konshoe

Exceptional

The wide buffet area housed a variety of food, from traditional local specialties like nasi lemak to the familiar sausage and bacon of Western breakfast. For the sweet tooth, nothing beats a slice of cheese cake in the morning to get the day sweeter. Jugs of fruit juices kept cool in crushed ice maintained its freshness. Nothing beats the cool sweet liquid rushing down your throat after a hearty meal. Coffee aficionados may love the roast prepared by The Bungalow for a refreshing morning. My choice of breakfast - a western style with mixture of sausages, hash browns, bacon, ham and a foaming cup of cappuccino. Top that with a cool sea breeze and you have the perfect morning. The bacon, ham and sausages were well cooked to a perfection, and I loved the cheese cake they offered. Dessert in the morning may sound odd, but it soothed my sweet tooth. The fragrant fried hash brown crunched heartily in my mouth. To make my morning better, I indulged myself in warm cup of cappuccino, drafts of its fragrance enveloping me.

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Superb

Tony Roma's American origin is quite obvious in the way the restaurant's interior is designed. A dark interior served as a reminder to those American dramas portraying bars. Even so, there is ample lighting for patrons to see their surroundings, to navigate around, and to avoid throwing a wink at the wrong person by mistake. It would be interesting to say that the beverages of Tony Roma's most intrigued me. With names like Caramel Apple Cooler and Cranberry Mojito, it would be hard not to have my interest piqued, especially when I had no idea what the name meant without the details offered below each item. I chose Mojo Chicken as our main dish and was not disappointed by the dish. "Mojo" is related to magic, and I would agree with the taste of this dish being magical. Lined with tropical pineapple, the slightly tangerine taste crunching with each bite makes you hunger for more.

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Superb

When I entered the joint, I find the deco very familiar, and the blackboard facing the entrance told me why. Even the sign at the entrance showed me why the joint looked exceptionally familiar to me. If you were a frequent visitor to E-Gate, then you may recall a cafe in the past known as The Spring. Madam Soon was, as was stated on the sign at the entrance, a new concept of The Spring, although how it was a new concept was beyond me. The drinks off Madam Soon's menu are the usual variety you get off any other similar cafés, but I do note a few unusual ones. I asked for Blueberry and Lime Crush, which texture resembles ice blend a lot, and is quite sweet. The taste of blueberry is obvious but I did not get any taste of lime; still this is a cooling beverage to satisfy my sweet tooth. If you are not tolerant to sweet stuff, then you can always order something more healthy, like soya milk. Desserts are up for order as well, and there are a variety of them in the menu, which mainly consists of Chinese desserts. My friends got themselves some Peanut Paste, and it really is a paste... The dessert is too thick and viscous, and resembles peanut butter more than dessert. I loved the Braised Garlic Pork Ribs which I ordered for myself. The taste of garlic was mild, but the dish was braised until the pork was soft and chewy, soaking up the sauce and retaining it within. The ribs came with lean and fat portions both, and I enjoyed both parts equally.

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Superb

So what can one dine in a Chinese dessert shop? Of course Sugar Dynasty does offer choices of main dishes as well, so its patrons can either dine in and request for dessert later, or just visit the shop after their dinner somewhere else to sample its dessert. For patrons dining around the area, they can ask for the dessert to be delivered to the dinning spot as well, as Sugar Dynasty has an understanding with the owners around Nagore Road. If you are not sure, do ask the shop owner in which you are dining in about this, and if the owner disagrees to it, you can always visit Sugar Dynasty after your dinner. Except for a certain few choices, most of the dishes in the menu are offered as set meals, which is what I loved about it. All are served with a cup of herbal tea as long as they are listed as available as set meals. The reason that I loved these fried dishes from Sugar Dynasty is that they are generously served with button mushrooms and prawns, the former of which is my favorite and the latter is rarely served nowadays. The dishes are neither large nor small, leaving just enough to stuff yourself with desserts later on. Of course, what is the point of a dessert shop without its share of dessert? Sugar Dynasty has 2 kinds of desserts, the warm ones and the cold ones; if you are not sure, the waiter is always happy to answer your question.

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Exceptional

Tsurukame Shabu-shabu (鶴亀しゃぶしゃぶ) actually reminds me of Tsuruya Japanese Restaurant (鶴屋日本料理), another Japanese restaurant located in I-Avenue; I actually half expected the same thing when I entered. What Tsurukame offered was a buffet style shabu-shabu, not unlike the buffet style hot pot (火锅) in Chinese restaurants which bloomed recently. The novelty in the shop lies in its choice of broth - you get to choose 2 types of broth from a choice of 4 to start your own shabu-shabu: Chinese chicken stock, miso, kimchi and tom yam. All four types represent tastes from four different nations and cultures - Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai. I am not one for strong tastes, so I opted for Chinese chicken stock and miso broth, and the clear liquid did not let me down. The yellow-tinged chicken stock broth is crystal clear and serves well with most food, but with miso soup to provide an additional choice, the combination is perfect though slightly light in taste. Maybe I should have chosen one of the stronger taste broth to go with another lighter broth instead... There are 2 ways in which one could get their food in Tsurukame - most of them are delivered through the conveyor belt rolling past your place silently, or you could take the rest of them from an area near the entrance of the restaurant. Obtaining food from the latter could be tiring for those sitting furthest from the entrance, which houses the beverages as well; but then again, the furthest spot from the entrance are seats blessed with the view of sea, so it may not be such a bad idea after all. Beverages are free flow, and so is the ice-cream. There are a variety of both to choose from, but the variety is limited as well. Although the food is nothing to scream over, it does prove to be satisfying to be seated facing the seaside view, watching the hustle and bustle of traffic in contrast to the calm sea beyond.

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Exceptional

Its name is Taipei 101, so what else do you expect apart from Taiwanese delights? Well, actually they do serve other varieties as well. Japanese and Chinese meals are also one of their selling points, and frankly I do love to try out each of everything from each of its pages. You wouldn't be consuming Taiwanese food without getting their famous pearl milk tea (珍珠奶茶)! Taipei 101's ice blended drinks and cold drinks are a definite must for a hot and sunny afternoon to cool your heat down. I personally loved the Mint Pearl Milk Tea, especially the cooling minty sensation that gets through you from every sip. There are a few dish within its claypot rice series which I find most satisfying. All of these meals are served with the chowder still bubbling from the hot pot. I loved the Seafood Claypot Rice, which despite its undistinguished English name, belies the deep flavor of this dish. This dish actually could be counted as a Chinese dish instead of Taiwanese, but who is counting anyway. The large part of Taipei 101's menu is provided in Bento sets (弁当), those rectangular boxed sets which made its way from Japan to Taiwan and became popular in the latter. Unfortunately, I do not find these particularly helpful in my meals, since the rice just kept stuck at the corners where the spoon cannot reach. If you are just looking for a snack, you could always look to Taipei 101's side dishes. Despite its name, some of these dishes could be taken as snacks, which what most Taiwanese did, while some others could be ordered to complement whatever meal you planned for.

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Superb

The shop itself is not spacious, and even with extra tents outside of the shop to provide a cover over its customers' heads, you can expect the place to be fully crowded if you arrive after 7p.m., the usual dining hour for Ipoh folks. The shop will be so packed that you still feel hot and stuffy during the night. It is not advisable to arrive after 7, especially during weekends and holidays... trust me. The beautifully named Phoenix Claws is a traditional Chinese name for the dish of braised chicken feet, served within a plate of delicious sauce. The leathery claws may not be the favourite of everyone, so make sure that there is at least a person from your table who enjoy it before you order this. The sliced tentacles of octopuses (ask for ba jau yee, the Cantonese name of the dish) are served on a plate of oil based sauce in the company of sliced onion stalks and fried and ground garlic. The same note goes to this dish as well: some may feel queasy looking at this tentacled delicacy, so getting people who love it to accompany you may help getting your appetite up when you see people fighting to get the last tentacle.

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Superb

Truth is, I was slightly disappointed with the food there. Not to say that the food was not nice, but the selection of food could do with some improvement. Since this was supposed to be an international buffet, with Italian as a the main choice of theme, the choices were the usual you would expect from any locally planned 'international buffet'. As I looked back to my dining experience, I was still pleasantly surprised that the one most memorable thing I had in Café Laurel was... their milk. The full cream milk was pleasant sweet, the kind of sweet that was different from any other milk which I tasted before.

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Superb

Kam Loong Restaurant is located snugly in a row of shop houses a stone's throw away from City Square, the mall mostly famous for its link to JB Sentral, which houses one of the custom checkpoint for travelers between Malaysia and Singapore. The queue for a seat is always never-ending, and they do not serve strictly according to a first-come-first-serve basis. The small restaurant can only house that many tables and seats, for that many customers, so the owners have to try to optimize the queue by allowing the smaller groups to try to fit into the available seats, sometimes sharing tables as well. Larger groups may have to wait longer for a table with enough seats to be made available by leaving customers, but rest assured that the owners will do everything they can to get a seat for everyone. The restaurant is famous for its fish head curry, and they serve fish head curry only - no other food is served there, so if you are not a fan of the dish, you may want to skip this place entirely. For Malaysians who are used to the spicy taste of curry, Kam Loong Restaurant's curry is not spicy at all. This would be a good opportunity though for those uninitiated in the ways of curry to have their first taste to accommodate future excursion into the land of spiciness.

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