The Brew Culture, Plaza Damas 3, Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Address:
B-01-06 Plaza Damas 3,
Jalan Sri Hartamas 1, Sri Hartamas, 50480
Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Mon: 9:00 am – 9:00 pm (Close Tues)
Wed – Sun: 9:00 am – 9:00 pm

Time Visited:
Saturday, 11am

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Latte and Minced Lamb Baguette

I tried visiting this place the day before but they were close and so I took to just eating mamak the day before.

Venturing to new territories for the first time, I've never been to Plaza Damas before. Just to Hartamas Shopping Centre which was a very, very long time ago when I was still working at Plaza Mont Kiara. So being new to Plaza Damas, I didn't know that the area opposite of Hartamas Shopping Centre was called Plaza Damas 3 and unknowingly and unwittingly went into Plaza Damas instead. I've searched high and low for The Brew Culture but obviously it was nowhere to be seen since I'm at the wrong location. Hell, the block that it indicated don't even have that even number that I was searching for. So I was pretty baffled until I walked into Hartamas Shopping Centre and spotted a walkway bridge leading opposite where I saw The Brew Culture's signboard from afar. After being downstairs looking up that flight of stairs that leads to it, I saw that it was close for that day for some reason. With that, I turned away and settled to eating mamak instead and came back the next day.

Whenever it's opened, the door will be open and some paraphernalia will be displayed outside it's doors to indicate that they're open. As I walk into the kempt place, the two persons manning the cafe appeared really busy behind the counter. As I look around for signs of what they have to offer, I finally made my order for a Latte and their Minced Lamb Baguette.

I sat myself down and awaited for my order. Over there, there were 2 tables occupied with 2 different couples both seems to be familiar with the place and were there for the long haul doing some work and chilling. As for me, I'm just taking a break before I adjourn back to work which that day turned out to be a very adventurous day that left me moving far and wide for my work. Anyway, somehow, the cafe's service were slow that day for some reason especially the coffee. The barista seems to be calibrating the machine abit and took an awful long time before I'm finally served my cup of latte but not before my baguette arrived.

The Minced Lamb Baguette had a bit of a local taste with the tapioca chips that you usually get them from the kacang putih sellers. A very different chips that was served. This is the first time I encounter that as the chips served. The meal was quite savory and pleasing to the palate. I wanted to snap a photo of the food together with my coffee but the coffee took too long and I was getting way too hungry even though I snagged some chips to appease my tummy. Pretty soon, I gave up and took bites on the baguette filled with minced lamb. The taste was nice and not gamy. Tantalizing and some spunk to it. There's a dollop of cheese dip in the middle for the tapioca chips but it could do without since it didn't do much to the taste.

I left the place way later than I expected to but it's okay. It turned out to be a very productive working day anyway.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM31. Don't know if they charge any extra since I didn't get a reeipt,

Final Verdict:
6.5/10. A nice place to hideaway from the norm. If you hate the crowds of people in shopping malls, you can hideaway here where there's loads less people around.

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Thyme Out, Dataran Sunway, Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Address:
Dataran Sunway, 
66, Jalan PJS 11/7,
46150, Bandar Sunway,
Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Sunday - Thursday:  11:00AM - 10:00PM
Friday & Saturday: 11:00AM - 10:00PM

Time Visited:
2:35pm, Sunday

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Quesadilla (Lamb) with Jalapeno Mayo and with Nachos & Fries. To drink, Mangito

Sleepy and tired to the max, I dragged myself forward to this Mexican themed restaurant named Thyme Out located at Sunway City. The place really is everything Mexican on it's menu but as for their decoration, it lacks the siesta feel but more towards a western bar outlook. As I entered, nobody even bothered a glance and since my bladder was full, I headed straight towards the toilet which somehow looks a bit of a turn off. Anyway, the toilet doesn't matter much.

So after coming out from it, I helped myself a menu and started looking through it. I finally settled for Quesadilla and waited for my food. Not long after that, my drink, the Mangito came. Well, didn't taste much of mango. Mostly is just citrusy and loads of mint leaves drowned the taste with it. It's suppose to be a sparkling soda so the fizziness of the drinks does present itself at times. Just a little later pops out some fries and nachos before finally, the quesadilla came.

The fries were sprinkled with some kind of herb and also black pepper over it. But it wasn't consistent on it's fries. The nachos tasted of a familiar one that I've bought home before but I couldn't recall which brand. Anyway, some were a little saltier while others none at all. But then again, I don't think they're the ones who seasoned the nachos. Rather it should be straight out of the chips bag. LOL.

The Lamb Quesadilla was not too bad but I fail to detect any Jalapeno Mayo sauce on it. In fact, I find it not spicy at all nor was there any taste of Jalapeno on it. But the taste is not too bad. The stringy lamb meat cascading taste intertwined with the many different vegetables in the quesadilla. I just expected it to be a little better since it's an all Mexican themed.

Anyway, my very tired self had a short break before I quickly head on home to clean the house before collapsing to sleep. Phew.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM32. There's 6% GST.

Final Verdict:
5.5/10. For an all Mexican themed restaurant, I expect their Mexican food to be delicious. Though it's not too bad, I'd had better Mexican food elsewhere. So I hope they'd not improve on their food, but also their environment.

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The Safe Room, George Town, Pulau Pinang (Penang Island), Malaysia

Address:
42, Lebuh Campbell, George Town, 10100 George Town, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
12pm - 11pm on Tues, Wed & Thurs
12pm - 12am on Fri, Sat & Sun
Close on Mondays.

Time Visited:
8:30pm, Saturday night

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Dragon's Breath Popcorn and a Rose Latte

Just after my dinner from my moronic trip to Penang for no apparent reason, I decided to sober up from that one glass of wine and went for some stimulating coffee before I depart back my long trip to KL after a very, very long day.

I simply pick around and ended up with The Safe Room which is just down the road from where I was for dinner. Over there, I got a parking just in front of Hong Kee Wan Thun Mee which I now regret a bit for not taking the opportunity to try it after going to The Safe Room since it seems to be very popular and loads of people were there to savor it even after I've left. So then I walk across the street and The Safe Room was just right there. Initially, I didn't notice it since the sign was partially hidden by it's canopy but I still spotted it after a purposeful look around for it. It's directly opposite of Hong Kee Wan Thun Mee.

I immediately enter the cafe and the barista greeted me and seemed to be busy with something. She told me to have a seat and they'll bring the menu to me. So this cafe is not a self-service place. In fact they charge 10% service charge as well. But I just took the menu at the counter with me and sat at the nearest seat there. It didn't take me long to know what I'll be ordering and that was the Dragon's Breath Popcorn and the Rose Latte. Of late, there's been a recent craze on Dragon Breath snacks where it's made with liquid nitrogen and people immediately popping it into their mouth to have a smoking effect coming out of their mouth. It also seemed to have made into the newspaper once from some teenage kid buying some snacks like that from the pasar malam  (night market) and having burnt badly from it. Probably from the improper method they did it? But then again, he was the only one who suffered from the burns badly. LOL. Anyway, I'm just here to try it out.

As they served it over to me, it was still heavily covered with steam vapor coming out from the bowl of popcorn. After a short while later, the steam vapor had all dissipated from it and there were no more of that effect. I didn't pop it in immediately as I want to make sure that the liquid nitrogen on it has completely evaporated as ironically as a cynic like myself sounds. Anyway, it just tasted like your normal caramel popcorn. Just that it's a cold version. LOL.

The Rose Latte came a little later and the presentation was pretty much standard. A little disappointed on the very few sprinkles of rose onto it till I took a sip of it. The taste of rose on this was very strong. After being a little more alert from that tiring day. I started to notice that they put a lot of effort into beautifying the cafe. There's different interesting decors around from the popcorn machine cart to the games section telephone booth and the gigantic Lego character one on the wall scaling while the was next to a room door where that room I guess was solely for the purpose of photography. The toilet was strangely enough located on the first floor where you had to climb a flight of stairs to access it but the games section caught my eye and I started working on a faded off with some missing colors Rubik's cube. I finally got all the colors together after making a few mistakes (brain totally about to shut down from the tiredness) and that's when I'm off to journey back home when the night was getting late.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM27.30. As mentioned earlier, there's 10% service charge but no GST.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Nice place to chill and coffee is decent.

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Gridz Cafe, Plaza Danau 2, Taman Danau Desa, Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Address:
( 1st Floor), 31-1, Plaza Danau 2, Jalan 109f, Taman Danau Desa, 58100 Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily 11am - 10pm except Tuesdays

Time Visited:
New Year's Eve, Saturday, 4:30pm

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Porkie Pasta, Flower Tea (combination of 3 flowers which I chose Lavender, Globe Amaranth, and Peach Flower)

After working for some time, I decided to go for a break and head off to Gridz Cafe for a meal. As I arrive at the venue, the lunch crowd has just disperse from the place and I was the only one there. LOL. Being on the first floor of a place that seems a little quiet, they tend to lock their doors for safety so if no one notices you at the door, you'll have to ring the doorbell for them to open for you.

This place was still stuck in Christmas mode with decorations still in the Christmas spirits and delightful Christmas melodies filled the air. They run the business as a family and so you get that homely feel to it when you're there. It's always a pleasure to see older folks interacting with younglings as if you were in their home. They even converse and entertained me as a guest of a family instead of a customer. It's rather amusing having to receive a cookie to try as they try to promote it that they're gonna make and sell it soon for the Chinese New Year.

The food and drink items that I ordered materialized onto my table a little longer than I expected. However, the owner apologized to me when she refilled my teapot with hot water saying that the lunch crowd had just left and they were so busy just before I came. I felt as if I came to their house for a visit and that I'm a family friend of theirs. Haven't had such a homely vibe for such a long time, not since the Pig Out Cafe at Parklane Commercial Center, Kelana Jaya.

Anyway, the food was okay. The Porkie Pasta is obviously a porcine dish that consists of Minced Pork and Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausage) which it is quite unique in itself since it fuses the Chinese elements into this western dish. As for the Flower Tea, that was a delight to me even though I just simply pick and choose 3 different main ingredients as my tea. I ended up staying longer than I wanted to due to the need to wait for the rain to stop. Once it did, I was off to continue my work that day till it started to rain and being lazy, I decided to go home to sleep instead.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM21. RM13 for the pasta, RM8 for the tea. Quite cheap and there's no service charge nor GST as well!

Final Verdict:
6/10. There's much room to be improve for this place ie the food could taste better and more memorable. The environment was lovely and the people were friendly and homely. But being just newly opened not too long ago, it's definitely a good start to improve on.

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The Glass House - Specialty Coffee, Metropolitan Square, Bandar Damansara Perdana, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Address:
Metropolitan Square, Lot C109, Center Wing, Jalan PJU 8/1, Bandar Damansara Perdana, 47820 Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Weekdays: 9am - 7pm
Weekends: 10am - 5pm

Time Visited:
3:20pm, replacement public holiday for Christmas on Sunday

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Flat White, Chocolate and Sea Salt Cake

After a slow day of work and taken my late lunch, I started to depart to this place called The Glass House over at Metropolitan Square. I was here the day before on Christmas day to try it out but they were closed on that day and so I had to make the effort again to come over here to have a try.

Parking on that day was still free somehow even though there's the confusing part of needing to take a ticket but the machines aren't in working order so paying is not necessary that time. The Glass House is just a small cozy cafe that has very few sitting places with 2 on the outside and 2 on the downstairs inside. I think there's also only 2 upstairs but I'm not really sure since I didn't have a peek upstairs so this place has very, very limited place to enjoy your coffee. This is also a place where it doesn't serve food but they do serve cakes where you can have a look at their display case underneath the staircase. A really small place but managed well to maximize the minimum space.

The owner of the place which I presume is the Australian guy seems a little stuck up and I didn't see him smile at all. I think he's incapable of that. LOL. But as for the local Chinese staff there, he was friendly and welcoming enough to me. As I ordered my Flat White with the friendly guy, he asked me whether would I like any cakes to go with my Flat White. This piqued my interest and so I went over to see what cakes they have. The guy recommended that since I'm having a Flat White, it would go well with the Chocolate & Sea Salt Cake. But all I saw on the cake tray was an empty tray. But he said, oh, we had a new batch in today and so he took it out of the fridge and so I ordered 1. I paid for my order and sat on the outside awaiting my order.

It soon came after and looks promising. I like the Flat White, though it wasn't a strong blend of coffee, it's aromatic and I quite like the taste. The Chocolate & Sea Salt Cake wasn't too much of my fancy but what he recommended was right enough because it did go very well with the Flat White. Complemented each other fully and gave a very full bodied taste to both that enhances each other. On the top was merely the chocolate part but the base I guess is where the Sea Salt lies since there's a slight tinge of salty taste. But otherwise, it's quite a sweet cake and I was told that it's gluten free. Not that a person of my framework needed to lose any fat. LOL.

It was soon raining when I was about to leave and I got a little lazy to continue on with my work and so I headed home to do my laundry instead.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM25. RM10 for the Flat White and RM15 for the cake. No other additional charges mentioned so I guess there's none.

Final Verdict:
6.5/10. Nice place to chill and relax with a very good vibrant vibe to this cafe. Only thing is it's quite limited in it's space. But they do deliveries as well around the Metropolitan Square area with a minimum order of RM20.

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Wha Ga (火家), Empire Damansara, Damansara Perdana, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Address:
Lot F05, Heritage Lane, Empire Damansara, Jalan PJU 8/8, Damansara Perdana, 47820 Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Unsure. I think should be the same as San Nae Deul which is Daily 11am - 10pm. It seems that Wha Ga is a spin off of San Nae Deul which is located at all places where there's San Nae Deul? I think.

Time Visited:
About 11:15am. Saturday, Christmas Eve.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Sutbul Ganjang-dakgalbi set (숯불 간장 닭 갈비 세트)

Wanting to try Bungkus at Empire Damansara, I headed off there thinking it was still open. But when I got there, it has been totally replaced with a Korean restaurant alled Wha Ga. Wha Ga if I'm not mistaken is from the same family of San Nae Deul restaurant. This place serves more of individual dishes perfect for the party of one like me. I wonder why they decided to open up here since this place has very little foot traffic especially in the first floor.

I was curious what they serve there and so I browse the menu. The waiters there saw me and quickly attend to me and explain to me the menu. I soon was enticed and decided to go for their lunch set. Mind you this place is actually pork free. Over at the kitchen, a Korean head chef leads the kitchen team. The rest are all Bangladeshis, I think. But since there's no customers at all, it's really nothing to do at all but sit around and wait. It's a no brainer. Didn't take them long till my food comes.

The Apple Juice that I ordered which comes with the set is actually poured out from a large container. Generally, it's just store bought packed juice and not freshly made. As for the Charcoal Soy Sauce stir fried chicken, it didn't taste bad. In fact, it was quite okay. The lunch set comes with 4 side dishes that are refillable and a seaweed soup. The four side dishes that day was kimchi (which was quite nice and spicy), the second one I can't really remember but I think it's squash with some french beans, 3rd one is pickled cucumber and radish and the peanuts and anchovies along with egg with a little bit of sausage in it and a croquet of sort. Overall, not bad. Not much comment because I rarely eat Korean food. Hahaha. But this meal was acceptable to me and to me it tasted quite well.

Wha Ga has 5 outlets currently including this one and this one only receives cash. There's one in Oasis Square, one in Sunway Mentari, one in Sri Petaling and one in Solaris Mont Kiara.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM15.75. 6% GST inclusive and there's this weird 5% service charge. Haha

Final Verdict:
6/10. Not bad. This Korean food, I can accept and eat happily. The only thing I'm thinking is why do they decided to open in Empire Damansara 1st floor? It's a place that's hard to sustain.

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Isaki Japanese Restaurant, Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Address:
1-0, 1-1, Jalan 7/70a, Taman Seri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 12pm - 2:30pm and 6pm - 12am

Time Visited:
6:45pm, Saturday evening, Christmas Eve

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Buta Don, Ehire, and Orange Juice

It's Christmas eve and I've spent the whole day working since the early morning with a break for lunch in between. And now that the day is done, I've actually ran myself ragged and have made myself sick again. LOL. But it hasn't turn into something serious yet like last week where I ran a high fever and vomiting. Today was just merely dry eyes causing it to be painful which in turn cause me a headache. So I went back home around 5:30pm when it started to rain to catch a nap so that I can come to this place to try for my dinner.

On my way over around 6 something pm, it started to rain heavier and when I reached the destination, it looked as if it's closed. But upon approaching on it's main entrance, it's proven that it's opened with lights and the works and staff manning outside. So I sat myself down on one of those picnic benches and started to scour and scrutinize the menu in detail before finally deciding on the Buta Don with Ehire. I asked what Ehire is and the foreign worker (all are foreign workers in this restaurant) told me that it's the fried skin of the fish. Something like that. LOL. I initially ordered a Green Apple Juice but they ran out, so I went with orange juice instead.

Service was a tad slow at this joint though the workers seems to be very quick handed with things. Anyway, the Ehire came not too long after the drink arrived and I started munching away at it. It's really delicious. Tasted like eating cuttlefish. At the side was dabs of mayonnaise condiment to go with it sprinkled with chili powder on top. The combination was great and wasn't an adjunct item even though the Ehire was tasty enough eating on it's own.

Along came the Buta Don. I must say for that big bowl of rice with loads of pork meat in it, it's well worth the RM22 I'm paying for that. It may not be overly fantastic but enough to satisfy my pork cravings and for me to deem it above average. Well worth the cost.

I soon finished up to quickly head home to nurse my headache and to write this out.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM66.45. 10% service charge included and 6% GST imposed.

Final Verdict:
6/10. For a bowl that big, the Buta Don is well worth the money to eat and it tasted quite good too. As for the Ehire, it's more on the expensive side though it was rather tasty. This place has a lot of complaints from customers on their slow service and inattentive staff but so far I didn't encounter that much. Maybe because I was sitting at such a prominent location and being just one person sitting at such a big table, it's bound to draw attention. LOL. I've also seen comments people indicating that this place is pet friendly as well.

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