Emirates : KL > London

Hey guys! Did you miss me? It’s been a while since I posted anything, sorry for the disappearance. I am doing fine here. Anyway wishing you guys a Happy New Year 2018! 🙂

I travelled to London in December 2017. This post is mainly about my experience flying with Emirates. My first time with them from Kuala Lumpur to London via Dubai. I choose Emirates as I wanted to experience travelling to London with a stopover thinking it will be less stressful as you won’t be stuck on a plane for 13+ hours.

After weeks of purchasing the flight tickets, finally, it’s time to go to London! Yeayy! J J I am very excited to go to London this time as I will be experiencing how Christmas is being celebrated in the UK.

Back to Emirates, the check-in at KLIA was smooth. The boarding announcement was clear.  The staffs were welcoming and friendly.

Once I got onto the plane, the setting is almost similar to Malaysia Airlines A380. The cabin environment was nice with good ventilation, lighting and temperature. Take-off and landing were decent for A380 plane. The seats were comfortable considering I am 6’2 in a normal seat. Point to note, I did pay additional for the seat selection. The ICE infotainment system is fantastic and you can watch so many programs which are cool.

I was not too impressed with the in-flight dining. Some item was out of stock and they don’t seem to ‘entertain’ additional requests. At one point, I requested for soft drinks in between meals but didn’t get any.

One thing that I don’t like about Emirates is the baggage allocation of 20kg per person which is horrendous. Most of the other airlines provide at least 25kg for such long distance travelling. I don’t mind flying again with Emirates if the cost of the flight is significantly lower than other airlines.

 

Kocik Kitchen, Melaka

Kocik Kitchen is located next to Jonker Street Melaka. I choose to come here as it was convenient for me and it was pork free. I was here for lunch with my family. The restaurant is easy to find as it is one street away from Jonkers Street.

We had the Nyonya Assam fish, otak-otak, ladies fingers belacan, chicken buah keluak. The chicken was so-so, not really to our liking. The sauce seems diluted. The asam fish was very good but it was not come cheap = RM45.00. To be fair, the staff did clearly inform us when we were ordering the dish. The ladies fingers was ok. It was blanched and topped with the sambal belacan sauce. The belacan sauce is nice but the ladies fingers were ‘old’ hence we ended up not eating much as some of them were very tough to chew. The otak-otak, was just okay. For dessert, we had the durian cendol. Who doesn’t love cendol or durian right! Well, it was not as milky or as sweet as we wanted it to. The durian paste was cooked with brown sugar so the durian was not as nice as I thought it would be. Overall we enjoyed the assam fish. The rest was not up to our expectation.

We ordered all these as it was recommended by them.

Service was decent considering it was lunch hour. Total damage is RM129.00 for 3 people. I find it a bit expensive. Will I come back? I don’t think so. Once is enough.

How would I rate them? The atmosphere 3/5, Service 3/5, F&B 3/5.

Where at? 100 Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, 75200 Melaka, Malaysia

Sheraton Imperial KL

I booked the stay over the phone. Awesome service through the phone. Professional yet friendly service by the reservation team (sorry I can’t recall the names). The nightmare started when I requested for a special arrangement for my stay, I’m celebrating my partner’s birthday. The housekeeping and concierge called me but I gave up talking to them. I dealt with the reservation team who handled my request. The reservation team communicated to the teams accordingly and ‘apparently’ it can be done. Phewww… My initial request with the mentioned teams was not ‘accepted’. How funny is that for a 5 star hotel! A let down if you ask me.

Anyway moving on to actual stay. Check-in was smooth as it was done at the executive floor. We had coffee and finger food while waiting at the executive lounge.

I was very surprised when we got to the room, which is an Executive Club suite. It was fantastic! It’s huge and looks really good. The bed was comfortable and so relaxing. A clear view of KL tower and you can also spot KLCC.  If you wondering what is included in the room; free breakfast, access to executive lounge, evening cocktails, 2 pcs of laundry per day.

They had the bed decorated with rose petals and decorations which were awesome and a nice surprise to my partner.

The executive lounge is a nice place to be. Relaxing set up and perfect to lounge. The staffs are attentive but some of them are just average. Could be better in the delivery of service as some of them don’t look very keen to ‘serve’. The evening cocktail session was nice, from 5-8pm. A variety of finger foods, fruits, yogurt, bread and drinks, basically bottomless. I enjoyed it.

I also had ordered food while staying here via the room service. It was handled well and food was good.

Check out was fast and smooth. Not much personal touch by the staff.

Overall I loved my stay at the hotel and love love the Executive Club Suite. I have stayed in other hotels’ executive room but this one is most outstanding in term on space, room feature and exclusivity which surpassed by expectation. I had stayed here previously (many years ago) and at that time, all facilities looked dated. Only comment is the service rendered by the staff. While it is sufficient it was not that memorable. No personal touch or I would rather say ‘service with an attitude’, good attitude obviously.

Visited in April 2017.

The Spring Garden, Suria KLCC

Who doesn’t fancy dim sum? It is one of my favourite Chinese food to have at any time of the day. The Spring Garden is part of Tai Thong Group. They have a few restaurants which are serves pork-free dishes which is ideal for me. This is not my first visit here as I have been here on numerous occasions.

On this visit, I have ordered numerous dim sum items. To be honest, I can’t recall the names for each respective items. But it’s safe to say that I have tried nearly 90% of the dim sum menu.

So what do I think? Well I like the food here as it is not too oily. The ingredients are super fresh, especially when it comes to seafood such as prawns. The portion is decent and for some can be pretty big for some dishes but in all its satisfying.

The wait time for your food can be a little bit long when it is crowded or during weekend. But so far i have never had any problem as we normally place our dim sum orders in batches, so there’s always food on our table.

The price is a little bit higher than your typical dim sum restaurant. No issues for me since this is a Chinese restaurant in located KLCC, what do you expect? Will be returning soon! Yummm 🙂

How would I rate them? The atmosphere 4/5, Service 4/5, F&B 4/5.

Where at? Lot 413 & 414, 4th Floor Suria KLCC, 50088 Kuala Lumpur.

Lexis Resort Port Dickson, Malaysia

This is my first time visiting Lexis Port Dickson which is about one hour drive south from Kuala Lumpur. It is a popular get away location for most people who works in the city.

My stay was in April 2015(I know, apology for the overdue review). I booked an Executive water chalet by contacting their reservation line. The check in was smooth and fast. We were directed to our chalet via buggy ride. The chalets (Balinese inspired) that we had is not that far from main building. The chalet is quite spacious. The bathroom is separated from the bed area hence it is suitable for big family especially those with kids. Our room had a king size bed plus a day bed, balcony, shower, bathtub, mini fridge, TV with cable channels, coffee & tea facility, with air condition.  There is a panel of glass on the bath area which you can view the sea underneath. Nothing much can be seen other than some water.

Overall the room looks dated (apparently they have around since 1994!) however it was generally clean. We had one problem which was the day bed, it had damp smell. I contacted the hotel to inform on this and they send a housekeeping staff to change the linen on the day bed. Although that was done, the damp smell was still lingering. Since it was only two of us and no reason of using the day bed, we didn’t bother to make it a big deal. Nonetheless the hotel housekeeping should have spotted this when making up the room as the smell was apparent. I wonder how did they miss that?

We had our dinner at the coffee house which is at the main block of the hotel. We were the only people dining at the restaurant at that point of time. Actually if you drive out of the resort, there are plenty of seafood and local restaurant which offers decent meal at decent price. We were too lazy to head out. Back to the coffee house, the wait staff was efficient and friendly. We ordered ‘Nasi Tampi’ which cost us RM50 (inclusive of tax). We were told that this dish can be shared with at least 2 person and they were right. No complaints on the food.

We didn’t use their facilities but they have swimming pool, archery, beach volley ball, bicycle for rent, gym, children playroom, Segway and so on. Since we were here on a weekend, the facilities were occupied by other guests. Do note that some of facilities are shared with Grand Lexis resort which is just next door (newer), under the same management.

I had arranged for a surprise birthday cake for my partner which they had assisted accordingly. Overall, it is a nice place for some relaxing time with your family away from KL city. I dont think this will be the right choice if you want to have a romantic holiday.

Fancy a garden cafe? Then go to Ferringhi Coffee Garden at Penang!

If you are looking for a nice café with a real garden with live plants then you would definitely love this place! The set-up of this café is fantastic and so refreshing to be here. This place is located at Batu Ferringhi area, somewhere in between Parkroyal Hotel and a Mosque.

Ferringhi Coffee Garden

We were here at around 8+am to have breakfast and off course to avoid the ‘crowd’. Anyway as I enter the place I immediately like it. The place looks so fresh, serene and beautifully decorated with orchids! (I mean who doesn’t like orchids).

Since we were here pretty early on a Sunday, there were only one more table occupied. Customers started coming in after we were there.

Here is the menu. Looks pretty limited however covering the meals throughout the day.

Ferringhi Coffee Garden

Both of us ordered FCG Breakkie which is priced at RM29.80 each. The breakkie is actually a sausage (you can choose chicken or beef sausage), 2 eggs, beef bacon, grilled tomatoes, roasted thyme potato with grana padano, a slice of daily toast. For our drinks, we had café latte which is RM9.80 each.

Ferringhi Coffee Garden.

FCG Breakkie.

So how did I like my Breakkie? Well, it was good but… my sunny side up eggs were a bit oily. The sausage is actually made fresh and not the typical sausage which was good. It was heavily spiced but I liked it. The salad was nice but didn’t like the ‘soy sauce’ touch, a bit too salty for me on salad. The roasted potato was a disappointment. I find it to be tasting like cold potato salad with curry flavoured dressing. Not too sure which part of it was prepared with grana padano. The portion is good and sufficient for me as a big breakfast meal.

The service was good and efficient however not friendly. The only word spoken was when our orders were taken. I really like this place and may be returning soon to try out some other dishes. The environment of the café is nice and find it to be very soothing. I just hope the service staff are warmer in future. As for the price, it is slightly high but easily acceptable. Be aware that they have a sister outlet called Ferringhi Garden.

Its looks lovely isnt it.. 🙂

Visited in February 2015. How would I rate them? The atmosphere 5/5, Service 4/5, F&B 3./5.

Magnum Cafe, Midvalley Kuala Lumpur

A Magnum café? Cool! I can’t imagine what would be offered here and the varieties of magnum ice cream that would be available. For a short period of time, my imagination went wild! Anyway, the 1^st Magnum Café in Malaysia is Midvalley which was officially launched on 14^th November 2014. Since it’s so new, the queue to get in here is so long!!! Seriously!

The Queue fr Magnum Cafe

The Queue fr Magnum Cafe

Magnum Cafe

 

Anyway despite the long queue, I managed to try out this place on last weekend. Guess how long I had to queue to try it out? It’s almost 1.5hours. I cant imagine what I do for the sake of food! Haha

Make my Magnum…

Make my Magnum…

Magnum Cafe

 

Anyway, for the benefit for the people, this is what happens in the cafe.

• First, pay for your ice cream, its RM9.90 each.
• 2nd, You will need to choose the flavour of your ice-cream; classic vanilla or the chocolate brownie.
• 3rd, Choose your toppings (wisely). You can combine up to 3 types of the toppings.
• Wait for your Magnum to be prepared. It takes about 2-minutes for the ice-cream to be ready!
• Enjoy your personalized Magnum ice-cream! Make sure you take lots of photos of your FB, Instagram, Twitter, bla bla bla…

The chocolate to dip your icecream!

The Magnum Cafe.

The toppings available…

My Magnum!

I had vanilla ice-cream dipped in milk chocolate, coated with rose petals, freeze dried raspberry and almond, drizzled with dark chocolate.

The other Magnum hehe

 

You can also choose from the pre-set Magnum that is available, such as Sweet Fantasy, Pop Attack, Cookie Monster, etc.

So, did I like it? Off course, who wouldn’t? Would I come here again? Well, I would but next time I would like to try out the café food and desserts.  The make your own magnum is nice but not that fantastic, especially after the long queue and drooling over the ice cream.

Bling Bling Magnum decor

Wall decor.. its all about Magnum!

The damage!

Wall deco, made using the magnum ice-cream sticks!

 

Fantastic steamboat buffet @ Yuen Steamboat!

Does Yuen Steamboat does familiar to you? Well, they are one of the most famous steamboat restaurants which used to be located in Sunway Mentari. I remember the days when we use to come here and wait in queue to get a table. If you are coming as a large group, it will be wise to make advance reservation. Meanwhile, if you are wondering what is steamboat all about? Then perhaps hot pot sounds familiar to you.

FYI, they have moved to Zenith Corporate Park in Kelana Jaya, PJ (yes, they have moved since early 2014!) which is a stone away from my work place *clap clap clap* The new location is easy to find (behind Paradigm shopping mall) and has ample of parking. Yeay! Please note that there is parking fee of RM1 (If I recall well). I’m ok with the parking fee as I would have proper parking spot and seems like a safe area. The new outlet takes up a few units of the shop lots so it is quite big. It is on the same row as Cosway.

The buffet spreads are well placed and seems attractive. The food looks fresh and the whole buffet serving area a clean and well chilled. What do they have here; varieties of fish balls, seafood, sausages, foo chuk, noodles, meat, eggs, vegetables, etc.

 

Our table

 

Buffet spread

Buffet spread

Buffet spread

 

You can choose to have a whole pot filled with plain soup or / and tom yam soup. We decided to have both. Yuen also serves fried noodle, fried rice, bbq chicken wings which are yummy! A variety of sauces are available for your preference.

Our steamboat pot with Tom Yam and clear soup!

 

 

The buffet spread

 

After enjoying all the food, you probably would ask what’s for dessert? Well, you can have fresh fruits, ice creams or some local kuihs. The kuih talam here is pretty good. The service is good, mainly foreign workers are but they seem fast to act and replenishes food fast.

The sticky yummy bbq chicken wings! Grab it while its hot!

 

The price is RM31.27 (that’s 29.50 before the 6% tax) including free flow of Chinese tea which is not too bad. For the old timers who have been to the previous outlet, the previous price is much lower then. I would say the price is okay for such food (unlimited buffet style, as long no food goes to waste). I know I enjoyed the food here.

Visited in September 2014. How would I rate them? The atmosphere 4/5, Service 4.5/5, F&B 4.5/5.

Where at?

Yuen Buffet Steamboat Restaurant,

8G, Block A, (same row as Cosway at the car park entrance),

Zenith Corporate Park (behind Paradigm Mall),

Jalan SS7/26 Kelana Jaya, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Thai food at Fa Ying, Paradigm Mall PJ

I was in Paradigm mall and decided to have dinner at Fa Ying. It was raining earlier so the thought of having hot tom soup in that cold weather is nice.

Fa Ying does serve set menu for dinner however I wanted to try something else. So after browsing the menu, we ordered Seafood tom yam soup (RM16), Roasted Duck Red Curry with Lychee (RM18) and mix vegetables (RM16) and rice.

Yummy seafood tom yam soup.

 

The food was prepared quite fast and was served hot. The tom soup is good, they always have been. The mix vegetable was fine. The duck red curry is very good! The curry had had the right consistency and thickness (not diluted), well-seasoned and spiced, the chunks of roasted duck swimming in the curry was perfect and somewhat tender. The hint of the lychee in the curry sounded a bit weird for me but it all blended really well. The lychee didn’t influence the curry by being too sweet which can overkill curry taste.

Mix Vege

The delicious Roasted Duck Red Curry

 

We shared these foods with 2 people. I think it can even be shared with 3 or even 4 (obviously this applies to non-big eaters). The service was so so on this day despite not being busy day. The food seems good for me to resist not coming here for a meal.

Oh yea, Fa Ying is running a contest where a lucky winner will be sent on holiday to Phuket Thailand! Who doesn’t love holidays! Hmm I’m keeping my fingers crossed although I know the slogan that I have filled up on the submission form is for sure lousy lol.

Visited in October 2014. How would I rate them? The atmosphere 4/5, Service 3.5/5, F&B 4/5.

Tedboy Bakery Bangsar

Tedboy Bakery is a no stranger in the KL f&b scene and for being a new age bakery. They are based in Bangsar and location is quite prominent as they are opposite Bangsar Village 2 and same row as Sri Devi’s restaurant.

I dont come over to Bangsar (especially the Telawi streets) that often so when I was here to do something, I decided to drop by at Tedboy to try out some pastries.

I bought custard raisin danish (rm3.20), butter croissant (rm4.50) and a poppy pound cake (rm19.90). The danish and croissant was nice but I was not too impressed with it. I felt that the danish could use more moisture by having more custard and a little more raisin and cinnamon to make it smell and taste good. The croissant was not as buttery as I thought it would be. It seemed a little bit expensive for plain butter croissant.

Custard Raisin Danish

Butter Croissant

 

But, I really liked the pound cake. It tasted good, like a homemade cake and smells nice. yummy!

Poppy pound cake

 

They do have a variety of pastries and breads which looks and smells good. If I am in the area, I will choose to drop by again to try out some other pastries. What can I say, I am a sucker for pastries! Haha… The outlet looks really cool. To me it looks like modern and clean design which is what it should be all about.

The damage

 

Visited in May 2014. How would I rate them? (Scale 1 to 5, 5 being the highest score). The atmosphere: 4 / 5, Service: 4 / 5, F&B: 4 / 5.

Where at: Tedboy Bakery, 10, Jalan Telawi 4, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03-2202-1312. Open 8am – 9pm daily.