Tag: pasta

Island Problems – No Problem In This Japanese Thai Fusion Restaurant

The name of this eatery – Island Problems does sounds amusing, but it’d become one of my favourite to go place for some intimate and chill dining. Serving a menu full of Japanese-Thai fusion dishes, their food do not disappoint at all, as the chef constantly tweaking their menu while collecting feedback from restaurant-goers.

Tucked in this heritage beautiful street of Campbell St, it’s not easy to sight as there’s no big signage. Note for a black interior, you can visual the open kitchen and counter seating right from the outside. Island Problems has a small footprint, thus a reservation is highly recommended for a good seat at the counter so you could catch the live action of the chef preparing your meal. Upstairs has a few seats and also showcases their in-house street wear attire.

It was a casual Thursday night and we arrived earlier which in luck, we’ve got a seat at the counter as later that night someone booked the stretch of counter seating.

Steak & Butter Rice (RM49) is my go to dish at Island Problems as this was the 2nd time I ordered it. It’s a very basic, yet exquisite dish – tenderloin steak cutlet (cooked to personal preference), top with range yolk (purely yolk only) with butter onion infused rice. The steak juice blends well with the butter rice which makes an authentic fragrant in this simple rice bowl.

Clarice ordered a Trio Roe Pasta (RM39), a cream-based pasta dish that presented a strong seafood mixture which would creates some seafood explosion in your taste buds. A combination of scallops, prawns, shrimp & salmon roe, the black pasta did amaze us.

Watermelon Lychee Cooler

Lemongrass Soda

Also, not to forget to pair with some in refreshing beverage; we had Watermelon Lychee Cooler – blended with ice cold water melon & lychee (RM13) and Lemongrass Soda – literarlly lemongrass with soda (RM13)

More dish to be tasted on the next visit!

The drinks menu.

The food menu.

Update (26/05/2020):

Salmon Belly in Spicy Teriyaki Sauce w Rice. RM34

Mentaiko Tamagoyaki. RM19

Opens Thursday – Tuesday (Closes on Wednesday) 12pm – 11pm

161, Lebuh Cambell, 10100 George Town, Penang.

Facebook / Google Map / Waze

March 25, 2020
Warsaw: Got Scammed 40 Zloty For Pasta Meal

Eastern Europe Trip // Warsaw: Got Scammed 40 Zloty For Pasta Meal – Day 2 in Warsaw, damn, we woke up at 12 and only willing to head out of the hostel at about 2pm. I guess we have forgotten to change our clock an hour forward. LOL. The night was coming as we headed out to look for lunch. We were just so lazy and unexcited about the city as we had 3 days in Warsaw. Day 2 was either head back to the Old Town or to look for Christmas Market, but since the night was so near, we went to ‘Christmas Market’. (There’s actually no Christmas Market in Warsaw, I guess we’d just mistaken the super market as Christmas Market when we asked about it at our hostel. LOL).

We were looking for food, but had no idea what to eat. Not kebab again, nor McDonald’s or KFC. We were quite stingy as well, and then came across a board writing 17.9 Zloty for an Italian set menu. Without any hesitation, we just went in a sat down. The friendly boss came and showed us the menu and it was like no where near 17.9Zloty. The boss who were unable to speak a proper English nor us able to speak Polish or Italian, we were like pointing this and that. We asked about the set lunch that was written out there, the boss said lunch hour is over, we were like ‘OMG, let’s go?’, then in a few minutes, he came and told us it’s still available in the kitchen.

Tried to ask about what’s included in the set but we just couldn’t get a proper answer. We only know it’s pasta and we did ask about the price again to be sure, the boss was like saying ‘forty, fourteen, forty’. Well, it seems reasonable 14Zloty for a pasta, hardly speak further with a different language, we said OK with enthusiasm.

First a soup of unknown, tasted garlic and onion, which was quite nice. Later a spaghetti pasta of nothing, with no meat but tasted sweet and tomato. A bit disappointed but still reasonable with the price. =) BUT, when the bill came, it was 40Zloty per person. Gosh! Scammed. Make sure you ask properly about the price, properly as in really proper, written in black and white before ordering something that is too good to be true. Feeling, mehh.

Passed by this cool place while looking for food.

The soup, garlic onion.

The spaghetti pasta.

February 22, 2014

Klang Valley: Acme Bar & Coffee, Troika, Kuala Lumpur

Klang Valley: Acme Bar & Coffee, Troika, Kuala Lumpur – Troika is one of my favourite building in Kuala Lumpur, designed by Foster & Partners architect and it’s standing beautifully just right across the KLCC park. It’s actually a high-end city condominium with restaurant at the mid-level sky bridge and also at the ground floor. Of course, it’s a high-end fine dining restaurant at the sky bridge on 24th floor, there’s also a bar as well as another Italian restaurant (unfortunately, only the Cantaloupe fine dining restaurant can get the best view of KLCC).

Coming back to Acme Bar & Coffee, or ABC in short, is another restaurant at Troika, but located on the ground floor. The restaurant, of course serve western cuisine, as well as food with a fusion of localized taste and price starts from RM25. It’s rather pricey, although some accept it because of the location and interior setup of the place. Don’t expect the premise to be big, it’s actually smaller than I expected, but the raw steel and wood design, blend with English-style design actually attracted my senses quite a lot.

Let’s talk about food. When people discusses about ABC, the first thing comes to mind must be their famous Cempadak (Jackfruit) Cake, but that’s desserts and served in the end. Of course, they have a good Smoked Buffalo Wings which we didn’t order, unfortunately. The menu’s variety is quite choice-ful and me and my friends were confused picking out our main course.

Just Mac & Cheese – RM27.

Angel Hair Pasta with Scallops – RM-forget. Another interesting dish with lots of pan-fried scallop.

Sambal Hebi Aglio Olio Spaghetti – RM31. Interesting combination of local and western taste with lots of shrimp.

Grilled Jumbo Hot Dog – RM-forget, but I know it’s the lowest price of all and my friend said it’s good! Yes, it indeed looks good.

Marinated Grilled Lamb Shoulder – RM-forget but it’s the priciest of all you see here. The portion is quite big which I promise a full stomach after this.

Cempedak (Jackfruit) Cake – RM15. The famous cake of this restaurant. Truly, the taste of jackfruit is very strong and powerful which will be pleasant for jackfruit lover. Many complains it’s overrated, but yes I still like it, but not the price.

US! The food gang, the interior designers.

Yes, the food is very over-priced in my opinion, but it seems to be a nice place for hangout with friends actually. Food taste is still up to standard in my tastebuds and service was pleasant. If there’s a chance, I want to go back for a breakfast as they have different menu. After all, the down point is still the price, really pricey. Bahhh.

Acme Bar & Coffee

Unit G1 The Troika

19 Persiaran KLCC

50450 KL

Telephone: +603-2162-2288

Business Hours:
11am – 12am (Mon – Thurs) | 11am – 1am (Fri) | 9.30am – 1am (Saturday) | 9.30am – 12am (Sun)

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August 27, 2013

Kwong Sang House, George Town

Kwong Sang House, George Town – Heritage-style cafe and restaurants are now here and there in this UNESCO World Heritage City of George Town. There’s so many to visit right now and I know that there’s still more to come in the future! Somehow, do you realised the food that each of these heritage-style cafe offered are similar? Coffee, pastry, pasta, pizza and sandwiches. Hopefully I will something different like parmesan port chicken pie, jumbo hot dog, grilled marinated lamb shoulder, pork chops and stuff like that.

Anyway, Kwong Sang House, a restaurant converted from an ex-tailor shop which has a tailor-theme in the little heritage shophouse which serves food like pizza, pasta, chicken chops, fish and chips and more. Food is tuned to a more localised taste, similar to those western food stall that you can find at food court, but with a better setting, bigger portion and more beautiful food presentation.

I recently went to tried their Spaghetti Aglio Olio & Chicken and Ham Pizza. My personal liking goes to the spaghetti, but then it’s not better than the one at I had at Redbean Bags @ Publika. Chicken and Ham Pizza was rather plain with lesser ingredient. I might come back to try out some other food in their menu provided the price is quite reasonable at about RM10-RM20. The restaurant itself is simple and relaxing too!

Kwong Sang House 廣生洋服

36 Leith Street 10220 Georgetown Penang

Tel: +6012-556 5509 / +6012-4939 230

Business Hour: 12pm-2.30pm, 6pm-11pm (close on Thursday)

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August 27, 2013
Klang Valley: Grafa Cafe, A Hipsy Bicycle Cafe

Klang Valley: Grafa Cafe, A Hipsy Bicycle Cafe – Recently just found out a cool artsy & hipsy cafe at Subang Jaya and it’s called the Grafa Cafe. Located in the heart of SS15, the cafe welcomes you with a artsy futsy retail store in front where you can find arts stuff, t-shirts, bike gear and more. Afterall, it’s a cafe with a bicycle themed.

Selling food from local style seafood nasi goreng (fried rice) to pasta, Coney Hotdog and sandwiches, this is a cafe of fusion food between the east and the west. The cafe itself is simple and nice, with wide varieties of food and I must mention this – the food portion is huge for pasta and nasi goreng!

Coney Dog.

Spaghetti Carbonara with Meatballs.

Nasi Goreng Sotong.

Taste wise? Well, it’s not really reach my liking for the Meatball Spaghetti Carbonara (RM20). Thea carbonara cream sauce is good, but not the meatball. On the other hand, the Coney Dog was nice with lots of minced meat topping on the hotdog.

Gary, Jason, Henry, Hwa Jie, Quenna, & Connie. =D

It seems to be a nice place to hangout, with big food portions, but kinda pricey and I am not going to order the Spaghetti Carbonara again. Haha. Would I come again? This is like some place that I would only go once, unless friends invited me there for a meal, maybe?

Grafa Cafe

55, Jalan SS15/4B,

47500 Subang Jaya.

Telephone: +603-56117600

Business Hours: 12pm-1am (daily)

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February 25, 2013
Klang Valley: Levain Boulangerie & Patisserie

The exterior of Levain. Looks pretty cool.

Klang Valley: Levain Boulangerie & Patisserie – ‘Boulangerie’ means bread shop and ‘Patisserie’ means a type of French or Belgian bakery that specializes in pastries and sweets and ‘Levain’ is the name of the restaurant/cafe/bakery that located near the very busy area of Jalan Imbi/Bukit Bintang, but then it’s hidden around that area on a row of bungalow houses.

The restaurant.

They are famous for macaroons!

If you are from around KL, then you will know about Levain, but if you are like me from Penang. nevermind, let me bring you there now. I’ve heard some good reviews from my KL friends and finally I get to visit it during a lunch with my dear Clarice. It’s not very hard to find actually, but GPS leaded me there.

Ohhh, so many cakes! So pretty!

It looks pretty awesome inside with bakery at the entrance and sittings inside and also outside. Since it’s my first time, I don’t really know how to order, the person asked us to find a seat ourselves and that’s it. After asking again, it’s actually order your food at the counter, you can pick some pastry too, and then tell them your table number when ordering, pay it and wait your food to be served. It took me some times to do the ordering because I didn’t know what to order at first, there’s so many nice food on the menu and I want them all.

Wahhh, OKOK-only.

So, I ordered their famous a Spaghetti Seafood Aglio Olio (RM12.50), a Mushroom Chicken Soup (RM6.50) and a Turkey Ham & Cheese With Rice Pizza (RM18 for Large).

I like this! Mushroom chicken soup!

Spaghetti Seafood Aglio Olio. Yums.

Turkey Ham & Cheese with Rice.

Wanted to try more by stomach couldn’t take more already. I like the Mushroom Chicken Soup, it’s so creamy and the Spaghetti Seafood Aglio Olio is nice too. For the pizza, I feel so-so only, because I don’t really fancy rice on it, and not that much of meat. You maybe will like it, but not me.

Me and Clarice.

Clarice looking happy after the meal!

Overall, it’s a nice place, and I’ll come back to try more, perhaps the fresh baked pastry.

Levain Boulangerie & Pattisserie

No 7, Jalan Delima,

55100 Kuala Lumpur.

Telephone: +603 2142 6611

Email: enquiry@levain.com.my

Monday to Sunday 7.30am – 9pm

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December 20, 2012
Set Lunch At Salsas Restaurant, Penang Road

Set Lunch At Salsas Restaurant, Penang Road – I’ve so many food to blog about and now I’ve the time to write them up all on my blog. Some are dated back to last year. Haha. Forget about the date, forget about time, let’s indulge with some food pr0n, shall we?

In the finally weeks of December 2011, I went to meet up a good friend, Yiphing, together with other buddies for lunch at Salsas Restaurant, Penang Road. It’d been some times that we did not come out, sit down and eat. Everyone has their own business now.

Yiphing suggested Salsas Restaurant for our meet up lunch as she’s working as an intern at that area. I guess this was my second time eating out at Salsas Restaurant as the first time was long ago when Salsas was still at Kelawai Road.

Salsas Restaurant serves western food and they have a variety of set meal to pick for lunch. The price of set lunch starts from RM13.90+. Well, I picked a set meal that costs RM15.50+ and that’s a Baked Penne Pasta as a main course.

Each set meal comes with a starter of soup or salad, a main course, a desserts and a drinks.

This is Yiphing.

Starter – Mushroom Soup with Toasted Bun.

Starter 2 – Healthy Salad.

Main Course – Baked Penne Pasta in cream sauce with shredded chicken ham, mushroom and cheese.

Main course 2 – Grilled chicken breast with mushroom cream, served with fresh vegetables and potatoes.

Desserts – Vanilla ice cream and a piece of cake.

Overall, I find the food at there is not bad and kinda affordable. The place is crowded with office workers around that area during lunch. The desserts was just normal in my opinion.

Salsas Restaurant is located in Continental Hotel.

No 5, Penang Road, 10000 Penang, Malaysia.

Telephone: +604-2633923

Business Hours: 11.30am-2.30pm / 6.30pm-11.00pm

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February 29, 2012