Late in the night…

That day when we went here for lunch, my girl went to see a movie in the evening and it was quite late when she got home, around 7.30 p.m. Well, that was late by our standard as usually, we would have our dinner at around 6.00 p.m. but it was perfectly all right as that was during the school holidays so we were quite flexible where everything was concerned. Most importantly, that was the time for her to relax and enjoy herself, a welcome break from the dreary days she has to spend at her school in the jungle.

We headed to this place…

…here where we had a pleasant and delightful dinner once.

My girl had their Australian strip loin steak (RM19.90, special promotional price)…

…which she enjoyed a lot and she loved the mashed potatoes too.

I did try a bit of the meat…

…and yes, it was very nice – nicer than any beef steaks I have had elsewhere before this. Of course, she had it well done – we do not get fresh beef here and I am quite wary about the imported frozen ones that we have around here, never mind that some may claim that it is air-flown or what. You certainly would not catch me having it red and oozing with all the blood and juices though people insist that beef is tastier and more tender that way. This one was nice and tender – even for ol’ toothless me – and was very tasty.

I was torn between the baked saltcrust white tilapia and the chicken cordon bleu and in the end, I decided to go for the later. Unfortunately, the waitress came back to inform me that it was not available. Tsk! Tsk! I was rather put off by that so I just decided to order their nasi lemak (RM12.90)…

…to see if it was any good. The moment it was served, I was put off by those bland, not-all-that-crispy mini-keropok (prawn crackers). I just cannot understand why many cafés here love to serve those by the side of their dishes…and another thing that would put me off would be the ones where everything would be buried under all the squiggles of mayonnaise. So NCAA (no class at all)! I wouldn’t mind it one bit if they had given a couple of those cheap salted fish, RM2.00 for a whole bag of those at the supermarkets here. At least, those would be one of the standard condiments that usually go with a plate of nasi lemak and would not stick out like a sore thumb!

The fried egg…

…was not done the way I would like it.  Obviously, they used a pan to fry it and they flipped the egg so that was why it looked like that. Thankfully, they removed it from the fire sooner so the yolk was still a little soft and a little bit runny, not horribly hard and overcooked.

The sambal was so-so, not quite like the regular nasi lemak sambal but it was all right and the fried chicken…

…was…like fried chicken. Period.

Of course, when it comes to nasi lemak, my prime concern would be the rice and for reasons known only to them, they were using basmati rice…with a hint of some spices used in the cooking but no, there was hardly any fragrance of the santan (coconut milk) nor the pandan (screwpine leaves). Why call it nasi lemak when it is far from being lemak, I wonder? I guess it is pretty obvious whether or not I would order this should I ever drop by here again.

As for my missus, she stuck loyally to her chicken chop (RM8.90, special promotional price)…

…with mushroom sauce and yes, like the previous time when she had it, it was good.

The total, inclusive of drinks, came up to RM50.60 and even though that was substantially less than what I had paid for our lunch that day (RM76.00), we certainly derived a lot more satisfaction from the latter…especially with that very disappointing nasi lemak that I had.