Better place…

This café has been around for a long time now, going way back to 2009, and the food is pretty good but I do not drop by all that often as parking in that area is almost impossible in the daytime and on a few of my previous visits, I was quite put off by the service like on this occasion and this one, for example. It actually surprised me greatly that it, in fact, won the Sarawak Hornbill Tourism Award in 2011.

However, that morning after we had sent my cousin and her hubby to the airport for their flight to Kuching, we decided to check out the shops in the area around Tunku Abdul Rahman Road, Lane 8B, right before you reach the mega-mall along that same road (on the left if you are coming down from the airport) as I did gather somehow somewhere that they had opened a branch there  and I was right (2.305251, 111.866347)…

I asked the lady and she said that this outlet…

…was not air-conditioned initially but they closed it down for renovations and had just reopened in January, before Chinese New Year.

They even have a water feature outside…

…and I was wondering about its position and direction – probably at the angle, the feng shui is better, I wouldn’t know.

I can’t say that I was all that fascinated by the decor though I did think the birds…

…were very nice and I would use those very nice watering-can vases…

…to plant something that is easy to grow to replace those fake ones.

Thankfully, the service was very good and we got our orders very fast – that sure was a far cry from the not-so-pleasant experiences that I went through at the original place.

I remember they had what they claimed to be the biggest roti canai in the country and yes, they did have that too here in their menu so I ordered one to share. The nice guy said I could take photographs of the process and I did…

Yes, we all were in agreement as to the fact that it was very nice (RM8.90)…

…served with the usual dhal dip, curry gravy and sambal ikan bilis.

They had so many lunch sets to choose from but the lady boss, for whatever reason, did not want me to photograph the display of all of them right in from of the shop.

My girl had Set No. 32, the nasi bryani kambing  or the bryani rice, mutton (RM12.00)…

…and while the rice was very nice and so was the curry, unfortunately, the meat…

…was rather tough.

I had Set No. 30, the nasi lemak (RM12.90)…

…and again, while the rice was very nice, very fragrant and rich with the santan (coconut milk), the chicken was over-fried…

…till it was dry and hard plus the peanuts had gone all soft, not nice and crusty…and yes, pray tell me – where was the egg? Those very thin strips of yellow in the rice, was that omelette? Frankly, I do think we can get nicer nasi lemak at many other places in town and personally, my favourite would be the one here at slightly less than half the price…with half a hard-boiled egg!

My missus chose Set No. 37, the honey chicken rice set (RM8.90)…

…and this turned out to be the best of the lot. The chicken was really delicious but there wasn’t any sauce to go with the rice. Thankfully, there was the curry gravy that came with the roti canai.

Iced barley water was RM2.80 a glass and iced water, 50 sen…and the music that day, which I thought was rather loud, was the complete soundtrack from this Bollywood movie – I shall deliberate no further on this.

Well, there are ample parking spaces here and it is free but considering the location, we probably would not be dropping by again all that soon unless we happen to be in the vicinity or are passing by like that morning when we went there.