Charcoal BBQ & Grill

I went to have lunch with my friend based on my treat, and he decided to choose one of the high-classed Western restaurants here in Brunei, which is Charcoal BBQ & Grill.

This be the signboard and entrance of Charcoal. It's situated somewhere in Jalan Tutong, in a block a little bit up the hill 5 minutes-walk away from where Lucky Restaurant was situated. It's well known to have the best steaks that can rival Sheraton Hotel's (now known as Raddison due to ownership takeover) and known for its bloody hell high price. The last time I came here was with my hubby when we were still dating and we were celebrating our couple anniversary together, and the portion was big-ass huge and totally worth the money, though it's still a bit too high. It was my treat actually, but since I didn't bring out enough money, my friend is willing to fork out partial of it since he really had a craving for Charcoal XD

Yummy grand entrance

Went trigger-happy on a cool old-school popcorn machine

This be the interior and decors of the restaurant. My friend said funnily that he had this really nagging feeling that when we entered, all eyes were on us, like those old-school Wild Wild West movies where all eyes turn to you when you enter the bar or something. I barely noticed, since I was used to stares and was being trigger-happy and have learnt to ignore them. LOL XD

But seriously, this place does give off a very modern yet classy feel to it, almost retro in retrospect (no pun intended), like one of those American dine-ins style. It was almost full-house coz of lunch hour, and you can really hear the hustle-bustle of the restaurant as the waiter/waitresses walked around serving while the customers chatted as they ate. Really feels like an American dine-in

Another trigger-happy moment of their ingredients on display

Couldn't resist trigger-happy on this

Since I was practically broke in a sense, we decided to order the $8.60 set lunch, that came with a free drink that tastes almost like a sparkling guava drink or something. Blergh, not exactly the best tasting fizzy, but it's still drinkable

Appetizers while waiting for our food, which is basically friend tofu skin to imitate nachos

Here be our food, which is both beef steak. The meat was actually pretty small, and cooked to medium, more or less, but it was nice and thick and juicy, so still worth the money, though I wonder what the heck was that on the meat. It didn't seem like garlic, but it doesn't taste like avacado as my friend claims. And their radish is just big-ass HUGE!! What are they, having a surplus on radish and want to get rid of it or something? It also doesn't help that radishes is not exactly my fav veggie. I don't mind eating it, it's just not my fav XP

This be our drink: Cafe Au Lait and Cafe Latte. According to my friend, they're both the same, meaning coffee with milk. Only his is French while mine is Italian. LOL! Had to add sugar coz it's bloody bitter, though I think the coffee still ends up overpowering the sugar... -_-'''

If you have a fat wallet and have a craving for awesome-tastic Western food but don't want to have too much of a fine dining in hotels, you can come here, but only approach if you feel rich.

Restoran Ko-Ryo

After a long time passing, I manage to get a lunch date with my best buds, and we decided to go Korean on this, and what better way to enjoy it than to go to Ko-Ryo!

This be the signboard and the entrance of the restaurant. It's situated in the Kiulap area about a block away from the Chong Hock Music Station. We've known of this place for a long while and I have always been curious as to how the food is (even though I heard a bit of a bad rep from my hubby), and besides, I never really actually tried authentic Korean food in a while, so yeah.

This be the interior of the restaurant. Nice, quiet and cozy, though we settled for sitting somewhere where we're not entirely exposed to air-conditioning, because I bloody cannot handle cold as well as typical Bruneians do. Though I must say it feels kinda...cramped in a way.

Trigger-happy moments where I took piccies of the display items they have while we were deciding on a seat. Really cute tiny porcelain dolls dressed up in Korean style, and awesome-tastic footballs that had been signed, sealed, delivered! And also a weird and disturbingly delightful ginseng concoction

They actually have a stove there for the sake of eating Korean steamboat, but since we're not eating Korean steamboat, no pot for us XD

They actually have an actual Korean seating booth for us to dine more authentically, but my friends didn't want to sit with their legs crossed. Meh~! Whatever happened to fine dining aesthetics? -_-

Another trigger-happy moment while we were waiting for our order, although we actually browsed through an interesting clothes catalogue of tradtional Korean outfits that really gives off the illusion that the women are tall because of the HUGE puffy skirt

Here are the complimentary side-dishes and appetizers that came in with the food that we ordered. There's kimchi, yam dumplings, fish cakes, broiled veggies, anchovies and vegetarian crabsticks, each of them having their unique taste. Yummy and flavourful, that's all I can say Xd

Close up of the side dishes

This is what my friend ordered: Korean ginger tea (or something like that, not really sure). The one thing I'm impressed is the cup itself. Looks very orientally retro and cute.

This is what I ordered: carrot juice. It's been a while since I drank this, and I kinda miss it. Tastes pretty good. Just the right texture and flavour and all.

This is what my friend ordered. I'm not sure what is it called in Korean, but it's basically a huge assortment of vegetables with a sunny-side up egg and rice. I swear I've never seen rice buried undeer so much veggies! LOL

This is what my other friend ordered. Again, I dunno what it's called in Korean, but it's basically chicken smothered in red sauce with rice. I didn't try it, but it looks pretty tasty

This is what I ordered, and it has almost the same pronounciation as the Chinese counterpart of this dish: Ja Jian Mian, which basically translates as noodles in fried sauce. The obvious difference between the Korean version and the Chinese version is that for the Chinese version, the noodle is clear and you have to mix it together with the layer of mince meat fried sauce on top of it, and the condiments is usually just cucumber and carrot strips, whereas here, Korean version is that the noodles is already mixed together with the sauce and we have egg strips instead of carrot strips. Ah well, to each its own. It tastes pretty good anyways, though I can't shake off the nagging feeling that the noodles and the texture feels like the Maggi instant noodles style.

Another few more trigger-happy moments on the cashier counter while paying the bill, though oddly it's one of those Chinese mini arts rather than Korean

So, fancy a little Korean? Go ahead and give this place a shot, and do try the original Korean seating style to feel the experience better. I wish I could, but maybe next time