Petit Mary Pattisserie, Taman Teh Teng Seng, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Address:
 83, Jalan Langsat, Taman Teh Teng Seng, 31400 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 9am - 8pm.

Time Visited:
11:13am, Wednesday (Public Holiday)

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Mary Breakfast (set)

Public holiday. Wesak day to be exact. Not working much on this day, I decided to take a spontaneous trip down to Ipoh on this day. 2 of my colleagues asked why didn't I say earlier? Else they would've joined me. LOL. Yeah, right. Like that 2 family men has time to accompany this lone soul down to Ipoh. I shall ask you guys the next time around but then again, if it's just a local trip, it's most likely short notice so you guys won't be able to go too. LOL.

After dilly dallying a bit in the morning, I finally departed from Klang Valley towards my hometown in Ipoh. Once arrived at the cafe, it was just almost lunchtime which was perfect for me. From the outside of this cafe, it says nothing that it's a cafe. The giveaway was more of it's looks and an open sign hanging by the gate. This place looks like some part of a palace, Englishmen style. As I walked in, I'm pretty sure I was in the right place with a person greeting me by the door. The guy explained to me that ordering of food takes place downstairs while the seating is upstairs. This place is a Mandarin-centric place where people talk and order mostly in Mandarin. A little queer for me because I'm so used to Ipoh being a place where they just mainly speak Cantonese. Since I didn't make any stops on my way here, I decided to head upstairs to the toilet first before descending back down the stairs to take a look at the menu. This place seems a little cramp downstairs which I guess it's why they don't have seatings downstairs. However, I'm just wondering what happens if you're coming with older folks who has bad knees? Guess they would have to slowly make their way up the stairs. There's a Breakfast set menu which reads available from 9am - 12pm and that comes with coffee or tea and since I've been on a long journey all the way here, I thought of giving the Mary Breakfast a try instead of just the croissant which was what I was thinking of ordering at the beginning.

I made my way up the stairs and chose a table to sit down at. Being a cafe that doesn't have any signboard but is a house of it's own, it looks pretty popular. By the time I was halfway through my breakfast, it had already turned into a full house of customers. This place just didn't do much alteration from it's original house design. You still see the layout like a house where there's just the front of the house and the back of the house as places to sit and eat. One thing I always see the staff struggling with is that they have to find where the patron who has ordered is sitting. You see, once you've ordered, you're given a number and you're to display that on your table so they know the food belongs to you. But without a camera to monitor the upstairs on where you had sat down, the waiter will always go to the front of the house all the way to see if there's a number around before heading back to the back of the house to continue finding the number. But I guess it's merely a minor inconvenience. In this cafe, there's also a fake fireplace to spruce up the ambiance which I hardly see these things around. I remember seeing one at one of the hotels in Europe.

Anyway, the Mary Breakfast came and I was surprised by the number of items they gave to me. The guy put the plate of breakfast on my table and then the coffee, and as he was about to turn and leave, he said this belongs to you too, right? And put a basket of bread with butter down. I was surprised. This is definitely way worth eating if you want bang for your buck because with that amount of food given, you're definitely gonna be full finishing the whole thing. I can imagine some girls saying unable to finish the whole thing. LOL. So what I think all in for just RM18, that's considered cheap in my books. Taste-wise, well, it's just your regular tasting breakfast. Nothing superb nor out of the ordinary for it. As you can see in the picture, besides the 2 croissants and coffee, the breakfast platter consists of baked beans, a sausage, hash brown, ham (I think it's turkey ham), some salad on the side and scrambled eggs. I just wish the salad and it's dressing were separated because it did interfere with the taste of the eggs. It gets soaked in it's sauce and didn't really go well with it. But eating the whole thing got me quite full and as I mentioned before, it's very well worth your money. I wonder if cafes around Ipoh is all this cheap in price. The coffee leans towards more of Italian coffee where it's bitter through and through and so I needed to sweeten up it's taste by adding the provided sugar sachets. Though I don't normally drink coffee with sugar, I just couldn't with this and needed the sugar.

After awhile of resting I departed from here to my next destination nearby.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM18. Just RM18 all in. This includes the 6% GST. A very much worth breakfast set for that price. Highly recommend if you're looking for something cheap that's a cafe.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Well, price-wise I would say is excellent but taste-wise will need to be better if you want it to be memorable for it's taste as well. Ambiance, not bad. Homely.

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TWT Cafe, Bandar Baru Medan Ipoh, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Address:
30, Jalan Medan Ipoh 1D, Bandar Baru Medan Ipoh, 31400 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Closed on Tuesdays
Other Days 12pm - 10pm

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

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Chocolate Lava with Vanilla Gelato and Peppermint Tea

Straight off the bat from a hefty meal at Petit Mary Pattisserie, I don't think I would be able to eat another round so soon. Should've planned for some other things to do in between meals. LOL. But anyway, I headed to TWT Cafe straightaway. Although there were others I was planning on going in the beginning, seeing that it's a public holiday and most of it were closed, this was my next of choice after seeing the others closed.

TWT Cafe is just very near to Petit Mary Pattisserie, just 5 minutes drive away. Hell, in fact all the things that I ate at Ipoh on that day were so near to one another with just 5 minutes drive away. TWT stands for Tea Warmer Treats apparently. I decided upon dessert instead of another main course meal since the breakfast of Petit Mary Pattisserie was quite filling. So I ordered the Chocolate Lava with Vanilla Gelato. I was warned that it will take about 10-15 minutes to prepare so I would had to wait. I chuckled and gave them an okay sign. When I was there, there's not a customer in sight. I was the only customer there. Later on, there were trickles of customers that went in with the first one after me also just going for dessert while the rest were there to have their lunch on this fine public holiday.

True to their word, it did take about 10-15 minutes when I was shown this nicely plated dessert that looks very dark in it's color. Beside it was the contrasting yellow tinge of vanilla gelato. A poke on the lava cake revealed a spillage of chocolate sauce that didn't stop flowing and harden as it cooled till a very much later period. The gelato sits atop cornflakes while the plating shows more chocolate sauces upon it. This dessert to me is awfully sweet. Way too sweet for my taste. For those who have a sweet tooth, they may enjoy it. The chocolate part with the pastry part was sweet beyond means and the gelato didn't help much as it's also sweet on it's own though at a much milder level compared to the chocolate sauce. It was so sweet that it permeates upon the cornflakes as well and the only way that I manage to lower down the sweetness meter is to drink some tea with it. It accompanies fine with the tea. Taste-wise is okay. It's just that it's so darn sweet and not enough balance in the whole dish. I guess you're suppose to eat it and take a sip of your tea. LOL.

After the dessert here, I went to walkaround the area. The area here is filled with so many eateries. Whatever tickles your fancy, you'll sure find it around here. Kopitiam? There's some here. Fancy some posh foreign food? There's some Japanese restaurant and it looks like they tried to open some Korean restaurants here too but look like it's out of business. Cafe food aplenty as well. All in all, every type of food that covers I believe all of the general population. LOL.

Total Wallet Damage:
Strange. I think I lost the receipt. But dessert stands at RM15.50 according to the menu while the peppermint tea costs RM7.50.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Well, for a place that calls itself Tea Warmer Treats, I expected the dessert to be more appealing but generally, it's not bad lah.

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The Narra, Dataran Millenium, Seksyen 14, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Address:
G001 Dataran Millennium, Jalan 14/1, Seksyen 14 46100 Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 11:30am - 10pm (till 12am on Friday and Saturday)

Time Visited:
6:45pm, Sunday

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Embosilog & Coffee

I've never been to Philippines before nor have I ever tried their food. So this is the first time ever I've ever tried Philippines food and I can tell you it was good. I'm not sure how Philippines itself would've tasted for this dish I had called Embosilog but the one I tasted at The Narra was good.

After having a cup of coffee at Aku Cafe right in the City Centre, I headed to The Narra for my dinner. At first, I didn't intend to go dinner at all after heading home from work this day. I was all worn out and tired and wishing I wasn't born at all but I had a short nap and then forced myself to clean the whole house and then forced myself to go out since it was still early. Well, It took a lot of effort to go all the way to City Centre for a cup of coffee but that's just what I did. And after spending about over an hour there and am difficult to move, I pushed myself to get going and to get some food. About 15 minutes later, I ended up at The Narra. This place was so noisy and hyped up blaring Bon Jovi songs a very vast difference from Aku Cafe that I was in previously where it has the serenity and quietness inside. And being a Filipino restaurant, it looks like all of the staff are Filipinos.

I picked a spot I like right at the corner and I sat myself down then one of the staff brought me the menu. I just simply ordered something at random and ended up picking the Embosilog. LOL What's written on the menu on what Embosilog is was embotido, sinangag and itlog. Filipino-style meatloaf, garlic rice and fried egg. A quick google on it and the Filipino wordings is actually what's written in English. LOL. Embotido is a pork sausage, sinangag is garlic rice and itlog means egg. I see.

Though the dish looks simple, it's actually very delicious. Well, according to my taste. The pork sausage has some complex flavors in it and interestingly, I see some raisins on it. Not much. In fact, very little but enough to give out some interesting taste to the pork sausage which is to provide some sweetness at times. Interesting. The garlic rice mainly derive it's garlic taste from the fried garlic sprinkled on top and enough to make it appetizing just on it's own while the egg adds some girth to the taste profile.

I enjoyed the food very much and find it rather interesting. What's more, I feel that it's cheap so in Philippines, I bet it'll be way much cheaper since our currency is bigger plus it's their own food which is available everywhere. LOL. They also have some Philippines item for sale on the shelf which I decided to grab a bag of chips to try at home. Well, I haven't try it yet as I write down this post, so if you wanna know how it taste like, why not go there and grab one yourself. LOL.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM13.80 is all it costs for the meal with 6% GST and NO service charge. The bag of crisps costs less than RM5.

Final Verdict:
7/10. I enjoyed the Filipino dish very much. I wonder would it taste way much better in the Philippines? Hmm.

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Restoran & Kafe New Weng Fatt, Taman Ipoh Selatan, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Address:
1, Lebuh Raya Taman Ipoh, Taman Ipoh Selatan, 31400 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Probably Daily, 7am - 11pm

Time Visited:
1:45pm, Wednesday, Public Holiday

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Roasted Pork & Chicken Rice

It was a public holiday and I just randomly went to Ipoh for a changed of scenery. My 2 colleagues told me why didn't I inform them earlier or they would've joined me. Pfft. As if that 2 family men has time. Best they spend it with their family than a person who's awaiting death.

After trying a couple of places, I wanted to go for one final round before I head on back to the Klang Valley area. So I randomly picked and Restoran & Kafe New Weng Fatt came out as the choice. So I head on down there and see what do they have there. Since it's a public holiday, they seemed to be very quiet unlike another kopitiam I saw earlier nearer to Aeon which has a lot of stalls opened there too. But this just seems quite dead with only 3 stalls I saw that was opened for business. The 2 noodle stalls staff were just sitting at a table and chatting away with each other while the chicken rice stall manned by fairly young chaps were just sitting there doing nothing.

By the way, when I lamented one day to my 2 colleagues on how difficult it was to find Chinese kopitiam at certain places in Klang Valley, they brought to attention certain criterias which I find what they say to be very, very true. In order for a place to have a Chinese kopitiam, the place has to be predominantly Chinese AND not an upscale township. I find that very true. That's why Subang 2 area was difficult for me to find a Chinese kopitiam because there's just none there and it's considered a more upscale township. Sungai Besi seems to suffer the same fate though. As for Shah Alam, that's predominantly Malay area so if they were to open up a non-halal establishment that sells pork, they would need special license and since the Chinese community is far lesser than the Malays and also factoring in the cheapness of kopitiams, it would be very hard to profit if they were to open up one there.  I know places like Cheras and Kepong has plenty.

Anyway, Ipoh is not short of it but I see a boom in cafes. Back when I was still an Ipohite, if any cafe were to open up there, they would surely die off very soon due to Ipoh people mainly go for cheap food back then. Now that all the younger generations had come up, Ipoh can now have this boom in cafe and it's food. So anyway, this place is a kopitiam. I decided to try out the chicken rice with it's roasted pork. To my surprise when I asked how much it was, they told me it was RM4.80! I haven't had one that's so cheap since.....I don't even remember having one that cheap. Unless you include non-Chinese food, then there's the Anuar's Fish Head Curry rice and that is an even cheaper price of RM4 for a plate of rice, unlimited vegetables, a free drink and a piece of fried chicken. But although this plate of Roasted Pork and Chicken Rice may be really cheap, the taste just isn't that good. The roasted pork feels a little too gamy for me and it's way too salty while the chicken is hard. But if you just wanna save money and fill your stomach, it's quite worth it. It can fill you up for sure. But for me, I'm stuffed beyond means because I already ate something before this and went for dessert. LOL.

I guess there's more stalls that operates in there but since it's a public holiday, I guess most of it took a break. After that meal, my initial thoughts of going to one more place for dessert to try was cancelled because I was too full. Phew. That's when I started to head back home. Over at Kerling, I stopped by at the only Shell petrol station for miles and that place already sold out of RON95 but this queer staff at the counter asked me what petrol I wanted. If you've already ran out of one type, why are you asking me and giving me a choice where there's none to begin with? LOL. Funny people.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM4.80. Roasted pork and Chicken Rice. Cheapest I've ever had as long as I can remember. Is Ipoh town food really that cheap?

Final Verdict:
5/10. Well, for that really cheap price, the food isn't that nice to eat but it's something to fill your stomach which helping your wallet lots.

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BreadFruits, Desa Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Address:
No. 17, Jalan 26/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas, Wilayah Persekutuan, 50480 Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 8:30am until 9pm

Time Visited:
Sunday, 12:30pm

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Yellow Mellow Cheese Omelette & Wild Honey Latte

After spending my time preparing for my upcoming Korea trip with my family, I head on over to BreadFruits in Sri Hartamas to try their food there. I have to say, at times like this if even such non-simple things that would literally delight anybody who has such things to look forward to is something I find kind of apathetic to and am just bored to my bones and still thinks that life is not worth living, why do I even bother continuing on? Why the stupid stipulated time I have set for myself?

Anyway, this place looks packed on the inside though I have to say, this place seems quite small. But there's still some places to sit and dine at. They have some fruits and stuff on display for purchase and can be made into juices for you there as well. However, I chose to sit outside instead of with the cool air-cond breeze on the inside. When I was there, I approached the counter and one of the staff said,"Yes?" I asked for the menu and she pointed to me where it is so I helped myself to it and start glancing through it. Mind you, this place is a full service restaurant so you can actually just sit yourself down or have them show you an available table and they will bring the menu to you. But with the amount of people there and how busy the staff looked like, I decided to not wait for service and helped myself to the menu instead. After deciding, I told one of the waiters my order and he pointed me to a vacant place inside but I told him I wanted to sit outside.

Surprisingly, outside was a lot more quieter than the inside. I guess the small place had the diners chatter bounced and echo off the walls. Over on the outside, it wasn't really that hot but there are construction nearby which you can hear low humming sounds of machinery and what they're doing and also the traffic from this busy area from a distance, but it was definitely much more quieter than the inside that day. This area here has always been known for it's lack of parking and so I parked a little further having seen a shady place at the main road.

It didn't really take long till my omelette arrives in all it's vibrant colors as I await for my latte to come along. About few minutes later it started to come and it's time to chow down. The Yellow Mellow Cheese Omelette has bacon in it and mushrooms and of course cheese while at the side there, they put some rocket leaves and a toasted bread with some butter on top. To start off, the bread was good even by eating by itself and slathering the butter over it increases it's viability. Rocket leaves though weren't looking so great and a bit shabby yet tasted pleasing enough and on to the main star. The perfectly cooked omelette contains mostly the mushrooms being the most prominent among all the ingredients and the cheese provide some gooey gummy feeling. The bits of bacon were a clever and ingenious addition into the omelette as it provided some salty bits and as a person who loves bacon, it certainly went well with the omelette and cheese, The wild honey latte is exactly what you think the taste would be with the honey providing a peculiar sweetness to an already quite mild coffee. Nevertheless, it was enough to satisfy me and I left for my next course of action after enjoying the cup of coffee.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM38.15. RM13 for the latte and RM23 for the omelette. 6% GST is charged here.

Final Verdict:
7/10. Well, it has it's upside on it's dishes and some good enough beverages, but the ambient just left a little claustrophobic inside and that's where I preferred the outdoors.

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2Ox, The Row, Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Address:
54-56, The Row, Jalan Doraisamy, Chow Kit, 50300 Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 11:30am - 12am

Time Visited:
Saturday, 6:45pm

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Duck Leg Confit & Sangria (with White Wine)

After a long day working, I decided to unwind at 2Ox located at the Row which was famously known as Asian Heritage Row and is known for their notorious nightlife. By the way, 2Ox is not twenty x but rather 2 ox. LOL. I really thought the O was an 0 at first.

So I arrived there fairly early but of course parking over there was a breeze right in front of the restaurant, the catch is....you have to pay RM10 for the parking. Pfft. These scalpers. Anyway, since it's right in front of the restaurant, it's okay. Sitting outside, the menu was already on the table so I just need to pick it up and browse through it. It looks like they're just readied for dinner not too long ago since most of the staff were merely lingering around inside and I can't see anyone that's manning the outside of the restaurant. But there's 1 that comes in and out serving a tourist at a table where the guy seems to be busy with his Apple laptop. I soon made up my mind on what to ordered and signaled to a gentleman to take my orders.

Along came the bread as an appetizer with some greenish oil condiments to go with the bread. The complimentary appetizer was great with the bread being good just by eating on it's own and that dip that comes with it goes very well with the bread. I was asked if I liked more bread once I finished but of course I declined since I wanna save some space for my Duck Leg Confit and my Sangria.

The Duck Leg Confit was beautifully cooked and glisten along with the ambiance light and that it's carefully placed on top of some beans and the Dauphinois potato gratin. The beans and potatoes provided quite a crunch to the dish while the orange sauce that accompanies the Duck Leg Confit went very well with the meat. The end product of the duck is simply delicious and it may seemed like just a lovely looking dish but the taste did exceed what it looked like. It was delicious through and through and as I peel the layer of skin away to expose the inside meat of the duck, I was greeted with a steaming hot delicious, moist meat. Throughout my meal, the duck stayed hot and warmed throughout and so there was never a moment where it dropped in it's tastefulness. I was truly satisfied with it and so I would say the RM80 price on it is what it is truly worth. As for the Sangria, there was a many mixture of orange and apples in it thus giving it a refreshing taste. The white wine that was in the mixture was nice and all in all, a good Sangria nonetheless.

After I slowly enjoyed off my drink, I headed back home with satisfaction.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM108. RM80 for the duck, RM28 for the Sangria. There's 10% service charge involved and 6% GST.

Final Verdict:
7/10. Food was excellent and drinks were not bad. Service was okay.

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Dreamz Bakery, The Strand, Pusat Perdaganan Kota Damansara, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Address:
No 32-1, The Strand, Jalan PJU 5/20d, Pusat Perdagangan Kota Damansara., 47810 Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Friday & Saturday: 12pm - 11pm
Sunday to Thursday: 12pm - 10pm

Time Visited:
2:50pm, Sunday

Attire worn:
Casual (very)

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Latte (Hot) & Dark Secret Cake

My initial destination originally intended to be somewhere else but seeing that the place has closed down for good, I decided to give Dreamz Bakery a try.

Dreamz Bakery is a very Chinese-centric place seeing that they mostly speak in Mandarin and their English comes heavy accented that mostly comes from a person who speaks mainly Chinese and not much English. Anyway, that's not the point that should deter anybody other than Chinese to visit this cafe. It seems to be doing very well despite being at a location that has few footfall and tons of eateries and cafes around and what's more surprising is that it's located on the first floor. Despite all these elements working against this cafe, yet it garners a lot of visits from customers. When I was there, it was almost full house.

The entrance door is controlled by a magnetic lock for safety reasons seeing that it's on the first floor and that it opens till fairly late at night so you have to ring the bell before they will unlock it for you. On top of that, the really queer part is that you also need to take off your shoes to enter. I was slightly embarrass because I always has socks that has holes in it. LOL. Anyway, I survived the ordeal of entering without shoes and the floor felt slightly cold to me. Inside the cafe was a feminine kind of feel in it with pretty interiors and not to mentioned predominantly, their customers are female. In fact, there weren't any all guys table at all. All tables that are with guys were them bringing their family there or guys bringing their female companions. I was the only oddball. LOL.

Normally, you will seat yourself and they will bring you the menu to browse but I just did my browsing at the counter seeing that I merely wanted to eat some cake that day. I settled for the Dark Secret and a hot Latte. The person asked where was I sitting and I haven't decided where to sit. LOL. So I quickly peered around the vicinity and spotted a table way at the back and just said "a1" which was the table number. It took quite a while before my orders came but the cake came with a sauce decorated plate just like Jeq In the House. Dark Secret is mentioned as a cake that has Earl Grey Tea taste with chocolate but I didn't taste anything resembling of earl grey. I did however, had a whole mouthful of chocolate taste. The last layer of the cake provided a crispy portion like wafers. The cake feels very soft and fluffy as well and the outer layer of the cake that's covered in chocolate sometimes felt too sweet for me. But other times are okay. As for the latte, I felt that it is way too milky as I didn't taste much of coffee but it does have a bitter aftertaste that proves of the coffee's existence in it towards the end. LOL.

I can see the draw of the womenfolks to this cafe. Everything seems so pretty and cheery in there.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM24.15 altogether with the latte being just RM9.90 and the cake RM12.90. There is a charge of 6% GST.

Final Verdict:
7/10. I can see why the draw to this cafe. It's pretty, the cakes were good and the coffee was okay. Not sure if the food's good but I'm tempted to come back again to try.

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