Joy…

This place (2.299452,111.830832)…

…along Brooke Drive here in Sibu, on your left if you are driving from town, has been around for a while now but somehow, we had never bothered to drop by even though we would drive past all the time on our way home from the town centre. One reason would be the fact that everytime we came by this way, we would have had something to eat in town already so we would be full and would not have any reason to do so. Another reason was that when it first opened, my friend, Rose, who was living in Sibu at the time, did go and check it out but based on her review of the place in her blog, it was not really anything to look forward to plus she did not like the fact that it was rather noisy – and that certainly would put me off as well.

Then, I saw a friend sharing a photograph on Facebook of some beef steak that he had there and I asked him what else was nice. He said he liked the beef rendang…

…so off I went the other day with my girl and the mum to give the place a try.

It was a simple place, nice and clean and not very big and despite the name, it did not look like one of those classier fine dining joints to me…

One look at the apple green plastic basket of orange chopsticks on the counter would say it all…but the prices certainly seemed to state otherwise. The lady asked us if we wanted something new on their menu, their pork ribs but at RM39.90, we did not think we would be all that keen to give it  a try.

I steadfastly stuck to what I had come for – their beef rendang with rice (RM16.90) which, indeed, was very nice but unfortunately, it was not spicy at all so I would not say I was all that thrilled by it. Incidentally, what you see in the photograph would be about all that you would get. When it was served, I thought that was really a lot – all that in the claypot, served in a rattan basket but it was kind of shallow so there wasn’t all that much, actually. Still, there was more than enough for me but in my honest opinion, I did feel that the price was rather steep and I sure would think twice about having that again.

My girl opted for the orange pork rice (RM11.90)…

…which was definitely more reasonably priced and yes, they were very generous with the meat too…

…and yes, the meat was very nice and very tender and went absolutely well with the orange sauce.

The mum ordered their chicken with tom yam mayonnaise (RM10.90)…

…and it was very good too. We thought that was a strange combination but it did taste pretty good, really – the creamy sauce with a hint of tom yam, something like a very nice and unique variation of the thousand island.

Looking at the prices and also at the fact the rendang was not spicy and not really what would sweep me off my feet, I would think it would make more sense to stick to the pork or chicken…or try something else that they may have on their menu. As for the name, I too, like Rose, had been thinking all this while that it was French but according to this blogger, it is actually a transcription of its Chinese name, meaning “joy” or something like that. There was just one other table, a big group of young people, other than us, and though it was quite noisy, it was quite bearable but I cannot imagine what it would be like if the place was full like the time when Rose went there.

Their opening hours are from 11.00 a.m. till 2.00 p.m. and from 5.00 p.m. to 10.00 p.m. and they take their weekly break on Tuesdays but not on public holidays. All things considered, I would say this is an option, one place that one may want to stop by for a bite once in a while but based on what we got to sample that day, it take a little more than that to get me to go out of my way just to come here.