Honey honey…

We were here two years ago

Honey Lemon Cafe and Zakka

…and once before that when it was under another name and we had not been back since as we did not have anything that would get us running back for more.

For the uninitiated, it is along Jalan Pedada (2.308429, 111.846071) right across the road from this building where the recently-opened Starbucks outlet is located…

Starbucks Sibu

However, I heard a friend singing its praises saying how good the lamb chop was and how she loved the mushroom gravy, so much nicer than all the rest plus those people had been pretty active lately on Facebook sharing the photos of the lunch box takeaways at RM5.00 each. That was why I decided to drop by the other day to check it out. Who knows, they might have a new chef now and what they have on their menu could have improved by leaps and bounds.

They have this photo printer…

Honey Lemon photo printer

…that you can make use of – you can take a photograph using your smartphone and use it to scan and print and take home or stick it on the wall along with all the rest…

Honey Lemon photos on the wall

Why, they even had one of the local Mandarin singing sensation from Sarikei, Nick Chung, but the photograph I took of that snapshot turned out blur.

As far as the zakka part of this place is concerned, it isn’t very different from what it used to be – nothing much, maybe even less than before. I did see these owls…

Honey Lemon owls

…and this one…

Honey lemon owl

…that may be of interest to my friends – the owl memorabilia collectors, Annie and Nick…and no, not Nick Chung – this Nick is more handsome. LOL!!!

My missus had this iced green apple 7-Up drink (RM4.90)…

Honey Lemon iced green apple 7-up

…and she did not say anything about it so I guess it was all right. I am more familiar with Ribena 7-Up that is available at a number of places here, there and everywhere.

She had the teriyaki chicken rice (RM11.90)…

Honey Lemon teriyaki chicken rice

…and the chicken was pretty good but from my personal point of view, the fried egg…

Honey Lemon fried egg

…that came with it was an absolute disaster.

The girl who came to take our orders could only speak Mandarin and I had a hard time trying to understand what she was saying especially the somewhat “technical” part regarding the making of the ice blended black coffee (RM7.90)…

Honey Lemon ice blended black coffee

…but I could make out that bit about it not being black, nothing like the very nice blended kopi-o-peng here and I decided to order it anyway. So what did I think of it? Well, I would say it was all right even though I am never into coffee with milk but at that price, I would probably go for something else should I ever happen to drop by here again.

I decided to try their nasi lemak with chicken curry (RM14.90)…

Homey Lemon nasi lemak with chicken curry

…and considering the huge serving for just RM3.00 more, I would think this would be a better deal than what my missus had but perhaps they could try and work a little harder on the presentation to come out with something looking a bit more impressive. Maybe if they had lined the plate with banana leaf, that would help a bit.

Hmmm…a sausage by the side in a plate of nasi lemak? I guess that’s ok and it was one of those ordinary sausages from the supermarkets, nothing special. My main concern whenever I have nasi lemak would be the rice and no, the one here was not lemak – I could hardly detect any santan (coconut milk) nor any pandan (screwpine leaf) fragrance in it but thankfully, it was not hard and dry and there were all those things in the platter to save the day.

The sambal

Honey Lemon nasi lemak sambal

…was completely out. No, no…it tasted all right, just that it was nothing like any sambal one would usually get with one’s nasi lemak, not even remotely close and eyewww….I can see the ikan bilis (dried anchovies) head! Frankly, perhaps they should just go and buy the very nice sambal at the roadside stall in the early morning at Bandong, just RM5.00 for one big tub, and dish out a spoonful of it every time somebody orders that.

I love this cheap salted fish…

Honey Lemon salted fish

…RM2.00 for a bagful, but I would usually soak in water prior to frying and eating so it would not be so salty…and the chicken curry…

Honey Lemon chicken curry

…was not too bad though that was the first time I had ever seen people garnishing their bowl of curry with fried shallots and chopped spring onions prior to serving. Hehehehehe!!!!

We did not get to try their lunch box takeaway – if I understood the girl correctly, those are not for eating in. You would have to call them to order and then come to collect to go and eat some place else. They are open from 10.00 a.m. in the morning right through till 10.30 p.m. at night and are closed on Mondays…and right now, they are giving a 15% discount in conjunction with the restaurant’s anniversary.

Well, we did not get to try the aforementioned lamb chop so who knows, we may just drop by again one of these days.

P.S.
Hey! It’s our National Day today so Happy National Day, folks! Keep the peace and spread the love and in conjunction with this special event. here’s a song by another of our local Sarawak’s own singers, Bob Yusof…