Starbucks

Starbucks have finally conquered Brunei! After so many gajillion years, it has finally set foot into the land of gold. And of course I would not waste the chance to blog about it.

Location: Within Supersave Mabohai, on the first floor

Huge ass people waiting in line to give in to the Starbucks invasion

Assortment of desserts

Our drinks, plus close-ups

Our snacks, plus close-ups

To be honest, while the design of the coffee shop looks great, it's also a little too cramped. Not a place to be able to sit down and have a nice, quiet coffee with friends if you're sorta pressured to leave by the huge long line of people, some of them prolly wants to sit down and relax too.

That said, the drinks are pretty good. Not one of those drinks where you'd get a "EHRMAHGERD SO DELISHUS!!!" kinda reaction, but it actually tastes slightly better than Coffee Bean, though I still prefer Coffee Bean over this one. And the snacks are right on the money. They definitely taste yummy.

Overall rating: 7/10

Pappa Rich

My buddy and I are going on our usual Monday lunch date, and since he was off on Mondays this month, we also decided to catch a movie too. So of course we decided to eat within the vicinity and tried some place new, which is Pappa Rich.

Location: Gadong area, across The Mall

Setting: Very classy and very beautifully set up. A lot of effort has been put into this. It makes for a very nice classy restaurant. Feels almost like A.J.D. Wetherspoon Pub in London

Le menu, which includes the self-order sheet

My Milo Dinosaur (while he ordered the standard Coke)

My buddy's fish and chips

My chicken rice

To be honest, the food wasn't really that impressive. For starters, the sauce tasted sweet, and the black soy sauce they used for my condiments are actually thick sweet soy sauce, which totally contradicts the fact that chicken rice isn't supposed to be sweet at all. Even the soup itself is sweet! My god, what is this? Do they have like overstocked sugar or something? And the chicken was kinda slightly dry. The only thing that really compensated my taste buds was the bean sprouts.

My buddy's food wasn't that too impressive either. The fish wasn't exactly fresh, and it was cooked in a rather bland way, the chips were tough and old and who in the world serves fried rice and sunny-side up eggs with fish and chips? Are they trying to create some sort of fusion? American fried rice with fish and chips kind of dealio? I'm all about fusion but this is just too weird, even for my tastes.

And the price is just too much. I'm actually paying $6.50 (or was it $7.00?) for a crappy chicken rice, and don't even get me started on the price my buddy had to pay for his second-rate fish and chips. It's almost like we're paying for the scenery, not the food. Like the atmosphere and the setting of the restaurant is compensating for the crappy food.

If only they spent that money on the food rather than the decors...

Overall, it's OK if you want to try it just once. But just once is good enough for me. If you're not picky about your food and just want to enjoy a nice, relaxing London-ish setting, by all means.

Overall rating: 4.5/10

Grill'z Kitchen

Went down to KK to visit my dad for the CNY, and after going to many a familiar places to eat, my dad finally brought us to some place new on our last day in KK, which is Grill'z Kitchen.

Location: Not really sure, but I think it should be around Beverly Hills area

Setting: Nice outdoorsy feel, with the indoor setting mostly for private rooms and maybe even karaoke, from the singing I can hear coming from inside there

Le menu

My hubs and my mom in law's steak with rice (forgot the actual name of the dish)

My dad's spaghetti

Mine and my dad in law's pork ribs

The food there tastes amazing, though the only beef I have is that the portion is ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY HUGE!! It's even huger than the pork ribs I had in London! What do they feed the pigs with? Steroids??

But still, it's absolutely worth the money. A little bit expensive, but still absolutely worth it with the deliciousness and the portion of the food. And hey, it's pork. PORK! Something you don't always have when you're back in Brunei, that's for sure.

Might even consider coming back here again some other time.

Overall rating: 8/10

Killiney Kopitiam

Another new foodie entry after so long! Yay!

Yup, very short name for this new place we went to. Passed by this place a couple of times with my hubs and never really thought of trying it, but since we had to do something within the vicinity and this is ultimately new that neither of us been before, we decided to give it a shot.

Location: Times Square, right at the end of the building next to a bunch of ATM machines

Setting: Very minimalistic, kinda very cramped, and from the looks of the menu, it seems that there is very limited choices of food to have for lunch.

My buddy's Iced Yuen Yang, which is a blend of coffee and tea

My Milo drink

My buddy's chicken curry

My Mee Siam

Kaya and butter toast

As a tea connoisseur, my buddy finds his Yuen Yang delightful that the tea flavour still shines through despite the presence of coffee. But for me, was not my cup of tea, no pun intended. My Milo drink, on the other hand, has a layer of Milo powder on top, prolly trying to emulate the feel of Milo Dinosaur feel, but it tastes pretty good for me.

The portion size for my buddy's chicken curry is huge with almost half a chicken inside the bowl. As you can see, it was not too oily and even the skin of the thigh was removed, which was something my buddy doesn't find it too favourable. For my Mee Siam, it's nice and flavorful. Not too spicy and the sourness of the sauce is pretty spot on. The noodles were cooked well too and the eggs were the best amongst it all. The only beef I have about it is that mee siam is supposed to be served in a bowl, not on a plate.

Brought my daughter along, so ordered the toast for her to eat while I had my food. It's quite sweet, and yes, crispy yet soft all at the right places. The butter is a little off, makes it look very fatty though. But my little princess likes it! XD 

By far, the place is definitely clean and lots of lighting, but not exactly comfortable for me. If you want to go eat there, you need to be there for tea time, not full blown lunch because it wouldn't feel right as their menu seems to be specialized in toasts and the lunch menu is super limited.

Overall rating: 4.5/10

Chocolate Lasagna

Yes.

God does exist.

*drooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool*