Restoran Indah Damai

As far I remember, this is my first Hi-Tea in Kuala Belait (KB) after almost a year gone... Still tried to recall my last Hi-Tea visit as I want to visit the place again...

I went to Restoran Indah Damai for a short break before heading back home. I was standing in front of the restaurant looking at their menu board till I was greeted friendly by one of their staff...

I reached the restaurant at 5 p.m and I missed their "Happy Hours" which starts at 2p.m till 5p.m and starts again at 9.30p.m till 11p.m. The "Happy Hours" menu are mostly the fried noodles with chicken only; no beef and price wise, it is mostly well under BND3.oo. I remember the Kolo Mee with chicken costs only BND1.50 (I am sure will try it one day because I am in the quest of finding the best Kolo Mee in Brunei).

For the Hi-Tea, they have few sets; different kind of cake comes with coffee. I do not remember if it comes with tea as other option. Be honest, I am not interested with their Hi-Tea menu as the cakes are mostly the cheesecake kind of cakes, therefore I chose their snacks; crispy fried chicken wings with fries.

I know it is a simple choice and anyone can fry chicken wings or fries at home but the taste for sure is different. My snack costs me BND4.50 only; two pieces of chicken wings and generous amount of fries. The chicken wings are crispy but my last wing was a bit salty, so my conclusion; it was not seasoned consistently.

As usual, I am not alone... my companion of the day ordered Chicken curry in the bun which is their special menu as well as their Oreo Cheesecake in the cup. For a brief comment, I do recommend their chicken curry; the taste is bursting with flavours; creamy, hot, spicy, a bit of sweetness and right proportion of salt as well...

The only slack is the bun; the bread is too soft inside out and it absorbs the curry sauce quickly. I remember a friend of mine did take away a mushroom soup in a bread in Bandar (but I do not know which restaurant but will ask her one day) but the outer crust is harder and does not absorb the soup faster. If Restoran Indah Damai can improve the bread, it will be fantastic. Not only it is good value for money which is BND5.50 but also people can savour the deliciousness of curry slowly.

At last not least the Oreo cheesecake.. Oh man! I do not know whether I am eating Oreo cheesecake or Oreo biscuits with whipped cream!!... definitely no cheesecake...and it cost BND3.50...

Another sandwich review

Food fan and I always passed by this cafe in Bandar area and finally last week, we went there to give a try. This cafe is called De Royale cafe and situated next to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

We ordered their submarines and meatballs spaghetti but I am not going to review on the spaghetti as that is food fan speciality. For that day, total cost for our lunch is well under BND30.00; we have two submarines, one spaghetti, Blueberries blend juice (not sure the exact name for food fan drink but I am definitely sure it is blueberries) and Camomile tea for me.

The submarine that I ordered was Chicken mayo with wholemeal bread which cost BND5.60. My first impression when my order being served, the submarine bread was not long as compared to Subway but the filling looks quite thick.

Only with one bite, the first thing that i can taste is saltiness.... oohhh!!! it was too salty!!!....
Definitely not the lettuce, tomato, egg and cucumber or even the bread but it was the chicken. The chicken meat was minced and I can't taste the chicken flavour, it was only salt and mayonaise...

Be honest, if the chicken meat was sliced instead of minced and less less salt (since they have added single slice of cheese and uneven spread of mustard to it), I will give a thumb up for it as the thickness of the bread, tomato, boiled egg, cucumber is right as well as the portion of the lettuce.

I am particular when it comes to veggies portion being laid on my sandwich and I am sometimes disappointed when it was only thin slices of cucumber...

The other submarine that Food fan had was Corned Beef with wholemeal bread and it was salty as well...

So, for that day after lunch, both of us had salty taste remains at our tongue for an hour...

Simple sandwich for BND5... Anyone?

Couple of weeks ago in Kuala Belait (KB), my friend and I have tried out a newly open cafe called TP cafe. The cafe is located in KB town itself, not far from WYWY enterprise.



When we visited this cafe, it was only started for two weeks but since it is considered as one of the local hotel's cafe, I have put high expectation in terms of the menu. The menu is simple not much of choice; there is no heavy food such as noodle or rice dishes but few line of finger foods.



We have ordered their chicken ham, egg and cheese panini which cost us BND5.00 and for drinks; Camomile tea for me and Earl's grey tea for my friend. Not much is available at that time; not even simple samosa.



The Panini filling taste just nice however we are disappointed with the bread... We did not expect it to be a normal white slice bread. When we read PANINI, we are expecting like ciabatta kind of bread...



Can the bread be at least a wholemeal bread and grilled as it costs 5 bucks? or baguette as another option...

Bakerlyn Cafe- Hi Tea

It was an unplanned Hi Tea but it worths the visit. Bakerlyn cafe is newly open around some time this year but for sure the name is familiar to most people due to their bakery shop.

Food fan and I was recommended to their Hi Tea 'good for two' but in my opinion, if you are kind of hungry after doing some shopping, it will be good for two or otherwise, three will be fine too.

The food was nicely presented on two tier tray and comes with a pot of English tea which was free flow- amazing!.. Even so, we did have other drinks as well which was also recommended to have a go. Honestly, I forgot what the drinks called however, it was really refreshing and exotic.

The followings are what we had for our Hi Tea;

• Pandesal


• Japanese curry puff


• Banana cheese puff


• Mini vanilla custard


• Scones


• Blueberry cheese cake


• Crunchy hazelnut cake


• Fresh cream fruit cake


• Mango pudding


• Eclair


• French fries


• Fried chicken wings

A lot of varieties, right? Every pastries and cakes come in two pieces or slices except for the chicken wings. If I am not mistaken, it was four to six pieces (wings have been cut into two) and all of the above cost for BND29.90 only (exclude our additional drinks).

Not much to comment on fried chicken wings, japanese curry puff, pandesal and banana cheese puff from my side. In brief, the chicken wings are well seasoned- not too salty, the puffs are not too oily where you can see the wraps look like being soaked in oil, the pandesal is soft and spongy but personally, i do not really fancy the banana cheese puff .

The mini vanilla custard and mango pudding are just the normal custard and pudding in a cup to us, however the most important is the sweetness was just right.

The cakes are awesome especially the crunchy hazelnut cake and fresh cream fruit cake. The textures are soft and light, the moment you put it into your mouth it melts with your saliva and the flavours lingers for a while. My vote will be the crunchy hazelnut cake, it is so yummy and I had it for my family's birthday cake twice and they love it. For chocolate lover, I am sure you will like this cake.

We understand that eclairs are not commonly sell here like in UK, nevertheless, Bakerlyn's eclairs are good enough for us locally.

I purposely put our comments on scones to the last as we are very particular on this one. We personally have tried a lot of scones before including the home-made one. The scones served to us comes with the cream and the strawberry jam. In Food fan's opinion, it is better one so far here in Brunei and with heavy heart, I have to agreed with Food fan about this. However, we are still in the quest searching for the perfect buttery and tastier scones made in Brunei.

Oh no! Not another food review site

Yes... I know. Why would anyone want to create another food review site... especially one based in Brunei.

Well, we love food.

Correction, we love GOOD food.

I personally find it difficult to find really good quality food whenever we go out to eat nowadays. Cheap food replaces quality which is a shame because Bruneians deserve better.

What I mean by cheap food is not just the price but also the quality of the ingredients. Don't get me wrong, Cheap can be good but most of the time... NOT. Why should we sacrifice quality just so we can eat cheap. (I really hope you know what I am talking about.. feel free to leave a comment if you don't)

So, a friend and I are going to go round restaurants, kedai makan india, small food shops, bakeries basically wherever our nose and tummy brings us and sample the delicacies offered. We will be as honest as possible without being offensive (take note of that food lover)... or at least we will try to be, I mean if the food is bad... its bad.

We are not getting paid by anyone to write up these reviews.... so all food bills will be borne by us.. and that's one policy we won't change.

What we are going to do, how we are going to do it is a work in progress. We aim to be as fair as possible.

Now... on to the reviews