Try try try…

My cousin bought these, a lot of them, for me to try…

– they were from the Aloha Bakery, next to Upwell at Jalan Song in Kuching, thanks so very much to her for going through the trouble of getting them for me. It is indeed very very much appreciated.

The chicken quiche…

…was absolutely heavenly and just the right size – not too big and not too small. I always thought that our chicken pies here were the best – I had never come across any that could beat those but now, I have. This is definitely very much nicer.

The beef pie…

…would be best shared as it was too big and would be quite a struggle for one to finish. I would say that it was a disappointment – no, it wasn’t that it did not taste nice. In fact, it tasted great and the pastry was simply perfect! The thing was that I was expecting something darker in its filling – usually I would find beef and some other ingredients in brown or black pepper gravy but this one seemed to have the same chicken pie filling except that there were chunks of beef inside. Therefore, between the two, I would prefer the chicken quiche to the beef pie but I wouldn’t look at a gift horse in its mouth and I would say both are nice and indeed, they were!

On her first morning here, my cousin was free till around 8 or 9 something so I picked her up at the hotel before that to go and try the kampua kosong and beef soup here and true enough, she liked that a lot! She was left to her own devices at lunchtime that day and I came in the evening to take her out for dinner.

I did not think that what I had at an Italian restaurant in Kuching the second time around was all that great and I was told that the quality at the one that we used to frequent at a leading hotel there was going downhill as well so I took her to ours to try some of the stuff that they have on their menu.

We ordered the chef’s recommendation –  the Pizza Prosciutto e Funghi…

…that I had once before and of course, it was good, very good…

…and its thin crust was absolutely perfect and to everyone’s liking.

My cousin did not want any pasta so we ordered another pizza. I kept insisting that we had one here that was so so very nice and we simply must order that from the menu…

…but unfortunately, the Pizza Quattro Formaggi that we asked for was not what I had ordered before. Why, it did not even fall into the white pizza category. Except for one slice that I had, whichever one of the four cheeses that was, I thought on the whole, it was rather bland and nothing like the one we had. It was only after I had gone home and checked my blog that I realised that we had ordered the wrong one. Tsk! Tsk!

We had the Ceasar’s Salad…

…and even though my cousin was not so much into mayo dressing, she quite liked that…probably because they did not drown everything on the plate with the dressing or perhaps, they made their own instead of using the bottled ones plus she loved the fact that the ingredients in the dish were really fresh.

She also liked their panna cotta…

…but she said that she would prefer her own as hers would have a subtle hint of vanilla flavour, not the ones here.

All things considered, she thought everything was pretty good or at least, satisfactory and she was impressed that this little town has something of this standard that can rival a number of those elsewhere including the ones in Kuching.

I was kind of put off though by the music that night – they were playing some Chinese songs and that was quite all right by me. The problem arose when it came to a fast number and they turned up the volume full blast. Good grief!!! I would think I was at a club or some discotheque instead of some fine dining Italian restaurant. Of course, I signalled the waitress and conveyed to her via sign language my opinion that the music was too loud and only then did they turn it down a bit…and since we had finished our dinner already at that point in time, we quickly make the exit and left the place. Phewwwww!!!

Whatever it is, they just simply can’t beat this place when it comes to mood and ambiance – it’s simply a class above the rest!