is not exactly a place to worry about being single and dining on your own because they get a lot of that there. During my visit, there were already 3-4 single patrons there. At a time where most locals would rush to head home, Wondermama X later filled up with foreign tourists and expats after 7pm.

The long bench sofa that I sat on was really comfortable. It just gives me a sense of comfort and relaxation. I could sit on that place for a very very long period of time with this level of comfort. The place requires you to fill up an order sheet in order to order something. I wrote down my order and passed it on to a waitress passing by.

The drink that I ordered didn't take long to come around. My initial first sip makes me feel that the cham with kopi jelly was way too sweet. But after I finished my meal and the ice has melted considerably, a good stir will uncover that it's just the right amount of sweetness. The only problem for me would be I need to wait for the ice to melt further. LOL. The Kopi jelly taste just like your regular jelly. I wonder did I read it right? Did they mean that the drink is with kopi (in which case it would be redundant to state because cham already means tea with coffee mixed together) or do they mean that the jelly is coffee flavored? I reckon it's the latter but fail to taste any coffee taste in the jelly but rather just taste like any ordinary grass jelly.

The potato salad despite just being a salad, took some time for it to be served to me. It's with salad greens (of course) and cold mashed potatoes, some cherry tomatoes and croutons and fried noodles with sesame salad dressing. The salad greens were okay, it weren't those bitter ones. The cold mashed potato caught me off guard as I didn't know it was cold. Within the mashed potato, there's also boiled ones in it that tasted okay. The sesame salad dressing tasted very familiar. I think it's that Japanese sesame salad dressing that a lot of establishments use in their salad. All in all, although the uniqueness of the dish is there, the taste is just so-so.

I finished up my meal rather quickly that day. Not really sure why. Again, not myself. Probably because I was really hungry because I skipped lunch that day.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM24.30. One thing good about this place is that it doesn't charge service charge. Only 6% GST. The price is rather reasonable which is RM8.50 for the drink and RM15.80 for the salad which is already inclusive of GST.

Final Verdict:
7/10. Nice place to chill and relax but can get crowded during peak period so go before the peak period begins. Very lone diner friendly.

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Monte's Restaurant & Wine Bar, Bangsar Shopping Centre (BSC), Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
Lot F112, Level 1, Bangsar Shopping Centre, Jalan Maarof, Bangsar, 59000 Kuala Lumpur

Opening Hours:
Daily, 11am - 11pm

Time Visited:
7:30pm on the dot on a Sunday night.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Just the Ribeye Steak

After a very long nap in the afternoon (I was really tired), I decided to head to Monte's for some steak action.

Monte's is located in Bangsar Shopping Centre (BSC) which is a not so out of the way location for me to head to on a Sunday since there'll be no traffic jam heading there. What's more is that at night, I can just park along the residential areas instead of the stupidly expensive parking of BSC.

So there I was at this posh looking restaurant named Monte's (hell, all of BSC outlets look posh. Even the Chilis) and I requested for a table of one which the person who approached me at the entrance sat me down. I then proceeded to look at the menu. It didn't take me long to know what I wanted since I preempted by looking over their website before heading over and ordered the Ribeye Steak to consume. But before that, I was earlier approached by the manager too soon and so I said that I wasn't ready to order. He said that he'll bring me a glass of warm water as I decide.

Herein lies the problem. I know the restaurant is a pricey restaurant given the romantic ambiance and it serving great steaks and dishes that would categorize it into the fine-dining arena, but here they just casually bring you a glass of water when you are seated. Everyone is done the same. That wouldn't be a problem except that they fail to exclaim that the water isn't free. It actually costs RM1 and they never mention it to you and just casually brings it to you. On a positive note, the water is refillable. What if a patron decides to order some other beverage as well, will they still be charged for the glass of water? If so, then I would say it's not very fair to assume that everyone would want their RM1 water without being informed.

Anyway, somehow I was wise enough to not order any drinks to go with my ribeye even though I'm tempted to do so and I didn't know the water isn't free. The place was dimly lit to create a romantic atmosphere I presume. It does elevate the very vast restaurant which consists of many tables and chairs. In spite of the many tables at the restaurant, at the later part of the night as I was leaving, they did had quite a lot of customers flowing in and I can see the need for putting up so many tables ready for the dinner family crowd.

Every table is also provided with a complementary bun and a salted butter to go with it. As you can see from the picture provided, the butter that they gave is of the Bridel brand. This is one that I have never tasted before but I would gather that this isn't a cheap brand too. The bun and the salted butter was a delight to whet the appetite before the main course arrives.

The ribeye which I requested to be made medium-well came surprisingly quite fast. I was quite skeptical on how properly it's done but when I cut my first piece, I was satisfied with the results. I see that each persons platter seemed to be served a different kind of potato type with the broccoli and the carrots remaining the same. Maybe because they ordered a different cut of meat? I'm not sure if they got the ribeye as well as I compared the other table with mine. Some were served with french fries while others a jacket of potato. As for mine, it was with potato wedges. The fresh vegetable were lovely to consume with the ribeye. It made the whole dish better. The wedges were also a joy to be eaten.

As for the ribeye, I can see it being succulent and moist as I cut into it. Chewing it was a delight and it was so nice and juicy to consume. A well spent RM70. The whole of the ribeye was made with the right temperature that I ordered and that is medium well. Well, there was a very tiny part that's rarer than it should be but that was only a bite's portion. Other than that, all I can say is that the steak was a very satisfying dinner and was well worth the price.

One thing that I noted when I was comparing other tables with mine is that they were given ketchup and chili sauce to use while no one presented those bottles in front of me to have a choice on whether I want to use. That's some minus points there.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM75.25. RM70 for the ribeye steak, RM1 for the water and it contains 6% GST. No service charge which is delightful because they provided excellent service despite this.

Final Verdict:
7.5/10. I would've given it an 8 if they would've informed beforehand that the plain water incur charges and would I prefer that over other beverages. Also the fact that I wasn't presented with a ketchup and chili bottle at my table while other tables had em. But because of their very excellent service, I gave them a 7.5 instead of a 7. I don't need to ask for a water refill. They instantly notice my empty glass and immediately brought the jug over to refill my cup.

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The Foodies Cafe, Putra Heights, Subang Jaya, Selangor

Address:
17-G, Jln Putra Mahkota 7/6B,
Putra Point 2, Putra Heights,
47650 Subang Jaya,
Selangor

Opening Hours:
Mon-Wed:
12:00 pm-11:00 pm
Fri-Sun:
12:00 pm-12:00 am

Time Visited:
Around 1:30pm(?)-ish? I can't recall. LOL. All I know that it's a Sunday and it's lunch time.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Happy Bolognese and Granny's Garden Tea

Never knew Putra Heights is considered a part of Subang Jaya. Always thought that it's it's own area. But this was the Sunday that I decided to go to Putra Heights to try The Foodies Cafe. From the photos I've seen, there's also performances occasionally which I bet takes place on nights.

Amazingly, I managed to get to this place without a hitch. In fact, it's as if I already knew where it was using my GPS.

The place surrounding looks very deserted. I don't blame em since it's a Sunday and most of the shops around are close. But as I entered into the cafe, it was buzzing with people. Mostly friends of the staff, I guess. Because when I entered, immediately a chirpy woman greeted me and passed me the menu at the counter and told me to take a seat first.

Later on, another person, a guy, who seems to be bored out of his mind, emerged at my table to take my order. I went with the Happy Bolognese and initially wanted to try their coffee but unfortunately, there's no water available at that time hence they're unable to operate the coffee machine without any water from the tap flowing into it. The chirpy woman who first greeted me approached me and recommended me some of their beverage. I finally decided to go for their Granny's Garden Tea. A pity I'm unable to savor their coffee.

Their pasta came to me almost in an instance. It's even faster than the tea preparation. LOL. It does look okay but a little too kiddy like because the portion seems so small. As I bite into the pasta, it was cooked nicely and had a very nice taste to it. It's very peppery though but that is something I don't mind. Another gripe point is there's totally a lack of meat. I would say none at all if I didn't discover a few very small minced meat pieces that seems to be once a meatball. For that kind of price, they should have given some meat in the dish instead of scrooging on it.

A little disappointed with that but it does have a great taste. Just wish the portion could be more too cause that barely filled me up at all.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM21.90. RM15.90 for the pasta and RM6 for the tea. No other charges incurred.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Despite the taste being great for the pasta, it's too pricey for a meatless kiddy portion. The ambiance is good and the chirpy lady who served me well did great. Just wish I could've tried their coffee. Grr.

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Restoran Sri Melur Maju, USJ17, Subang Jaya, Selangor

Address:
No 2 Jalan USJ 17/2,
47630 Subang Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan

Opening Hours:
Though mamaks are usually 24 hours, this one is said to be opened:
Daily, 7am - 1am

Time Visited:
Around 4:30pm, Saturday evening.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
2 pieces of Roti Canai (also called Roti Kosong) and Teh O' Ais (Ice tea with sugar but without condensed milk)

Awaken by the rude ringing sounds of my phone from my blissful afternoon nap which stretched till 4pm due to the lovely cool weather and that's when I decided to head out for a meal.

Restoran Sri Melur Maju has been voted by the Star People's Food Awards as the winner for the best roti canai but if anything Village Park has taught me, voting for the best doesn't always necessarily equate as really the best. Sometimes when such awards has been passed out, I wonder how on earth does anybody find that as the best when it's really not? Especially when an establishment has been popularized by the media, some outlets may used to be the best but when given the unprecedented crowd, they falter under the demand.

All the more so when I saw that it's the Star People's Food Awards because prizes are given out for voters as well. Nevertheless, despite my skepticism, I decided to give it a try anyway.

I've read a lot of bad reviews on the USJ17 outlets but mostly were griped regarding their poor service which made some people turned on the food as well. After all, when the experience of a bad service makes a customer turned sour, the food will usually taste bad too. Hence the emphasis of an overall experience particularly on ambiance and service at fine dining establishments. But there are some who admitted that their roti canai is good despite bad service.

And so there I was wandering off to this place which was an unfamiliar territory at that time of visit. Although the awards went to the branch at SS19, I went to this USJ17 branch instead where they deemed bad service by many members of the public. It wasn't very hard to find the place using my GPS. It was merely a u-turn from the main USJ road then a turn in to SS12 which leads to a row of shops on the left hand side hidden in the enclave of housing areas with the big signboard of Restoran Sri Melur Maju can easily be seen from that road.

When I arrived at around 4:30pm, there were a lot of people there to have a spot of tea and their snacks at that mamak stall. That's why I decided to settle inside the restaurant instead of the more cooler closer to outdoor area. Once I decided on my seat, the staff immediately stopped by at my place and I ordered the 2 pieces of roti kosong with teh o' ais.

The waiting period was moderate and when it came, it was served on those Indian platters with 3 of the 4 small pocket spaces filled with 3 different curries. One is the fish curry, the second is the dal/dhal, and the third is the sambal. As a habit, my fave will usually be the fish curry and so I doused my roti canai with the fish curry first. Not bad. But when I tried the dal, that's when it occurred to me as to why people said that they are one of the places with the best dals around. I would certainly agree because unlike other places, this dal has a nice taste to it. It's hard to describe it but I usually don't like eating dal but this one is an exception. It really is the most delicious compared to the fish curry and the sambal. As for their roti canai, it's not bad in taste either. The only problem I had with it was it's lack of crispiness and it's not hot enough. It's only lukewarm which means that this is prepared beforehand but only heated up and served to me when ordered to churn out the dish faster. But dipping into the dal makes up for this since their dal is really awesome.

As I was about to leave to pay my bills, surprisingly the guy was just next to me and seeing that I was getting up to leave, he stretched out his hand to take the scribbled bill note to calculate at the cash register. Well, I can't complain on the service because it had been excellent to me. LOL. When I arrived, they immediately took my order. When I was leaving, the guy was already there to take my bill. In fact, this is only the 2nd time that I had such good service from a mamak restaurant. Mind you, usually mamak restaurants are known for bad service where you try to flag them down and they see your hand but they just ignore it. And usually, they just give you an attitude when taking your order or counting your bill. So I don't really see the fuss on why people are complaining so much on the bad service at this outlet because coincidentally I saw none of that happening here but saw lots of it elsewhere. Even from the restaurant I frequent which is Pelita at SS2. Sometimes, I just ignore them and don't order a drink at all since they never bother asking after I sat myself down with my plate of rice and decide to go for a cup of coffee at Rekindle instead.

But for me, on this day of visit that I decided to review on this place without anybody knowing at all, I had one of the best dals with a very good roti canai receiving an excellent service at Sri Melur Maju, USJ17. During that time, there's quite a lot of people too. Coincidence? Maybe. But that's what happened to me.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM4.45 in total. Since mamak stalls don't have receipts, I did some speculative calculation. They charge 6% GST and since the total came to RM4.45, the 6% GST charge is 25 sen. So the total before GST is RM4.20. Somewhere, I saw a comment stating that the Teh O' Ais is RM1.60. So if the beverage is RM1.60, that means the roti canai costs RM1.30 a piece. From Hungry Go Where's website, I also saw that price for a piece of roti canai. So I gathered that my calculations were correct. :)

Final Verdict:
6/10. Well, what do you expect. It's just a mamak stall. Or restaurant to be exact. So ambiance obviously will suffer. LOL. But I must say, they do serve one of the best dals that I had and their roti canai too is very good. I'm not sure about the service because many complained that it's terrible but they were excellent towards me. And yet, there were many mamak stalls that I've been too that were really terrible in their service as well including the one I frequent for my nasi kandar fix at Pelita, SS2. So this isn't really news to me.

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Flingstones Cafe, SS15, Subang Jaya, Selangor

Address:
Jalan SS 15/8, Ss 15, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 10am - 12am

Time Visited:
Between 12:30pm - 1pm on my lunch break Friday.

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Mushroom Aglio Olio and Blueberry Sparkling

Since this place is so near to my office and after awaiting for a certain someone to take me there but never did, I decided to visit the cafe on my own. It took me a while before I managed to locate a vacant parking spot and just casually went on my merry way without buying a parking coupon for my car. *Evil grin*

Originally decided to try Meeples' Nutella Latte but that place is purely gaming rather than a cafe. Those drinks and snacks are merely there if you're in the middle of your game and you're just thirsty and a bit peckish and needed something to drink and eat while finishing up your game with friends. Totally not for the single patrons. Same as how cyber cafes sell snacks and drinks to keep the gamers occupied at their seat without visiting elsewhere for some food.

Anyway, back to Flingstones Cafe. The people there were helpful and friendly and as I sat myself down, the guy behind the cash register went out of the counter and pass me the menu and informed me that he'll be at the counter when I need to order. It gave me the freedom of taking my time in determining what to order. I then unusually went with the Mushroom Aglio Olio and Blueberry Sparkling. Unusually because most people will go for their signature pork dishes and their coffee instead of this weird combination I decided on. LOL.

After seating myself down again, another of the staff brought me the cutlery in a basket that's especially setup for me, a one person. I find it rather inefficient this way because what if I wanted more serviettes? And what if I accidentally dropped one of my cutlery? By then, will they fill up the basket again or will just bring me one? Anyway, this isn't anything wrong. It's just a thought I had.

The sparkling juice and the pasta came rather quick and I wasn't expecting it to be this fast. The Blueberry Sparkling tasted nothing like blueberry at all. But then again, there's nothing much to expect from this soda water because it's more likely than not, just came out of a bottle. And if it's not, some cafe's would just slap the syrup in there along with bottled soda water. There's a lemon right at the bottom which interestingly, didn't had the lemon taste transpired into the beverage. My futile effort of mixing up the essence below with the rest of the clear water was given up when I've tried it around 5 times. And sure enough, the top portion just tasted of gassy waters while the bottom is sweet beyond any means. I tried to meet both halfway but no matter how much I tried, I just couldn't get it at all. It's either too sweet or nothing at all.

The pasta had a very strong mushroom taste in it. It's served with angel hair pasta so it's a very fine pasta. The taste is alright but my gripe about this dish would be the amount of oil in it. At the bottom of the dish, you can see an oil 'lake' and that makes me gag a bit. Other than that, the upper portion is just fine with it's very strong mushroom taste.

Total Wallet Damage:
Despite forgetting to ask for a receipt, I remembered the value which is inclusive of 6% GST and that is RM11 for the beverage and RM16 for the pasta (very reasonable price) which brings to a total of RM27.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Though the food taste okay and the service is good, the ambiance is also not bad, I'll just leave it as a 6 out of 10 because it didn't contain the draw factor for me to return. Maybe I should try their signatures. But then again, as I've said before, any place should make any of their items good even though it's not their signature.

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5.1 Cafe Gallery, Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
No 11-1, Jalan Radin Bagus 5, Sri Petaling, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Mon-Thu:
11:00 am-11:00 pm
Fri-Sat:
11:00 am-12:00 am
Sun:
11:00 am-11:00 pm

Time Visited:
12:30pm, a Public Holiday Wednesday

Attire worn:
Smart Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Rose Petals Tea and a Crispy Crunch Banana

Originally had the idea of heading to Minamonotoya Cafe but eventually gave up when I couldn't find it. (For those who's interested in visiting Minamonotoya Cafe, please note that Glass City is no more and under construction but Minamonotoya Cafe still exist under the same street, Jalan Radin Anum 1, but a little further down the road after the construction site at No. 37-1). So I check out a list of interesting places to have coffee and decided to go for 5.1 Cafe Gallery.

Being at the new constructed buildings location where it isn't fully occupied, 5.1 Cafe Gallery is located on the 1st floor at one of the buildings. Despite being so, it still manages to draw a crowd and fill up it's very limited seating spaces. It reminded me a little bit on Bmon Cafe. When I was there, there was a wedding photo shoot ongoing at one corner of the cafe and I found it odd for someone to do a photoshoot at a busy cafe. This made the place even more limited in it's seatings. There's a few places out at the smoking area but like me, everyone seemed to have avoided that location since it's cooled with fans only and not air conditioning units. So the only place left for me is the bit corner seating at the side. I inquired about their menu and were passed to me one by the very busy guy handling the counter and sat myself down as I look through the menu. Although wanted to eat something solid, I soon gave up the idea and decided to call their Crispy Crunch Banana dessert over Rose Petals Tea instead.

The tea that they serve is Roleaf tea with the triangular tea bag. This means the flavor of the tea would be more apparent than those normal teabags and refilling the cup with hot water for the 2nd time would still ensure a fuller taste since these type of teabags are more in it's leaves than usual. Roleaf is a brand that I have never heard before but from the minimal investigation that I did, it looks like it's a Malaysian brand. The Rose Petals Tea was of course rosey in taste and is a good enough tea for my consumption.

It's indicated on the menu that the Crispy Crunch Banana has a 15 minutes waiting time for it. When it arrived at my table, it looks somewhat pleasant and coupled with the great cafe ambiance, it creates a very picturesque sight to look at. After taking photos on it, I dig in to the dessert. It has a crispy tortilla base where the toppings consists of banana, peanuts drizzled with chocolate syrup with one strawberry in the center. It may be pleasant enough to eat for me but I find that this is actually a relatively easy dish for anyone to make at home. There's no wow factor in 'em that you must come to this cafe to eat. The only difficult part would probably be the crispy Tortilla base but that can easily be substituted with pastries or just frozen tortilla base that can be bought from the supermarket since it don't really contribute a lot to the taste factor. Something that's plain in taste and does not overpower the very strong taste of the banana and the chocolate syrup would do. And with that kind of price, I would prefer to make my own at home.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM18.50. There's a 10% service charged incurred but no GST charge.

Final Verdict:
6/10. The ambiance is good which is why there's a person doing a wedding photoshoot there and those that were already there to catch up with friends or to study and do their work stayed on for quite long periods of time. This would probably be bad news because that would mean that with not many turnover and the very limited amount of seats and tables, it would fill up pretty quickly. It may be a good cafe to chill and have some drinks but to me, I would avoid having meals there. I know I'm basing it on just that one dish of dessert but that was supposed to be their signature and if that didn't impress me, I don't think the other food items on their menu will.

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LOKL Coffee Co. (Company), Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
30, Jalan Tun H S Lee, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Tues–Sun
8:00 AM–8:00 PM

Time Visited:
Around 4:30pm, public holiday Wednesday.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Fluffy Pancake, Madagascar Brownie and Coffee Bon Bon

After a short nap at home from brunch, I was awoken by the sound of a thunderstorm happening. Got out of bed and decided to go to KL to eat. At first, I wanted to go to Colonial Bar and Restaurant located at where Central Market is but after a lookaround at the surroundings, I decided to head elsewhere to have a meal. Colonial Bar overlooks the big drain that many people mistaken as a river and is next to a building that's under construction. They're located right above a mamak restaurant that's at the back of Central Market which looks like a back alley. Hence, I decided to take my business elsewhere. I started hunting around and walked up and down the street that I used to work at which floods me with many nostalgic memories. The place around there has changed a lot to make it more touristy. The walkway beside Central Market is now called Festival Walk and is a covered walkway with fans to cool you down and many wayside stalls selling things. The mamak restaurant that I frequent last time is still having great business there and so is the Chinese restaurant that has a hawker stall that sells great Beef Ball Noodles. Bangkok Bank still had many homeless people sleeping and sitting on it's ground area where they call it home. Over at the street where Popular and Reggae Bar still stands, there's oddly also a cafe that opened up there called Lucy in the Sky cafe. But I refrain from entering that one as I seek out LOKL Coffee Co. instead.

I soon realized that it's at the other end of the street and started my journey towards it. Once I reached my destination, the street over at that side looks just as deserted as the other end of the street. However, the cafe inside is bustling with people. It consisted of mostly travelers and probably those that put up at the Backhome Hostel beside. The staff of the cafe to me seemed to make up of mostly expats or international students. There's only about 2 individuals that I spotted who may be local that's working at the back where the kitchen is. As I approached near the counter, a staff walked towards me to attend to me and that's when I realized that this is not a self-service cafe and sat myself down at one of the tables near the counter. The big sign with LOKL Coffee Co. on top of the counter looks like a spectacle that belongs in Hollywood and Broadway. A one-page menu that consists of beverages on one side and food on the other is carefully and neatly laid out on all vacant tables.

After placing my orders, I noticed a sign at the side of the table promising 3 things or else your next meal will be free and that is:
1) Your food will not arrive later than 20 minutes
2) Your waiter will always look at you in the eye and smiles
3) Your food should always taste the same.
I can see that they take their promise really seriously because they fulfilled all of these promises to me. Their staff despite consisting of mostly non-locals, they weren't those that do not know how to communicate in English. In fact, all their staff are well-versed in the English language which is not the norm that I see when it comes to foreign workers. Hence my conclusion of them being more of expats and international students.

The ambiance of the place is a nice cozy place to be in. The warm sunlight rays do penetrate through at the counter area since they have a courtyard seating over at the side. The evening light brings about a nice calming effect to me and puts me at ease.

Before I know it, my Coffee Bon Bon has arrived. The Coffee Bon Bon is a double shot espresso served local style. Meaning to say that it has condensed milk in it. Initially I couldn't see it but after looking much closely at the glass, I saw the condensed milk concentrated at the bottom. Luckily I spot it before drinking else it'll kill me. LOL. I took a spoon and stir it and to my delight, it was just the right amount of condensed milk. A gulp of the double shot espresso was an eye opener for me. Although the condensed milk sweeten the coffee enough, it's not too much and just the right amount. It didn't take over the taste of the coffee and you can still taste the rich characteristic of the coffee over the sweetened taste. In fact, I would say it had opened up a new taste to it instead. The coffee tasted fruity and very acidic but with the condensed milk in it, it complemented it very well.

Next came the brownie. It's called the Madagascar Brownie but it's really just the regular brownie with nuts in it and some drawings of chocolate syrup on it. The brownie is sweet but bearable. I find that the brownie is nothing much to shout about. Just your plain ordinary brownie but reasonably priced.

Finally, the fluffy pancake. This is good stuff. It really is fluffy and contains buttery goodness in it's taste. It's served with Gula Melaka syrup and whipped cream on top with coconut shavings. I did prefer the pancakes without the syrup but poured in some to liven it up a bit. The cream enriches the taste more and the coconut shavings on top provided some crunch to it. Quite good. But a bit pricey to me.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM39.40. There are 10% service charge and 6% GST being charged here.

Final Verdict:
7/10. This place is a great place to just chill and relax. It's like a totally different world from the horrid KL sights outside. Staff are polite and friendly. They really do make you feel welcome and am attentive to you. The cafe also has a lot of emphasis on it's merchandise such as mugs and t-shirts. But that don't ruin the great ambiance. WiFi is excellent too. Very fast. The only downside would most likely be it's pricing. It's a little steep to me.

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J&D Espresso, Oasis Business Centre, BU11, Bandar Utama (BU), Petaling Jaya (PJ)

Address:
Oasis Business Centre, BU11, Lebuh Bandar Utama, Bandar Utama, 47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 9am - 6pm

Time Visited:
Approximately 11:30am, a Sunday morning for their brunch.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Big Aussie Brekky and a Hot Chocolate

I roughly know where this place is located but that path is the road that I travel less frequent. I use to use this road a lot as a shortcut to avoid the jam but ever since a lot of cars started using that road to avoid LDP, it's best to stick to LDP since that road and the roads that lead to it acts more of a one lane road even though it's not. Along with the always faulty traffic light at the tunnel there, it's just a disaster to go there in order to go to 1 Utama. Anyway, it merely took me a 7 minutes drive from my place and it's easy to spot this place despite signs merely appear on the ground floor section because of it's strategic location of facing the intersection where all cars that stop at the traffic light no matter which direction they're facing, they're bound to notice it.

J&D Espresso has a posh outlook to it when I first glance it. The gold logo with black backdrop reminds me of Perilly's (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y31cYTCnFnQ) a stylish and elegant perception to it. The entrance to the place is a bit weird because it's merely a small opening gap to the indoors since they only open up one part of the slide door. I initially thought it was a side door for staff entry since there are many staff standing around there and that's where the coffee bar is where there's no seating. But after a quick lookaround, I found out that that IS the main entrance as small as it may be. There's also al fresco seatings along the cramp outside corridor catered for smokers and those who want more of the sunlight. But as the creatures of the dark like me, I prefer a much more hidden indoor section though that would mean sacrificing great lighting on photo taking. No matter. I'm just gonna take with my camera phone anyway.

Their menu is a hardboard menu where one side displays the beverages available and the flip side portrays the food. You are given an order chit and a pencil to write your orders down. The order chit has all of the items on the menu on it so all you need to do is write down the quantity of the item you need. The Big Aussie Brekky comes with 2 eggs where you can either have it Sunny Side Up, Poached or Scrambled which I chose it to be sunny side up.

The orders were quick to deliver to my table. I haven't even settled down at my seat and already my Hot Chocolate came followed by my breakfast minutes after.

The Hot Chocolate has a nice looking art drawn on it and it stayed intact even when I sip on it. The Hot Chocolate was perfect to me, not too sweet and just nice. Temperature wise was also good since you can enjoy it straight away without burning your tongue or lips. It would've even been better should there be a marshmallow but it's okay. It's only RM9 anyway. I was fairly pleased with the beverage.

When the Big Aussie Brekky came, it look lovely. The first thing that I took a bite was the cherry tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes were a bit too squishy. With just a fork and butter knife at my disposal, squirted the cherry tomatoes away instead of able to poke it in comfortably and pop it in my mouth. Next I went for the mushrooms which was lovely. It's at an above average taste to me. I then tried the mushroom croquetas and this is by far the most disappointing of all the ingredients on the plate. It's too runny on the inside and the outer layer didn't give the crispy feel I was looking for. Along with that, there weren't enough taste emanating from it. But nonetheless, it's okay for consumption. There's nothing much to say for the baked beans because they're just baked beans. LOL. The two sunny side up eggs with the sourdough bread below were perfect. I love eggs and this reminds me of why I love it. The Smoked Garlic Sausage came to me as a bit too salty but still, it has a very delicious taste to it. I just need to pair it off with the eggs runny yolk in order to mellow down the saltiness. And finally, my favorite bit of the whole breakfast - the Pork Bacon. I have not had pork bacon for so long and eating this brought me to heaven and beyond. It's perfect. Crispy in all the right places, chewy in some of it with the buttery smoothness of it melting in my tongue and the saltiness is just right. If this pork bacon is the last thing I ever taste, I would've died a happy man. :)

Ambiance-wise of the place, it's cozy, it's relaxing with some rays of sunlight penetrating through. There are many people around in and I can understand why a lot of them prefer this lovely place.

Parking wouldn't be a problem on a weekend since there's not many shops around there let alone being open. This place is the only one that draws the crowd there.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM44.30. When I scrutinize the bill, the items are quite cheap with the Hot Chocolate priced at RM9 and the breakfast at RM29. It's only because it incur a 10% service charge and a 6% GST charge that makes it slightly dearer. But seeing that they had such incredible service despite them being foreign workers, I don't mind the 10% service charge. They were very attentive even though at the busy peak time and always serve with a smile and am polite with their limited English. Charming.

Final Verdict:
9/10. Love this place. A restaurant situated in the quiet part of town that looks posh and close to fine dining looking dishes that taste just as incredible at an affordable price. Not to mention the excellent service provided by the staff and most importantly, smiles that look genuine. I would certainly want to return again.

P.S: If you take a closer look at the table number picture, you'll see that there's a fine print there indicating that they charge for mineral water and there's no free refills.

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