New outlets for dining - Traders Hotel Harbour Cafe & Tam Zabb Thai Lao Restaurant in Nusa Bestari

With the newborn baby, we've not been out much so it's so nice to be out recently to try out a couple of new dining places.

Harbour Cafe @ Traders Hotel Nusajaya

For lil James' 1st month celebration, we took the house crew to dine at the newly opened Traders hotel's Harbour Cafe.

The buffet dinner cost RM78++/person and offers standard international spread of cuisine, ranging from sashimi, indian, chinese, roast lamb and chicken to tangine. Desserts selection include chocolate fondue (white and normal choc - super yummy), cakes, fruits, ice cream and local dessert, e.g. cheng theng. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to take pictures (i'll update this when we dine at the restaurant again).

Food was good and ambience was nice. Though not something you'd go every day, it's so nice to have a more upmarket dining option selection finally in this area. The restaurant was quite packed even though we went mid week. We were told that the restaurant's usually fully booked in the weekend.

Phone: (60 7) 560 8888
Location: Block 1, Level 1
Opens daily from 6.30am - 11pm
Dress Code: Smart Casual
Smoking Policy: not permitted in Harbour Café (indoor area).





Tam Zabb - Thai & Lao Restaurant @ Nusa Bestari 

Last week four of us went to try a newish (opened since Dec'12) Thai Lao restaurant in Nusa Bestari. The restaurant is owned by Benny, fellow motor-cross rider that Ian came to know from riding in Johor. Benny's wife is the head chef and is from Northeastern Thailand, hence their aim is to provide authentic Thai food.

Courtesy of Tam Zabb Facebook page

For the four of us, we ordered steamed fish, pandan chicken, pineapple fried rice, pork larb, chicken sauteed with cashew nuts, tom kha gai, stir fry kailan and banana with palm sugar dessert. I've also tried the lemongrass drink as well as pandan soda, both of which are very refreshing drinks.

Food is authentic Thai, unlike many Thai restaurants which taste more Chinese than Thai. Food has the right spiciness. Unfortunately I wasn't able to eat too much of it due to breastfeeding (God I miss chillies!!!) The restaurant is very nicely decorated, modern and simple. I love the Sweedish looking tables and chairs which were made by Benny's father as we were told. The ambience is very cosy.

The meals are also reasonably priced. All of us are pretty happy with dinner so we'd definitely be back for more. Unfortunately I didn't get chance to take decent photos but there's a recent review on Johorkaki which is quite detailed.

The restaurant is located at:
48G Jln Bestari 3/2 Tmn Nusa Bestari, Johor

Phone	07-232 5859
Email	info@tamzabb.com

Mon: 12:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Wed - Sun: 12:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Italian Dinner @ Gianni Trattoria JB

I had to rewrite and re-post this entry as iPad erased my article when I tried to do a very small edit :(

I've heard and read a lot about Gianni's Trattoria which is currently rated as top 10 restaurants in Johor in TripAdvisor. We decided to give this place a shot.

Gianni is an upscale Italian restaurant which serves pizzas, pastas and other Italian cuisine. It's located at 110 Jalan Serampang JB, an upmarket area (kinda of) in Johor filled with bridal shops, saloons, restaurants, car showrooms (Lexus for example) and pubs.


Appetizers are priced in the range of RM15+ - RM28 while main course meals are priced in the range of RM20+ - RM90+

We ordered caprese, tomato soup with scallops, spaghetti frutti mare (seafood spaghetti), carbonara, creme caramel, banana split and drinks (+ glass of wine). Yes, it was quite a lot for 2 people but we wanted to try as many dishes as we can :)

While the appetizers were very nice (especially the tomato soup), I was quite disappointed that the main course and desserts were nice but not great. Since the restaurant is halal, they had to substitute pork bacon with turkey bacon which is very chewy and doesn't really do justice to the carbonara. Our dinner cost RM231 and it's definitely cheaper than the price we'd pay in Singapore. However, I still much prefer Italian food @ Valentino's or Pasta Brava in Singapore.

Appetizers & main course Desserts
Overall...hmmm, I say give this restaurant a shot. Afterall, it's still nice to have the option to go for fine dining in Johor. However, I would not rate the food as high as what others have rated.

Interesting Restaurant in Johor: George & Dragon cafe

Interesting name and decor...that was the first thought that came to my mind about this restaurant.

After weekend of cleaning and house work, we took some time and went for a nice dinner with our lovely neighbour. We decided to try the George & Dragon Cafe which is located at No 1 & 3 Jalan Glasier, Taman Tasek, 80200, Johor Bahru.

George and Dragon cafe is a little medieval England in JB. You will dine in a nice cosy envinroment which is surrounded by genuine English artefacts, including; suits of armour, knives, maps and shields. They have done a great job at making you feel like you are back in England, visiting some castles!




We ordered soups (asparagus & mushroom), ribeye steak, crispy chicken in pepper sauce, rosemary lamb and mushroom sauce lamb. This restaurant's specialty is steak, but since I do not eat beef, I had cream asparagus (soup of the day) and crispy chicken. The cream asparagus was OK, not superb, but I liked the crispy chicken. Everyone seems to like their food as well. Each main course cost 25-30RM on average.



Though a bit pricey, this restaurant is a nice getaway for western food, hence, I'm sure that we'll be going back again for weekends meals once in a while.

Food - Chapter I

I promised to write about some of the eating places that we've tried in the surrounding area. I'm still yet to explore a lot more places, so stay tuned. In the meantime, here are a few that I took note of

Old Town White Coffee

This place was my first outing for lunch with our neighbours and the chain is one of the largest kopitiams chain shops in Malaysia. They're very famous for their white coffees. I don't drink coffee so I'm not sure how good the coffee is but I've been told that the coffee drinks they serve are pretty good.

I ate a couple of times at the Nusa Bestari branch which is located at No 2 Jalan Bestari 7/5, No 1 Jln Bestari 6/5, Taman Nusa Bestari.

The menu is quite diverse, but I've only tried:
- Oldtown Ipoh Chicken Hor Fun
- Oldtown Nasi Lemak Special

Both are quite good. I can't remember the prices but the meals are very reasonable (cheap by Singapore standard).

Overall experience & feedback: Not a fancy place, but easy place for quick meals, cheap pricing. 3 spoons out of 5 from me.


Pictures courtesy from www.oldtown.com.my:


Hawker Centre (next to Old Town White Coffee @ Nusa Bestari)

There are more than 10 stalls clustered in this hawker eating place. At night, the place is quite crowded with locals who come to drink beer and eat cheap local food.

It's pretty much the same as hawker centre in Singapore, you can find quite a variety of food ranging from local laksa to carrot cake.

I've tried the fried kue tiao a couple of times and I quite like it. It cost RM4 per plate. The serving is quite generous and will surely fill you up. The "chef" puts his heart in frying each plate of kue tiaow. If you watch him fry the kue tiao, he seems to be conducting a symphony of orchestra :)





Overall experience & feedback: Good for cheap local meal, the fried kue tiao is good and cheap. 3 spoons from me.


Chef Wah

This Chinese restaurant is tucked away near Jalan Persiaran Perling 2. Unfortunately I do not have the exact address of the restaurant and Google Maps is showing a very outdated map of the area (the road doesn't exist in Google Maps). From memory, you'll be driving from Bukit Indah area, past Tesco (Jalan Indah, Bandar Nusajay) on your left, go straight and turn right to go into the smaller lane along Jalan Persisiran Perling 2. You'll see Ali Cafe (with it's white circles decor on the building) and a Muslim curry eatery, continue til the end of that lane and you'll see Chef Wah at the corner. The restaurant is quite packed with local Chinese. To me, it looks like the local version of Crystal Jade. Looking at the pictures in the menu, the chef seems to be quite reputable (picture below).

We ordered 3 dishes: String beans, E Fu mien (I can't remember how this is spelled - crispy noodle with gravy and seafood) and soup (fish bone brew).




Total cost of the meal was around RM50.

Overall experience & feedback: In Johor standard, the meal was slightly more expensive but I enjoyed the meal very much and would definitely go back again. I especially like the soup and the noodle. Afterall, the meal it's still cheaper than Singapore's :)


Ayukama Japanese Buffet Restaurant

Located in Sutera, this is one of the few Japanese restaurants in the area. This buffet restaurant offers sashimi, sushi, teppanyaki, ramen, udon, basically pretty much everything that you'd normally order in a Japanese restaurant.



The buffet costs around RM50 per person. You can eat as much as you like, but for me the food was just OK.

Overall experience & feedback: Quite expensive in Johor terms, the sashimi was just OK, overall it didn't blow me away.


Nyonya Joy Restaurant

Small peranakan restaurant located at 2, 4G, Jalan Bestari 5/2, Johor Bahru, 81300, Taman Nusa Bestari.



We ordered Fried chicken wings, ikan assam pedas, cincalok Eggs and Steamed lady fingers with sambal paste. The cincalok eggs is rather standard, but I quite like the ikan assam pedas and steamed lady fingers with sambal paste. Both taste quite salty sour and a little bit spicy (would have preferred it to be a lot spicier). I didn't like the chicken wings though, it was too dry and oily for me.



The meal cost 59.40RM.

Overall experience & feedback: I think I'll go back again to try other dishes. The restaurant staff were all very friendly.


Hai Wan Restaurant

Seafood restaurant located at No 2, Jalan Indah 16/7, Taman Bukit Indah, Nusajaya Johor.

There are quite a no of seafood restaurants in the area. We just randomly picked this restaurant. We had broccoli with scallops, cereal prawns and butter fried chicken. The chicken was the tastiest out of the 3 meals, the other 2 are quite nice too. The meal cost 50RM.



Overall experience & feedback: We will go back again and try other dishes and/or order the butter fried chicken again.