Smoky Jack - Bad Beginning Bad Ending!

Smoky Jack @ Upper Penang Road

This is a post based on the dining experience my friends and I went through last Saturday night. Mind you, it's a birthday celebration dinner.

Beh song #1 :

I placed a booking for Saturday night, a table for 6 pax. As early as 4 days before. When I reached there, they couldn't find my name! The Captain In Black (CIB) started to ask a series of questions.
"When did you book?"
"Tuesday or Wednesday, I am not sure, but must be one of these two days."
"What time?"
"I booked for 7.30p.m. one, 6 pax"
"Who takes your booking?"
"A male." *Now I really regretted for not asking for his name*
In one glance I could see that the book is full of table diagrams with reservation but my name, takda leh! I could see that there's only two to three tables vacant.
Later on after we were seated, the CIB said," Well, normally if you were to call during weekdays, it's either me or the bartender who will be answering your calls."
I muttered in my heart, " It's either you or him loh then. 50%-50%. Simple to track it. You two go and fight lah."


Beh song #2 :

The CIB directed us to a table of 4 pax, which was just behind the bar. If you were to squeeze in another two fellows, of course can, not to say cannot, but elbow-to-elbow loh.
"No bigger table ah?"
"Got. There got one can cater for up until 10 pax, but it's booked already." We shrugged as it's 'your' fault lah. "Out tables here normally can cater for 4 to 5 pax".
We pointed to the other three-quarter circle tables, "How about that one?"
"This is also booked, but this is also for four only."
The waiter and CIB kept assuring us that this table is more suitable for 6 persons than the three-quarter circle table beside us.
In the end the birthday gal who came later decided to swap. She is the queen of the night, we got to respect her mah. :) We found that the three-quarter circle one is actually more comfortable leh! Yee...........I really wonder did they actually sit on the seats and experienced themselves the difference of the rectangle table vs three-quarter circle table ?


Beh song #3 :

The three of us who were early wanted to order fruit juice.
"Apple juice , one, two, three."
The waiter informed us, "Er...the apple juice is not freshly squashed one. "
"So...which ones are then?"
"orange, watermelon."
"OK, we go for orange then."
Later on when the latest comer arrived, he asked for honeydew juice.
The waitress said YES!
Har??????? just now that waiter said got only orange and watermleon one????!!!!!


Beh song #4 :

Two persons wanted to order Cod Fish Au Gratin & Butter Sauce, RM28 each.
A moment later after the order was made, the waiter came and said, "Sorry. The cod fish that currently available in the kitchen is bigger in size, therefore the price is set at RM38 now. So...do you want to ...? "
They two switched to order Smoky Jack Grouper, RM29 then.
Aiyoyoh.....put lah 'market price'. It's time for you to update your menu lah ok?!

Beh song #5 :



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Sushi Kitchen @ Sungai Ara

Sushi Kitchen - Japanese Meatless Cafe ( 日本素食料理)
I didn't notice there is such a newly opened vegetarian japanese cafe until I hunted it down from the address posted in the newspaper's article. I stepped into it finally last Saturday!

Every Saturday night from 8.30 to 9.30p.m Sushi Kitchen will turn off the light for raising the awareness of global warming.


Interior Deco. Simple and cozy. This brought back my memory on the ex- 紫竹 ('purple bamboo' opposite the Free School).

Sushi Kitchen uses biodegradable chopsticks.

炒烏冬麵 (Fried Udon) RM7.80. The portion is very small which I believe a few slurps could have finished up by either you or me. Correct me if I am wrong k?! If someone is going to take a Kim Gary's standard to compare with this, this one definitely will lose out, ha!

Carrot in heart shape! Ha!

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Rou Gu Cha King (肉骨茶王) Value Set (Part II)

Rou Gu Cha King (肉骨茶王) @ Queensbay (beside Chicken Rice Shop @ LG floor)

I tarik my gang to try out its King Value Set a few days later. *persistent heh?!* :)

The value set comes with 1x chinese tea. 10% service charge applies. Cannot ta pao value set. If you wanna ta pao for your friend leh, you got to choose from ala carte menu only, OK?



Set A : Bak Kut Teh Noodle (you may choose either 碗麵 or 煲面) RM6.90+

Basically there are generous amount of beancurd sticks + three pcs of pork + 1x mushroom + 1x vege + 2x meatballs.



Set B - Dry Bak Kut Teh RM8.90+. Dry one is more flavourful but then NO SOUP provided woh.


Set C : Original Bak Kut Teh RM8.90+

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Rou Gu Cha King (肉骨茶王) Value Set (Part I)

Rou Gu Cha King (肉骨茶王) @ Queensbay (beside Chicken Rice Shop @ LG floor)

In actual I wanted to hunt for its King Value Meal (實惠套餐) one, but I only came to know that it's offered from Mon-Thu only when I was there on Friday. Argh..... likea that meaning pocket bocor liao loh. :(

Double Value Meal RM28.90++. One claypot is Original, another one is Dry.



The soup was steaming hot when it's served. But when it's topped up, it's not at all. It's poured from a stainless steel kettle. I couldn't feel the kick of drinking the hot bak kut teh soup at all! Harlo.....eating bak kut teh inside air cond room lah! Don't expect too high lah, can ah?! :)


I personally felt that the dry version with slight spiciness seemed to outshine the soup version.

Wah....sua par kow loh me when found "got lady fingers one leh!" Good leh the dry one! :)

Teng teng teng teng....

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I Mum Mum pan mee (板 面 專 賣 店)

I Mum Mum restaurant @ Pengkalan Weld

Look for this logo! You can spot this logo at the shop lot beside the Jelutong coastal highway, near the traffic light. If you are coming from jetty, at the second traffic light, turn left. Once entering this road, both sides got flats, right hand side got post office (where leading you to the Hock Chuan Heang hokkien cuisine), you go for the left hand side one. It's at the middle row of these shop lots.


The menu. Clear cut. From RM2.80 to RM4.00.


Pan Mee Soup.

All of us opted for THIN noodles.


Spicy Pan Mee. 

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Oreo Mille Crepe became the bad choice now?!

Second order was a bit disappointing.

Firstly the delivery was late by 30 mi, delayed by the customer before us. We ran out of time to distribute lah.

Secondly the Oreo turned out to be not as good as previous one (or perhaps the cake lovers all fancy the chocolate velvet more this time?!)

The first place goes to Swiss Chocolate Velvet. I believe those ppl who like Tiramisu should like this one too.


The second place goes to The Peanut Butter Blueberry Blizzard.


French Vanilla stayed cool. 3rd Place.

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Opera Set Lunch - value for money!

I believed what Opera offered is a true value meal after reading from Lingzie 's post.




Elegant deco. 有情調 loh. The background music is chinese song in opera tone but modern tempo one oi, hehe. MATCHING the name and image perfectly! :)


The set lunch is served from Mon to Sat (12 noon -3.00pm). The set lunch menu is different each day from Mon to Fri, except Sat - which is randomly picked from the Mon-Fri of that week.
Fyi, the menu for this week's Monday will not stick to the following week's Monday.

The set lunch is a 4-course-set lunch. It comes with an appetizer, a main dish, a dessert of the day and a drink (coffee, tea or ice lemon tea).

We happened to be there on a Saturday Lunch. Here's the menu of that day's set lunch.

I ordered WARM Lemon Tea. It's freshly extracted, got bubbles one oi! Mai siao siao!

The appetizer is a Vietnamese summer rolls. It's simply vege (cucumbers and carrots cut in long cube shape and wrapped with lettuce in a popiah skin). A very typical healthy+plain taste unless you dip it with the chilli sauce.

I was impressed with the dish presentation. Every dish is decorated like a piece of art. Very chio colour, got lovely orchid on every dish!!! The serving size is "just-enough" size. I believe one will definitely feel "enough" (not over) by completing the 4-course-meal.

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Thai Station Cafe & Restaurant - OMG!

Thai Station Cafe & Restaurant @ Prangin Mall (Parkson wing)

This post is to remind myself not to be lazy next time. Don't simply pick one due to time constraint or hungry.

I am not sure how their set lunch and value meal go compared to the ala carte. For the ala carte on what I had the other day, it definitely not worth my second visit. I regretted for why not I walked over to the other wing and tasted those cafes hidden behind the corridor-shops one leh?! Ai..........at least won't felt "si peh boh tatt" with the money spent mah!

Claypot Tang Hoon with Prawns (RM13.90) - Very wet and oily. Prawns also tasted not that fresh either.




Thai Stir-Fried Hor Fun with Kailan (Dry) (RM7.50) - Don't know what other better words to describe other than "super oily". Look lah yourself.


Thai Traditional Pork Koay Teow Soup (RM6.50) - Fair. The koay teow came in one lump sinking inside the bowl one. I expected the koay teow to be silky smooth one, mana tau....not leh, rather rough in texture. Somemore see lah.....the 'oily' soup. Wahlau ei.........

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Milles Crepes 法式千層蛋糕

Mille Crepes from Humble Beginnings (HB). Call 012-4858035 for order/enquiry or log on to the website.

A bunch of us were tempted to try out the mille crepes since we first received the e-flyer. However.....due to the price is kinda high, felt like chiak kim, therefore I suggested to them, "Let's 'puah' lot!" like jual tanah like that lah :) . Each one gonna take up either quarter, semi or whole. Good, finally I managed to gather order for 4x Regular size one.

We requested HB to pre-cut into 12 slices so that we could easily distribute the slices among ourselves. HB delivered right to our 'doorstep' aka guard house. No additional charges applied.

We ordered these creations :
French Vanilla Creation (Regular 0.9 kg = RM55, Large 1.3kg = RM75)
Other Creations (Regular 0.9kg = RM68, Large 1.3kg = RM88)


French Vanilla Creation - This is the cheapest one as it's the most basic one. From the first bite, I personally felt like eating "apom (crepe) + layer cake + cream". Ha! :p

The first word uttered from our mouths spontaneously is" GoooD ah!"



The 'fringes' look like apom right?! :)

This is to let you see what is inside the layers lah.

The next thing normally they did was to start comparing the price with the Secret Recipe's cakes.

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Kimberley Street's Koay Chiap + Shiong Hor Hin

Go for a bowl of koay chiap (粿汁) then walk over to Shiong Hor Hin (松鶴軒) for its kwai leng kou (龜苓膏)/ payaya wood fungus tong shui (木瓜雪耳糖水) / medicated herbal tea (苦茶). Chaeng ah! A perfect match for me. 人間享受也不過如此吧 hmm?! :)


The four stalls there at Kimberley Street claimed themselves as Four Emperor Kings (四大天王). They are char koay teow, koay teow thng, koay chiap and tong shui stalls.



Koay Chiap ( 粿汁) RM5 (without additional ingredients' request)




Ingredients are :
Stewed pork.
Duck meat.(more.....)

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Dragon Y - story telling session.

Dragon Y once attracted long queue when it was first opened back in Oct 08.

I happened to be there during Mother's day.

They hired foreigners , very polite, but a bit of conversation breakdown here. :(

He approached me with menu,"Today everything here is 20% discount."

I ordered the set C (herbal chicken soup with rice) . (When I looked at the bill later on, NO discount leh for such set menu one).



I asked for a cup of hot soya for my set C. The set C comes with a drink + a dessert, fyi.
Alright...later I added,"I want an additional order for hot soya." He kept thinking that I was mentioning the hot soya for this set. I got to repeatedly tell him,"No....extra one...I want another cup ...soya...." Poorrrrrrrrrrrrrrr him.

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Mr. Pot Coffee & Toast

Mr. Pot Coffee & Toast @ Gurney Drive (next to Silverton Condominium)

Over here at Mr. Pot, the menu covers all from western to asian for main dishes. There are also Old Town Kopitiam's style of toast, bread, boiled eggs and etc. You can enjoy having variety in drinks e.g. coffee, fresh fruit juice, smoothie, freezes, liquor, cocktail and etc. For those who just want to have tit-bit and snacks, no problem too.

For me, I particularly appreciated this place since it was first opened as this is the place where I could have my asian / local delights during midnight.

Fish porridge or chicken porridge? We would normally recommend the Cintra Street one. But then hey, imagine lah, we can only go at night woh, we got to wait until it starts to 'open stall' and only selling within that certain hours and SOMEMORE we all got to look at the 'bin sek' of that auntie. Hmm...... :) Where else but Mr. Pot could we be this convenient to have one bowl of fish/chicken porridge at ANYTIME uh?! Mr. Pot opens for 24 hours daily woh!


Mr. Pot Fish Porridge (RM6.00+) . This one is of course less flavourful compared to the bee hoon below but that's what a cheng cheng tei fish porridge should be right?! The fish slices are served in thick slices, boh chiak kao one. Cannot compare with other typical fish porridge stalls lah, boh hu hae pun hoe right at this time.

YY always tell me that she likes the fish porridge here. I agree, this is a place where OL who doesn't have time to cook herself to have a healthy fish porridge conveniently, particularly when you are sick and yet you got to WORK uh!

Fried Fish Bee Hoon Soup (RM7.80+) . This bee hoon soup is more flavourful.

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Black Canyon @ AEON SPC

Black Canyon @ AEON Seberang Prai City Shopping Centre (opposite Big Apple Donut)


I don't know what kind of cuisine does Black Canyon actually offer until I dined in there the other day. Oh......it's not 'western' like I presumed all this while (I am a 'sua par kow'?! :) ) but actually Thai + International.

I like restaurants who offer value meals with at least "not that bad" kind of quality.


Canyon Set A (RM9.90++) for one person


Canyon Set B (RM12.95++) for one person


Steal Deals (RM19.90++) for one person

Family Set A or B (RM24.90++) for two persons

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Ivy's Kitchen Invited Review (Part II - Home-cooked zhu char)

Continued from Ivy's Kitchen Invited Review (Part I - Set Meal)

Ivy's Kitchen also serves home-cooked nyonya cuisine, "pork free". At Ivy's Kitchen, you won't taste the tai pang tong (大牌擋) flavour but home-cooked dishes.

This is their dinner menu. Very simple huh?! They serve mainly crab, prawn, fish, chicken, vege, tofu and soup.

Sweet & Sour Crab.

Gulai Tumis Chinese Silver Pomfret (tao tay, 中國鯧魚). It tasted a bit over-cooked due to long waiting time (Ahem, some late comers....) therefore it's not appropriate to comment since it's our fault.

Assam Prawns - The assam plum sauce all hidden at the shells and legs. A dry version of assam prawns, rather good.


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Ivy's Kitchen Invited Review (Part I - Set Meal)

I was invited by Mr Tan from Ivy's Kitchen @ Chow Thye Road (off Burmah Road) to hold a small food review last week.


My personal feeling after food review: "How I wish that I could find one such cafe at FIZ who could cater for both cheng-cheng-tei kaki and also strong-taste kaki ! I felt that those working in town are more blissful than me loh." :)


Dear floggers, if any of you is interested in their food after reading this series of posts, perhaps you may drop a few lines showing your interest and we may liaise with the taukeh to see if another BIG session of food review is possible(?!). *wink*




No fancy deco, just two doors away from Jemputree which is also next to the Isaribi Tei.



Ivy's Kitchen offers worthy set meal with less than RM10. All combos will come with a fruit juice and a dessert (soya jelly with longan). Sound OK?!

Every RM5 spent entitles you for one stamp. You are entitled to redeem for one free set meal after collecting 10 stamps. Sound more OK?

For the combo meal, there are add-on options. You could add RM1 to get a Red Bean Soup (normal price RM1.60) or add RM 2 for Rojak (normal price @ RM3). Sound even more OK?


Here is the menu for Ivy's Kitchen Value Meal.





COMBO A: Chicken Rendang (RM9)
This combo is one of their best-selling combo. I personally like this dish the most compared to other rice sets (combo B / combo C). Firstly, I love the drumstick. Secondly, the chicken was cooked till just nice enough, texture ngam-ngam-hoe. Thirdly, it's topped with the gravy of the chicken rendang which is fragant and yet not that spicy, suit my taste. This combo is served with white rice, half slice of egg, keropok, pickled vege, fried ikan bilis + peanuts.




COMBO B: Beef Rendang (RM8.50)(more.....)

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炫昇港式小厨 Xuan Xin - High Tea Promotion

炫昇港式小厨 Xuan Xin Restaurant @ Gurney Plaza New Wing

High Tea Promotion (2.30pm - 5.30pm) - The menu looks like Kim Gary style to me. :)

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