Fifties Cafe, Temasya Industrial Park, Glenmarie Temasya Square, Glenmarie

Address:
Jalan Penguasa B U1/53B, Kawasan Perindustrian Temasya, Glenmarie Temasya Square 40150 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily: 10am-11pm

Time Visited:
Around 12:30pm. Lunchies!

Attire worn:
Business attire

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Their Set Lunch, Beef Bacon Carbonara Pasta, Latte and Mango Orange Sorbet for dessert.

At first, I was gonna go out lunchies with a colleague of mine but after knowing that more people were gonna be joining, I decided to go my own way. It turned out to be a very wise decision because seconds later as I got into my car and were driving off the parking lot, I got a call to head back up to the office I was in to settle something. If my colleagues were to join me, they'd be late for lunch. But somehow, I felt a little guilty because I felt like I let my colleague down who seemed to give me a vibe of how much she really wanted to dine with me today. Hmm. Probably just my imagination. After all, most people just wanna tag along me because they want me to be the driver. :/

Anyway, after moving out from the office, I decided to drive around uncharted areas for me since the usual hot spots for lunch would be difficult to get a parking spot by now and that's where I ended up being at Temasya Industrial Park. At an already quite hidden location where the corner mamak restaurants rules, I decided to head off back where there's no way anybody could've seen those shops without driving inside that small area. Inside there, I spotted a cozy little cafe beside an Autospa. When I first saw it, I couldn't make out the name at all since the first letter is substituted with a coffee cup and I'm not sure what letter it was supposed to be. Even when I was inside, I still don't know what's the cafe name was supposed to be since I couldn't spot much of their name at all and they're filled with so many things with words on them, I don't know which one is their name. It was only when I was about to connect to their wifi that I got to know that their cafe name is "Fifties Cafe".

The cafe seems to be a family run business with a young chap manning the reigns while the other two women, one young and I presume the older woman to be the mother were taking on of more of a serving role. During my presence there, there's no patrons in sight at all but the young chap was ready and eager to serve me as he welcomed me when I entered the door. A little undecided on where to sit since the seats don't seem to give out a comfortable enough look to it, I finally decided to huddle up against a wall where there were decorative items galore on a shelf above that table. Thinking that whatever was on the table was the menu already set in place, I discovered as I approach nearer that it was actually a place mat to shield food from the table and the menu was in hand from the staff to hand it to me. The chairs and tables were very solid wood with metals holding it together and as stands. As I dragged the chair to make space for me to move in to sit, I soon discovered that the chair was awfully heavy and with it's metal base screeching across the floor, it gives off a very loud unpleasant scraping noise which I couldn't avoid until too late.

Once seated, I was quickly informed of their set lunch but there were nowhere indicating of what the set lunch was and what is it. The menu is just a plain menu with the items in there and you only get to know of the set lunch verbally. I then decided on the two things I most love to order when I see it in a menu, Carbonara Pasta and Latte. The sorbet was just a casualty in the set lunch. LOL.

The young chap that seems to be in control of the cafe then moves towards the kitchen to prepare my food while over at the front, the young woman prepares my coffee. The same silver package that holds the coffee beans seems really familiar like the ones I've seen at Chequers. The latte came to me not too long after my order and was brought over by the older woman. The coffee gives off a mild familiar gourmet coffee taste and is quite agreeable to my tastebuds even though being mild. I loved the coffee art that were presented to me as well. The barista sure had done her practicing as far as I can tell.

Not long after the cuppa arrived, the food was delivered to me as well. My initial first few bites gave me the impression as being quite tasteless but after getting into the middle, I realized that I should've mixed it up more before taking a bite since the carbonara "gravy" gave off somewhat of some taste and towards the bottom, it tasted garlicky. I guess this pasta relies heavily on the mushroom and the beef bacon for taste because that's what gives out the most taste. The beef bacon is one big chunk of it that sits on top when served and you can see the cheese sprinkles all around the pasta which makes it a little bland for some reason. Nonetheless, the beef bacon and the garlic taste prevails and saves the dish from sinking overall. Hence, when evaluated as a whole, I would say that this is an okay pasta. Not too bad but not enough to be fantastic.

As for the sorbet, it is from a brand named Island Way. Wouldn't say I had a lot of sorbets in my lifetime but for the Island Way brand, it's much creamier that I expected a sorbet to be....almost ice cream like. But, due to the unique flavoring of the Mango Orange (which the sorbet is served in a halved orange skin) it gave out a tropical sense type of taste that I much enjoyed. All in all, not bad.

I quite like the fact that the older woman brought my sorbet to me without being told. There were only a max of 3 tables of customers that time but noticing me that I'm ready for my dessert even though I didn't tell her was a plus point.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM22.90. Not sure what's the price of each individual items since the bill just lumps them all together as set lunch with and add of RM2 due to me upgrading my drink to a coffee. No GST is charged here I guess since the receipt never stated. But then again, the receipt isn't itemized either. But I'm pretty sure they don't charge it.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Coffee is according to my taste and the food is okay. Price wise, okay I guess. Ambiance is artsy. Service not bad too. This place is definitely good for a lone diner like me to get a coffee fix because it's not one of those places people would go out of their way to go to. So that only leaves the residents nearby (which the houses at the adjacent housing area are mostly vacant) and the office workers nearby where probably once in a while will gain a visit from them when they decided to have something that's out of the ordinary. It makes me wonder, why did they decided to open at such a secluded location  where it's not visible from anywhere at all (the shop facing a wall that fences off the housing area) and to top it all off, opening daily? From morning till night? Boy, they sure are hardworking if they're gonna pull off such a schedule.

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Wanderlust, Solaris Mont Kiara, Mont Kiara

Address:
No. 10, Jalan Solaris 4, 
Solaris Mont Kiara,
50480 Kuala Lumpur

Opening Hours:
Mon & Wed to Fri: 11am-10pm
Weekends: 9am-10pm

Time Visited:
1:20pm, Monday afternoon for lunch

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Frittata with Grilled Salmon, Latte and a Beeramisu for dessert

So there I was on a working weekday far from my office space just being my rebel self and decided to take a long stroll away from my usual lunch scene. It all started off with me needing to proceed to Technology Park Malaysia (TPM for short) for work purpose but manage to settle everything just in time for lunch. And so I decided to wander off all the way to Solaris Mont Kiara for my lunch because TPM has zero nice food there. At least over the side where the Malay food court is.

As I explore Solaris Mont Kiara, I found that it's riddled with many Korean food joints and fancy restaurants where the main attraction would merely be their bar section and yet, despite being just afternoon and those bar restaurants are merely starting to operate, there's already people drinking while some had the office lunch crowd visiting for a meal. I strayed away from it and decided to hunt for something else. Eventually, I ended up at Wanderlust, due to their pretty decorative ways and their vibrant colors. On the outside spots garden like furnitures that doesn't look comfortable to sit in. It was a scorching hot afternoon anyway and so I decided to take refuge indoors over the artificial cooled air of the air condition units.

Wanderlust has few seating area that can easily fill up the cafe with some bar stools set up at bar counters over at where the drinks dispense and one area overlooking the cafe outside. It loves branding their paper plane logo and name over many items inside the cafe, like the Evian glass bottle (1st picture in this post) where they reuse it to make it as their water bottle served to customers once seated. Their coffee machine too is tagged with their cafe named on it, concealing the coffee machine brand from view. There's a large table right in the middle of the cafe that houses a large group of people or as a communal table should the need arises. What's interesting to me is that right above that table, those same Evian glass bottles are used as decorations right above. Filled a little with water and with their cap on suspended with steel wires to keep them hanging. If it were me, I would be too afraid to sit below there because I would be too paranoid thinking about the possibility of the bottles dropping though I'm sure that's never gonna happen. Still, I'm a worry bug.

During my entrance, the 2 foreign worker staff immediately greeted me and ushered me to a vacant table knowing full well that I'm a party of one for some reason after confirmation. The seatings on the left of the cafe uses the wall as a backrest instead of having chairs over there. That allows them the ease to rearrange the tables at the side to cater for various party sizes. There's ample sun rays beaming in to the place on their untinted window and door at the front. When I entered, there were still some place left to sit indoors but after awhile, it started to get crowded for some reason. People somehow started to flock there to have their meals all of a sudden. I took my time browsing through the one page food menu and one page drink menu and a smaller piece of menu indicating on the set lunch. Due to the staff sudden busy state after a crowd walked in, I chilled for a moment even though I was ready to order. To my surprise, one of the staff appeared before me seconds later to take my order without me signalling to him as if he was a mind reader and knew that I'm ready to order! However, his knowledge on his establishment's food item were lacking when he couldn't answer me at all when I dug in to try to find out more about what I'm about to order.

The Frittata with a piece of Grilled Salmon somehow took a longer period of waiting time for the kitchen to prepare as I see one by one the other patrons that walked in later than me receiving their food while me with nothing. I guess the rest must've just went with the set lunch. My latte though didn't take that long to come to me. The coffee has a bitter undertone to it just as I sip onto it. The milk ratio may be perfect and the coffee art may be good, but somehow the milk they use just doesn't cut it for me as it's just too runny. But it did go well with their coffee beans. From what I can see, it looks like their blend contains more dark roast in them. That explains the bitter undertone that hits me when I sip on it. I also didn't like the fact that the latte was too hot for my consumption instead of me being able to drink it immediately. I guess to me that although the barista may be good in her coffee art, she still has room for improvement over certain areas on conjuring up a latte that befits me.

Once the glorious sight of food arriving, it looks gorgeous to me. Stark bright contrasting colors with the piece of salmon stacked neatly atop the Frittata in turn having that on top of the "Cherry Tomato Chutney". Their description on their menu over this dish is right on the money. The tomato sauce right at the bottom does indeed best described as chutney. A few chunky pieces of blended tomato with some onions in the mix does have indeed got it like a chutney texture. It's also very delicious (which is odd to me because I don't usually like tomato based sauce) and got me finishing it off even though my salmon and Frittata has been consumed. The salmon was perfectly cooked and although may looked like it was inconsistent in it's seasoning due to the sprinkles of pepper on it, it wasn't the case at all. The taste was consistent and produced a very satisfying piece of grilled salmon to me. As for the Frittata, it was equally a delight to eat. Fun fact: the difference between a Frittata and a Quiche is that Frittatas don't have a crust while a Quiche has a custard base. This dish certainly was worth the wait to me.

My Beeramisu came after my meal thanks to the very attentive wait staff who politely asked me about it while clearing off my dish. By this time, somehow the crowd that came in suddenly has mostly dispersed and disappeared into the yonder with their ever quick eating habits and hectic working lifestyle.

The Beeramisu came in a candy jar like container where the first layer are chocolate shavings followed by Irish cream, then the Tiramisu pastry and another layer of the Irish cream and finally, a layer of Tiramisu pastry that contains Stout in em. In order to fully enjoy this, I recommend scooping all the way down and eating with a mixture of all layers at once. This is not a bad dessert at all. I most certainly prefer this over the Salted Caramel Tiramisu Jar at Salt 'n Koffie Gallery. The Irish cream produced a fine binding taste over the pastry with the Stout and the chocolate. The chocolate shavings is the thing that gives out sweetness in this dessert the most with the Irish cream meeting in between and while there's Stout in it, it's hoppish, bitter taste were very, very, minimal, almost non-existent and yet you can still taste the Stout also meeting halfway with the Irish cream. A certainly very satisfying way to end my meal.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM64.80. RM28 for the Frittata with Grilled Salmon, RM11 for my Latte and RM18 for the Beeramisu. 6% GST incurred and 10% service charge and a 2 sen rounding adjustment. The 6% GST is on the Latte, Beeramisu and service charge. No GST for the Frittata with Grilled Salmon.

Final Verdict:
7/10. This cafe inspired me in many ways. The design attracted me to visit, the staff made me felt like a VIP, the menu inspired me to take photos in anticipation of the dishes, the food inspired me to write and blog about this which I didn't originally intended to, the unique dessert inspired me to try and in retrospect to everything it inspired me to take more photos than I usually do and write more than I usually do on a single cafe. The only thing that I didn't like was the coffee. Just wasn't to my taste. Else I would've given it an 8. But hey, who knows. It could be the kind of coffee you like with it's bitter undertone.

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Chequers, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail (TTDI), Kuala Lumpur

Address:
153, Jalan Aminuddin Baki,
Taman Tun Dr. Ismail 60000, Kuala Lumpur

Opening Hours:
Mon-Thurs: 10am-11pm 
Fri: 10am-12am
Sat: 9am-10am 
Sun: 9am-11pm

Time Visited:
7:30pm, Sunday evening.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Shroom Fiesta and a Flat White.

After being out the whole day eating and drinking away, I went home for awhile to rest up before heading out to dinner. Although this is a place where I may be going in the next couple of days and I can try it then, I chose to visit it tonight on a Sunday evening.

The weather started off to thunderstorm and it looks as if it's not letting up but I'm not gonna be deterred by the storm and so I started off from my place to head over to TTDI. As I approached my car and drove off my parking bay, the thunderstorm had receded to a normal rain. By the time I reached TTDI, the rain had subsided to drizzles.

I entered the facility and were surprised with the amount of people there to dine at Chequers. Oftentimes, during my work that brought me to TTDI, I would usually pass by Chequers but there just don't seem to be a lunch crowd at all. In fact, it usually looks pretty bare and I admittedly too am turned off from consuming my food there for lunch. Then again, I wouldn't blame the working crowd at TTDI for avoiding that place. After all, it's an office area where the salary is low and there's plenty of cheap and good food within the area such as the Wan Tan Mee at the hawker stall of Restoran OK. But for nighttime, it's a whole different ballgame because the hawker stalls aren't opened at night and it's only reduced to "dai chow" or those pubs and bistros.

So there I was at Chequers sitting way at the back corner where it's just in front of the kitchen door because it's either the outdoor area or occupy one of those tables meant for 4-6 people. I call it, the "Chef's table". LOL. Although not greeted a welcome, I was, however, greeted with a warmth smile from one of the wait staff. As I sat at the table I chose, the menu quickly appeared in front of me. It's amusing to see a title section called "I am Hungry" which features savory dishes in that section available from 11:30am-3pm and 6pm till late. I selected the first thing on the menu to go with the Flat White I ordered which is the Shroom Fiesta.

The Flat White didn't take long to come and one sip of it indicates to me a very strong bitter tone to it but somehow isn't really the kind of coffee that I like. The Barista is obviously skillful judging from the way he poured the coffee and milk onto the cup as I observed him from a distance (also from the looks of the coffee art). Unfortunately, they use Magnolia Full Cream milk instead of Farmhouse (understandable since Farmhouse Full Cream milk has increased their price tremendously) which I feel that it don't fit with the beans profile since Magnolia Full Cream milk although may be the next best to Farmhouse, it just isn't as rich and smooth as how Farmhouse milk can produce. Anyway, the coffee's good but I much prefer the coffee at Artisan Roast Coffee which is just a short walk away from here.

Next came the intriguing dish of a savory vegetarian waffle. It took some time to prepare and the chef prepared 3 of it at one go for the other patrons who ordered it too saving him the cooking time.

It's quite unusual for me to order a vegetarian dish since I'm very pro meat and I seldom take vegetables but this time I thought, "What the heck. Let's give it a try!"

The Shroom Fiesta is a spinach waffle with grilled portobello mushrooms, glazed cherry tomatoes, rocket leaves and shaved parmesan cheese on top with olive oil and balsamic vinegar at strategic places. The grilled portobello mushrooms were not surprisingly good but what's interesting was that it's taste intermingles well with the rest of the combination without being too overpowering. You taste it's very strong taste when you eat it on it's own but when you pick it up with other ingredients, surprisingly, the just blends into it and doesn't come on too strongly. The parmesan cheese somehow just clumps at the top and even though you pick up strands of it and combine with the rest, it leaves very little cheese taste to it. Hence, the purpose of the cheese being there didn't really do anything at all. They should've lightly melted it onto some of the rocket leaves to provide a gooey effect instead of just sitting on top doing nothing and exhibiting no taste. Surprisingly, I'm loving the rocket leaves which isn't bitter at all and the spinach waffle was sensational as well, leaving pockets of sweetness in between bites. The olive oil with balsamic vinegar were placed cleverly whereupon cutting up the waffle and grabbing some of the ingredients with it, you would somehow apply some of the salad dressing with it which enhances this creative harmony.
All in all, despite me being a very staunch meat eater and a person who seldom eats his vegetables somehow am transformed into loving this masterpiece. If there's ever a dish that converts me into loving vegetables, this would be it.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM31.90. All ready for the GST with their GST number displayed. But there's still no 6% government tax being charged. There is however, their 10% service charge.

Final Verdict:
8/10. I like their coffee, I love their good service and I certainly enjoyed their vegetable waffle. I'm not sure whether they have the same team during the day. I highly doubt they do. So if that's the case, the coffee, food and service may differ during that period.

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