Street Cafe Obese City

Be honest now guys. The name of place does tickles your fancy now, doesn’t it? I was brought to the open-aired eatery by my partner since he’d noticed the place every time he passes by the area to go to work. The stall is actually within the Arena Belia Tawau (right at the opposite side of the Tawau General Hospital) and as of now, the only stall there is inside that compound. That also means that they do have an ample parking space, just in case you’re worried about that.

We’d actually arrived close to 7.00pm and was a bit taken aback when we were told that some of the items within their (limited) menu weren’t available because they hadn’t prepared the ingredients yet. It was to my understanding that people usually prepared their ingredients ahead of time, before you decided to officially open for business for the day right? So we’d no choice but to go for what was available, which were their Nasi Goreng Marvellous and Nasi Goreng Fried Chicken Marvellous (and I’m not just making those names up either). Both fried rice dishes were disappointingly below average and unappetizing in tastes. We so wanted to try out their western food selections but alas that was not meant to be (and I’m not sure whether I’ll be coming back any time soon specifically for them). But we did shared a plate of their Roti John Ayam and we had a better experience with said snack (although I personally think that they should tone down the overflowing mayonnaise a bit as it totally overwhelmed the dish). 

** Current status – Has been closed. Although they seem to be operating via COD right now so do check out their FB page (as of June 2017)   

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A-Mart Bakery Ingredients Supplies

Yes, I can verify that there are no typing errors for the above title. Although technically this is not an eatery, they do provide anything and everything that you could possibly need for baking purposes, as well as organizing monthly pastry making classes for those interested. And most importantly, I think because it is a Mecca for baking goods, they also sell a variety of pastries (freshly made in-house of course) such as Tau Sa Piang, Curry Puff, Portuguese Tarts, Mushroom Pie and Chicken Pie. This automatically qualifies it for my foodie review (yup, my standards are pretty low huh?). The one that I’ve frequented is their branch at Taman Semarak (right next door to the W&Z Cafe) but their main store is actually at Kompleks Pertama (or more widely known as Takada by Tawaurians).

So I do not have much to comment about the store itself but in terms of their pastries, I reckon that they have one of the best places (in my modest opinion of course) to get such savoury delights. My personal favourite has got to be their Chicken Pie (the filling was sweet and succulent) and their Curry Puff (love the non spicy & tasty filling – unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it). My least favourite however might be their Mushroom Pie since the filling was little compared to the latter and the taste was unappetizing, almost to the point of being bland.

** Current status – Still in operation (as of March 2017) 

* Chicken Pie

* Mushroom Pie

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18gram

Now I’m not an avid fan of coffee so I don’t know whether or not this is true. But my personal theory on the origins of their name is that it might be related to roasted coffee (but do correct me if I’m wrong okay). Moving on from my little curiosity there; this new-in-town modern café is actually situated within the increasingly popular 1Arena commercial area, right on top of The Cafe BBQ. It’s kind of hard for me not to notice them since I literally went to the nearby Giant Hypermarket every weekend with my mom.

But when I finally decided to give them a try, I instead went there with my partner (since my mom isn’t too fond of western food). It’s only been a few months since they’d first opened so there’s still very little hype surrounding the place (hence the somewhat vacant atmosphere when we were there). I personally think that they actually have what it takes to be sought after, especially amongst the youngsters in Tawau. They had a very cool place for chilling out with friends, as well as a place that were ran by a bunch of young people (heck I’m old!). If we’re taking about their food, I would recommend you guys to give their Fried Chicken Chop with Thai Mango Sauce a try, as the dish was just superb (to me). I absolutely loved their zesty sauce as well as the piquant seasoned fries. My partner had their Grilled Chicken Chop with Blackpepper Sauce and he said that it’s so-so (but it’s good to note that they did their own mashed potatoes and gave out a generous portion of it as a side). And even though their waffle dish called The Monkey King looks really pretty and mouth-watering, the actual taste was somewhat a let down for me since it’s not as fluffy as I would’ve liked them to be. But on a positive note, I do like the shape of their waffles and their vanilla ice-cream though.

** Current status – Has been closed (as of November 2017)   

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Indo-Taste Restaurant

You know when people called their eatery ‘indo something’ but the food turned out to be only around 10% related to anything from Indonesia (yup, I’m looking at you Indo Cafe and Indocorner)? Well, if you’re expecting that here than I’m afraid I have to disappoint you guys. For a true taste (okay, so I’ve never been to the actual country myself but I’ll just assume that what we have here is at least similar to those from their mother land) of Indonesian food, you can head on to Perdana Jaya commercial area (right behind the Giant Hypermarket) to try for yourselves. And no, I’m not talking about your average Buginese dishes here either (which can already be counted as typical local food here in Tawau).

We’d actually patroned the place for years now and it was only recently that I’d realized that I haven’t reviewed them (my bad indeed). When me and my partner were there recently, we’d tried out their Nasi Racik Sate Bakar (the name alone already got you curious right?) and I just loved it. The chicken skewers might be in need of a toning down in terms of saltiness but everything else was very yummy. My partner decided that he’s not in the mood for their Indo selection and opted for the more conventional Nasi Ayam Blackpepper (I might get the name wrong here folks) and he said that it’s a flavoursome and appetizing dish as well. And yes, they’d previously opened a branch at the Fajar Complex area but have since closed that one down due to stiff competition from other eateries within said area. 

** Current status – Has moved to KK (as of Oct 2019)   

(Updated on 28/03/2018 - Here are some newer pictures of their food when we'd visited them recently. We had their Nasi Ayam Bakar Rica-Rica and Mix-Vegetable Rice and both were finger-licking good)

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Kampis Cafe House

Before you guys even ask, let me just be clear that the word Kampis comes from the name of the owner’s residential area, which is called Kampung Pisang (KAMpung PISang, get it?). Don’t believe me? Then you can come down and ask them for yourselves at the Fajar Complex area. They’re right in front of the Upgrade Hamburger & Coffee and the Nationwide Express courier service head office.

Their food (which consists of mainly Indonesian originated and locally popular dishes) sparked my curiosity the moment I first got through their menu. I was very tempted to try out their Nasi Bebek Penyet (it’s duck rice to those unfamiliar with the term) but chickened out (get it?) at the last minute and changed my mind to the more common Nasi Ayam Rica-Rica (very similar to that of Nasi Ayam Penyet – but with a really sweet & spicy sambal) instead. Apparently, I’m not as adventurous as I initially thought I was (oh well…). My parents meanwhile ordered their Taugeh Ikan Masin and Nasi Ikan Boulu respectively (yup, those boneless milk fish has grown tremendously in terms of popularity here in Tawau) and both agreed that the dish might be even more delicious should they put aside the lime instead of pre-squeezing them on top of said fish (since it got overwhelmingly sour – according to them of course). My dad (who’s also a regular patron of the place) has also ordered their in-house specialty which is the Pisang Toron (technically a banana spring roll) as it was his favourite. Unfortunately I don’t think I’d shared my dad’s taste buds since I thought that the light snack was greasy and (again) too sweet for my liking. Funnily, we found ourselves there again a few days later because my dad was craving for another one of their dish which is the Nasi Payau Masak Kicap (my dad seems to develop a liking for sweet stuff recently) while my mom and I tried out their Kangkung Masak Belacan and Nasi Lalap Ayam (my previous comment does apply here as well) for our ‘round two’.

** Current status – Has been closed (as of October 2018) 

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