cafes

Dotty’s Café and Bakery @ TTDI

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Salted Egg Cronut

This is the home of the famous salted egg yolk cronut.

Dottys Cafe

We dropped by Dotty’s Café this morning after seeing that they were serving hot food for the first time this weekend. It was our Sunday morning brunch option of the week and we weren’t disappointed. I was actually a little apprehensive that the place would be packed considering its their “opening weekend” (of sorts) but it was quite manageable.

Dottys Cafe Bakery

Predictably, most people came here to take away boxes and boxes of their salted egg cronuts. I asked about the availability when we got there at 10:30 am and they were all sold out! I had to wait for the 12:30 pm batch. We ordered breakfast while contemplating whether to wait or not – part of me wanted to just wait for the hype to die down before sampling it but since my better half didn’t mind, we sat there until the next batch came out.

Doughnut Latte

Doughnut Latte (RM 14)
This is a really quirky item that Homer Simpson would absolutely adore. My dear wanted to try it and I was curious too after seeing it on their Facebook. It’s a hot donut that’s topped with ice cream with a pitcher of latte on the side. It works a little like an affogato – you basically pour the latte into the doughnut. This has the magical effect of partially melting the ice cream and making the donut soggy.

Latte Donut

It’s surprisingly good to wolf down bites of the warm coffee-infused doughnut with the colder ice cream as a contrast.

Salted Caramel Latte

Salted Caramel Latte (RM 13)
It’s pretty good but I would have liked the caramel to be saltier. I’m a huge fan of salted caramel and personally always tend to go more savory but there’s nothing wrong with Dotty’s implementation. They also have brews like Coconut Milk Latte (RM 14) which would be ideal for vegans, organic food lovers and hipsters alike. smirk

Baked Eggs

Baked Eggs (RM 26)
We shared this for breakfast. It was one of only three (3) items available on their menu today. I think most of them were sold out, I originally wanted a Salt Beef Sandwich (RM 26) but it wasn’t available. That said, the bread was simply out of this world! It should be noted that Dotty’s Café is also a bakery and all their bread is freshly baked. You can taste the wonderful bread here, there’s sour dough (which goes very well with butter) and slices of brown toast which went perfectly with the baked eggs.

Mixed Berries Pavlova

Mixed Berries Pavlova (RM 10)
I went to New Zealand to study high school when I was 15 years old and have eaten a lot of pavlovas over there. I’ve also eaten a lot in Australia but have always felt that pavlova is more of a Kiwi thing, they do it a lot better. This implementation is also good – there are just three ingredients, the pavlova shells, crème patisserie and berries and it’s a testament to their baking skills that these 3 go so well together.

Making Salted Egg Yolk Cronut

Salted Egg Yolk Cronut (RM 11)
We waited hours for this to come out and finally the floor manager (?) took one out before the 12:30 pm batch and served it to us. I thought it was nice of him to personally do that, and was a bit puzzled when he warned us that it’ll be hot and to wait for it to cool down. It wasn’t hot and I later found out the reason why – it can’t be hot, or the structure of the cronut will be compromised.

Salted Egg Yolk Cronut

The salted egg yolk cronut (which is a combination of a croissant and a donut, texture wise, just in case anyone has been living under a rock for the past few years) was really good. I can see why people would wait for this. The thick and generous amount of butter and salted egg appealed to me immensely – it was mouth-wateringly delicious!

Cronut

The beautiful thing about the salted egg yolk cronut is that the insides are filled with the butter-salted egg combination too. It’s very rich and creamy.

Dottys Cafe Us

The salted egg yolk cronut is something you have to eat at Dotty’s Café and Bakery. You can take away of course but I personally feel it doesn’t taste the same if left to its own devices for too long. They have a wide range of freshly baked goods (and salads) as well as hot food so we’ll be back again to have brunch another weekend to try their other stuff. The meal cost RM 75 for the both of us, which is cheaper than our usual brunch outings. Dotty’s is located at Jalan Tun Mohd Faud 2 in TTDI.

De Vulture Café, Sibu

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De Vulture Cafe Sibu

I caught up with my ex classmate Chew Yieng and her husband last night for dinner. I haven’t seen her in a while, I used to hang out at her house when I was 15 and back for winter break – she had a really awesome pool that we swam in at 2 am in the morning. Haha. It’s been a long time since those days, we were all in New Zealand back then.

De Vulture Cafe

I heard that she was back from China and based in Sibu now so it was good to catch up. We had dinner at De Vulture Café, which just opened a few days ago (!!!). I was quite surprised to see a lot of people here since it’s a little out of the way, but there’s a huge local community in the Ulu Sungai Merah area

Jug Orange Juice

The café is decked out like a ship with real doors and ports scavenged from a real vessel.

Grilled Lamb Chop with Yoghurt Mint Sauce

Grilled Lamb Chop with Yoghurt Mint Sauce (RM 19.90)
I had this for my dinner. I thought the portion was decent but it was the yoghurt mint sauce that I really enjoyed. It tasted good. They serve a wide range of “Western” dishes from the usual grilled chicken/beef/lamb to sandwiches/burgers/tortillas.

Fish and Chips with Tartar Sauce

Fish & Chips with Tartar Sauce (RM 15.90)
This was Chew Yieng’s order. They had come here the day before and wanted to bring me someplace new to try out. There has been a bit of a boom in the café/restaurant business in Sibu nowadays, heaps of new places have sprung out and even more surprisingly, there seems to be a market to sustain it.

Chew Yieng HB

The food at De Vulture Café is reasonable but not particularly impressive. I may be the wrong person to ask since I’m based in KL and there are so many options there which are better but I guess it’s pretty decent for Sibu standards. I liked their orange juice (RM 16 for a jug) and it’s a nice place to chill. It was awesome to catch up with Chew Yieng again, so much time has passed since our school days. See ya all when I’m back for Chinese New Year! 🙂

Metal Box Restaurant and Café, Empire Damansara

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Metal Box

Metal Box Café has been generating a lot of buzz lately. Word is, the chef came from The Red Beanbag, the popular and perennially packed eating establishment in Publika. We popped over for breakfast and we were very happy with the food here. It’s a lot more vibrant compared to the (admittedly) bland stuff from The Red Beanbag.

Metal Box Cafe Restaurant

The interior of Metal Box is made to look exactly like the namesake – full of shipping containers. The industrial chic look is accented by the steel girders, faux metal container and pictures of a loading dock. Service here is prompt and friendly. We stayed for a while to chat while eating our dessert and didn’t feel pressured to leave despite the place being full.

Incredible Waffle

Incredible Waffle (RM 23.90)
My better half chose one of their new dishes. This is a crispy liege waffle served with guacamole, choice of beef bacon or turkey ham paired with garden greens and 68 degree egg (slightly higher than a 63 degree egg). I loved the texture of the waffle, it goes very well with the 68°C egg and everything is seasoned well. This place doesn’t serve pork but strangely has a lot of red wine and Guinness infused items/sauces on the menu.

Metal-Box Baked Egg

Metal-Box Baked Egg (RM 19.90)
I was craving for baked eggs and opted to have this. There are 2 soft baked free-range eggs in a pot with sliced smoked chicken breast, diced chicken sausage, potato & eggplant, homemade cannellini beans in tomato coulis baked to perfection. This is topped with freshly grated Gruyère cheese and freshly baked French sour dough on the side. I really liked the zesty flavors in this dish – the abundance of premium homemade ingredients really shines though too.

Salted Egg Chocolate Lava

Salted Egg Chocolate Lava (RM 19.90)
This golden centered lava cake is paired with mixed berries and vanilla bean ice cream. It’s wonderful! It tastes like lau sar pao (Chinese dim sum dessert bun made with salted eggs) meets West. The salted egg is ingenious – people often add sea salt, salted caramel or something else to make the flavors pop but this is the first time I’ve seen salted egg used.

Salted Egg Dessert

It goes perfectly, flavor wise and the quality vanilla bean ice cream (you can even see the small dots) is delicious. I would go again just for this.

Metal Box Empire Damansara

Metal Box Café and Restaurant is located at Empire Damansara and it looks like the most popular F&B outlet there. It can be very packed during weekends and if you want the best seats in the house, go for the al fresco tables at the back. There are green shrubs and flowing water to make your morning even more chill and relaxing. I highly recommend it, it’s the right combination of great food and awesome ambience.

Barks Bunnies Café

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Barks Bunnies Cafe

The name of the café is an obvious play on a certain WB cartoon. We didn’t actually know this was a “pet café” until we stepped through the doors. I was at the Subang Jaya area with my better half and we just wanted to have a very quick lunch and headed to the nearest place that has parking. That was how we ended up at this rabbit café.

Bunny Cafe

I didn’t take note of the name and it surprised me quite a bit when I saw an enclosure for rabbits to the side. “Dear, it’s one of those rabbit cafes!” I exclaimed. Oh well, doesn’t matter as long as the food was good. This place is pet friendly and some people bring their dogs inside. I know because I did bring my lab here twice already. I got her some pudding since some dogs prefer wet food. There was a resident canine on the premises too.

Chicken Pesto Sandwich

Chicken Pesto Sandwich (RM 13.50)
My dear ordered this coz she saw a sign outside advertising this special. It was plated quite decently, with fries on the bottom and the toasted sandwich sitting on top of the heavily seasoned potatoes. I had a bite and it looked better than it tasted. It wasn’t bad per se, it just wasn’t good either. My better half didn’t finish it.

Ellies Cold Pressed Orange Juice

Ellie’s Cold Pressed Orange Juice (RM 7)
This was pretty good though, can’t go wrong with a drink in a bottle.

Ameri-Cola

Ameri-Cola (RM 12)
What sorcery is this??? Described as “double shot of espresso over Coca Cola on ice”, it would shock most coffee purists. I thought it sounded like a potentially nice combination though and went for it. It wasn’t, but I’m glad I tried it. Haha.

Macaroni Cheese

Macaroni & Cheese (RM 14.50)
I had imagined this to be a creamy 3-cheese mac. I had been craving for a nice mac & cheese for ages and this wasn’t it. The dish that came out was excessively watery, with not much cheese to speak of. I didn’t finish it either.

Kafe Barks Bunnies

Barks Bunnies Café is one of those places you go for the pets, not the food. You can actually touch the rabbits and bring your own cats and dogs, which might be a plus point for animal lovers. The service from the college-aged looking girl was quite good, she asked us if the food was alright since she noticed we didn’t even eat half and I told her there’s a lot of room for improvement and she said the chef is new and she’ll relay my comments to him. We won’t be back to see but let’s hope that’s true.

Café Madeleine Bistro, Oasis Square

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Café Madeleine Bistro

My better half told me about a café cum bakery that’s supposed to be quite good and we drove down to Oasis Square to check it out. It says Restaurant Madeline on the signboard but this is actually Café Madeleine Bistro – they have several other outlets in Sunway and Monash (even one in Sunway Medical Centre I remember from my doctor shopping days).

Café Madeleine

There’s an vague Australian vibe in the interior décor with the large central table/bar and magazines lining the shelves on the sides and it seemed like a great place for weekend brunches. The service was a little on the Chinese side (it’s unusual to see so many local Chinese waiters in the era of foreign help) but functional, if unremarkable.

Affogato (RM 8.50)

Affogato

This is a bit of a disaster – the ice cream in this affogato is instantly recognizable as the cheap locally produced Nestle “ice cream” (not sure if it meets the criteria for ice cream since it’s quite low in real butterfat and undoubtedly has palm oil as a substitute). I tasted it and my dear tasted it and we looked at each other and said “Nestle“. That’s how bad it was. To be fair, the whole thing tasted better after the shot of espresso was poured in, but if I wanted Nestle crap I would have made it at home, even my home has higher quality ice cream.

Hot Chocolate (RM 11)

Hot Chocolate

This was my better half’s order and it seemed to go down alright.

Cappuccino (RM 10)

Cappuccino

The waiter actually forgot my order – he thought I just wanted the affogato. I had to remind him to get my drink. Like I said, the service was dreary but I got the feeling that they did try their best…their best is just not good enough. smirk

Teacher’s Pet (RM 15)

Teachers Pet

This is a croissant sandwich with a filling of tuna or chicken ham. Yeah, I didn’t know it was pork free either. My dear’s order, she tried valiantly to finish it. Notice the pepper? I’ll go into that soon.

Madeleine’s Signature Chicken Bravo (RM 25)

Madeleine Signature Chicken Bravo

This is supposed to be “Cajun marinated whole leg served with 2 side dishes”. There’s nothing Cajun about it, and it was way too salty. It also looked like they spilled the pepper shaker on our dishes – everything was covered with pepper! This wasn’t an optional “Hey, I’ll grind a bit on your plate if you want some” deal, it came out like this! Pepper on everything, including the side salad. I was aghast and had to force myself to eat it, although I didn’t finish it. The sauce was disgustingly salty and it was pre-poured on everything, even the (pepper filled) mash potatoes.

Macarons (RM 4.50/piece)

Café Madeleine Macarons

This was the only redeeming feature of our lunch. My dear told me they’re better known for their baked goods (it’s called Madeleine Patisserie after all) and we had one each of Lemon, Summer Love (mixture of berries), Salted Caramel. They’re nowhere close to the likes of Pierre Hermé, Ladurée or even Adriano Zumbo of course, I only made the comparison due to their faux French name. The macarons tasted good, but until today I’m not sure if it’s coz the meal was so bad that they tasted good in comparison.

Café Madeleine Oasis Square

I’ll say avoid at all costs unless you plan on just having the baked goods. The kitchen didn’t impress at all, the food was horrible and overseasoned. I also didn’t like the use of cheap commercial ice cream in their affogato. The bill came up to RM 83 for the two of us, and we would have had a much better meal pretty much anywhere. We won’t be coming back when there are so many good cafes out there. Don’t be fooled by my dear’s great food photography, this place is at best a 1/10.

Rebellions Coffee Bar, Kota Damansara

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Rebellions

We were at Rebellions Coffee Bar over the weekend to see what it’s like. It’s the first time we’ve all been here, my better half had an appointment with a New Zealand Trade representative (thanks for all the stuff from NZ) and we decided on this place to have coffee. Interestingly, we were told that it looks very similar to a popular café in Auckland in terms in interior décor.

No 106 Cold Brew

I had the No.106 Cold Brew (RM 13). This is the Black version which consists of Finca Santa Teresa beans from Panama. It’s served in a 150 ml bottle (about half a pint) and came under the heading “Filter Coffee”. It came with a cork stopper and is supposed to be poured over ice cubes – this tasted very fruity and lacked the caffeine punch I’m used to.

Tafufa Cheesecake

We also had the Taufufa Cheesecake with Gula Melaka Ginger Syrup. I thought this was a really interesting slice of cake! It’s made with tau fu fa (tofu/soybean pudding) as a local twist, further compounded by the use of palm sugar. It’s not as rich as a traditional Philadelphia cheese cake but that’s the point. The lightness is wonderful and I like how the ginger syrup cuts through the richness.

Flat White

This is the Flat White (RM 11) which the NZT representative had. She just came back from New Zealand and it’s noteworthy to point out that flat white originated down under too, first in Australia and then in New Zealand. Rebellions Coffee Bar made it with nice latte art on top.

Lychee Rose Macaron Cake

We also had a slice of the Lychee Rose – a decadent three-layered cake with frosting covering each layer. It also had a smattering of toasted pistachio nuts and a lychee rose macaron on each slice. I shared the macaron with my better half and while it wasn’t mind-blowing (we’ve had the best macarons in France and the famous Zumbarons from Australia) the cake as a whole was quite decent.

Nutella Chocolate Bomb

My better half ordered the Nutella Chocolate Bomb (RM 16) which according to the barista is a *calorie bomb*. Haha. Yup, Rebellionz also serve chai, milk and hot chocolate based drinks under “Maybe Something Else”. There’s a ball of ice cream inside the drink which tastes like chocolate. It’s not very sweet although it seems like it would be. I like how the lip of the tall glass is smeared with Nutella, much like how the rim of a margarita would be crusted with rock salt – it’s a very nice touch.

Rebellions Coffee Bar

I thought Rebellions Coffee Bar is a nice new addition to the Dataran Sunway area with good coffee and cake. There are a lot of cafes here though and F&B outlets don’t last long – a good example would be Flaming Melt, which closed down months after opening. The traffic is horrible but if you can survive there is a captive market here.

Cold Brewed Coffee

Rebellions Coffee Bar
2-1, Jalan PJU 5/4
Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara

Yeast Bistronomy @ Mid Valley Megamall, KL

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Yeast KL

Yeast Bistronomy started out in the prestigious Jalan Telawi 2 address in Bangsar but expanded to Mid Valley Megamall earlier this year. I go to Mid Valley quite often during the weekdays but I seldom see people inside except for the odd couple or so enjoying a glass of wine. It’s part bistro, part bakery and part café and it really is owned by a French.

Yeast Bistronomy

Yeast is actually more of a boulangerie but they also serve a small selection of hot plates, just like some of its French counterparts. We were there over the weekend and was surprised to see quite a lot of people inside. They also have an al fresco area at the pavilion type extensions you see in the F&B outlets on the same frontage between Mid Valley and The Gardens.

Croissant au Jambon et au Fromage (RM 26)

Croissant Jambon Fromage

This is a ham and cheese croissant (which they swapped with a delicious herb loaf baked in-house coz they ran out of croissants) with a side of green salad and fries. I thought the use of this bread tastes much better than a croissant (although they have different textures) and the ham (real ham, not turkey ham or nonsense like that) and cheese combo was very comforting.

Caffe Vergnano Cappuccino (RM 12)

Caffe Vergnano Cappuccino

This is quite unusual. Yeast only uses Caffe Vergnano 1882 and all orders are *Double Shots* – that means you’re getting two (2) espressos in each order, not for the faint-hearted or caffeine intolerant. This is a very popular brand of coffee that is made by Italians in London and have even received praise from Gordon Ramsay.

Escargots à la Bourguignonne (RM 25)

Escargots a la Bourguignonne

Snails! Who doesn’t love escargots? I’m a huge fan of them and there’s nothing quite like eating this dish in a Paris bistro, it’s as common as French Onion Soup (with a croute covering the entire top). The ones at Yeast don’t come with the shell of the snail but in most restaurants, the shells are decorative anyway, escargots comes in huge cans for restaurants, unless you’re eating in a Michelin star restaurant.

Valrhona Chocolate Chaud (RM 16)

Valrhona Chocolate Chaud

We actually didn’t see this in the menu at first and when I perused it the second time I knew I had to order it for my dear. She quite liked it, although it wasn’t as thick as the one we had in Paris. Valrhona is a very popular brand of chocolate for cooking in France, we stocked up with a lot of their single origin 70 gram bars a while back.

Yeast Bistronomy KL

Yeast serves decent food and very reasonable prices, especially for their wonderful coffee. The bill came up to RM 83.75 for the two of us. The best thing about Yeast is that they don’t charge 10% service charge, it’s the standard 6% GST only and this is advertised quite prominently at their outlet in Mid Valley. It’s a nice place to go for a quick bite to eat in the afternoon if you’re into French casual.

Birthday Dinner @ Payung Cafe Sibu

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Payung Cafe Sibu

“Don’t you want to go to some other place?” I asked my better half. She’s been eating at the exact same two places last time she was here – Aloha Cafe for lunch and Payung Cafe for dinner, so I suggested Baba & Siam but she really liked the durian ice cream we had last time at Payung Cafe so we ended up here for dinner, three days after we had another huge dinner with my sister and her family (who also loves Payung). smirk

This is my birthday dinner – my dear had flown down from KL to celebrate slightly less than 24 hours with me and we had:

Guava Salad (RM 8)

Guava Salad

This is our starter. Payung Cafe has a range of salads and most of them are great. I especially recommend the Herbs Salad (RM 8) but since it was a hot day, we went for the Guava Salad. It’s a lovely dish of guava with calamansi lime, crushed nuts and other herbs. It’s extremely refreshing!

Mushroom Roll (RM 8)

Mushroom Roll

This is a dish that has gone through many, many recipe tweaks since it was first introduced 8 years ago. I was among the first people in Sibu who first came when Payung Cafe opened in 2008 and spread the word that it was a great al fresco dining place offering the best of South East Asian (and a couple of Western) dishes.

Starfruit Prawns (RM 16)

Starfruit Prawns

I love this stuff – it’s starfruit (carambola) cooked with large prawns. There are three inside and the rest is cut up starfruits and other vegetables. It makes for a good combination. My dad ordered this one.

Thai Green Curry Chicken (RM 19)

Thai Green Curry

My better half’s order – she didn’t even have to think twice. Thai green curry is usually very spicy (at least if you eat the original from Thailand) but this is a much more muted interpretation meant for sensitive local palates.

Otak-Otak Fish (RM 12)

Otak Otak Ikan

This is a Payung Cafe staple that we all ordered to share. It’s homemade and all of their dishes comes with rice (RM 2) and we also wanted to have otak otak so the owners were kind enough to deduct RM 1 from our fourth dish – we ordered four in total for a party of 3 so we didn’t need the extra. It’s usually RM 13.

Sour Chicken (RM 18)

Sour Chicken

This is one of their daily specials. I’ve had the duck version and I like how they use Cambodian spices and herbs to make this dish – it’s quite nice. Payung Cafe also uses chicken legs only in their dishes so you’ll get cuts of drums and thighs.

Mulu Ice Cream (RM 10)

Mulu Ice Cream

We ordered one dessert for each person – this is mine, the ever-changing Mulu Ice Cream. This too has gone through several revisions, it used to be round, then a square slice, then a rectangular slice. It’s not cake – this is a sandwich of two chocolate ice cream layers with muesli in between, which is then topped with vanilla ice cream. I really like this coz of the textural aspects, there’s muesli sprinkled on top too.

Durian Ice Cream (RM 8)

Durian Ice Cream

This is a delicious concoction of homemade vanilla ice cream with durian paste. It’s delicious when they’ve just made it and it tastes like real durians instead of dodol (a local confection made with durians). It’s the reason my better half loves this place.

Jelly Pisang (RM 8)

Jelly Pisang

This is a classic Sibu dessert – it used to be served with shaved ice and bananas and Jello. Nowadays, it’s almost extinct. To the best of my knowledge, there’s only two places who still serves this – Peppers Cafe @ Tanahmas Hotel and here. This is the higher end version with homemade ice cream. It’s pictured next to Roselle Juice (RM 6) – a refreshing drink made from the roselle plant. It’s misspelled as Roxelle Juice in the menu.

Payung Cafe Birthday

It’s a wonderful dinner, made even better with the awesome company – my dad and my better half. My dad insisted of picking up the bill and treating us to the meal since it’s my birthday. The total for the three of us came up to RM 132 which is very reasonable for the amount we ordered and true to this word, the owner took RM 1 off the bill. 🙂

Flaming Melt @ Kota Damansara

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flaming melt

I’ve watched this grilled cheese café with great interest. I live around the corner and usually eat here at night so I’ve seen it grown from an empty lot being painted and renovated to the opening day. However, I had to go back to Sibu to finalize some stuff for my late mom so we didn’t visit until a couple of days ago.

flaming melt kota damansara

The Flaming Melt is a self-service restaurant (kinda, sorta). You order at the fast food style counter with a very familiar ordering experience for quick service restaurants aficionados and the food gets delivered to your table. The service was really good for a QSR – the Japanese-style Welcomes and Goodbyes are in full effect here (and it is a Japanese custom, you just don’t holler like that in the States, diner or deli).

flaming melt menu

The friendly lady behind the counter asked us what we wanted and we asked for recommendations. We finally went with the two best-sellers:

BBQ Pulled Chicken Melt (RM 11.90)
Homemade BBQ Pulled Chicken, Mac ‘N’ Cheese, Cheddar

BBQ Pulled Chicken Melt

My better half had this (actually we each had half of each other’s order since the sandwiches are conveniently sliced in half for sharing) and I quite liked it. You can add RM 2.90 for a soda (the usual suspects) but we opted to order a la carte and get a milkshake instead. The chicken was slightly dry but I love the addition of macaroni and cheese to the sandwich!

That’s exactly how I like mine! The creamy addition of mac and cheese really made this sandwich, although I would have preferred a more generous helping. It’s still good comfort food.

Tomato Sriracha Chicken Melt (RM 11.90)
Chicken, Chopped Tomatoes, Sriracha, Cheddar

Tomato Sriracha Chicken Melt

This is as Americana as it gets. A grilled cheese sandwich with Sriracha sauce! Sriracha sauce is a hot sauce that is popular in the US. This is the green capped rooster sauce made by Huy Fong Foods, not the generic ones you actually get in Thailand (which tastes different). You can add RM 3 for your bread to be changed to wholemeal.

I was lamenting the fact that the sandwiches don’t come with some type of side starch like French fries but you can get that as a side order and the red cabbage coleslaw is delicious!

S’mores Melt (RM 10.90)
Homemade Strawberry Compote, Marshmallows, Nutella

Smores Melt

I got this one to share since I wanted a dessert sandwich to finish our lunch. They can actually serve it after you’re done with your “mains” upon request! I asked them to prepare it only when we’re done and that’s what they did, which I thought was nice in a QSR. The marshmallows goes very well with the homemade strawberry compote and it’s all dusted with sugar. I couldn’t taste the Nutella though.

Best eaten while hot, the melted marshmallows are heavenly. I just wish there were (s)more. smirk

oreo milkshake

We also ordered an Oreo Milkshake (RM 7.90) to share. Flaming Melt has a variety of shakes and sodas and this one came with a full Oreo cookie on top. It was suitably rich, while not the best milkshake I had, it did hit the spot nicely. Our lunch came up to RM 42.60 and we also got a RM 2 coupon off our next order.

flaming melt bill

Flaming Melt has a RM 8.90 breakfast special for their set of The Classic (mozzarella, cheddar) with tea or coffee on weekday mornings. It’s too bad this outlet doesn’t serve pork coz I felt that it limited the choices of their grilled cheese sandwiches. Flaming Melt is billing itself as Everything Grilled Cheese and I think they’re trying very hard to get there.

flaming melt grilled cheese

It’s the Malaysian version of Spencer Rubin’s Melt Shop – at least, the signage and color scheme reminded me of that Manhattan grilled cheese restaurant which put sinful comfort food back on the trendy food map.

Flaming Melt
17-1, Jalan PJU 5/10
Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara
03-6150 4248

Black Star Pastry’s Strawberry Watermelon Cake with Rose Scented Cream

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black star newtown

There are two outlets in town but there’s really only one place to get your Black Star Pastry fix – the original patisserie at Newtown. The massive crowds stretching down the block, the Newtown chic grunge patrons, the punk rock waitress posing for the camera. You just can’t beat the ambience, even if you’re packed tighter than sardines in can.

black star pastries

…and the thing to have here is their Strawberry and Watermelon Cake with Rose Scented Cream. It’s what they’re famous for. Hell, it comes up as soon as you type “Black Star Pastry” into your good friend Google.

Strawberry Watermelon Cake with Rose Scented Cream (AUD 6.50)
Fresh, light, fragrant. This cake consists of two layers of almond dacquoise, fresh whipped cream, watermelon, strawberries, Iranian pistachios and rose petals.

Strawberry Watermelon Cake with Rose Scented Cream

This is their signature item and it’s the reason why people queue up. It’s constantly sold out and if you want it on a plate, you’ll be better off trying at their (much larger) sister outlet in Rosebery, which was practically empty when I was there. I had it to go but decided to crowd into one of the eclectic seats with rocks (!!!) as tables to eat them.

newtown black star pastry

It’s a beautiful cake and it tastes even better than it looks! The description of the cake pretty much says it all – the flavor combination of berries, the refreshing watermelon and the delicate rose petals hidden in the cream is, for a lack of a better term, divine. If you’ve never had a watermelon cake before, I suggest you rectify that as soon as humanly possible.

Orange Cake with Persian Fig

I highly recommend the Orange Cake with Persian Fig (AUD 4) too. I asked the waitress what people ordered besides the Strawberry Watermelon Cake and got this one. This tall, cylindrical delight is made from whole boiled oranges, garnished with cheese cream icing and Persian figs, pistachios and rose petals. It’s surprisingly moist and decadent and both cakes are gluten-free!

Lemon Myrtle Chiffon Cake

I had the Lemon Myrtle Chiffon Cake at their Rosebery sister outlet and it was awesome too! It’s a roomier venue, but a little antiseptic with all the staff wearing uniforms, unlike the cool and non-conformist vibe you get from the original Newtown cafe.

black star rosebery

I also got another Strawberry Watermelon Cake with Rose Scented Cream to go and it tasted similar so the outlet you prefer is up to the ambience you like.

me black star

Black Star Pastry has won a ton of awards and is helmed by the patisser Christopher The. They’re also famous for their lamb shank pies and wood-fired breads but I only had room for the cakes – a quick dessert before lunch!

black star pastry

Black Star Pastry
277 Australia Street,
Newtown NSW

Opens 7 am – 5 pm, 7 days a week

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