This is one place that I’ve always drawn people’s attention to, both the locals and anyone visiting from out of town, especially to some of the very delightful items on their menu. That was why on the last day Melissa’s friend was in town, before her mid-afternoon flight back to the peninsula, we brought her here for lunch.
Melissa feels that their chicken chop (RM18.80)…
…is the best in town, the one with its creamy mushroom sauce, so she ordered that and despite the huge serving, she was able to finish all of it. Personally, I would prefer their sizzling roast pork spare ribs with honey but I thought that was a little to heavy for lunch so I opted for their nasi lemak special (RM7.20)…
…instead. I was looking for their new one, the one with a whole lot of specials by the side but I could not locate it in their order form. Halfway through what I had ordered, Melissa pointed out the photograph of the one I had wanted in the maze of photographs on the table. Never mind! I can always go back there for that another time.
My missus had the kway chap special (RM7.90)…
We had that a long time ago and were not very impressed by it but my missus said it was good and I would say it didn’t look too bad. Perhaps they’ve improved on it since, I wouldn’t know.
Melissa’s friend insisted on not having the sizzling black pepper beef kampua despite my pestering her to give it a try and she chose to have just the kampua mee instead, minus all the specials that they seem to have on their menu here to go with the noodles (RM4.50)…
…but I, for one, would be the first to declare that what they have here is in no way among the best in town and I was not at all surprised that there were no oos and ahs or any other exclamations of delight.
The deep fried dumplings (RM6.20)…
…were very nicely done and well-liked by all.
The crème brûlée (RM7.00)…
…was good, as usual, and to everyone’s satisfaction but though the vanilla mille crepe (RM6.50)…
…tasted great, probably the layers of crepe were a bit too hard, so hard that it was impossible to cut through them with a fork without demolishing the whole thing and ending up with one utter mess.
All this while, there are certain items on their menu that we like a lot, others that we feel we can live without but I would say that we have been very happy with what they serve here – the ones that we like and would order again and again, except for this one occasion when some of them were rather disappointing but talking about disappointment, this one definitely takes the cake!…
It did not look any different when served but when Melissa’s friend took a bite, she started complaining that it was terribly oily and it wasn’t as good as the ones she had from the hawker stall at the park in town though she felt the minced meat filling in this one tasted a bit nicer.
I took one and bit into it and was really disgusted to find that she was not exaggerating! The oil actually soaked right through the whole kompia, right to the bottom and there was so much oil on the paper on which they were placed too…
I took it to show the boss and he said that probably, the oil was not hot enough and added that he would get them to cook some more to replace this one. No way!!! I would not have any more of that, thank you very much, and insisted that it was struck off the bill and I told the guy that he should go and give the cook/chef a really good ticking off.
For a place like this and this kind of prices, there is no way that such sloppy work can be tolerated and I told him outright that I have always promoted this place and their kompia is among the highlights, the must-have on the menu…and if anybody gets to eat anything like this, they would surely come and scold me for saying that it is so good when it really is the pits!!! So what does that make me? A liar? Tsk! Tsk!
That certainly spoilt what would have been a perfect trip for Melissa’s friend. All the while, she was happy and liked what she had, some more than others, and there were a lot that swept her off her feet…and I thought that by bringing her here for lunch, there would be some kind of a grand finale – the perfect ending to a wonderful gastronomic visit to Sibu but unfortunately, it was such a let-down and a truly disastrous one at that! Now, I certainly would think twice about bringing anyone here again – not when there is no proper quality control and the assurance that what is good would always be good. Those people should know jolly well that business is more than just sitting there at the cashier’s counter, counting money…and customer satisfaction should be their top priority! Tsk! Tsk!
Well, what to do? What is done is done and cannot be undone and after that miserable setback, we made our way to the airport to send Melissa’s friend off…
I certainly hope that she will remember all the good things here, the happy moments shared, and will forget about that horribly oily kompia that she had the displeasure of having before she left town…
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 