Sea & Saw Cafe, Johor Bahru

Phew! Just finished working on my report that is due in two days time. Actually it's due tomorrow but I've got a one day extension. It's my first extension though so I feel a little lousy about it. I've got the whole thing written a month back so that wasn't the problem. The problem was not reminding my supervisor about the due date in the first email that I sent so she thought she had more time to look at it:S

Anyway, since I'm done for now I decide to faster blog before I get lazy and continue watching my cooking shows. This restaurant is not new anymore but since it's frequently visited by people (mainly for the deco, IMHO) I decided to ride the bandwagon too.

It was sisters' day out and I gave my sisters a treat here for lunch!

Sea & Saw

Strait View, Johor Bahru

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The place is pretty nice because they did put in a lot of effort and no doubt $$$ in decorating the place. This is the outdoor setting facing the seaside. Great for outdoor events! I can imagine a lovely small gathering outside with friends!

Okay, I'm bringing you guys inside the restaurant. But first, let's check out the toilet LOL

Big ass mirror outside the toilet

Same deco concept running through the toilet area as well. 

By the way, the toilet is situated outside the restaurant and somehow it reminds me of those olden days poor people's house where they have to share a toilet with their neighbours. So they have this communal toilet outside. But of course the toilet here at Sea & Saw is obviously cleaner la though their bathtub of greens/ fungus with dripping water gross me out. Sorry, don't know how to appreciate this aqua- plant thingy.

Enough with toilets. So here we are inside the restaurant! I'm siting at an area with natural lightings so that's why the picture look super bright here. Love the idea of having natural lightings from the greenhouse looking sitting area but it got a little too warm soon after. You can opt to sit inside too but it look quite squeezy inside. Not too sure though because I didn't explore the place.

The plus point for sitting in the green house natural lighting area is that you are really close to the drinking making counter! So you can watch them whip up your drink and your dessert. Talking bout desserts, not sure if their desserts are made in- house or vendored from someone else? Saw them taking out their cake from a huge box though. 

A little corner for live band I suppose?

This was what I meant by greenhouse area. The walls are all made up of glass.

Sat next to free water for easy access HAHAHHA

This is my seared salmon and poached egg, RM20.90. 

The salmon was cooked beautifully, still juicy on the inside but it has crispy outer skin! I LOVED the garlic dressing on my salmon, it was crazy good!! It's slightly sweet and slightly tart with some heat coming from the garlic, yums! 

It would be better if they had given me a bigger slice of fish though. My sis told me that the last time she was here, she was served with a much bigger fish. Needless to say, I wasn't full eating this for lunch. Also, not a big fan of the poached egg though, tasted rubbery.

Reb's fish and chips, RM19.90. 

The fish was good because it wasn't some frozen fish that we can get off the shelf. It tasted very homemade, made from a scratch like how restaurants should have their fish and chips done. Fries could be better if they had more crunch. Overall, good dish but the portion was small. 

Beef & mushroom charcoal bun burger, RM18.90

The beef patty was good, freshly made from a scratch. Something that I really like about this restaurant is that you can really see their effort in whipping up fresh food for you. The only downside is their serving portion. Too tiny. Like the burger, it was good but by the picture itself you would wish it came it a side of fries/ wedges/ potatoes right? Their salad at the side was quite measly.

Good beef though.

Iced Latte, RM10.90

Cool thing is that you get to pour in your own syrup so you can control the sweetness. For me, it's all down! LOL I'm not a coffee person, unless I'm needing the caffeine to rush assignments, but this was alright. For the price we pay, not too bad.

Mixed berries smoothies, RM10.90

This one I like!! Not too sweet but sweet enough with lots of berries inside! I'd opt for this over the coffee anytime and it does look a little healthier and bang for buck! You know, berries are expensive these days, heh.

Here, the full address of the place. Not a bad place to hang out- good food (but in tiny portion) great ambience! Everything is subjected to service charge but oh, no GST? :D

Just remembered I'm suppose to write about the best kebab in Pattaya! Ok, I'm on it! Keep reading folks!

Water Works Laksa @ Jalan Kolam Air, JB

This is the last stale post in my draft! So after this I can catch up with my latest food hunt in Kuching and Pattaya! WOOT! So I'm a proud Johorean and even if my state isn't as famous as Penang in terms of food, we still have pretty good food if you know where to find.

I bet most people have heard of Water Works Laksa at Kolam Air, JB but I decided to note this down in my blog because this place always reminds me of my grandparents, my mum's side that is. My grandparents, I call them ah kong (grandpa) and ah ma (grandma) would often patronise this place usually for breakfast and then pack back their famous laksa and otak- otak for us. My ah ma still does that till today though whenever my uncle brings her for breakfast there.

I personally find that the laksa is a little overrated though they do have really good otak- otak. But the otak- otak aren't produced in house anyway. But whenever I hear about this place, it makes my heart all fuzzy because it's has a sentimental value attached to it. I miss my ah kong;'(

So if you haven't tried it, give it a go!

Water Works Laksa

Jalan Kolam Air, JB

This is the shop that you are looking for. 

The road leading there is a one way street so if you miss it you will have to make a round back to that one way street. People usually park illegally along the roads but yeah, so far no problem from the police HAHA

I'll show you the otak- otak which I like first! I think it tasted better when we had it there at the shop. Somehow when it gets packed back home and reheated it doesn't taste as good but by no means lousy.

A basket of otak- otak placed on every table

If you're not interested in it then just don't touch it and you won't be charged. But for me, I doubt a basket is enough LOL

Inside!

Another thing that I like about Water Works laksa is that they have their own in house drinks like this cincau drink! Love how natural and homemade it is. Not as sweet as other shops usually served them which is a plus because I'm not a big fan of sweet stuffs. Yes, despite my flabby body I don't have a sweet tooth. Can't say the same for carbs though. I loveeee crabs especially when it comes in the form of bread and pastries :X

Cincau drink

The famous laksa!

I think this is the small version of the laksa. If Ive not mistaken it comes in different serving portion with respective prices. A small one would cost about RM5 I think? Sorry this blog post has been sitting in drafts since a few months ago so my memory fails me.

You see the greenish garnish on the laksa? Well, that's something that I don't personally fancy because it makes gives out this weird smell and taste. Not sure what leaf is that though? Is that like turmeric leaf???

The taste of the soup infected by that garnish gives me a headache. No joke, I really don't like that garnish just like how some people really hate parsley. OMG is that parsley?!

Side dish, fried beancurd skin. DAMN expensive!

Mum ordered an extra serving of fried beancurd skin and for that few miserable hollow pieces they charge us almost the same price as a bowl of laksa! I forgot how much exactly but I remembered clearly that it was so not worth it. I think they gave us like 5- 6 pieces of beancurd skin without any fish paste inside k! So expensive and after eating them, my throat felt funny like how you would feel after eating oily stuff. 

Oh! I found a picture of the menu for your easy reference!

Okay, I got to go finish my work and then start on my Kuching and Pattaya food hunt! To whoever who's still reading this, thanks for sticking on despite my lack of update for more than a month. PhD kills seriously. 

The Replacement @ Jalan Dhoby, JB

Finally, it's the weekends!

Been down with a cranky stomach lately thanks to my ABC porridge. I realised that these days my stomach can't take too much of fiber or else it will start churning real badly and I'll be visiting the loo like it's my best friend. Good thing my stomach isn't acting up as bad as it did when I had green bean soup.

Since my stomach is feeling unwell, I got the chance to stay at home and rest. And get bored. Hence, blog. I met up with Wawa and Simren a week ago I think when I was back in JB and we decided to catch up at any random cafe. The Replacement was new so we decided to give it a shot

The Replacement

33- 34 Jalan Dhobby, JB

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This is how The Replacement looks from the outside. 

It's a plain white building. It's a lodge too, that explains why their kitchen i.e. cafe isn't very spacious. Actually I thought the space was very limited- almost like a large bedroom size. While there are other cafes that have limited space, I have to say that The Replacement really do not know how to maximize the tiny space that they have. 

Now, I'm telling you the layout of the cafe so you would be prepared. Either you get lucky and get that two seaters by the side of the wall (I think there were 4- 5 two seaters) or you get unlucky and have no choice but to share one huge ass table.

The huge ass Knights of Camelot kinda table

This is the huge ass table I was talking about. I think that this would fit 10 people at least, great for big families you know like those that dine with their grandparents all the way to their grandkids? Yup. 

But a far as what I have seen during my trip to The Replacement, those big ass family doesn't seem to be the primary market. Everyone that came in were young people in pairs or at most in groups of fives. When we arrive, we were seated rather quickly. That's a good thing. The bad thing was that we were seated right in the middle of the huge ass table, sandwiched between groups of unknowns seating at both ends:O

Oh, hi unknowns :S

This made us feel really awkward. We couldn't even talk at our normal volume because it really felt like our private space was violated. Thank God the girls on our right soon finished so we quickly scooch to that end of the table. 

So there we were in the huge ass table, only both poles of the table occupied because NO ONE was willing to take the middle seating like duh! So you see, lots of space wasted. They have this bar seating facing the window but the space is really squeezy so maybe if you want a quick drink that would be okay, if not I'd probably exit. 

They do have pretty lamps hanging over our heads at the Knights table though

The Replacement practised half self service. So you have to get the menu, order and pay at the cashier then be seated and wait for your order to arrive. 

The menu. 

Ordering was also a bit awkward for me because we don't get to seated to decide what to have. Instead everything was done in a hurry in front of the cashier area. They have a few chairs for you there but it was still so weird because I felt like I had to quickly get it over and done with and not hog the tiny area =.=

I wasn't that hungry and most of the menu was bread. You know brunch kind of menu? I had enough bread in KL so I decided to have cake instead. 

Five selection of cakes on display

The best looking on that look worthy to be ordered turns out to be yam cake. Since I was sharing the cake and neither of us fancy yam cake, I decided to order Strawberry Shortcake. It looks like a bad idea but the others weren't far off better so I just settled for the Strawberry cake hoping my prejudice towards their cake was wrong.

Caramel Latte, RM11

Simren's Caramel Latte came pretty quickly. I'm not a big fan of coffee but I did have a sip. Well, al I can say that it tasted almost like the Nescafe that my mum makes at home. Paying RM11, there was a higher expectation. I might as well spend it on the commercialised Starbucks instead. 

FREE water!

Water was free but you would have to go get it yourself. They have these bottles on a cart at one corner of the shop with glasses as well. So please help yourself! Not sure how many can you take but we took 2 bottles of water.

Strawberry Shortcake RM12.90

Then my cake came. As expected, it wasn't that good. Not worth my RM13. The cake tasted a little too dense for liking and it was sweet. To add on to the sweetness of the cake they had this strawberry jam,which tasted like those jar types from the hypermarket, in between the layers and also some buttercream. OH MY GOSH, that was the last straw! Even though we shared the cake, we find it really hard to finish that one tiny slice:(

Corque Madame, RM18.90

Wawa haven't had lunch so she ordered the Corque Madame which was super overpriced! This made me really angry because this dish is just a slice of bread with melted cheese, tomato sauce (I think) and egg on top. It took them 45 minutes to an hour to serve. The portion was really tiny for a RM18.90. I might as well add on RM5 and have a big breakfast in Bangsar!

People say that KL food is expensive. Well, yes no doubt a meal in cafe or restaurants in KL would cost you RM15 at least but the difference is the food is worth the price! Cafe in JB seriously pisses me off. Just because they want to imitate God knows what, they are charging such a high price on disgusting tiny portion food. 

PLUS! The ambience of The Replacement was rather bad- awkward seating, white walls etc so why the heck are you charging so much? It's understandable that all business aims for profit but this is really too much

Approximately RM43 for the tiny things we ordered :S

The Replacement should really be replaced.

But then again, I don't know why are they so many people on Facebook who actually compliment this place like it's one of the best places in JB. It's either they are easily contented people or they are really nuts. Also noticed lots of people who dress up nicely in chiffon dresses and what not, coming to The Replacement with DSLR camera with their nose stuck high up in the air.

Why ah? So glamourous meh drinking overpriced meh coffee here?

We were like, uhhh. Should have gone across the street and spend our money on three portion of chicken chops instead. Nevermind, take picture to compensate our loss LMAO

At least Simren really liked the dried flower

The Ice- cream Project @ Jalan Dhoby, JB

I'm suppose to go out for dinner with Rebecca but as we were just about to leave the house it poured heavily! So now we are waiting for the rain to subside before leaving. Gosh, my appetite is cranky again. I know it's meal time but Im not feeling that hungry but I don't feel like eating:(

Anyway, yesterday was super fun because I brought Reb out for some ice- cream! She has been wanting to try this for a long time but didn't had a chance too. So off we go for our sister's day out!

TIP, The Ice- cream Project

31 Jalan Dhoby

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A swing outside TIP

Selfie in front of the shop because it's sisters day out <3

The thing about TIP is that it's apparently a very famous place to get ice- cream in JB. Maybe it's because we don't have many ice- cream parlours around. Anyway, my point is you can't expect the best customer service there la. In fact once I entered, I somehow have the feeling that the people there are very stuck up. Initially, I thought that it's just me so I just brushed it aside but when I met up with Wawa today she said that memang the boss there isn't too friendly.

This shop gave me the same feeling when I visit China House in Penang for cakes. It's not to say that the waiters there, wait I dont think I should call them waiters because no one will wait after you. It's all self service. Well, the workers there aren't rude but it's just that they give you this snobbish feeling which is my pet peeve.

A few pictures of ice- cream in the making:

It's quite cool to see the nitrogen that is being used to freeze your ice- cream! Oh yes, your ice- cream will be made only when ordered and that's why it tasted very fresh! Love how the milk tasted, it was literally eating frozen creamy FRESH milk!

Interior of the shop

Pretty cool nook 

Though they have limited space in the shop there was more than ample seats for everyone when I was there but I could imagine that during a full house probably customers will get sightly uncomfortable especially those sitting right in front of the ice- cream maker. That's because everyone would be flocking that are while waiting for their ice- cream to be made. 

One huge ass mirror really good for selfies

Brownies & Cream, RM14

There are only four flavours of ice- cream on the menu. Totally forgot what the other three were but yeah that's all you got! They do have an extensive menu of teas though. Initially I thought the tea menu were ice- cream flavours because it is an ice- cream shop right? But no, you only have four ice- cream choices.

A little disappointed because I was going to order the Earl Grey flavour HAHAHAHA Turns out it was tea so nah. Still puzzled by the lack of options of ice- cream in an ice- cream shop. They might as well be a tea parlour:S

Reb finally getting to try TIP!

FREE water!

Yes, they do provide you with free water if you would like to quench your thirst after having ice- cream. Though TIP's ice- cream wasn't too sweet, in fact I loved how it tasted and need not drink water after that I still went for the free water just because HEHE.

Of course, everything there is self service. You will see the self service sign everywhere. When I mean everywhere, I do mean everywhere. The first sign that you see greeting you at the entrance of the door is a self- service sign. Then when you enter I probably spot three to four similar signs inside that small area. 

TIP screams SELF- SERVICEEEE!

Then they also have a self- service sign above the free water station indicating that you should order, pay, get the ice- cream by yourself. Don't expect anyone to clean up after you're done yes? See that containers next to the free water station? That's where you ditch your paper cups and what not.

All in all, I love their ice- cream because it really tasted fresh and authentic. Brownies and cream did tasted like the real brownie crumbles and milk cream! But then again, for RM14 I won't be able to have it on a regular basis. Probably once in a blue moon, so definitely an indulgence!