Lucy's Kitchen Imago (KK FoodieVenture #56)

As I’ve stated in my previous post, my very recent 2 days only work related course had ‘forced’ me to take port in Kota Kinabalu (my favourite place in Sabah). We’ve stayed at the Imperial Boutec Hotel which was in near proximity to our venue so I’ll be going straight to the food part of my journey okay? Well, I’ll only be blogging about 2 new eateries that I’ve managed to squeeze into my very limited timing in KK and one of those places is this eatery. Me and a colleague decided to unwind for a while after a full day’s worth of presentations (which was just insane for our part) and actually walked to the Imago Shopping Mall nearby.

We were roaming around the lower ground floor level and hopped from one eatery to another, looking through their menus for suitable dinner when we finally made our selection. I was actually here around January and I can’t remember whether this place was here before. But nevertheless the menu appealed to both of us so we got in and tried out their Nasi Lemak Pandan Biasa (very lovely and non spicy sambal) and their Basmathi Rice with Grilled Chicken (my colleague absolutely loved the well portioned chicken) but my personal favourite has got to be our shared order of Peanut Butter Waffle (I’m in love with the crispy, just nice waffle!). The Asian fusion eatery has a couple of other branches around KK and is also very agreeable with our not-so-big wallet. Now that was surprising since I’d expected it to be pricier judging by their outer looks alone. It’s definitely a lesson from the ‘do not judge the book by its cover’ page huh?

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Sipadan Cafe - Family Food & Drink House

I FINALLY have some time to update this humble blog of mine, after a hectic but short work related course (more on that later) as well as a 2 weeks worth of flu that followed suit soon after that. So since I’m feeling a bit better now (thank you for asking by the way… wink wink) I might as well squeezed in a couple of reviews especially those from my recent KK trip. I admit that even though I’ve visited Kota Kinabalu to unwind almost on a yearly basis, it’s actually quite rare for me to go there for work purposes. So let us start things off with a review before I’d actually stepped foot in KK. Where else people but... the Tawau Airport (cue in the dramatic music...).

Trust me when I say that major improvements have been made to the Tawau Airport eateries. It used to be so bad that nobody (and I mean, nobody) wanted to grabbed anything to eat from the airport and would rather have expensive-and-in-tiny-portioned meals served in-flights. But after revamping the place here and there and opening its doors to multiple new tenants, the place has somewhat came to life with new offerings. We decided to stop by the so-called ‘official’ café for the airport called Sipadan Café (or as the bill would later printed out, the 'Family Food & Drink House' - don't really know which one is the official name though). It’s on the first floor, right next to the main departure hall and near to the Air Asia ticketing office. Me and a colleague had some time to spare so we’d decided to tried out their Thailand Fried Rice with Egg (the fried rice tasted okay but ordinary though) and their Black pepper Chicken Rice (my colleague said that it’s surprisingly tasty but nothing to shout out). Couple that with two bottled drinks (that will probably cost you only 1/3 of the price that they’re charging us – outside of course), we’d barely managed to avoid eating more than our RM50 budget. It actually does not surprised me at all since that always seems to be the case when you’re dining in airports but at least I do hoped that they can improve on the taste of their dishes in the future.

** Current status - Still in operation (as of August 2016) 

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Goat Heaven Cafe - Roti Bakar Teloq Meleleh

Okay you guys, stop laughing! But you have to admit that the name of the eatery can be considered as creative, since I can assure you that you’ll definitely remember them now right? And I said stop laughing already (chuckled…). Now in all seriousness, the place is shared by two food sellers (probably for rent purposes) so do not be confused if the sign at the outside of the eatery stated Roti Bakar Teloq Meleleh instead. The latter was from a popular Peninsular Malaysia originated franchise and apart from this one at Gaya Commercial Centre (it’s at the far end of the single row shops) there’s another one in the Fajar Complex area.

Me and my partner decided to stop by the place mainly because we’d gone to the Insmark Supermarket (that are next to it) and had gotten curious about this small establishment.

Now the food can be divided into two; the food from Goat Heaven Café (yes, I just loved typing that one out) and from the Roti Bakar stall. From the café, we’d ordered their Nasi Goreng Kampung and Nasi Goreng Daging. Funnily, the food came out almost exactly the same, apart from the anchovies (to highlight my ‘kampung’ order of course) and chunks of beef (for my partner’s ‘daging’). But despite that, the same-but-different fried rice was actually pretty tasty. It reminded me of kampong styled cooking for some reason. We’d also decided to share an order of the Egg Sausage sandwich from the Roti Bakar stall and even though I fairly like it, the chilli sauce can use a bit of toning down since it overwhelmed the dish. You literally tasted the chilli sauce and nothing else.

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

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Siang Siang Noodles & Coffee House

This is another food joint in Tawau that I’ve noticed for years but never actually got the chance to try them out yet. Well, that obviously changed when my partner dragged me and my mom into the eatery recently because he was in need of something different to munched on after the Hari Raya celebrations have died out. Their eatery’s location can be considered as strategic as well, what with it being in the middle of the Fajar Complex and right next to the Digi Main Customer Centre (the only one in Tawau so there’s no way for you to mistaken them for another Digi office).

Since it is our first time there, it took me a while to decide the food that I wanted to eat since to my delight, they have most of my favourite items on the menu (but do take note that the menu was not very extensive – yet). And despite their name, they did not just have noodles and coffees on their menu. Eventually I decided to tried out their Nasi Lemak Sambal (pretty good I must say – very Chinese version of the dish), mom decided on having their Nasi Goreng Lalap Ayam (mom said that the sambal was nice – which can be translated as ‘not too spicy’) while my partner ordered their Nasi Ayam Special (he said he picked that one out solely because of the bento box – but the taste was okay as well, nothing too great though). Obviously since they also had desserts and cakes on the menu, it would be a crime on my part should I ignored that so I’ve tried out their swiss rolls, mainly their Oreo and Marble Chocolate Cheese variety and I’m absolutely in love with them. The swiss rolls were soft (I think they’d produced their own cakes which was great) and not overly sweet which is also a major plus for me.

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

Updated on 17/10/2016 - Me and my family came recently and have a go at their Fried Mee Hoon (okay at best) and their namesake Siang Siang Pan Mian (my sister loved it!). But I've also tried out their Portuguese Egg Tart and it's a bit disappointing (it tasted bland and the egg filling was very little)

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Telaga Indah Cafe

The first time I got wind of the term ‘shell out’ was when I was brought to this relatively new restaurant during a breaking fast early dinner by my dear partner. Like I’ve said in my previous post, we’d decided to stick mainly to bazaars as our prime source for food during this year’s fasting month for some ‘personal reasons’ (and yes, it has got something to do with ‘health’ and ‘wealth’ – or maybe the lack of them). For your info, the eatery is located right beside a newly opened Telaga Indah Hotel (a refurbished budget hotel) and in close proximity to the Tawau Terminal Bus and the infamous KFC Empire branch (trust me, everyone in Tawau knows where that is at).

I admit that I was curious when my partner sprouted out the term ‘shell out’ at me. But I was also a bit dismayed when I discovered that the ‘shell out’ involves mainly seafood (which if you’d paid enough attention to my earlier posts, I’m not really a fan of) but I’d decided to ‘soldiered on’ for my partner’s sake since he’d been very enthusiastic about it. The place offers 4 main sets for the ‘shell out’ menu (the differences lies within the choices of seafood that you would preferred – the rice, drinks and vegetable soup were otherwise included in all sets) and my partner decided to picked out the menu with a fish dish (Sweet & Sour Fish), a prawn dish (Butter Prawns), a clam dish (Boiled Clams) and a vegetable dish (Sayur Sawi Tumis). Nothing too mind blowing about the dishes though, everything was just so-so in taste. And I don’t know about you guys but I’m not the messy type when it comes to eating so the whole ‘shell out’ scene does not appeal to me that much (because they usually spread out everything on a wide piece of paper so you guys can share the food). But if you also have the same preferences as me, then do not worry since the place also provides other types of cook-to-order dishes.

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

Updated on 05/05/2017 - We've dropped by recently and tried out their ala carte dishes this time. The Nasi Goreng USA and Nasi Lalap Ayam were good but not great.

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