G Cafe (KK FoodieVenture #103)

Since we’re staying at the Gaya Centre Hotel and my mom is a morning person (specifically a morning person that requires an early breakfast to boot) I’ve decided to include the hotel’s breakfast buffet onto our room price when I booked via Agoda.com. The hotel actually has a lounge (appropriately named the G Lounge) for a more relaxed drink on the ground floor while the main eatery is on the 4^th floor.

The breakfast that we had were pretty sufficient, with a sizeable choice of food, (very) swift refillings and (an even swifter) cleaning of your tables. I do appreciate the staff being fast on their feet and all but it can get a tad annoying especially when they picked up your plate right after you’d barely finished your meal. Daily variety of their main dishes might be on the limited side (there were Fried Rice, Fried Noodles and vegetables prepared throughout our entire stay) but at least they did try to alternate the cooking style of said dishes each day. But do be warned though that they do impose a RM50 penalty should you waste their buffet food. And I don’t blame them since I did saw a few tourists (from that country) that has this habit of taking big portions of food that they later decide might not be worthy of their bellies and just leave them on their tables as if nothing happens. But overall, I personally think that it is still worth the extra price that I’ve paid for their breakfast; no major complaints there.

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Outward Vacay: Gaya Centre Hotel

I’ll spare you guys the details as to why I’m suddenly back in KK just last week (cough *family wedding* cough) and go straight for the good stuff okay? So this time around, we (and by that I mean me, my partner & mommy dearest) decided to take up residence at the Gaya Centre Hotel mainly due to the very affordable price for 2 rooms. And yes, it’s obviously a bonus that their location was just superb; being just across the street from the Suria Sabah mall.

One thing that is immediately apparent about the interior of the lobby was that it resembles an office building rather than a hotel. And its no wonder since my mom did mention that it was originally said building back in the day. But nevertheless, we were assigned to our rooms hassle free (plus a deposit of RM100 per room) and coincidentally right next to each other (with my partner being all cheery that he got a room all by himself... hmmpph). Now I did read some reviews beforehand and was not expecting much but I personally think that the rooms were not that bad at all. Granted, it does need some sort of refurbishing and a good old scrubbing here and there but overall it was still very comfortable. I just love the hard bed and generous pillows as well as the steady flow of hot water in the showers. There wasn’t any funky smell coming from our bathrooms either as describe by several patrons (or maybe we just got lucky). But I do noticed that my partner’s room was slightly better looking than ours (again, double hmmpph) and there was this cockroach that decided to grace us with its presence one night.

Oh and I do notice several designated parking spots right beside the hotel but it seems that it was on a first come first serve basis and chargeable at a certain fee (sorry, I can’t tell you guys much about it since we’d flown to KK instead of driving this time around).

Overall…

Type – Standard Twin

Room – 3/5 (they definitely should think of refurbishing the place, even just a little)

Price – 4/5 (pretty value for money if you booked via online travelling sites)

Service – 5/5 (smiles and politeness all around – keep it up guys)

Décor – 3/5 (for real though, they really should do something about the office like atmosphere)

Facilities – 4/5 (no pools but they do have a gym, a convenient store, cafes and lounges within the premise)

Location – 5/5 (literally just steps away from the Suria Sabah mall and is also walkable to the Gaya Street and several other malls nearby)

 FYI, these are pics of the lobby area...

 ... our rooms...

 ... and the view from our rooms

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Kedai Kopi Mee Tauhu Nurhana

Let us start a new month with a breakfast post shall we? I’ve actually intended to post this earlier but I kept forgetting to do so, so hopefully everything is still relevant. Located right beside its main rival at the Ba Zhong commercial area, the eatery has been thriving as of late. And just like their next door neighbour, they offered mainly breakfast food such as the infamous Mee Tauhu as well as Nasi Kuning. Me and my partner tried the former and it was definitely delicious but nothing out of the ordinary I’m afraid. The noodles have a slightly better texture than its rival but their ‘tauhu’ was okay at best. Then a few weeks later we had their Nasi Kuning Ikan and it faired slightly better than the latter but not too memorable as well. Nevertheless, this could be a new breakfast spot for all Mee Tauhu lovers in Tawau so do try them out yourselves.  

** Current status – Still in operation (as of July 2019) 

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Restoran Bismi Bistro

Located not too far off from my residential area (they’re within the Muhibbah Square commercial area, right in front of a G-Mart supermarket) and is related to the other ‘bistros’ all over town (meaning – every restaurant with the word ‘bistro’ in their name & yes… I’m not kidding), I have stopped by this particular restaurant several times whenever I need to go to the aforementioned supermarket with my mom. There’s nothing much to comment about their establishment since it’s your typical Indian Muslim eatery but their food was actually quite nice and tasty. We’d tried out their Nasi Campur, Nasi Briyani Ayam and Mee Hoon Goreng Lalap Ayam (on separate occasions) and all of the food have above average tastes. At least they did not sacrifice the taste of their food just because they looked like your average ‘kedai kopi’ from the outside right? Overall, I’ll definitely be coming back should they keep up with the quality of their food and fairly good service.     

** Current status – Still in operation (as of June 2019) 

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Horizon Cafe, Sushi & Boutique

I’m always on a look out for cosy and modern looking cafés in town and one such newly established place in this café. Well, I’m not too sure about the ‘boutique’ part (since I do not see any clothing items being sold within the place) but then again, they might meant it differently (maybe a ‘small’ and ‘exclusive’ café perhaps?). Either way the eatery is definitely a great place to hang out with some friends for some chit chat as it was a very calming place. They’re located within the Kubota Sentral commercial area, right next to this wine bar called Brillo Winery.

Although the food selection is not that extensive (at the moment), there were still some staple western/ Japanese food that were available. Me and my partner were in the mood to try out their Japanese dishes so we decided upon their Chicken Teriyaki Rice and their Chicken Katsu Curry Rice. My partner was thoroughly happy with his dish while my curry rice was okay but I’ve tasted better offerings elsewhere. I’d also tried out their Fererro Rocher Cheese cake and it was commendable and has a balance cheese flavour. There were also some pre-packed sushi should you’re interested in those (hence their name I guess). But the waiting time for their food to be prepared takes longer than expected (since there were only 2 tables that were occupied that night) so hopefully they’ll improved on that in the future.

** Current status – Still in operation but they now occupy the back half of said shoplot - in front of Truedan (as of July 2020) 

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