Tea Garden, Sunway Velocity Mall, Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Address:
Lot 4-01H & 4-01I,
Lingkaran Sunway Velocity, Sunway Velocity,
55100 Kuala Lumpur (KL),
Malaysia

Opening Hours:
10am - 10pm

Time Visited:
12:20pm, Sunday

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Mutton Rendang (Mee Hoon Mee), Milk Tea + Cincau

Tea Garden - unbeknownst to me this is actually something that already has quite a number of outlet and mostly slated at Johor area. And though there are several outlets in the Klang Valley and even in Indonesia, it still went unnoticed by me till I purposely made a trip to Sunway Velocity mall.

This was my first time going into Sunway Velocity mall. Though I've passed by countless of times until I'm so familiar that it has the Jalan Peel entrance where the Starbucks resides and the Jalan Cheras Entrance where....well, there's nothing there except the waiting area where few cars go that way to pick up passengers, I also know that there's a church behind and that's why there's loads of cars park alongside at the back of the road at Jalan Peel (which also serves as a free parking if it's the weekend since summonses won't be flying out with the Rela forces guarding the place) yet it took me a long time till I finally stepped into this mall. Anyway, there wasn't any reason for me to until this day I decided to try the Tea Garden here.

I decided to park inside the mall and as I went in, I saw a lot of cars circling around so I decided to head towards the basement level 2 to look for a vacant parking. It turns out, the office side of the place was full of vacant parking and so that's where I parked. I then headed off into the mall. Though I took note of where I parked, I forgotten how I got to the mall area from the office area since I didn't take note of the shops and that got me searching quite a while as I was leaving until I finally realized that the walkway that leads to the office area was located at the 1st floor of the mall.

Anyway, when I first stepped it, I tried to go all the way up but I didn't find any Tea Garden in the directory. I soon poked around the Internet and saw that it's supposed to be on the fourth floor. But oddly enough, the area that I went up from had only until the 3rd floor. It got me quite puzzled for awhile so I headed back down to the 1st floor and walked all the way till the end to see if there was a fourth floor at that area and sure enough, there was. Even though I managed to locate the fourth floor, Tea Garden was not easy to find at all. I circled the whole floor until I discovered that it's actually inside the food court area but hidden around the corner. But that place was quite rewarding because due to them occupying at the corner of such a high floor, they had a lot of sunlight that comes in and also you can see quite a distance from the place. Though Sunway Velocity was in an area where it wasn't really a pleasant site to behold, still there's something about being at such a high floor and able to see well into the distance draws my attention that I can't peel my eyes away from. I picked a good spot to overlook the place and sat myself down. I soon saw that this place is like those places like Papparich where you write down your orders in an order chit and when you're done, you press the bell to summon the staff to you. A very effective and efficient way of running such a wide area. I soon wrote down all my orders and press the bell and passed the order chit to the staff.

It didn't took long till my food appeared. Very fast indeed. And they were full of customers as well. Tea Garden serves what I call comfort food. Those kampung style meehoon mee but only this is with mutton rendang while back in Ipoh, my family use to buy from the lady who cycles in a trishaw peddling her tong shui as well as these kind of fried meehoon mee with the sweet chili which I call it Chinese style chili. That used to be my common breakfast and sometimes lunch as well. But here I am eating this here, inside an air conditioned mall overlooking grandiosely over the slums. The feelings different. But the food's good though even though it's charged double the portion size I'm used to back when I was a kid and triple the price. I have to say the food was most excellent. Even better than how I remember back then of how it tasted. The mutton has no bone at all and the meat was very tender. There were sweet chili given to me as well. It's put in a sauce dish. Tasted way better than the time I ate when I was young. The Milk Tea with cincau is something very new to me. I've never seen such a thing before but it tasted fine. They do serve quite aromatic milk tea. All in all, it was a splendid meal.

After that, I just walked around a while since I've never been here before before I headed back home to sleep the day away.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM19. RM5.50 for the milk tea with cincau and 13.50 for the mee hoon mee with mutton rendang. 6% GST is charged.

Final Verdict:
7/10. This certainly trumps the one I ate during my childhood years but nostalgia always gets the better of me.

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Jaipur Mahal, Glomac Cyberjaya, Cyber 4, Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Address:
No 7, Block H, Jalan GC9,
Glomac Cyberjaya, 63000
Cyber 4, Cyberjaya,
Selangor D.E, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Lunch:
1 PM to 3 PM
Dinner:
5:30 PM to 10:30 PM
Ok, here's the odd thing. They have breakfast in their menu but they stated that their opening hours starts from 1pm? Not sure what is their exact opening hours.

Time Visited:
8:20pm. Sunday night

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Kadai Mushrooms, Balti Gosht, Steamed white rice and Masala Tea.

I meant to visit this place a few times back but I just keep putting it off and it was supposed to be the one at Jalan Ipoh but only today was I finally able to spare the time to visit an outlet of Jaipur Mahal. I decided to go for the one at Cyberjaya since nighttime, there will be no traffic there and parking would be a breeze. I also thought that the place would be quite quiet and empty being at Cyberjaya at night. When I arrived there, I was quite correct. There were only 1 other table occupied when I stepped in but later on, there were a few other families who came to eat there. Being a very pure North Indian restaurant, the people who ate there were, well, Indians. I was the only Chinese who was there to dine and also the only person who went there on my own. LOL.

The snooty display of the North Indian permeates the restaurant and the staff put on much class and air of superiority like a butler and jeeve. Despite sitting far from the counter, the staff were attentive enough to my needs. I guess that's mainly due to the emptiness of the place during that time before others walked in. I made my order and off they were to prepare my meal. As an appetizer, they serve me some Indian chips and I believe the other one is a dessert? Because it's sweet. Well, I could be wrong. It could be an appetizer. I have no idea what those are called. LOL. I'm not really well verse with Indian dishes. Those 2 items were compliments of the house.

They took little to no time to bring me my meal, surprisingly. Before I knew it, everything was already served to me. The mushrooms were lacking, I wish it was of a stronger taste but in the end, if you ate a lot in succession, you can taste a stronger taste of it. I quite like the Balti Gosht. That to me was something most strongest in it's taste. It's actually tender lamb that's cooked with tomatoes, onions, garlic and ginger with some herbs and spices. This was my favorite among all. The steam rice that they gave were basmati rice. Long thin looking but they cooked it really nicely and it goes well with all of the other dish. I came to conclude my meal with my masala tea. Unfortunately too the masala tea was lacking in strong taste. Everything just seemed so pale in their taste except for the chips and the lamb. But I did enjoy the meal. It's not that it didn't taste nice. It just wasn't as strong a taste as I expected. I also liked the quiet atmosphere which is always a plus for Cyberjaya area. LOL. At such a late hour over there, Not only there's plenty of free parking with very wide roads so no jam at all, but also the very quiet place. Like a small town but with very huge area and very developed roads and buildings.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM50.45. Well, I don't really consider it expensive despite it's name. LOL. Maybe I've been too influenced by Korea seeing that I was just back and food over there is expensive compared to over here. There's 6% GST but no service charge though they had good service.

Final Verdict:
I shall rate this 7/10. For their ambiance, their service, and what they really are for. The food overall is not bad but I certainly would like some dishes to have a more stronger taste.

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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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Restoran Satu Tiga Satu Tiga 1313 茶餐室, Metro Prima, Taman Usahawan (Entrepreneur's Park), Kepong, Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Address:
Jalan Metro Perdana 3, Metro Prima, Taman Usahawan (Entrepreneur's Park), Kepong,
56000 Kuala Lumpur (KL)
Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Unsure. 8am - 8pm maybe. Dependent on individual hawker stalls.

Time Visited:
10am on a Sunday

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Teh Peng, Hakka Mee

One fine Sunday, I was roaming around the area of Kepong when I stumbled upon what seems to me is like a Kopitiam heaven. In this square around this place, there are 3 very large kopitiam shops and Restoran Satu Tiga Satu Tiga 1313 茶餐室 is one of them. The seating inside was quite moderate but due to their many customers flocking to them, they even put up chairs and tables opposite of their shop under big trees. It's buzzing with people and even though there's a lot of chairs and tables, it looks like it's almost full house.

I'm not sure where the name 1313 comes from but I think it may be related to it's address because I saw a similar name on the other kopitiam. LOL. So out of the three major kopitiam, I chose this one to eat at. There were quite a number of hawker stalls peddling their food to the consumers but it's not as much as SS2's Chow Yang and Restoran Tropikiri where their packed with very limited space for them. LOL. Yet, counting the seats that they setup under the big tree, I would say this rivals the number of seating place to Chow Yang's and looking at that humongous crowd that was eating here during peak time 10am, the crowd too rival's Chow Yang's.

I decided to go for the Hakka Mee at one of the stalls which I picked at random. By the way, the Teh Peng was quite fragrant and has a fragrant taste to it. I noticed they use the blue marigold condense milk to make their drinks and the pricing is average like any other kopitiam with the teh peng at RM2.20. But as for the Hakka Mee, it only costs RM6. Sure it's small in size but RM6 is considered quite cheap nowadays. However, taste-wise was just okay. It was a bit too oily for me and even though it's a small plate, I find the oily feeling overwhelming.

But it serves the purpose as my breakfast and I went on my merry way soon after. A word of warning in this area though. It's very hard to find parking and people even park on the side of the road which narrows the roads considerably. Ah, what people do for their breakfast. LOL.

Total Wallet Damage:
Altogether RM8.20 with the beverage at RM2.20 and the noodles at RM6.

Final Verdict:
6/10. I call this place Kopitiam heaven because you have the 3 major big kopitiam to choose from and there's loads of people flocking to this place like bees flocking to honey.

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Restoran Tropikiri, Taman Bukit Mayang Emas, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Address:
2, Jalan BM 1/2, Taman Bukit Mayang Emas, 47301 Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Roughly, Daily, 7:30am - 3pm

Time Visited:
11am, Saturday Morning

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Lam Mee and Teh Peng

I weirdly find myself coming back here again after once a person who knows the owner of the shop mistaken me and mentioned that I look familiar and have seen me here before and asked do I live around here. Well, actually, that night was my first time in a very very long time going there for dinner. LOL.

Anyway, today was the first time I went over there for breakfast where all the stalls were opened. Previous visits here were all past 3pm and the only shop that's opened till night time is the Chicken Rice Stall, the noodles stall beside it and the Nasi Lemak stall. But today was the first time I witness all of the shops opened and man, they have so many stalls here. No wonder everybody crowd to this place. It's almost a full house with a handful of tables left to occupy! So then, I decided to go for the Lam Mee today.

The uncle that mans the stall is a very jovial guy. He's so cheerful and cheeky when he response to you. I was there to order when suddenly a woman stepped beside me out of nowhere and started to order when the uncle was asking me what do I want to eat. I was a little shocked at first because this woman totally didn't see me at all and was almost standing on my spot! O_o The uncle acknowledged her order and then continue to ask me and said what do I wanna eat. That's when I ordered the Lam Mee.

The quirky uncle prepared it quite fast and it came to my place in quite a jiffy with the uncle in a spiffing manner said "Six dollar" with a Hong Kong accent. Well, the Lam Mee was mediocre but with just RM6, it's ok. The problem here is the drinks. My Teh Peng though has an aromatic taste to it costs RM2.40 which is a little dearer than quite a number of places. Anyway, I was a little strapped for time since it was already past 11am and I'm supposed to start working again already. So I hurriedly gobbled up my food and drink and started to go to work. Not that it's a must, but I've got nothing better to do anyway. LOL. And me with an idle mind, well, it's just torturous and agony because my mind will start wandering and remind me of a certain someone which will make me feel very sad. Oh well.

Total Wallet Damage:
As I mentioned above, RM6 for the Lam Mee, RM2.40 for the Iced Milk Tea.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Variety is great. Loads of choices and food is okay, Drinks a little expensive.

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Lai Foong Restaurant, City Centre, Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Address:
No. 138, Jalan Tun H S Lee, City Centre, 50050 Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 6:30am - 9:30pm I guess. According to google? LOL.

Time Visited:
11am, Friday morning

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Pan Mee (tear), Teh Peng

This place I frequent back in 2008 till 2011 when I was working around here. I sometimes walk over here to have my lunch and the beef noodle is one of the famous stalls in KL where people flock to eat. They boast of their reputation and also charges a higher than normal rate. But on this day that I revisited the place again, I decided to try a pan mee stall which I have not seen before. Hence my curiosity to try it. I went for the tear version instead of the normal run through those pasta machine kneader. But I guess due to this, it took quite a while till my order came.

Although it's only 11am, it already has almost a full house and once it hit the lunch hour, the office crowd really thronged to this place and filled it up.

There's nothing much to say about this place except that the pan mee is kind of tasteless I would have to say and the chili watery. I guess there's much improvement needed for the pan mee stall whose mee was thicker than the average stall and miles behind one of the best pan mee in Klang Valley, the Fatty Mee Hoon Kuih House in Klang.

As I was hanging around my break time here, I also noticed that the beef noodles has now raised it's price to double digits. Times really has changed. I know it's bad for me to long for the good old days and me heading to obsolete kingdom very very soon but that's how the way the world works. If you can't keep up with it's pace, pretty soon you'll be extinct.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM7 - Pan Mee which is pretty expensive. God knows why they charge such high pricing. Must be due to them being in a tourist district.
RM2.30 for the Teh Peng. Ok I guess. Considering that they're in the heart of KL.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Well, it's unfair to rate this shop with such crummy Pan Mee when the beef noodles is what attracts a lot of people to this place. Still, I didn't taste the beef noodles again so I'm not sure if they're still maintaining their excellent taste but one things for sure that's change for them and that is the pricing.

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SS2 Chow Yang Kopitiam, SS2, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Address:
50, Jalan SS 2/10, SS 2, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, probably around 7am - 9pm. Depends on individual stalls and whether have they sold out for the day

Time Visited:
11am, Saturday

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Curry Noodles and Chinese Tea Ice

This is really a success story for this kopitiam. When I first got to know it about 15 years ago, it was located at the prominent turning at a corner lot. It then occupy the corner lot at the back of it and started to expand to it's next door shop as well. After not visiting it for a long time and seeing that it's not there anymore just about 3 years back, I thought that it has closed down. Then one fine day, I stumbled upon it's lesser restaurant where it's a "take your order on what dishes you want to serve with your style" restaurant and I thought, oh, that's Chow Yang because it's also the same business owner, just that that one is for people who wanna order their dishes with rice. And later on, I stumbled upon the back of it and I was surprised to see this very, very big Chow Yang Kopitiam that's stretched across I think 4 shop lots. This truly shows that they were so successful, they had to move in order to accommodate to their demand. On top of being in 4 shoplots, inside it is packed with hawker stalls with a lot of it lining up with just little space in between for them to operate with stalls all around selling different types of food. This is purely heavenly with it having so many choices.

I decided that this round I wanted to try the curry noodles. Most of the stalls around here are manned by the old folks that's been plying their trade for years in Chow Yang and another kopitiam that used to be around here with the exception of less than a handful being manned by young hats. It didn't take me long till I received my curry noodles which was manned by a sole lady. She was so kind and dedicated to manning her station. When I approached her stall, she was away to deliver an order to a table but when she saw me at her stall, she quickly ran back to it. LOL. I ordered my food and sat down nearby. She was also very kind and asked me had I ordered my drink yet and took my order and relayed it to the drinks people. The drinks people on the other hand, which was manned mostly by foreigners except for the owner himself who's usually fixing drinks, they mostly couldn't be bothered and is not attentive to customers. They do their work at almost a third of their heart and seemed very very lazy to clean up dirty dishes and also to bring customers their drink. They even got my order wrong which turned into warm Chinese tea but I couldn't be bothered correcting him and having him change my order. No wonder the Aunty asked if I've already ordered my drink.

The drinks here are of normal price, well, at least the Chinese tea is at RM0.60. As for Curry Noodles, is slightly more expensive than other places I know which is priced at RM7.50. But then again, of late, the price at some places are increasing and they're blaming it on the increasing petrol price. :(
The noodles was okay. A normal, decent, bowl of curry noodles. I'm glad that I found this place back and reunited with it. LOL.

If you like plenty of choices to choose from in your family, this is the place to be. But for a lone diner like me, well, there's yet a stall there that attracts me to keep coming back but if I don't know what to eat and I want lots of choices to choose from at a lower price than normal restaurant, this is the place to be.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM7.50 for the curry noodles. 60 sen for the Chinese tea.

Final Verdict:
7.5/10. The main draw here is the many, many hawker stalls to choose from. And this place is really huge but there's a lot of people who goes here to eat as well. Still, I'm sure seating shouldn't be much of a problem for a lone diner. Worse come to worse, just share a table with someone. LOL.

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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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Ben's, Pavilion, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Address:
Lot 6.11 Sixth Floor, Pavilion, 168, Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 11am - 10pm

Time Visited:
Tuesday Evening, 7pm

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Classic Spag Meatballs and Iced Lemograss Tea

This happened sometime back when I was just out for the evening to watch a movie that I was supplied a pass to. Rarely do I traverse out on a working weekday night anymore because:
1) There just isn't anybody to hang out with
2) I'm tired by the end of the day
3) There's no reason for me to go out on my own.
So ya, this night was one of those rare nights where I ventured out on my own due to having a movie to watch that night and it was called "Nine Lives".

To be honest I don't really remember much that night just that I was eager to try out Ben's at Pavilion on that day before the movie. So I walked in and was greeted accordingly and were seated. The ambiance were set to a more romantic and fine dining approach so as a lone diner, you may be a little intimidated on eating there on your own. The staff there were quite accommodating and were helpful in their service and were attentive to who walks in and out of the restaurant. After glancing through the menu, I finally decided to go for the simple and classical spaghetti and meatball to see what they can do differently with it. Well, you can't really go wrong with the classics, right? If you really can fuck it up, then you're really a fuckup. LOL. To drink, I went for the Thai approach and ordered the Iced Lemongrass tea.

It took awhile for my order to arrive as I surveyed my surroundings while soak up the calming and soothing atmosphere at this place. No doubt, Pavilion portrays out as the rich and famous lifestyle and this restaurant is no better in furthering that theme. The Lemongrass Tea had a big lemongrass stalk as a stirrer while the beverage looks of murky water. The taste was sweet in sensation and is merely of lemongrass taste and no tea like taste. It's also a good thing that they separated the syrup in a small jug shaped container so that you can add as much sweetness as you preferred. As I mentioned beforehand, I added in probably way too much syrup and it tasted merely of sweet sensation. But it's undeniably tasty.

Along came the Spaghetti and Meatball and at first glance, the presentation was very eye-catching and makes you wanna eat it. The taste I would say is quite good and that they do have the right amount of Marinara sauce that does not make me feel queasy due to overeating it. Instead, every scoop of the spaghetti will warrant some sauce onto it and I finished it off with just the right amount along with the meatballs. The meatballs may not be those Ikea meatball types but it's just as well because as I've heard, those Ikea meatballs has dwindled in their standards. This provides the right amount of rich taste of the meat and with the right amount of sauce on the dish, it was the perfect match.

The complain I have with the dish would be their grated cheese. It's in large strips and all settled at the top and due to the heat had melted and bunched together. I just wish they would've just went with cheese in a much finer form or if they were to do it this way, to be more spread out and fill the plate accordingly instead of being concentrated at one location. Because the way that they gave to me, I had a hard time separating and dividing it up so that I could get a little of cheese taste to go along with the meal. Instead, all I got was either way too much cheese or none at all. Rarely I manage to pinch it in with just the right amount to supplement the spaghetti and meatball.

I took my time being there and when the time came for me to collect my pass, I headed off to the movie theater to collect the pass. They had a small cat show there too in line with the movie which I enjoyed playing with the cats. Haha

Total Wallet Damage:
RM51.70. A little pricey but it's expected at a restaurant like this and an environment like Pavilion. 6% GST and 10% service charge included.

Final Verdict:
7/10. It's good for dates and has a nice romantic ambiance with a good place to have a quiet talk with your date. But as for a lone diner to dine in, it may be a little intimidating.

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Li Restaurant, SS22, Damansara Jaya (DJ), Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
47, Jalan SS 22/23, Ss 22, Damansara Jaya (DJ) 47400 Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Sundays: 10:30AM–5PM
Mondays: Closed
Tuesdays - Saturdays: 11:30AM–9:30PM

Time Visited:
7pm, Saturday night

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Pork Toast, Go All Out, Blistered French Beans and Earl Grey Tea and Soy Milk Panna Cotta for dessert. My friend drank the Lemongrass Water

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience.

It was the last day before my friend flies off to UK to further her studies. I very much wanted to spend one last time before she do so and with the great stroke of luck, she had this Saturday night free to meet up with me for a meal. :D

The decision that she made was to go to Li Restaurant to try and that's what we did. Being eager to see her, I arrived right on time at the stipulated time of meeting. Initially, I wanted to pick her up and go together but she was already out with friends that day and so we decided to just meet up with each other and I'll fetch her home. Around 15 minutes later she walked in and I was glad to see her. Though I had failed to rope in others to meet up with her that day, at least I found the satisfaction of me being able to see her.

The staff at this place was chirpy and very friendly. I can see that they're very dedicated with their job and their creation. Though it carries a Chinese connotation to it's restaurant, it's far from it and is actually a cafe. The design of the cafe is a modern meets antique items and reality meets fantasy with quirks like a sign indicating Narnia on it's store room door. Once the menu was passed to us, the overly enthusiastic waitress decided to explain the entire menu to us which we allowed her to do so. I can see her passion in it and she kept on explaining away on the items one after another with suggestions on what we should have. I see that it's a common practice for her and that's what she did throughout. Pretty soon, I decided to go with what she had recommended and that was Go All Out, a dish that's rice with Chicken and Pork Belly. My friend had earlier ate something and decided to go lighter and so she ordered the Pork Toast and some French Beans and we were to share everything.

With the many unique dishes that they've named up in their menu, I can see that they put some care into making the things because it took longer that I anticipated for their things to arrive. The Pork Toast came first and that's basically their homemade sourdough bread with Chili Mayo Sauce zig-zagged on top and some herbs (read: coriander leaves). Does it contain any pork? Mmm, I don't think so. Or maybe there is. But either way, I can't tell nor taste if there's any. The biggest taste among all would be the Chili Mayo which gives off some spice heat as you dig into the bread. The Coriander wasn't helpful in the taste department but overall, the pork toast mostly taste good with it's Chili Mayo. But does it have to be that expensive? RM9.50? Anyway, a good experience on eating that.

The French Beans tasted exactly how it should be and was seasoned fine. But other than that, nothing out of the ordinary. Moving on to the Go All Out, it is how it is described and that is Rice with Chicken and Pork Belly. The Pork Belly feels a little too fat for me to consume but the grilled chicken in it was nice. I like how they added a soft boiled egg into the mix which to me, anything with eggs make things greater because I love eggs. And putting in the soft boiled egg in there just makes it more wonderful. Me and my friend chatted the whole evening away with her very tired self showing on the occasional yawn. LOL. Sorry. But I just wanna make the most of this.

Later on, the waitress again appeared before us and asked if we would like to go for their dessert to which I obliged. I went with they Soy Milk Panna Cotta. It was okay. Sometimes I find it a bit too sweet due to the Gula Melaka but it does have it's tasty moment and I like the soft texture of the Panna Cotta. We later on adjourned to somewhere else for a drink and after that, we were surprised when we saw the same waitress as we were walking back to my car, she smiled and spoke something to us. I didn't think much of that at that moment and thought that it was my friend's friend but when she said to me that she's friendly, isn't she that's when it hit me that it was the waitress at Li Restaurant. A very friendly person indeed. I just wish I can always have an ounce of that happiness in me like her.

Total Wallet Damage:
All amounted to RM75.15. RM10 for the French Beans and so was the Panna Cotta, RM9.50 for the Pork Toast, Earl Grey Tea costs RM8 while my friend's Lemongrass drink costs RM5.90. Go All Out is the dearest in the list amounting to RM24.90 and there's a 10% service charge involved.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Nice friendly staff and good environment. Bright and cheery even though it's night time. Food is kind of so-so only to me though but above average.

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13 Cafe, Tropicana Avenue, Tropicana, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
Tropicana Avenue, Persiaran Tropicana, Tropicana, 47410 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Opening Hours:
11am - 10pm, Tues - Sun. Close on Mondays.

Time Visited:
7pm, dinnertime on Sunday.

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Creamy Thai Curry Chicken with Lychee and Flower Tea

One day, I was passing by this area to get to Sunway Giza and I noticed for the first time, Tropicana Avenue. It's a new business centre cum apartment and retails and 13 Cafe stuck out with it's striking look to capture my attention that I told myself I gotta try this place. Today, as I was venturing towards Dear Azalea, I found out that it's already close for the day. I'm not sure of their opening hours. I'm not even sure whether they're a cafe that serves food and drinks but I just wanted to try my luck today. But when I passed by, I saw that it wasn't opened and so I decided to head to 13 Cafe to try. It has limited parking at the front but you can park at the basement level where I saw that it's free since there's no barrier gate. Just don't go into the resident parking which needs an access tag. Anyway, since it was getting dark and the basement parking looks creepily deserted, I decided to wait for a parking spot up front. There's some parking at the office area but I didn't wanna park that area and so I waited near the retail side. After awhile, I got one and off I went to 13 Cafe.

Night time wasn't wise for me to sit outside because there were some mosquitoes abound awaiting to suck whomever's blood that they can find. Anyway, I guess the mosquitoes bred from the greeneries at the front where there's shrubs and trees that separates the main road but still visible enough to see. I ordered from the waiter and await my orders. It took a normal waiting amount time for my food and tea to be served.

The Flower Tea resembles those of the Chinese Tea kind with a transparent teapot and a small tea cup for you to pour into. It was fragrant and full of it's tea flavors but wasn't as floral as I expected though to a certain degree it was. Afterall, you do see the flower inside the pot. LOL. As it got deeper and deeper into the pot, the tea got more and more bitter and stronger in it's tea taste. The bottom level was very concentrated and I wish to pour more water onto it but then again, I wouldn't wanna waste drops of water since I don't wanna drink more than 2 teapots.

The Creamy Thai Curry Chicken with Lychee was very bright and vibrant in it's colors. It looks considerably spicy but somewhat, it wasn't. The lone lychee in the dish just didn't belong in there since the sweetness of a lychee taste didn't jive well with the savory spicy curry taste. The same goes to the side salad which consists of some sweet taste with also some sambal like chili paste on top of it but it just tasted weird altogether. It would be best in my opinion if all of those were a separate dish. To me, it just doesn't go well together. It's not like those Thai curry taste where you get a little sweetness in it like lemongrass which those worked well. This was just plain weird. Anyway, it did satisfy my hunger pangs and the chicken was okay.

Overall, I would recommend going for the drinks instead of the food and as for the ambiance, the outside was okay if it weren't for those pesky mosquitoes. As for the indoors, there's not much room downstairs and I'm not quite sure how the upstairs looks like since I didn't have a peek there. But one things for sure, it's a very quiet place to hangout and do your work like 2 ladies over there with their laptops. It's mentioned in their menu that their signature is their angus beef steak but I'm not quite sure. Maybe it is good. But not my Creamy Thai Curry Chicken with Lychee.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM23.80. RM16.90 for food, RM6.90 for my drink. No GST, no service charge. Awesome.

Final Verdict:
6/10. It would be too harsh I feel if I were to give it a 5 because their drinks are quite decent and afterall, they are a cafe.

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Gee & Geek, SS2, Petaling Jaya (PJ), Selangor

Address:
No 46, Jalan SS 2/4a, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

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

Time Visited:
12:30pm, Saturday afternoon

Attire worn:
Casual

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
A La Goma Grilled Chicken Pasta and Organic Green Tea

It's just a typical Saturday. I felt worn out especially from a Tiger Beer event the previous night. Though I may not have stayed long for that event but I did drink 3 bottles of it which at my current condition is already considered impressive since usually drinking one will certainly leave me in a drunken stupor ever since my health deteriorated drastically. Though a little pounding from my head comes through from a numbing feeling which is not quite considered as a hangover, I still popped an aspirin at 3am which probably explains the numb feeling.

But I persevered through to get out of the house in order to force myself to get something to eat before I start with my part-time job which I'm already jeopardizing of losing. LOL. Even though the negativity lingers within me, I tried to maintain a positive position in order to try and get better at my part-time job. Maybe I'm just not cut out to be good in anything anymore.

I looked through my next destination on my list of places I want to try and Gee & Geek came up next. And head there I did. The place is familiar to me. I stumbled across a pleasant kopitiam shop just opposite of the row of shops where Gee & Geek is which I brought my family to dine in one fine day. So finding the place wasn't difficult but as for parking I have no clue since it's a place where there's limited parking. However, at the end of the row of shophouse, there exists an under construction building where there's plenty of parking still available there and that's where I left my car.

Gee & Geek places a third of their premise for al fresco dining while the interior was comfortable enough in air condition. The interior was more cement than wood and fixtures of greyish color than bright colored. Menus are aptly placed upon tables for you to peruse before placing your order at the counter. And the pasta dish with tea is what I ordered. It took some time till the food arrive but the drink was no sooner. After all, it's merely a teabag in a pot filled with hot water. The tea given was of Harney & Sons brand. The green tea tasted fantastic and I'm inclined to look out for this brand of green tea should I wanted some.

Out comes the pasta dish when it's ready and brought to my table. Looking a little pale in it's color with the cherry tomatoes brightening up with red, the dish looks bland. But when tasted, it's close to delicious and is above average. It's filled with familiar Japanese Sesame Seed Dressing but that is kind of expected with the word Goma in the dish name and the pasta properly cooked. Soft texture. Cherry tomatoes were a little too mushy but other than that, there's no fault at all with the dish.

Overall, tea was great due to the good brand that's known to be in line with my taste and the food was above average with a calming ambiance of Disney hits done instrumentally like elevator music. You'll be the judge of that.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM27.50. 10% service charged is charged. RM19 for the pasta. RM6 for the tea.

Final Verdict:
6/10. Overall, it's a nice enough place to be in for the occasional cafe visits.

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Hui Wei Restaurant, Seksyen U1, Glenmarie, Shah Alam, Selangor

Address:
32, Jalan Jurureka U1/40, Seksyen U1, Glenmarie, 40150 Shah Alam, Selangor

Opening Hours:
Don't know. LOL

Time Visited:
12:30pm, Tuesday afternoon

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Curry Pork Ribs Rice and Chinese Tea Ice

Once the Twin Twin Pan Mee folded, this restaurant started to pop up just a few days ago. And this was the Tuesday that I went there to try it out.

The previous day, I was at Glenmarie also and I saw this place with nobody at all but as for today, the place had quite a reasonable amount of customers. I walked in anyway and on the table there's already a small piece of menu being laid there. I notice a chit sheet for ordering and a pencil and so I thought that this was a self written down order style which I did. What's unique on the menu of this restaurant is the Bak Kut Teh noodles. First I heard of putting noodles on Bak Kut Teh soup. But I didn't go for that and decided to just go for their Curry Pork Ribs rice. Hey. If you're really good, then no matter what dish you prepare, it will be delicious. I pass the slip to the only person who can take orders and it's a woman that runs around like crazy because she serves, she's the only person to take orders and also the only person who collects the money. The only thing that I know she doesn't do is clearing the tables. That's just it.

So I pass to her and await my order. Pretty soon I found out that most people here don't bother with the order chit and just tell the woman their orders and she would just write it down. Pretty odd way of doing things if you're not gonna stick to one system. No wonder she looks so disorganized. Anyway, this place is not really a lone diner friendly environment since all of the place to sit at are tables for 4 persons and more. But then, you still can come here to eat as a lone diner just that you will need to occupy a table for four persons. This is also a good place for a really bizarre variety. There's rice and noodles but what you can eat together with those are Bak Kut Teh (this is only the noodles version for some reason), Curry Pork Ribs, Tom Yum Soup, Bitter Gourd Roast Pork and you can order the noodles to be in dry format or the soup version. There's 4 types of noodles to choose from and that is the usual Mee, Bihun and Kuey Teow and then there's also Wantan Mee.

So there I was awaiting my order when I noticed somethings amiss when I saw 2 tables who came and ordered after me already having their meals. That's when I realized that they forgot my order even though I wrote down in their order sheet. -_- The woman asked me again what I ordered and I pointed to it on the wall. It came within a minute or 2. Gosh. So I could've gotten my meal faster if they were to remember. LOL. Oh well, that's what happens when you become a really forgettable person.

The curry isn't really spicy just a bit of heat and it's your typical Chinese kind of curry. The pork ribs were nice and delicious but lacks meat and is more of bones but nonetheless adequate. The taste was decent and is of above average quality to me. I just hang around a bit more and then started going back to office after my meal.

Total Wallet Damage:
RM8.60. RM8 for the rice and just 60 sen for the Chinese Tea Ice. No GST, no service charge.

Final Verdict:
6/10. They need to get better organizing. Since they're new and may be inexperience in operating a restaurant, it's forgivable. I may wanna come back one day and try their Bak Kut Teh noodles.

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Restoran Hing Loong, Hicom Glenmarie Industrial Park, Glenmarie, Shah Alam, Selangor

Address:
No. 17, Jalan Juruaudit U1/37, Hicom Glenmarie Industrial Park, Glenmarie, Shah Alam, Selangor, 40150 Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Not really sure but I think should be 11am - 8pm on weekdays and 9am - 1pm on weekends (?)

Time Visited:
Around 12:30pm, Monday afternoon

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
Roast Duck Rice and Chinese Tea Ice

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience.

Opposite from the Meng Kee Char Siew restaurant where many people sing praises on it's heavenly Char Siew and whatnot lies a lesser known stall but to me is a better restaurant called Restoran Hing Loong.

Over here, the family business are better known for their Roasted Duck where it's glistening skin hangs upon the makeshift stall that sits just outside of the restaurant for preparation. Make no mistake, that's the only stall in this restaurant. There's nothing else here unlike usual hawker stall so it's something like the Meng Kee Char Siew restaurant where it has it's own restaurant by itself. On this day, my colleague out of the blue invited me out for lunch just so I can ferry her around and that she also wanted to buy some baking flour as well. But as we were out on our way for food, we had changed our minds about four times before finally deciding upon Restaurant Hing Loong to have our lunch.

And so we sat right down and ordered what they're most famous for, their Roasted Duck Rice. To wash down all the grease and grime, we had the Chinese Tea Ice to wash down those oil. In this place, you can sit down first and a person will come and take your food order while the drink order will be separately done by someone else. The ambiance of the place is not much being just a normal kopitiam kind of restaurant but only thing is that there's only one stall.

It didn't take long for the order to be brought to us. Well, it shouldn't anyway. Because it's just make sure what was the order, chop up the correct meat and serve with the rice and gravy and soup. The amount of meat given for my meal was adequate and sufficient. In fact, it looks a little more than some places give out. The duck meat glistens and beckons me to bite into it as I salivate while taking a decent picture of it. The free soup was just a normal plain soup with not very thick taste but good enough. As I always like to do, I would drench my rice with some of the hot soup to make the rice maintain a warm temperature. As expected, the duck meat was nice and juicy. Most of the time, duck meat are tough and hard to get meat off the bone but this is not the case though a certain amount of effort is still required. The duck may not be better than Loong Foong Seafood Restaurant nor Sunrise but it does hold it's own to be a good duck meat to consume.

I find this place a better location to have rice than Meng Kee Char Siew because Meng Kee's portion is small and always leave me not really satisfied in eating and I'm a person who never order extra rice. On top of that Meng Kee Char Siew is pricey and is always full of people as oppose to Hing Loong where Hing Loong's price is just ordinary like any other rice stalls at your local kopitiams. Their spacing between tables are also good giving you ample amount of room although I must say there are times they may be filled with people as well. However, you're still assured with a lot of room at your seating place.

In addition to their duck meat, their roasted pork are also not bad though they're not the best around. Still, it's more than good. So if Meng Kee looks way too intimidating with it's always crowded atmosphere, this is a very good alternative place. Plus, there's nowhere else to get duck meat around here. Well, not that I know of.

Total Wallet Damage:
I can't really remember. If I'm not mistaken, it's RM6 for the Roasted Duck Rice and 50 sen (?) for the Chinese Tea Ice.

Final Verdict:
7/10. Give this place a try. It's quite good in my books.

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Kedai Minuman dan Makanan Teluk Pulai (Pottery) Bak Kut Teh, Klang, Selangor

Address:
32, Jalan Batai Laut 5, Kawasan 16, Taman Intan, Klang, 41300 Malaysia

Opening Hours:
Daily, 7am - 3:30pm.

Time Visited:
About 12:30pm, Friday afternoon

Attire worn:
Business

Item(s) Ordered (Photos taken as inconspicuous as possible with my phone):
What else? Bak Kut Teh! The dry and the soup claypot version with Chinese Crullers (Yau Char Kuay/ Youtiao) and lettuce and a pot of Chinese tea.

DISCLAIMER: This was not a lone dining experience.

First of all, I apologize for the blurry pictures. I was pressured to hurry up since I had my colleagues with me that day and I got stressed.

Anyway, we initially thought of going to the Bak Kut Teh in Centro, Klang but after me asking what kind of Bak Kut Teh it was, the thought suddenly changed to deviate to this place called the Teluk Pulai Bak Kut Teh. It is rumored to be the ones who started Bak Kut Teh in a claypot and till this day still draws a very big crowd to it's restaurant.

My colleague told me that they just ordered the ordinary and that she just said that it's for 4 persons. That's it. What we were given were a claypot of Dry Bak Kut Teh meat, a soup Bak Kut Teh that consists of needle mushrooms, fishballs and of course, the pork meat. There's also a plate of Chinese Crullers and also a serving of Lettuce that has oyster sauce at the side and some dried shrimp also at one side. When we were there, it was packed to the brim but it's also easy to get a place because the turnover of customers is quite fast. Also, the serving of the dishes were also quite fast. When my colleagues went to reserve a table while I park my car, by the time I met up with them, some of the dishes were already on the table. As for the tea, they serve in a small teapot and an even smaller serving pot along with 2 tiny teacups per person. If you wanna add hot water to the teapot, there's a kettle by a stove that you can help yourself for faster service. LOL.

The place was quite hot being a very hot day plus we're very near the stove that's heating the water in a kettle not to mention the many Bak Kut Teh dishes that were served all around which contributed to the heat. I especially love the Dry Bak Kut Teh. The meat was tender and nice but the sauce is what makes it so tasty. Whereas for the soup version, it's also nice but I feel to me it's not as nice as the Dry Bak Kut Teh mainly because there's no gravy to elevate the taste. The soup was full of the herbal taste but also makes me feel very thirsty and irritates my throat a bit which I had to wash it down occasionally with the hot tea. The meat in the soup version was also very tender and soft and nice to consume. It separates easily from the bones effortlessly making it a pleasure to eat.

We didn't stay long there since it's so hot. But to me, I like this Dry Bak Kut Teh the most. Come to think of it, I've not eaten many dry Bak Kut Teh in my life. Most of it is the soup version with their different type of soups. For the soup ones, I feel that I like the Pao Xiang's version of soup the most.

Total Wallet Damage:
If I'm not mistaken, the amount total up to RM87.80. Ya, something like that.

Final Verdict:
8/10. This leaves me craving for more and makes me feel inspired to try other Bak Kut Teh shop to see if others are better than their Dry Bak Kut Teh.

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