Dining With Jewelle

But not us.

Having a number of expats in his office, my husband is used to office functions catering from its Kuala Belait branch and have only one thing to say about this place - expensive. While my friend and I had lunch once at their Kota Kinabalu branch last December and although we enjoyed the food, we were staggered by the prices - RM10+ for drinks!

Needless to say, we were not one of those who practically lined up outside the door of the newly opened Seria branch - raving for its authentic Italian fares.

But of course, having no other fancy restaurant (that does not serve Japanese) less than 20 mins drive from home, we had dinner there last week. We had sort of expected that one month since it was opened, the novelty of being new had worn off and we could just walk in without reservations.

We did get a booth and that was only because we arrived early and the next party was due in 45 mins time. All the other empty tables even sported the reserved signs.

Perhaps because of this, our food came extra speedy - and we did have a large order of mixed grill, lasagne, kiddie spaghetti and seafood salad - which costed us a whopping $75!

Of course, the service was fine and the atmosphere was great - but frankly, it is not a place we can afford to have in our list of favorite.