Both ways…

Last year, my missus and I had our Valentine dinner here…

…and my girl complained that she did not have the chance to be with us that night as she was still at her school in the jungle at that point in time.

Of course, this year, when we went there again, she was able to be with us…

…this time around and needless to say, that made her very happy indeed.

They were charging RM45.00 per head only this year, RM60 last year while other places around here were asking for no less than RM100-200, RM300 even at some places. According to Peter, the boss, they did not have this kind of promotion in the past and when it got very crowded and everyone was ordering everything on their menu, it was such a lot of work and one helluva mess. This way, they would be able to focus on the items in their set menu so it would not be so much of a hassle.

I think there were more items in their buffet spread last year – probably that was why it was more expensive plus this year, they also cut down on their expenses on the decor and kept it real simple.

I must say that RM45.00 is a steal as if you were to go there and order a main dish (RM18.00) and a salad (RM8.00) plus a mushroom roll (RM12.00) and an ice cream (RM10.00), that would be more than RM45.00 already and that night, we had more than just these…and yes, there were a lot more customers this year, compared to last year, a full house! That was why I would say that it did work out for the best for us, both ways.

Each person could only choose one of the main courses and my girl picked the beef bolognese spaghetti…

…while I had the Afghan chicken with rice…

…and my missus had the Indian butter chicken with rice…

The other two options available were their Payung chicken (cooked with yogurt) and their beef rendang. There was a lot of beef in the pasta sauce and I had to help my girl finish off the meat in the end and I also had to help my missus with the chicken AND a bit of her rice.

There were two types of soup, eat all you can – fresh tomato and mushroom and garlic buns to go with them…

I had the tomato initially and I was thinking that I could go for the mushroom and more of the garlic bread later but in the end, I was simply too full to go for more.

I so loved the potato salad…

…and had a second helping of it. The ladies liked it too but they liked the fruit salad…

…more and other than the two, there were also the herbs salad and the guava salad.

The mushroom roll…

…was so popular that they simply could not make them fast enough. The instant a plate was out of the oven, it would disappear in a blink of an eye! The salads and the mushroom roll were also in the eat-all-you-can category.

We were already filled to the brim when Peter served us this beef rendang…

…and there was no way we could eat that. All of us sampled a bit each and sent it back to the kitchen so it would not go to waste.

There was also a limit on the ice cream – durian, mango or chocolate, pick one and my missus and I both had the durian…

…while my girl wanted the Kahlua and they were nice enough to make an exception. There were cakes too, blueberry and chocolate but I was already way too full for those and besides, I  thought I would just give them a miss after the overdose of cakes and cookies over Chinese New Year.

That certainly was a delightful evening and we sure enjoyed the dinner very much. If they are going to hold something like this again next year, rest assured that we will be the first in line to go for it…and perhaps, I shall suggest to Peter that he could set up a photo booth – perhaps he can decorate that “little hut” behind me in the above photograph for couples to have their photographs taken to remember that special night in the year.

PAYUNG CAFÉ (2.284049, 111.833014) is located at No.20F, Lanang Road, Sibu, Malaysia, back to back with the multi-storey car park of the Kingwood Hotel which faces the majestic Rejang River.