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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Merchant's Lane, Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Address:
No, 150 Jalan Petaling, 59000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Mon-Tue:
11:30 am - 10:00 pm
Thu-Fri:
11:30 am - 10:00 pm
Sat-Sun:
9:30 am - 10:00 pm

Time Visited:
4:30pm, Saturday evening

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
On my portion, I ordered Pipits Nest and a hot Long Black

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience.

Hungry as fuck that day due to me missing the buffet lunch provided at an event which resulted in me having a grueling time enduring a demo and tour around a budget hotel, I couldn't wait to sink my teeth in at this heritage driven theme cafe located at the heart of Kuala Lumpur, right smack dab in the middle of a touristy spot of Petaling Street where by dark, I always feel unsafe being in the vicinity of this area.

It was also the day that I first bear witness and the experience of bearing the brunt of the tremendous increase in parking fees for the district of Kuala Lumpur. The parking machines located within around Petaling Street area only allows 2 hours maximum in buying your parking to which you will need to repurchase after that since the authorities haven't enforced the 2 hours maximum in parking whereby you'll have to leave the place after that. I tried buying with my Touch N Go card but it was no go since the machine for some odd reason said my card was not valid. Pretty disappointing. Next time I'm gonna try their app JomParking to pay. But then again, I don't see the Petaling Street area listed on it. Grr.

Anyway, we first made the mistake of entering the wrong place and ended up in a very scary looking location which was dark and all and somebody at the back said that the restaurant is not opened yet. Puzzled, we exited the place and finally spotted that we were at the wrong place. The door to Merchant's Lane is two doors down. The place though located at an upstairs location garnered a lot of people visiting it mainly a lot were there to take pictures. I guess the rustic and vintage charm of the place was the attracting point which reminded me a lot of those old shoplot houses in Malacca.

After deciding on where to sit, we ordered our much overdue lunch where I went for a long black and pipits nest. Pipits Nest is a serving of Brinjal Fries, Onion Rings & Chicken Tenders all in one dish with cheese sauce all over it. It took a moderate amount of waiting time till it came to our place but then again, there were at almost full capacity in their cafe so it can be considered as fast since there's so many customers around. The Pipits Nest just looks like a bowl of fried stuff all in one where if I don't look closely and simply pick one with my fork, I wouldn't know what I took till I bite on it. Brinjal fries and onion rings were a bit oily for my taste but it's good in terms of it's appetizing factor. The chicken tenders were better since you don't really feel the oil as much as the Brinjal Fries and Onion Rings. Putting cheese sauce all over the whole thing actually is a very good idea because it certainly needed that. Else the food will taste nauseous once you reach at a certain stage without the cheese sauce to help it go down better. As for the Long Black, the coffee wasn't bad. I'd say it's slightly above average. The WiFi isn't as fast as I wanted it to be but usable.

We left for dinner after sitting down for a while around 2 hours plus.

Total Wallet Damage:
Well, my portion amount to RM24 which is quite reasonable. RM16 for the Pipits Nest and RM8 for the Long Black. 6% GST included.

Final Verdict:
7/10. Food is quite good (at least for the Pipits Nest) and the coffee's not bad. A pulling factor for photograph enthusiasts.

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Brew & Bread, Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Address:
10, Jalan Anggerik Vanilla M 31/M, Kota Kemuning, 40460 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Mon-Wed:
8:00 am - 7:00 pm
Fri-Sun:
8:00 am - 7:00 pm

Time Visited:
11:30am, Sunday morning.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Salmon Çilbir and Hot Latte (Sugardaddy)

Brew & Bread. A cafe place at Kota Kemuning which is quite a far area for me to venture just like my previous drive to Kepong. But due to me being in quite a central location, this place is also about a half an hour drive away for me which is quite fine.

When I reach that place, I was surprised that Kota Kemuning was such a bustling area. This was my first time venturing over there. There's plenty of food places to eat and many Chinese flock to that location till it's almost congested like Cheras area. However, due to the vast land area where this cafe is located, there's also plenty of parking abound should you not mind walking a wee bit. And by a wee bit, I mean from the behind row of shophouses.

At first glance, I thought that it was closed since it's signage was big and looks like it occupies the entire shoplot but upon closer inspection, it seems that only the downstairs place is closed. They were open for business upstairs. As I enter through the entrance door, I was shocked to find that the place was almost full house. There were loads of people having their breakfast there and chit chattering away with their family members and friends. Usually, this place has a menu paper laid out at the seating areas but due to the amount of people abound, I sat at the back area overlooking the back alleyway which isn't really a bad view, to be honest. The glorious sunshine beams in and enlighten the place tremendously making it a very cheery place. This place is also a full service cafe so you can just take your seat and the staff will come and take your order. I ordered the Salmon Çilbir which is one of their signature dish and a hot latte. For coffee, they have 2 types where they name it Driver and Sugardaddy. Driver has the words "Comforting, Familiar, Classical and Heavy" written on it while Sugardaddy has the words "Seductive, Wild, Charming and Elegant" associated with it. Really, it actually is just Driver being a single shot with a smaller cup while Sugardaddy is a double shot espresso with a bigger cup. That's just it. I went for double shot.

It took quite a long while for even just my coffee to arrive. I don't really blame them. They do have a lot of people coming through their door when I came and that had kept them occupied with the many orders coming in. It probably took almost close to half an hour before I actually receive my full order which is inclusive of the main I ordered. The coffee that they gave to me was named Finca Limoncillo Yellow Pacamara from the country, Nicaragua and was roasted medium. It mentioned in their tasting note that you'll get Passionfruit, Dried Pineapple, Lemon Tea, and Vanilla in it. I didn't taste any of that though. LOL. I just knew that it was sweeter than a lot of coffee that I've ever drank even though this do not contain syrup. It's very fruity and floral just that it tasted more of berries than those listed. LOL.

As for the Salmon Çilbir, it's a dish with a Turkish Poached Egg with Greek Yogurt, Chimichurri Paste, Aleppo Chili Butter and of course the Chargrilled Salmon Steak. What surprises me is that they have fried Mantou (Fried Steamed Bun) as a side with some lettuce on top. I must say I'm impressed with the taste. It does taste quite nice and was done to perfection. Everything from the poached egg to the salmon to the mantou, all done and cooked perfectly. The skin of the salmon was really nice as well and it's just crispy and has a salty taste to it. They've already deboned the salmon and you can rest easy eating it. My only complain would be that the salmon steak was far too small. Oh well. Can't have everything.

As I was leaving, the crowd had died down and the staff had a much more relax time once 12:30pm came about.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM39.20. RM25 for the salmon dish and RM12 for the coffee. 6% GST charged but interestingly, no service charge though they give full service.

Final Verdict:
6.5/10. The food is quite good and so is their coffee. The atmosphere may be a bit noisy and full of people but I guess due to their good coffee, people tend to flock to this place even though they open up only their upstairs area.

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Mm Cafe, Happy Mansion, Section 17, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
AG1, Happy Mansion, Jalan 17/13, Section 17, 46400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 11am - 10pm

Time Visited:
Around 1pm, Monday afternoon 

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Mille Crepe with Bamboo Charcoal and a Flat White

After my stint at Jeq in the House, I decided to go for one more place to try their coffee and cakes since I wanna make full use of my time out of the office and so I simply traveled around to spot some cafes to try and finally ended up at Mm Cafe.

Fresh out of ideas and since this is a near option, that's where I headed to before my departure back to the office. Mm Cafe is in a hidden part of Happy Mansion where it faces the bushes and the car park right at the other end of the entrance. You will not see it if you're just passing by without entering the specific block of this Happy Mansion. Anyway, from the exterior, it looks okay with some office executives chilling outside at the al fresco area chit chatting and having a smoke whilst consuming some lunch and coffee. I entered inside and there were quite a number of patrons there having their lunch and am surprise by it because it is after all at a hidden area. But it was lunch time. The place indoors were cooled by the air conditioning units adequately and since I already had my lunch and a dessert earlier, I decided to just had a cake and a coffee as my second dessert. Wakakaka.

Inside Mm Cafe, it seems a little bit cramped with the tables catering mostly for big groups of people thus leaving a small pathway for walking. I sat myself down and they brought me the menu. The menu merely helped me on deciding what to drink but since cakes weren't a part of the menu, I would need to look at the display case to get an idea on what I wanted to try. I soon decided upon the Mille Crepe with Bamboo Charcoal after already ordered my Flat White.

It took quite a modest waiting time period until they came with my orders. The Flat White coffee has a weak attempt at coffee art and I wondered why they even bothered. Just smear it in at the right amount and leave it alone. It did come pleasantly with a Chocolate Chip Cookie which is rarely served at cafes. The coffee though had a strong coffee sensation and was forcefully bitter even with the milk in it and tasted merely average. However, the plus point about it was that it only costs RM8.90 a cup. But then again, if I wanted a superb cup of coffee for a low price, I can only think of Sudo Brew as the place to get it.

The Mille Crepe with Bamboo Charcoal was not something pleasant to look at, a mere black and white contrasting layers with spots of black on a sheet of white on top. Upon cutting through the Mille Crepe, I find that the texture was a bit too harsh for a Mille Crepe. The middle layer portion seems to be of a stronger layer alike the top and bottom. The texture - coarse and unrefined, a little like paper. The taste were barren and hardly had any sort of sweetness nor interesting taste, just a spoonful of dull and senseless cream. I've been told that won the Best Brownie award on Star newspaper. I can't comprehend how that is so with this kind of Mille Crepe material.

Anyway, an interesting fact cropped up during my dining experience there. One of the staff there seems to be a person I used to know a long long time ago when I was working at a cybercafe nearby. Every morning, I would go to this Chinese hawker restaurant and have my usual toast bread and tea for breakfast and this guy was one of the 2 persons manning the place. It got to the point where I don't even need to order anymore. I would just sit myself down and when the main guy sees me, he would know what I want with just a hand signal. Can't believe that I still recognize this guy after so many years. He's a foreigner but speaks good Cantonese which is mighty impressive.

After finishing my cake and coffee, I depart back to my office satisfied that I made full use of the day's time.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM19.90. RM8.90 for the coffee and RM11 for the cake.

Final Verdict:
4/10. The only thing good about this place is that it's hidden and quiet so you can hide yourself from the known world and that the price of things are cheap. I hope their main dishes are something that are good.

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Am Sande Cafe, Evolve Concept Mall, Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
G-11, Ground Floor, Evolve Concept Mall, Jalan PJU1A/4, Ara Damansara 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Opening Hours:
Should be Daily 10am - 10pm since it's inside the mall.

Time Visited:
Approximately 6:45pm on a Tuesday evening

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Spaghetti Napoli and Spezi (well, sort of)

Am Sande Cafe is not something new here in Malaysia because there's one that is at One City Mall in Subang Jaya.

Since I decided to check out the Evolve Concept Mall this evening, I figured I find something to eat there too. The place like any typical mall consists of mainly franchise eats such as Texas Chicken being the most popular there, Little Fat Duck, Teh Tarik Place and Sushi Q. I probably only saw 2 eateries so far that weren't franchise born. 1 is called Peninsula which is a Chinese restaurant that's located way up on the 3rd floor where I had no idea how to get up there, LOL, another is a Japanese restaurant which I don't know what it's called. Haha. Right next to the Japanese restaurant is Am Sande Cafe. Though it's hardly a franchise, still it's a branch from it's first outlet.

I ordered the Spaghetti Napoli to which the lady owner replied to me in a thick foreign accent which I can't tell which part of the world it is that there's no meat in the dish. I acknowledged that having googled my way to see what it consists of and knew exactly what to expect; a pasta dish with tomato sauce like spaghetti bolognese.

For drinks, I noticed that they had Spezi written in the soft drinks section and got me wondering what it was. So I took a shot at it and ordered it. Turns out, they just mixed Mirinda Orange with Pepsi. LOL. It's not even the Spezi soft drink from Germany. Felt a bit cheated there that they called it Spezi.

Anyway, being freshly opened from the not so distant past, the outlet was empty of patrons. While I was there, there's a table of four person before me. Then there was a person who took away a meal after buying a bottle of beer and another 2 old uncles slowly scrutinizing the menu before finally deciding to enter and give it a try. The place was blaring cheesy international music, some German oom-pah-pah music, some Italian music and some English cover songs.

My Spaghetti didn't take long to arrive and when it did, it looked very pretty. All neatly laid out with cucumbers and tomatoes at the bottom with the pasta and then what looks like tomato puree. The taste wasn't bad at all. In fact it's quite nice. And with such a pretty presentation, it taste even better. With this, I forgive them on the rip-off Spezi. LOL.

I finished off quick and off I went grocery shopping downstairs where the Jaya Grocer is. Looks like this has to be my go to place before I head home ever since the Presto moved out of Citta Mall.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM19.80. There's a 6% GST charge and a 5% service charge.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Although Spezi is basically orange mixed with soda, they should have just called it that instead of Spezi because it's not exactly that. Anyway, the food was not bad. But then again, it's just pasta that I tasted and it's not exactly rocket science to get that right.

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Basil Pasta House, Off Jalan Kuchai Lama, Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park, Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Address:
No. 21, Jalan Kuchai Maju 6, Off Jalan Kuchai Lama, Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park, Wilayah Persekutuan, 58200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Wednesday to Monday, 12pm - 10pm. Close on Tuesdays. (However, during my visitation, they closed off during 3.30pm for some reason. I don't know whether this is a permanent thing or due to special occasion.)

Time Visited:
Around 2pm, Saturday afternoon a presumably public holiday.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Black Tea Latte and Spaghetti Madras Curry & Crispy Pork Chop

After waking up this morning, I was a little lazy and hesitant to move out of the house but I just got to. To prevent myself from intense suicidal intent, I just got to move out of the house and be among the public. I just have to train myself not to let it show to the public and to prevent any negative vibe from me rub on to people around me. Initially wanted to have a nap before going to Basil Pasta House, my sudden sleepiness has disappeared when 1pm came. So I decided to head out during that time.

It was cloudy as I headed out with my car and with it being a public holiday and many people being out of town, it was a breeze driving to this place. It looks like my GPS still works after having a bit of a problem when I tried using it one day and it just went wonky to me. Anyway, glad I headed out at the right time because they somehow started to close off during 3:30pm and told some of the customers who came afterwards that they're closed. Not sure if this is due to a special occasion.

I entered into a very busy restaurant, almost full house but I manage to get a table in spite of the crowd. Families and friends outing galore with just me being the lone single diner at this establishment. Kind of like a fish out of water but that's okay. The place was bustling and almost full to the brim and yet I still sat at a four person table with the waiter allowing me to do so (thankfully!). I browse through the menu meticulously observing that they had a wide variety of different pastas with different toppings and choices. There's also a menu page on Risotto as well and squid ink being one of their ingredients in a pasta and Risotto dish. But I refrain from choosing those and decided to go for the Madras Curry & Crispy Pork Chop.

I had to admit the servings were slow and if you were an office worker with an hour lunch time, you'd be in trouble dining here. My cup of Black Tea Latte alone takes around 20 minutes to be served to me. The Black Tea Latte is a flavored latte with no coffee in it. In it's place, it has tea in it. So basically, flavored 'teh tarik'. :D The first sip bore no taste at all. I thought that I needed to stir a lot first but doing so yield no difference. I soon discovered that it's actually because of the foam. Once I past the foam, the milk tea had it taste just fine. However, I don't see the difference as oppose to a normal 'teh tarik' just that this is something that's way less sweeter and more thick in it's foam.

The Spaghetti Madras Curry & Crispy Pork Chop came around 40 minutes since my arrival. I was quite surprise with the portion they serve. It's huge! The Crispy Pork Chop by itself can be a main dish. On top of the Pork Chop, there's spreads of sesame seed both black and normal ones. It's also coated with a Wasabi dressing which isn't those that is too strong and spreads to the nose but rather those with the taste but do not have that pungent effect. Kind of like the Wasabi sauces instead of the plant produced kind. The spaghetti is a pleasure to eat and the curry sauce is actually the Japanese curry, sweet and not spicy. But in it is also mixed with some chili flakes for a bit of heat. Every ingredient that was put together in this dish serves a purpose and plays it's own role perfectly. I'm surprised of a dish well done and I guess the wait was just to ensure that enough care has been put in the dish to be served to the customers.

Total Wallet Damage:
Total RM29.45. RM8.90 for the Tea and RM18.90 for the pasta. GST of 6% is imposed.

Final Verdict:
7/10. I like the place. the ambiance is good and it gives a sense of calmness. I also like the food. Although I don't mind the waiting time, I seriously think that this would trouble a lot of people when they're in a hurry hence I believe they would require to work on that. I also feel a little intimidated seeing the place not having a lot of seatings for a single diner. There were around 20 odd tables within the place but about 95% of it seems to cater for 4 people. This would probably be a problem for me if they were to have a crowd like this on a daily basis.

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