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.

We did that a few weekends ago for lunch and I’m planning to avoid taking them here for a while - just until I think the staffs have forgotten us.

It’s not that anything happened. It’s just that Eu and especially Qi as usual managed to distract/attract the attention of perhaps the whole floor staffs.

The whole night. It doesn’t help as there were few tables occuppied.

This time, my husband and I decided to take beef and while I had the beef rice set, he had the beef noodle. By the time my rice set came, I was quite full from my vegetable tempura and salmon sashimi that I hardly touched the rice sprinkled with sesame seeds (?).

My black pepper beef was okay and the noodle was good too. My husband also ordered and took from the train a couple of plates of sushi but I can’t remember if I had any of them…

One of the difference between this place and the other popular Japanese eatery in Brunei is the wasabi. Diehard Japanese food folks told me that the wasabi here and at Excapade is different not only in terms of taste but also where you get it from.

The silver canister on the train is where you get the wasabi in this restaurant.

As usual, we’re happy with the food here although this time, with our beef order, it was a bit more expensive - a total of $50+ for just the two of us.

And as usual, the voices of Eu and especially Qi’s took over the whole place once in a while - and that was only because there was a lot of sussing and threatening from us.

It helped that Eu was distracted by my camera and there were a lot of self-idolatry pictures of her puckered mouth, nose, eyes and everyone else.

But there were also exceptional shots - considering she’s only 4 years old - such as this one.

In fact, come to think of it, judging from the picture, even the shot of the wasabi canister was probably taken by her. Time will tell whether it was the camera or she really has an eye for photography.

As for Qi, if we could eat free for the times when she charmed restaurant staffs - we would be eating free ALL THE TIME.

The other men in my household were excited - nevermind which restaurant it will be as long as it’s Japanese - as the nearest one is at least 30 mins drive away.

While I, not being a sushi fan, was busy speculating on which restaurant it will be and guessed that it could be another Excapade or perhaps Sushi Tei or maybe Misato or even Kaizen - the only 4 Japanese places that I’m familiar with.

That was until we got a confirmation from someone who was involved in the project that it will indeed be a Kaizen Sushi.

So last weekend, since it first opened its door last month, we took the whole family and my youngest brother, who was in town on route his way to Miri, for dinner.

One thing about Japanese place that I don’t like is the menu can be confusing - all the food looks the same and the selections are so many, I had to forced myself to focus on the pictures and quickly pick before I lost interest.

Salmon sashimi, some sushi, cuttlefish, prawn, egg eel and salmon salad

My husband ordered the vegetable tempura as he knew that I liked the one that I had in Bandar’s Kaizen but for some reason, the one that arrived was nothing like the type that I wanted. We also had the sushi party set, salmon salad, seaweed soup and fried rice.

Sushi party set

I also ordered a plate of Japanese dumpling called Gyoza - which tasted as good as the “Wo Tek” (Chinese fried dumplings) that we sometimes have for supper in Keningau and KK after whatever night activities we had then.

For some reasons, I find that the Kaizen’s gyoza are more to my taste than the Excapade’s and I will definitely order this again next visit.

And even though there were only 5 adults and 3 kids, the food finished so fast that I didn’t even managed to try some of them!

My in laws verdict was that they prefer the other place when it comes to taste and that could be due to Kaizen’s no-use-of-MSG policy (as I was told). But my husband and I actually like this place and I found a couple of things that I enjoy here and next time I’d have to try their curry range too.

In case you’re wondering about the price, it is slightly pricier than Excapade but definitely no outrageous RM400 for a 4 persons lunch here.

And Sis Caneeliea, why don’t you come over so you can try this and compare it with Umai

And because it is quite a small place, with only about 40 seating capacity, the place always looked busy and there are times when we had to cancel lunch here because there are no more seats. But despite the small place, you’d be surprised with the number of very alert and efficient (in all my experience) waitresses this place has. Is it any wonder that even though its rather basic and non-air-conditioned, it has been steadily operating at the same location for at least 20 years?

Of course, we love their chicken rice too.

I was a little adventurous on that day and without thinking twice, decided to order the first thing that came to my mind - “wah tan ho” which meant kuay tiaw in egg gravy (?).

Of course, it was too heavy for breakfast and although it was tasty albeit a little too salty, my husband very kindly swapped with his. Now I know what to order and not to order for breakfast.

As with most of our neighbours, it is my parents in law’s weekly ritual to go to the Saturday “tamu” (open market) at the Seria market ground. Of course it doesn’t only involve shopping for fresh produce but perhaps, most importantly, it’s an opportunity for these old folks to exchange news with their friends.

In fact, we often get news of faraway friend’s courtesy of their parents sharing the news with my parents in law as well as other community news - all from the Saturday “tamu”!

After the “tamu”, most of these shoppers would either have their Saturday morning breakfast in town. My parents in law however would buy take-away packets of noodle and these are our expected breakfast for nearly every Saturdays.

Last month, I got to know from an indignant Nonnie that the price of this noodle has increased by 30¢.

This to me is only fair since the last price hike was more than 10 years ago and besides, since the Seria mee stall operaters moved to the new building, they had to pay a higher rental fee.

Well, Seria folks who are overseas, that well known Seria mee is now selling for $1.80.