Piano Lounge

After eating at Champagne Restaurant, we were craving for a bit of ice-cream dessert, so we went to Centrepoint Hotel in Gadong and went up to the Piano Lounge to get us some high-classed ice-cream.

This be the view from the Piano Lounge itself. I've had my stay before in this hotel, and I can tell you one thing: the air-conditioning in here is brutal!! It's like as if they don't even need to pay for electricity bills or something. They really have this crazy centralized air-conditioning in abandon and can probably freeze you to death or something!! Gah!

This is the piano itself. It's actually a mechanized piano in which they have a gadget under the piano that programs the piano to play whatever song that was put inside the machine and let the keys do the work, without having to pay a professional pianist to play the piano for your enjoyment. Although when we were there, it was playing the same song over and over again. An oldies called "Without You", I think (not the Mariah Carrey or Air Supply version, mind you)



I bet this is what they use when they play horror movies that focuses on pianos. LOL

Here's the ice-cream parlour. All the stuff there is actually courtesy of Royal Brunei Catering, so you can say we really had a bit of high-classed dessert-dining there

While we chose the ice-cream, I took pictures of some of the cakes and pastries they have on display for sale. They look utterly yummy~!












This be all the cakes and pastries they have. I'm too lazy to type everything, so just click the pic to see what they are

These are the ice-cream that we got: Mine is chocolate and my friend's is vanilla. Looks very yummy and creamy indeed, and the wafer cone itself was very sweet-smelling and crunchy, and the smell will linger on your hand even after eating and cleaning

Eating ice-cream in a hotel accompanied with music. What could be better?

So go ahead to Centrepoint Hotel and go upstairs to the Piano Lounge to have ice-cream in style

Restoran Tamu Semerbak/Champagne Restaurant

My friend boasted about this restaurant that sells the most sinfully delicious kolo mee in all of Brunei, so I went with him after hiking and gave it a shot.

This be the signboard of the restaurant. No idea why is it called Champagne Restaurant when the Malay name of it doesn't mean "champagne". If I'm not mistaken, I think it's situated somewhere near Gadong area




This be the interior of the shop. It had all the makings of an old school kopitiam that I used to go into when I was a kid. It almost felt like I'm going back in time during the years where old timers come here to talk things over coffee or tea, though nowadays they still do


The most prominent feel about it being an ancient shop is the stuff they use as props. The menu board that still used the chalk system was there and the toothpick casing was the ones I used to see way back when I was primary school! Dang, makes me wonder how old is this place actually is!


Here's our kolo mee order. As you can see from the close up shot, it is really oily and fatty. Apparently they say the kolo mee is cooked with pig's oil or something like that, if I'm not mistaken, and you can totally see the sinful indulgence just by the look of it. It tastes pretty good too, especially if you add pepper into it, and it only costs us $2! Cheap, innit? But definitely a highway to Cholesterol-ville, if consumed everyday.

So if you're into the best kolo mee in Brunei, and don't mind adding a few oil blockages into your bloodstream (LOL), go ahead and try this out

Thien Thien Restaurant

We were craving for chicken rice after hiking, so we set out to look for the best chicken rice restaurant in town, which is Thien Thien Restaurant.

This be the signboard of Thien Thien Restaurant. It's situated within Kiulap area just opposite the Hua Ho shopping complex, and my friend boasted this to be the best chicken rice ever in the entire Brunei

This be the interior. Like all Chinese kopitiam and casual restaurants, they have the seats both indoor and open air and also peekaboo side seats for privacy and comfort and more or less a display in which you can pick whether you would like roasted or steamed chicken. Of course, it doesn't only specialize in chicken rice. You can order other stuff, but it's still famous for its chicken rice

They have upstairs dining, so we decided to sit upstairs for the sake of air-conditioning


This be the upstairs dining of Thien Thien. The interesting thing about this area is that they actually have some sort of elevator to bring the food up and down without the waiters/waitresses having to go up and down the stairs and end up having an accident. It almost reminds me of those old-fashioned or medieval homes where you put the tray or whatever it is you want into the elevator and ring the bell before it goes up, and sometimes people use this as escape routes in some suspense movies. LOL

Aside from the chicken rice we ordered, my friend even ordered niu chap soup, which is basically beef soup with all the cow and a bit of pig spare parts in it. It tastes very good, and even better when added pepper into it. It has the typical Chinese-style taste to the soup, and the spare parts are brilliantly QQ. Yummy~!


Here's our order. I've always been into steamed chicken while my hubby is into roasted, here's how it looks like. I'm not sure as to what sort of way they cooked the chicken, or the sauce or whichever, but I have to admit, I can understand why it's so bloody famous by the taste alone. The chicken is nice and tender, slips off the bone very easily, and the sauce is not too salty or sweet, just right. Even the cucumber condiments taste rather fresh and crunchy

So if you're craving for chicken rice, go ahead and aim for this place. You won't regret it

Misato Japanese Restaurant

New entries for the food blog again~! This entry will venture into another exotic Japanese restaurant, called Misato Japanese Restaurant

This be the signboard of the restaurant. Misato is located in Kiulap area, just across the street from Qlap Mall. It is probably the only Japanese restaurant in Brunei that actually stayed this long and probably is the main rival for Excapade, considering the other Japanese restaurants just get crushed like a bug barely a few months in the business by Excapade. Sadly this would probably be the only branch here in Brunei, which goes the same with McDonalds that only has one branch in Gadong of the entire Brunei (seriously! no kidding!)


This be the interior of the restaurant. When you enter, you get the customary greeting "Irashaimasen~!" (welcome) by the staff and you will be asked whether to dine upstairs or downstairs. They actually have a live sushi counter just like they do in Excapade with the train set and everything, but because of their rival Excapade, the customers seemed to have flocked more to them and less on their own, which is quite sad, because I kinda actually prefer this over Excapade in terms of high-class and authenticity atmosphere rather than the crowdy pasar malam feel of Excapade

We decided to dine upstairs along with our other friend and his girlfriend, so this is the gateway up to Nihon haven. LOL

This is basically how it looks like upstairs. This is where you would prefer to have your own privacy or when you have a larger number of guests with you, and it has to be reserved on busy seasons. Back then when I first dined here, their rooms were only partially partitioned, but now, they fully partitioned and closed up the rooms to give total privacy. Even my friend commented that it feels like one of those places where the yakuza will come in and do their shady meetings! XD

This be our room inside. It looks maybe a little cramp, but it's a small price to pay to dine in elegance, I suppose ^_^

This be the menu. Thank goodness it's standard size like Excapade's and not as bloody thick as WyWy, but the choice are slightly less much than what Excapade offers, still it's no big


As usual, a true Japanese connoisseur would definitely go for green tea (and it saves money too, LOL). Apparently I learnt from my friend that one of the tea drinking etiquettes is that you are not allowed to pour your own drinks and you must let someone else do it for you, so when you want a refill, refill your friend's cup first so that they will reciprocate


This is what I ordered: Gyoza (fried dumplings) ramen. It was a pretty good deal actually, considering I'm probably paying only a dollar extra to get the ramen, because ordering gyoza alone is about $6, so by ordering gyoza ramen, I get gyoza and ramen for $7, a dollar extra!



This is what my friend ordered: Some kind of thousand island dressing sushi roll (I totally forgot the name), salmon fish head, and okonomiyaki (Japanese omellette pizza). I had a taste of each and they taste wonderful, but nothing can beat the taste of salmon fish head, though I think I'd prefer salmon fish head that was made in Chopstix

This is what my other friend ordered: Unagi don (eel rice). This is often my hubby favourite dish to order at times. He told us that he's been eating so good that the last time he did a blood pressure test, it revealed his cholestrol and blood pressure level has gone up! We're slowly killing him! LOL~! XD

And this is what my other friend's girlfriend ordered: Beef teriyaki don. Looks yummy, chunky and well done, though I don't dare to ask a try from her. I dunno her very well yet.

It was after eating that I totally forgot I ordered sushi as well! I think I ordered salmon sushi while my friend ordered salmon shake with mayo. The mayo is quite sweet, and the salmon sushi dipped in wasabi and soya sauce is just the top of the roof! I managed to take picture of the last sushi before it gets eaten though...



Our other friend and his girlfriend had to leave early, since their lunch hour is over, but since it's also my friend's off day, we decided to get dessert. There were only two ice-creams available for dessert, so I ordered one while he ordered the other. I got myself mocha green tea with peanuts (actually there were two choices of having either nuts or raisins; I chose the former) while my friend got the vanilla caramel or something like that. Both tastes pretty good, although I still have to get used to having green tea being made into ice-cream.

So there you have it. The good ol' exotic Asian flavour. So if you crave Japanese food but don't want to go through the hassle of reservation or waiting for a table to clear, or maybe a chance to savour some privacy while enjoying a nice meal with an authentic Japanese setting, this place is for you guys