Dining With Jewelle

During our first drive out to 1Borneo for this trip (to send a family friend to their hotel there), we caught sight of this restaurant which was a few doors units between the 4 hotels located at this mall.

Being western food lover, we immediately made plans to try this place out and had our chance a few days later.

When we arrived, the place was perfectly occupied by just the right number of other patrons (we detest busy restaurants where we can’t get any attention and empty restaurants where we get all the attentions).

We had our pick of tables and at first decided on their couch type sections until our friend decided to join us and we moved to a bigger table.

For starters, I ordered their seafood chowder and my husband had their oysters. My chowder was delicious enough although I thought it could do with a more varied seafood. I did not try the oysters but my husband had nothing to say about it so I can assumed that they passed his judgment.

Then I had some grilled chicken dish called Portugese which took an amazingly long time to arrive. It’s a good thing I was not too hungry and we were enjoying ourselves with my friends that I was not too bothered that it only arrived after my husband was halfway through his main dish, the lamb rack.

Taste wise, although it was delicious, it was not worth having to wait that long - what more in a near empty restaurant.

While the lamb rack was good looking enough, my husband proclaimed that the Buccaneer’s (Brunei) was more to his palate - which for one thing was not smothered with mint.

One of our friend had the salmon dish which got no complaints from them.

Overall, we were not too impressed and having so many other choices around town, I doubt we’d make our way back here any time soon.

A few days ago when I brought my kids to 1Borneo for a short visit to see the Christmas displays, we had lunch at the “New York New York” restaurant.

Like many of the restaurants in this mall, the NYNY is huge. It can definitely fit more than 100 patrons at one time. However, when we arrived, there was only one other table occupied.

I was pretty impressed with the choices of food and I would have a hard time deciding if I did not see the lamb shank dish straight away.

And their Moroccan Lamb Shank was what I chose with Eu excitedly supported my choice.

The kids liked the vegetable soup although I was a bit surprise when I saw the clear broth.

As for the lamb shank, it was tender and tasty enough but I thought the sauce was too little. Look wise, it did not look as good as the lamb shank in Charcoal Grill in Bandar Seri Begawan which we had last month.

My mother chose the creamy pasta with fish and we thought the pasta was delicious (although both Eu and Qi did not like it at all). They liked the fish though. My brother ordered their roast chicken and prawn combo.

I thought their food was ok but perhaps I’ll only come back here for drinks as the place is nice to hang out with friends and check out their dessert selections.

Reading some of Brunei’s prominent bloggers raving about the latest restaurant in the country is nothing unusual. What piqued my interest about this latest Italian place in the country was when another blogger chose to be harder to please - perhaps because he claimed to have real Italian experiences and definitely because the others were singing too many happy praises about it.

My sister informed me that she had visited Villa Mauri’s sister restaurant at the Jesselton Hotel in Kota Kinabalu called Bella Italia- which as per Rano’s interview with the owner, was opened 2 years ago.

She was not too thrilled with her main dish then but she adored the celebrated Fantasia Di Maria which was incidently the chocolate pudding I wanted to try.

So last weekend when I was back in town, my sister, her fiance and I met for dessert at Bella Italia and indulged in one Fantasia Di Maria….

And one Tiramisu…

Each of these slices now cost RM12 each - an increase of RM3 from when my sister first had it. The Fantasia Di Maria was delicious but as I quote them “Not as soft and high as before”.

But the chocolate that oozed out from it’s centre, the garnished ice cream and the extra cherry which I noted was missing from both the Villa Mauri’s and my sister’s previous visit to Bella Italia quite made up for it - although to be honest it smelt and tasted quite like the kind of chocolate cake I used to make, minus the gooey centre of course, and I am not even a baker…

The Tiramisu however was what a cake should be - I can’t say if it’s a great Tiramisu though. Soft, light, not too sweet, beautiful to look at but missing the coffee smell - and isn’t that what makes Tiramisu special?

Perhaps it was not the baker’s good day or my expectation was too high or I forgot that I actually don’t really like cake all that much but I quite honestly don’t see why the Fantasia Di Maria is supposedly very famous.

But of course, I will try it again one day just to see if I will change my mind…

We made an overnight trip to my father’s hometown in Tambunan when we were in Sabah last month.

One of the highlight on this drive for me is taking a break at one of the simple cafe on the highest point on this Kota Kinabalu-Tambunan road.

I was told that Gunung Emas, the first and oldest cafe which has been operating on this area for more than 15 years (I believe) is still popular - although I think they no longer serve “exotic” dishes like they used to in their early days.

But some folks prefer the relatively newer (about 10 years old I think) Gunung Alab Resort, which is a few km drive from Gunung Emas Cafe, as it is somewhat better in terms of cleanliness.

We made a lunch stop here on our way to and from Tambunan and I am happy to say that I found one dish I enjoyed here.

SOTO!

I tried both their Soto Ayam (Chicken noodle soup - Malay style) and Soto Daging (Beef noodle soup) and I liked them both. With big portion and plenty of meat - at only RM4, it’s definitely worth the try if you are around this area.

Anjappar is one of the “new” Indian restaurant in downtown Kota Kinabalu which I only managed to check out yesterday.

This restaurant is located on the ground floor of Kompleks Asia City, more popularly known as KAC and you can’t miss the tusk like structure that decorated the front entrance.