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...

Dining Experience

Got this via email....

I don't usually go to Mamih as I think that their food is too oily and drink is too sweet. However on this day, I felt like eating their nasi lemak bungkus so my friend and I dropped by their Kuilap branch. Each of us ordered a nasi lemak ayam bungkus.

After a few bite, to our horror, we found a big, complete, handsome little dead housefly in 1 of the nasi lemak bungkus. What the heck? Is this today's special or what? Feeling disgusted, we called the waitress and showed it to them. They took a look at the nasi, spotted the housefly, looked at us and said in Malay "So you wanna change a new one or cancel it?" WTH! Not even an apology at all!


What should I say? "Erm, iI would like to change a new one, with Cockroaches ok?" If this is in overseas, they would have sincerely apologise, get you a new order and the meal would be free of charge. But in Brunei, in this restaurant, they would only ask you whether you wanna change a new one or cancel it. Why this atitude? The only reason I can think of is maybe this kind of incident always happen there, so common that they don't even have to say sorry anymore, it's like you come to Mamih, you can expect housefly in your nasi.

I shared this story and show the pics to my friends, they told me they know this restaurant is unhygienic, which is why they seldom go there. I guess that would be the last time I stepped into this restaurant. This unhygienic condition and a titude of their staff is truly not acceptable. If you read this, please share this to your friends and think again if you are planning to dine in there. Perhaps, which ever government department that is concern about health and hygiene should have an inspection on them. Below are the pics i took with my camera phone for proof.

Dissapointed Customer
Noname

Bulimic: Such an unfortunate incident. I'm sure many of us has experienced it before, things like a strand of hair on your food or in your drink. And normally they would just get you a new one and if you're lucky they would apologizedini to you and won't charge the item on your bill.

Thanks for Noname for sharing his piece. It may not be a review but we do welcome such entry as dining experience is in someway a review too. Like I've said below, be it good or bad, we welcome everyone to share with us their story. Email it to whatiate2day@gmail.com.

anakbrunei.org Charity Calendar 2007

Presenting the inaugural, exclusive anakbrunei.org Calendar 2007! It features some of my favorite works from this year. HALF of all proceeds from the sale of this calendar will be donated to SMARTER Brunei - Society for the Management of Autism Related issues in Training, Education and Resources.

Read More...

Lotus Restaurant, Serusop

This morning's breakfast at Lotus Restaurant in Serusop was wicked man!

The dosai looking dish is actually Ghee Paper Roast (I think thats the name) and it is absolutely superb! Crispy and fragrant and goes so well with the white sauce or dhalcha.

The roti telor kring kring was a bit of a let down though cos it wasnt kring enough...

As usual the kasturi ping kosong washed it all down nicely... aaahhhh....

Cheng Wah Restaurant - Seria

This is a partial review of Cheng Wah restaurant, an institution for chinese food in Seria town. Below is a mouth-watering excerpt from Jewelle's piece on a funky chinese wedding in Seria recently:

The round table dinner was provided by Cheng Wah Restaurant (Seria). I'd say they are standard courses except the baby abalone which I have never tried. They are tenderer and tastier than the usual abalone which to me is like rubber and not worth the expensive price that it carries.

Here's a look at what we had:

Stuffy Golden Crispy Chicken with Prawn Meat

Baby Abalone with Mushroom and Sea Cucumber

Beggar Duck

Crispy Fish with garlic and plum sauce

Jewelle's Review of Atrium Cafe, Empire Hotel

Review authored and originally posted by Jewelle on her site.

We redeemed our HSBC credit card points for lunch for two at the Atrium Cafe, Empire Hotel and got to enjoy it last Sunday.

This time, unlike my usual buffet eating strategy, I decided to be conservative and had appetizers before I checked out the main dishes or even desserts. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the appetizers served were tasty, especially the salmon-something served on a spoon. But there were too good, I forgot to take any pictures.

They even have a good children's section and Eu was able to have her own food.

Teddy also joined the outing

Hubby, as expected monopolized the oysters section, helping himself to several plates, claiming that their selections this time are smaller than the last time we had lunch there (months ago).

Oysters

More oysters

More oysters!

Main dishes were alright, with a wide variety of dishes from around the world. There's Fried Thai Squid (which I liked), Roast Beef, Soto, Lasagne, Iranian Kebab and many others I could not remember now.

The Japanese food section were boring as per hubby's verdict. Desserts were good too. Cakes tasted as good as they looked. However they did not have any cheesecake or did I missed it (?).

Overall, for a B$30+ buffet, it was well worth the money.

Sanur Indonesian Restaurant

My full review of the family promo meal at Sanur Indonesian Restaurant as heard on the Jenny M show @ KristalFM:

• Tahu telor: What can I say? Perfecto! Gusto! Making tahu telor is an artform I reckon, and the chef at Sanur's got it down pat. Always delicious and always hits the spot!
• Ayam Goreng Bumbu: I think this was the highlight of the meal (cos the tahu telur was foregone conclusion). Very nicely marinated chicken fried to perfection. Was good by itself. Inda payah becacah lagi. Kids absolutely loved it cos it wasn't too spicy. Mental note: next time order double serve heheheh!
• Sambal Udang: The Sambal prawns were different to what you normally get in other indonesian restaurants. Usually the prawns are cooked in the sambal but here its what appears to be pre-boiled prawns served with sambal on top. Perhaps its to keep the prawns fresh. I like the sambal.. a lot!
• Beef Rendang: Rendang is one of Sanur signature dishes and its definitely got that indonesian flavor. Spicy! The kids had a bit of trouble with it. My second daughter summed it up, "Nyaman.. tapi padassss!" I liked the fact that they offer to cut it into smaller pieces cos rendang generally uses quite big cuts of meat with long grain.
• Gado-gado: It was quite spicy but delicious. You can taste the peanuts cos its freshly made. Perhaps cut up the egg into smaller portions so its easier to bagi-bagi?
• Sop Asam: Reminded me too much of tomyam. They should re-think that one. Perhaps sop daging or tulang would be more appropriate?

Notes:

• Ambience would have been better if there was some gamelan or keroncong music in background?
• What happened to the pre-dinner keropok and sambal? I liked those... a lot heheh.
  
• Also missing was the signature attire for Sanur service staff. I like those... very smart. I assume it'll be back once they get permanent staff...
• Serve size was ok, but if you have a hearty appetite, bring 3 friends and order the meal for six. Sure tersandar one!!
• Overall, a very satisfying meal, served promptly and without fuss.

My rating: 7.5 out of 10. Points taken away for lack of ambience, no more keropok and sambal, and the soup. Extra points for offering to cut the beef, the polite and attentive service staff, and of course that perfect tahu telor!

I'm definitely going back to try the other dishes on the promo set menu esp the Ikan Pepes that Rano's always raving about heheheh. Thanks to Sanur and KristalFM for inviting me to sample the cuisine! Cool bananas...

Restoran Pondok Seri Mas Wani Satay Ala Jawa

The missus and I had dinner at Satay Ala Jawa tonight. We hadn't been there in quite awhile plus she had ayam penyet withdrawal symptoms. This for us is quite a recent phenomena, eversince Bobby did his review. For those who don't know, the restaurant is located just opposite Masjid Sengkurong in the same building as BIBD.

As you drive up, you'll see the small pondok which is more often than not pretty smokey from the constant grilling of satay. The restaurant itself is pretty non-descript and quite cramped. My preference is always to dine alfresco whenever I come here. Fortunately tonight we managed to get a table.

For drinks, I ordered a refreshing kasturi ping kosong, and the missus a teh-c ping. We each ordered an ayam penyet plus some satay hati kura, ayam, and urat. Serving time is pretty hit and miss here, sometimes the food comes surprisingly promptly, sometimes... well, luckily tonight I had my camera to play with heheh.

The ayam penyet was as usual, superbly mashed and deep fried, served in a traditional earthenware plate of sambal, with fluffy white rice and the ulam2an. The thing I like about ayam penyet is no matter which part of the chicken you get, its just as tender and juicy and filled with flavour. It goes really well with the sambal which is just nice, not too spicy. It hit the spot.

On to the satay... now this place is renowned for its satay kambing, but since we already had lamb shank pillau last night, we decided to refrain... lunggar lutut, if you know what I mean heheh! Anyway, the hati kura was absolutely delicious! For those who don't know, hati kura is the liver of the cow (I think) and the texture is quite chalky... an acquired taste I guess, but one worth acquiring!

The satay ayam was nice and juicy, not dry like in some places. The satay urat, was a bit of a disappointment. A bit tough and slightly over-done plus it was cold when it arrived at our table. I've tasted better...

The gravy at Satay Ala Jawa is different from your typical satay gravy. The "pedas" gravy is served with slices of green chili, shallots, tomato, and topped with kicap manis. I don't know about you but this to me is an excellent combination of flavours to go with the meat of the satay!

Overall experience: Well, come with the right expectations in terms of service and ambience and you'll find it very pleasant, like we always do. The ayam penyet was excellent and the satay really good. I give it a two thumbs up! More pics here.

*Burp*

Its all here!

Well we hope so actually. The aim of this blog, as it is stated above, is to give the public to give an honest independent review of the many eating places in Brunei. We will not restrict reviews only for restaurants but also for cafes, old fashion coffeeshop, pasar malam or roadside stalls. If it sells good food, we wanna hear all about it. If its not that good, do tell us too!

So please write to us and include some pictures too if possible. Hopefully this blog will also be a good guide for visitors outside Brunei on where to go for good food if they ever drop our country a visit.

Send your reviews to whatiate2day@gmail.com. We look forward to your kind contributions.


p.s. If you would like to join the blogging team, do drop us an email too.