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This blog is made of independent bloggers who made the review at their own will. This blog is intended as a community service to promote food business in Brunei. Reviews are done at own will of the blogger and intended to create a forum for consumers to give their feedback. If any restaurant is sub standard to the the public expectation, it is up to respective restaurant owners to rectify the situation and not the responsibility of the blogger. The intention is to ensure consumers get value for money and restaurant owners have feedback for improvement.

Monday, December 25, 2006

An afternoon at i-Lotus, Rimba

Went to i-Lotus Restaurant for a so-called "xmas lunch" and we were in for a disappointment. The fact that there was only one other table occupied was an ominous sign we should have heeded. But we decided to give it a go anyway. So the set lunch consisted of:

Fried oysters and baked turkey. I was so taken aback with this dish I forgot to photograph it. It was a couple of pieces of breaded fried oysters, and a few chunks of what was supposed to be turkey but tasted more like duck. Let's just say the dipping sauce was quite nice.

Next up was the Lobster and scallop soup. Ok this was quite decent actually. Very tasty tomato based broth with one piece of scallop and half a tiny tail of lobster.

Next we had the baked prawns with butter which was actually just butter milk prawns in a different guise. It was as delicious as buttermilk prawns should be.

After that came the steamed pomfret. I personally love white pomfret, and while appreciating the cost of said fish, I think it was a rather small specimen for the four of us. Taste wise, satisfactory lah.

Then it was the turn of mushrooms and broccoli with chopped chicken ham, which tasted ok, but nothing spectacular. The fried rice was pretty good actually. I think it was fried with the turkey/duck meat. Tasty.

Dessert was some kind of a local delicacy made out of yam and wrapped in banana leaf. It was quite delicious. The green stuff with the coconut however was bland and not good at all.


So disappointed were we that we decided to order an additional dish of curry coconut prawns and fried mantou buns. I think these two dishes alone salvaged the entire meal by themselves and made the whole lunch worthwhile, along with the great company of course!

Our only regret was having to endure the so-called "xmas set lunch" before we decided to enjoy the prawns and buns.

Total spent: B$186.++ for four souls (money NOT well spent I'm afraid)
Overall experience: 4 out of 10

i-Lotus needs to re-think their festive meal strategies. If you're not going to serve up a proper festive set meal, then why bother? Misrepresentation (if indeed what we were served was duck and not turkey) is a big no-no too!

Lesson learnt: Always stick to the restaurant's specialties...

3 comments:

Brunei Foodies said...

Wow! 4/10 is certainly not worth B$186 bro, that is quite a disappointing. Personally, all this while I've always thought their dishes are just a bit above average, thats why I rarely go there because I dont see it as value for money.

Thanis Lim said...

Could had easily went to empire and have a great meal for that kind of money.

I remember paying $68 per head when I was in Melb and it was SUPERB! I wonder when Brunei will actually have a restaurant that good.

UcingItam said...

I had stomach upset after having sungkai buffet at I-Lotus last Ramadhan. I'm never gonna eat there again!


The WYWY saga concludes - Public Poll

wywy2 wywy1

The respective press statements

More here.



Comments added via the 'Add my own option' by visitors to this blog;
- I only went to WyWy once and I think they are unreasonably over priced for a normal restaurant. Service sucked like hell. A little smile would have been better.
-I think they hv been victimised by someone who has some grudge against them!
-To close the matter for once and for all, we need another independent lab test to reconfirm.