Kurtos Spiroll Chimney Cake Bakery Tawau

Honestly I was a bit amused when I first spotted the Kurtos Spiroll Chimney Cake Bakery in Tawau. I mean, there’s a long list of franchises that I wished would graced themselves into this tiny land of ours but unfortunately this one didn’t even crossed my mind. It seems like it was just yesterday that I did a review on Kurtos Spiroll Imago KK and merely months after that poof… we also have one. And although my curiosity might not be as strong as it was before I’d tried it in KK, I found myself walking into the place anyways just to see what they’re offering here in their Tawau branch.

To make things short, the place is pretty similar to those in KK. Their selection of kurtos kalacs was pretty much the same, as well as their other assorted bakery goodness. This time around I tried their Chocolate Rice kurtos kalacs and had picked out their Little Blackie and Chocolate Indulgence buns as well. For some reason their chimney cake (well, it’s actually close to a bread rather than an actual cake) was underwhelming, what with the oily texture and non-sticky chocolate rice. A first timers mistake maybe? But their buns were surprisingly pretty tasty. I was expecting the former to be super sweet but the filling actually tasted like sour cream, which blends well with the sweet choco-blackish substance on top of said bun.And I love their Chocolate Indulgence bun, the choco stuff on top of said bun was simply delicious. 

** Current status – Still in operation (as of Feb 2016) 

Updated on 02/11/2016 - During our recent visit, we discovered that they're now also selling a variety of cakes (yay!)

Updated again on 14/08/2017 - Have also recently tried out their Chocolate Bun, Coffee Bun and Spicy Tuna Bun and all three were pretty good (although a bit lacking in terms of filling especially the former two)

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W&L Fast Food

Finally we can go back to my original programming of tasting and hunting the best food available in this not-too-big of a city called Tawau. And first up after my whole KK food hunting episodes is this place situated at Fajar Complex. The eatery has been around for years, dating back from when I was still in primary school (and I’m not kidding). When they first opened, they were actually located across the street to their current place (now an Adidas store). The big boss must have been very fond of their blue-ish, fast food like joint décor, as he’d retained the exact same décor even when they’d moved to a new location.

Originally, me and my partner were thinking of having our brunch at a different place but since the intended place was closed for the day, we decided to go into one of the places that are actually quite near to the latter. I have been to this eatery for sometime now and was a bit surprise to find out that it is now a non-fast food joint. Meaning, a majority of their food centres on local Chinese dishes rather than a fusion of both in the past. But since we were already sitting there, we might as well try out their food, particularly their pre-cooked dishes which had been prettily displayed right before us. We took a couple of lauk together with some rice and all we can say it, it was pretty inconsistent. For example, we both really like the tangy deep fried fish fillet. Their fried spring rolls were also pretty crispy and tasty but other than that everything else were bland. Like no-salt-at-all bland even though it might looked delicious.

** Current status – Still in operation (as of Feb 2016) 

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Lush Bar & Lounge (KK FoodieVenture #55)

To end our trip to KK and to celebrate the coming of a new year, me and my partner decided to go all out and splurge a bit for our final night there. We ended up walking around the KK Waterfront area (at the high end side of the eateries overlooking the seaside called Anjung Samudra – and yes, I just found out the name via Google) and after some ‘thoughtful walking’ we choose this Lush Bar & Lounge. Now what exactly attracted us to this place you ask? Well, I don’t know to be honest. Each and every one of the eateries on that area looked equally pricey so we just randomly sit down at an empty table and crossed our fingers. It’s somewhat in the middle of the single row eateries and they do have a separate floor for hardcore dance fanatics (on the first floor) and more subdue relaxed customers downstairs.

I admit that I’m always curious about food on such establishment, particularly since the place was geared more towards the party crowd rather than the laid-back ones like us. So we decided to try out their Thai Basil Chicken with Rice (err… my partner was definitely not impressed, the chicken chucks were too small for his liking), Lush Fried Rice (tasted so-so unfortunately) and for dessert we shared their Chocolate Lava Cake (which unfortunately turned out to be a chocolate cake minus the lava part but taste wise was the better one among all items). And I was a bit amused when my partner pretty much swore at their pricing when he finally got the bill (you could probably guess why though – I did mention that the establishment was on the pricey side of the waterfront right?).

(*Side note - Sorry for the barely visible pictures though as the place was darkly lit and no thanks to my crappy, low grade smartphone as well) 

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Fook Yuen Cafe & Bakery Gaya Street (KK FoodieVenture #54)

Nope, this is not a repeat of my very recent review of Fook Yuen Cafe & Bakery. I had some errands to run around the Gaya Street area one day and got a bit hungry because me and my partner did not take any breakfast before going off from our hotel. So it was somewhat fated for us to find a Fook Yuen right next to an Old Town White Coffee café (which was amusing to me – I mean those rivals were only separated by a wall) after we’d finished our business at the nearby Ambank Berhad bank.

On first glance, the eatery does not look any different from any other Fook Yuen branches all over KK. But when we got to their food, our eyes were practically swimming in a pool of delicious looking goodies. The varieties of food available were probably the best among all of the branches because when we were there, practically every single tray was filled with yummy looking food. After looking around for a few minutes, we finally decided to tried out their Nasi Lemak (my fave so far – although the portion might be small), some Mee Hoon Goreng and several boneless (yes, boneless!) chickens (my partner gave it two thumbs up) to accompanied our main dishes. I also hung out at their mini bakery and after ogling for another few minutes, walked out with a Chocolate Muffin (which was just nice & fresh in taste). 

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Burger Bakar HS Version 2.0 (KK FoodieVenture #53)

So now let us take a look at eateries that are not exactly within the immediate proximity to our hotel in KK. One of the places that we’ve been to before (see my previous post for the review – and consider this review an update) and somewhat missed their food was this grilled burger joint. It was quite unfortunate that they did not managed to stay at Fatt Kee Seafood Restaurant and had since moved away. So it was a blessing in disguised when I visited my relatives at Habiba Suites on top of Bukit Bendera (Signal Hill) and spotted them within the premises. It was actually their original location before they decided to move downtown last 2 years. And we were glad that the place had gone some renovation and there were now more comfortable spaces for patrons to sit and enjoy the lovely view of KK.

Like before, we both decided to try out their Beef Grilled Burger which was as yummy as we’d remembered them. The patty was still pretty juicy and the sauce was just nice, since I personally do not like sauces that overwhelmed the main ingredient. It was just unfortunate that they do not have any chicken patty available during our visit though.

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Dunkin' Donuts Oceanus (KK FoodieVenture #52)

Like I’ve mentioned before in my previous post of another Dunkin Donuts branch in KK, this joint is by far my favourite when it comes to anything and everything donuts. No offence to its main competition, but their donuts was just right when it comes to tastes, particularly their chocolate donuts. Their variety of flavours might not be as broad as the other donut powerhouse but their tastes were not too overwhelming sweet (a major factor when you’ve reached my age – ahem!) and you can’t help but eat as many as your stomach can permit. So I wasted no time in ordering their donuts when I spotted the orange-purple coloured booth on the ground floor of Oceanus Waterfront Mall (they’re not that far off from Hard Rock Café).

In no particular order, (I think) I have ordered their ring donuts Crunchy Choc, Choc Forest, Nutty Choc, Black Forest and filled donuts Boston Cream and Choc Pudding. Yup, everything chocolate as expected and each and every one of them was just divine! And for a limited time, they’re also offering a variety of really cute & creative looking boxes for your take away donuts.

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Fook Yuen Cafe & Bakery Oceanus (KK FoodieVenture #51)

Next we move on to another relatively new shopping spot in town, the Oceanus Waterfront Mall. When it first sprang up in front of Marina Court Condominiums, I actually had high hopes for the mall. I mean, it looks pretty huge and high end from the outside. So when it finally opened, I was somewhat disappointed to discover that the mall looked err… much smaller from the inside. Stores were still in the process of opening which was normal I guess. But it only took me and my partner around 30 minutes or so to go through the entire mall. Heck, even the food court was tiny by any mall’s standard which was odd.

On a more positive note, one of the most well-known locally based food franchise (see my previous post for their Karamunsing Capital branch) has open its doors on the ground floor of said mall. The Fook Yuen Café & Bakery is practically an institution in KK so I’m thrilled when I discovered that they’re now within my reach. Immediately you’ll notice that the café was huge in size (probably the biggest in terms of size among all of the franchises?) with a comfortable modern ‘kedai kopi’ feel to it. But what’s lacking from this branch was probably their selection of food. I mean, we went there for 2 days and the food was limited in both amount and choices. Maybe it’s because we were there during the weekends? We just grabbed anything that were available during our visits and our meals tasted just okay in my opinion, which was somewhat a let down. But I do have to give a shout out to their drink maker because their milk tea (they provide chilled out, iceless drinks at this branch – which was an awesome idea) and their giant size Milo Dinosaur drink were simply marvellous.

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Burger King Centre Point (KK FoodieVenture #50)

I’m actually a bit amused when I first saw the franchise being open at Centre Point Shopping Mall around two years back. Burger King has actually opened several years before at the same mall, ironically only a few stores away from its current location on the ground floor of the latter (right next to the Queen’s Department Store).  But when you love something, it will eventually come back to you right and BK just proves that.

My personal favourite (as evident in my previous post of another one of their franchise in Damai Plaza) has always been their Onion Rings. I mean, I still cannot find a decent onion ring anywhere except at BK. There are a couple that came pretty close but taste wise they’re still among the best. Other than that, me and my dear partner also opted to try out their BK Singles Black Pepper set (the black pepper sauce was not too overpowering which was good) and their BK Singles BBQ Beefacon (my partner love the beef patty but is not that thrilled with the bacon strips unfortunately) this time around. I was pretty happy to see that their fries has somewhat ‘grown’ a bit and was a bit crunchy to munch on. Definitely a plus in my books.

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