What matters most…

I’ve been to this place…

…once before, not including the time when it was run by other people and I quite enjoyed the food there.

Last Sunday, my missus and I dropped by for lunch and this time around, I decided to try their shrimp paste fried rice (RM15.00)…

When it was served, we thought it was very fragrant with the smell of belacan (dried shrimp paste) but when we ate it, we were kind of disappointed as we could hardly taste it at all. It wasn’t too bad but they really should think seriously about reducing the amount of msg used…and my goodness! They could at least try to be less kasar (coarse) in slicing the omelette! Tsk! Tsk!

Actually, I was contemplating on ordering their pineapple fried rice but decided against it and I certainly would not order their pork sausage fried rice that the waiter said was very popular. Pork sausage? Lap chiang?  I can jolly well fry my own at home …no, thank you!

I also ordered this dish of ladies’ fingers with minced meat (RM15.00) to go with the rice…

Minced? Those were chunks…and shredded meat! I wouldn’t call them minced. It tasted like those canned stewed pork but I don’t think they used those that came out of a tin as the meat was not that soft and besides, those canned stuff aren’t that cheap these days. It tasted all right, nothing great…and again, there was this msg overdose and I would say that the one that I had once at their sister cafe was a whole lot nicer and value for money.

One thing about the food here is that their servings were HUGE, enough for at least 4 people! I do wish they would give an option whereby diners would be able to order the food in varying sizes, say small (for 1-2 persons) for RM10.00 and large (for 3-4 persons) for RM15.00.

A friend of mind shared her photo album on the place on Facebook a week or so ago and she too did not think the food was great and from what she said, I wouldn’t think she would ever bother going there again. She was very impressed by the decor though and I must say that I totally agree with her on that…

It is very tastefully done and there are many sections for one to choose. This is one of the staircases to go upstairs…

…where one would be able to sit and relax and enjoy the view of the river…

I wonder if you noticed the very old huge trees right in the middle of the building beside the staircase going to the upper floor. The simple truth is that there were those huge trees in the area and instead of chopping them down to construct the building, they designed it as such that they would be able to accommodate those trees instead and let them grow through the roof like this…

Thus, there is some kind of an island with the trees in the middle surrounded by a pond and stream with flowing water and Japanese koi swimming inside…

This is the view of the place from another angle – you can see the tall trees above the roof…

So as far as the design and decor as well as the ambiance are concerned, I certainly would give top marks to this place but I’m sure everyone would agree with me when I say that when it comes to such things, what matters most would be the food…