Buon Gusto Ristorante

We went to celebrate my little niece's birthday, and thought we'd go for Italian. And thus we decided to try this new Italian restaurant called Buon Gusto Ristorante

Location: Down at the old Gadong area closely near the Menglait district, just opposite SuperSave mall (it seems that the area has turned into a food district now)

Setting: A bistro-ish setting with a few decors with an Italian feel to it
Atmosphere: 7.5/10 (good music and goo ambience, though prolly coz it's new, patronage is still a little lacking)
Design: 7/10 (design is nice, plain and simple and not overly decorated, with complimenting pictures and the best part would be the ceiling lights)

Trigger-happy on the menu

Appetizers: Bread sticks with dip
Presentation: 6.5/10 (a little extravagant serving on a huge tray, but kudos on the effort)
Taste: 6/10 (pretty good, as a usual bread stick would taste, and the dip complimented it well)

Drinks: Cappucino (dad in law), fruit juice (bro in law and the kids), Chocotinni mocktail (my hubby and my maid), chocolate milkshake (mine and mom in law) and pineapple/apple mix mocktail (sis in law, forgot the name of the drink)
Presentation: 8/10 for all (brilliant presentation, makes it so appetizing and you just want to sink your mouth into it and slurp the shit outta it)
Taste: 8/10 (my drink) and 7.5/10 (my hubby's) respectively (both taste pretty good, though when they said chocotinni I was expecting a martini taste to the chocolate drink, but it's just basically chocolate with a slight tangy taste)

Food: Pumpkin soup (mom in law), Hawaiian pizza (the kids) beef steak (my maid), beef sirloin (mine), chicken steak (mom in law), pasta (sis in law), spaghetti bolognese (bro in law), lamb shank (my hubby) and tuna steak (dad in law)

Presentation: 8.5/10 for all (each and every one of them looks amazingly delicious. If it weren't for my still recovering morning sickness, I would love to try a bite of everything)
Taste: 8/10 (my hubby and my mom in law) and 8.5/10 (for mine) (I would've given it a 9 for my sirloin steak if it weren't for the blooper they made; I requested well done, but they gave me a medium-rare instead, and it was quite bloody. Gotta admit, quite juicy though)

Dessert: Molten chocolate pudding (mine and dad in law)
Presentation: 9/10 (very appetizing and had the explosive chocolate smell that you can just basically taste it in your mouth already)
Taste: 9/10 (the moment you press into the chocolatey crust on top, the chocolate lava inside just explodes, with the warm rich thick creamy taste to be eaten together with the cold sweet ice cream, it was just a taste to die for)

This is a restaurant with a lot of potential to make it big, and their food are just amazingly delicious. Highly recommendable and should not be missed out. Might make a reprisal soon

Big Mama's Restaurant

Trying to combat my morning sickness again that day by going out with my buddy to have our usual lunch date, at the same time retrieving a package sent over by my dad. So we set our eyes on a place that serves something that might be light on my stomach, which is Big Mama's Restaurant

Location: In Kiulap area, just right between the pet shop and the flower shop, and also opposite the block where Escapade (Kiulap branch) is

Setting: Typical old-school Chinese kopitiam-style
Atmosphere: 4.5/10 (a little lack of patronage, even though it's already lunch hour time, though sadly it used to be very popular with hustle-bustle of customers)
Design: 5.5/10 (nothing too special and nothing too different than the last time I've been here, which was forever ago)

Drinks: Coke (my buddy) and chrysanthemum tea (mine)
Presentation: 5/10 and 4.5/10 respectively (my drink looks surprisingly bland)
Taste: 5/10 (for my tea, coz this is really those old-school, without any indoctrinating and without sugar, just plain pure tea with chrysanthemum in it)

Food: Fish porridge (mine, had no choice since I couldn't stomach anything solid) and fried boxing (?) chicken (my buddy)
Presentation: 6.5/10 for both
Taste: 7.5/10 (my porridge was surprisingly delicious. I've always had an aversion for rice porridge since I've been shoved down the throat with it since I was a kid due to my ill-prone body, but this was actually quite delicious, with the right taste. Though I wish they didn't make it so watery; where I come from, porridge should be gooey like oatmeal)

It's a recommendable place, and real dire need to be revived, because the first time I went there, the food was great (still is) and patronage was amazing and service was top notch. So if you fancy Chinese food, give this place a shot. They need it

Gripps Cafe

Sorry for the long non-update. As you can read from my personal blog, I'm officially pregnant and had been bedridden for the past few months due to morning sickness. And as morning sickness goes, obviously I can't really eat that well, but it doesn't mean I don't try.

My gal pal asked me out for a lunch date, and since it's always hard to go out with her due to her busy schedule, I agreed, despite the fact that I'm prolly gonna hurl my guts out after that. So we went down to Gripps Cafe

Location: In the Kiulap area, just right next to the Lemongrass Thai Restaurant

Setting: Typical local cafe kinda feel, with a bit of Asia and Western mesh into it
Atmosphere: 6.5/10 (nice with the usual hustle-bustle of customers during lunch hour)
Design: 5.5/10 (just the right size and space for people to be in, though despite saying that it has a Asian/Western mesh feel to it, it's leaning more towards Asian, or maybe even slightly Filipino)

Drinks: Carrot juice (mine) and 7Up (my gal pal)
Presentation: 5.5/10 respectively
Taste: 6.5/10 for my carrot juice (tastes pretty fresh, but kinda weird me out to think that they charge more if you request for your drink to be ice-less)

Food: Apple butter chicken (my gal pal) and wa tan ho (mine)
Presentation: 7/10 respectively (big portion and delicious-looking, though I wouldn't eat those green apples even if my life depends on it)
Taste: 7.5/10 (mine, rich thick sauce and nice big portion, just the way I like it) and 6/10 (my gal pal, coz I tasted the sauce) respectively

It's a pretty good place mostly to chill. This cafe has been around for quite some time now, even since before I was even here in Brunei, and the first time I came here it gave me the impression of a place where mostly youngsters hang about. A pretty good place to relax and grab a bite, so recommendable.