One Night in Johor Bahru

For New Year's Eve, decided to spend a night in Johor Bahru with love because I found a good offer for a good hotel. The hotel's name is Mutiara Hotel. It is very near to KSL City which is very near to the Causeway itself. Maybe about 5 minutes drive. Here are some photos of the hotel itself.

The hotel costed about RM200 for one night with taxes and all, which I find absolutely reasonable for such an ambience and quality. Both of us were really pleased with the hotel. To me, cleanliness is the number one priority (people who know me will understand this :-X), and I would have to admit, the hotel was really clean. No funny smell whatsoever. Very big and spacious as well. It was really relaxing and wonderful there.

So some might think, go JB stay one night do what? And then I've the friends who have nothing else in mind but activities which only happen behind closed doors. Haha! But no! There's definitely much more to do in JB than just "naughty stuff". We mainly spent a lot of time in KSL City and Holiday Plaza because they were really close by. I guess the number one past-time was..... EATING!!!!!!!!!!! But we did eat in moderation. Let me share the photos, then say a little bit about the food itself.

First, we went to Hong Kong Kim Gary Restaurant at KSL City. First time eating there. I understand he has a restaurant in Singapore as well right? We just wanted to try the food there. Here are some photos.

She had Fish Fillet with Spaghetti in cream sauce while I had the Sichuan Pork slices noodle. Her dish came with a drink and soup as well. The soup was fine, nothing special to me. I felt it tasted like Campbell's soup, but it was fine. Nothing to praise. The spaghetti was just fine too. Nothing to complain about, just edible. She liked the corn in it though. My noodle, it was close to being a failure. It wasn't nice, and it wasn't bad. But would I recommend it or try it again? Never. The meat was hard and chewy and bad. The broth for the noodle was close to tasteless. The only thing which was good was the Iced Coffee. At least that made the meal a little better. Both of us enjoyed the coffee very much. Other than that, totally would not try that restaurant again. Service wise, the staff were nice n friendly and efficient. But the menu and ordering system was extremely dumb and horrible due to the countless amount of papers and variety. They should really review their ordering system or better yet, review the entire menu.

For a snack, we had Aunt Anne's. I have always walked pass Aunt Anne's pretzels in Singapore, but I have NEVER TRIED IT. So this time, I wanted to try it. We bought just one to share (I told you we were moderating the food intake :-P)

We bought the Cinnamon sugar flavor. Let me make this clear, I love bread, pastry and any of this baked or fried doughy stuff; and this was one of the most awesome dough I have eaten! It was extremely soft and amazing with the cinnamon sugar. Sweet, chewy and delightful. Now I crave for it all the time, but I know it only sells at a few places here.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the checkout time for the hotel was 2pm! How awesome is that!?!?! I hate to have to wake up early and checkout of hotels, freaking dumb. But at this hotel, you can sleep like a pig and slowly wake up. Wonderful! So we woke up, walked around in Holiday Plaza and then at KSL again. Then we went to have brunch at Manhatten Fish Market at KSL City. She has never tried it before, even in Singapore. So we decided to try it there.

We had Fried Calamari, a small set Fish and Chips and an Oreo Milkshake-like drink. The calamari was different from Singapore. It was not in circles, it was in strips, so it was not really very nice. It was edible, but not something I would say don't try. The fish and chips was excellent. Perfectly fried and amazing to the taste buds in the morning. The Oreo Milkshake was quite bad. It wasn't nice at all. Very bland.

After that meal, she wanted to have Milk tea. Both of us LOVE MILK TEA remember? She said she remembered this stall called Blackball and their drinks looked good. So we went ahead to buy a drink there.

A lot of times, her mandarin is quite bad. Sometimes, I have to be alert and correct the orders made in mandarin. Hahahahaha! She wanted to ordered milk tea with herbal jelly. But their menu only had this special tea with herbal jelly or milk tea with pearl. So she said "yes, I want the herbal jelly." And the girl said "ok, so you will have the special tea with herbal jelly?" She said "Yes." And I was like, what??? "Milk tea with herbal jelly please." Then the counter girl said "Oh ok, no problem." Hahahaha! I'm so proud of myself. And I guess I'm going to get some scolding for bitching about her bad mandarin here. Anyway, as you can see from the photos, the milk tea was damn awesome! I felt it was one of the best I had. I think they use fresh milk and it tasted absolutely wonderful. The herbal jelly in the milk tea was fresh and the milk tea was creamy and rich and not too sweet as well. Some of you might be wondering what the second photo is. Well, once you make your order, they pass you that device and when you order is ready, that thing rings like nobody's business! Damn loud and irritating. But I guess it works when people are talking to friends and not concentrating on a centralized number-calling system.

I forgot about the supper we had at night. We went rounding just past midnight and I felt like sharing a small dish with her. I wanted dim sum but she knew she could not eat much and she did not really like dim sum. So while walking back, I decided to eat at this coffee shop. They serve this simple noodle dish.

I totally have no idea what it is called but it is simply the best! The soup was wonderful and flavorful. The noodle was PERFECTLY cooked!!! I have to type the word perfect in caps because this was the thinner kway teow noodle which I personally know that is very difficult to cook. The perfect way to cook this is to get an al dante texture and the cook manages to do it so easily. It was very simple and flavorful. No regrets having that like past midnight. We both loved it. :)

It was a super awesome and simple day at JB and we had an amazing time. It is NOT BORING. So go on, bring a loved one to JB and spend the night there. You never know what secret/special food you might find there.

SimpleMakan