All’s well that ends well…

My girl dropped by here with her mum one afternoon and when she got home, she said she would like to go there again to see what else they had on their menu. I guess she liked what she ate there a lot. Of course, all this while, I wanted to take her there but somehow or other, most of the time, we ended up elsewhere. Once, when we got there, they were closed for two days for a private function – I wonder why they did not bother to announce it on their Facebook page!

I also found out that they now open at 11 unlike before when they would open at 9.00 a.m. to serve their breakfast menu. Their lunch menu would start at 11 and their dinner menu at 5. I guess they did not get a lot of people coming in for breakfast so they have decided to stop serving that.

We finally managed to stop by last Sunday for an early dinner, right before a massive storm blew up! We were given the QR code to scan with our smartphones or whatever for the menu and to place our orders. Well, I do not have one and for reasons unknown, the ladies refused to use theirs – in the end, they just browsed through the waiter’s small one, scrolling up and down and squinting their eyes to see what they could manage to see. Honestly, I think it is such a bloody nuisance. They want to be so canggih, they can supply tablets or ipads for customers to use to look at the menu and make their orders. We did encounter this same thing at one other place and the sweet young thing did everything for us with her own smartphone!

I did not want to wait for my turn so I just looked at the photo displays on the wall behind the bar/counter. I saw they had fish and chips, Thillapia [SIC] and I was curious as to how they could fillet it. It is not all that fleshy with one big bone down the middle. I do enjoy the one (eco-fish) at our local Sarawak franchise (Sugar Bun) with their fragrant rice and some pickle by the side but the price has gone up to around RM25.00 now so I would much sooner go for something else that is more affordable and perhaps, even nicer.

Anyway, the boy (waiter) said they were out of fish and all the dishes were not available except for one – fish fingers. “You mean those frozen ones that they sell in boxes at the supermarkets, Pacific West, for instance?” I asked the boy and he said yes. “No, thank you!” I told him. “I have a lot in my freezer at home!“

I moved on to the pork loin and the boy said they were out of pork too so no, I could not have the pork loin nor the pork chop. “My goodness!” I exclaimed. “This is absolutely disgraceful! What on earth do you people have?” In the end, I just asked for the porkie burger (RM18.00)…

…and thankfully, they did have that…

…and yes, I did feel it was quite nice and I do mean QUITE! I enjoyed it but no, it did not exactly sweep me off my feet. As a matter of fact, I felt the presentation looked quite bare…

– other than those few miserable strings of fries, they could have given a bit of coleslaw, tomato slices for the colour and so on.

My girl’s aglio-olio seafood (RM32.00)…

…was very good, very strong on the lovely fragrance of the garlic and not too much olive oil. I do not enjoy those that are somewhat too oily, not at all. It did not come cheap but with so many of those huge prawns, the mussels and the sotong (squid), it sure did not come as a surprise…and they were very generous with their ownmade pasta too.

My girl had this calamari fritti (RM26.00)…

…when she was here the last time and she loved it a lot. That was why I asked for it again to let her enjoy it some more. It came with this tomato salsa but personally, I liked the sotong without the dip – it was much nicer on its own.

My missus had their yakitori chicken chop (RM28.00) before and yes, she asked for that AGAIN…

…and yes, it was good – the yakitori sauce sure did wonders to enhance the taste of the meat but it felt like FOREVER before it was served. We even had to get their attention and nudge them a little before it came. With the storm raging outside, there were not many customers around (and they had so many people in the open kitchen) so there certainly was no excuse!

We sure enjoyed all our orders that night unlike during our previous visits – the last time we dropped by here, the Ceasar Salad, something that we always enjoyed everywhere else, was so very salty that we could hardly eat most of it…and I did not like their matcha panna cotta, not at all. I thought that was awful!

The bill that night came up to RM120.65 with the 6% SST and the 10% service charge on top of the RM104.00 for the food. For the kind of money they are charging, I sure am glad to see that finally, they have got rid of the assorted crockery they were using before – I used to get so mood-spoilt when I spotted some badly chipped ones time and time again. This new set that they are currently using certainly look classier and are obviously of a much better, more durable quality. Pat on your back, Anvil!

CAFFEINE CAFE (2.302620, 111.842988)…

…is located on the ground floor of Wisma Liberty, Block 3, Lorong Dr Wong Soon Kai 7, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai (formerly Jalan Pedada) – on your left, if you are coming from town.