Dreamland Restaurant, Tawau (Review)

Hello there! Can't believe it has only been a day since I have last blogged... what an improvement haha!
Well, today I went to Dreamland with my parents since mom was lazy to cook. And I am going to do a quick review on what I ate.

Grilled Sole

Okay~ first of all, let's talk about the overall dining experience.
Dreamland is actually kind of famous in Tawau, just ask anyone I'm sure they know. We went there on a Saturday, so expect the place to be crowded. Thank God we secure a place before more people start swarming in (we arrived at 6.30pm). They are usually full around 7pm and you'll have to wait.

The downside to all this fame is that you can hardly eat in peace. I mean there are like people standing behind you waiting for a seat, how to savour the food D:?

Anyway, I really wouldn't go there for the atmosphere. It just didn't seem right to have to rush through your meal. Imagine if it was a 3-course-meal.

We waited a whole 15 mins before we get to order, it was loud (the lady in the shop (owner?) kept raising her voice at the workers because they were slow it seems) and they served really REALLY crudely =.= Please don't expect it to be classy.

Now down to the food: overall 3.5/5
Good points: It was edible, portion was okay for small eaters like me (definitely not for the makan monsters), had 3 sides (the french fries were good - thumbs up)
Lacking: presentation looked just so-so, mom's sole was a bit burnt, the sole meat was rough! And too kedekut with the dipping sauce (dad had to resort to ketchup at the end), other sides were not so nice (seaweed n pickles)

But again for Rm16 + 10% service charge, I guess it wasn't too bad. But really, don't go there on weekends.

Tsunami Restaurant (Unijaya) Review

Hello hello!!! I am so freaking lazy these days that I have not even bother to update my blog like in 2 months :( Sorry folks, guilty as charged. ANYWAY, I have decided to blog today thanks to my long time bff Ms Elaine because she was sooooo kind to "teman" me on a Valentines Lunch ^___^ She claims that she had no option but I secretly suspect that she is just as much in love with me as I am with myself HAHA!

Okay so back to the topic, what shall I be blogging about today then. Well, since I described myself as someone who LOVE traveling & food, today I shall be reviewing the restaurant in which me and Ms E visited on this faithful Valentines - Tsunami Restaurant (it's a Japanese restaurant btw).

Photo taken from foursquare

Actually, Ms E & I wanted to try the so called "new" sushi place called Mr Sushi at Taman Jambu. Ms E kept telling me that the sushi there is worth trying because apparently the owner who is also the chef has mastered the arts of making the delectable sushi from Land of the Sunrise itself!

Unfortunately for us, it wasn't open because again, the owner has a very peculiar habit of closing his shop on unsuspected days. So, since I was keen to  have Japanese today, we ended up here.

We were the first customers that came, and trying to settle for something to eat took us like more than half an hour! One is because there were awfully many choices in which I wanted to eat, but the main reason was because it was expensive! I think they increased the price again =.= A decent meal of Salmon or Beef was like Rm30++ and the portion isn't really humongous. And for 4 piece tiger prawn sushi costed RM16++
So... as budget eaters like us, we had to stick with the basic sushi:

Tamago sushi

Review: 3/5
Presentation: When it first came I was like wutttt.... the tamago (egg) was barely 0.5cm thick, and the colouration just wasn't attractive to say the least.
Taste: The tamago was a tiny bit too sweet for my liking and Ms E seemed to have been taken aback that she was giving me the "what on earth is this" look (never had any sweet egg in her life)

tuna mayo sushi on left, kani(crab)mayo sushi on right

Review: Tuna (2.5/5), Kani (2.5/5)
Presentation: Nothing special to comment about expect Ms E says that the seaweed wasn't properly wrapped around the rice (so it's a fail)
Taste: Tuna Sushi was just so-so, just like the average can tuna mixed with mayo and it was a bit too dry. Kani Sushi tasted like they put in a whole chunk of salt in the mixture. Could not have swallowed it without water. Remind self not to order it again.

ebi sushi, salmon sushi

Review: Ebi (1.5/5), Salmon (3.5/5)
Presentation: The ebi (prawn) was awful! I mean the dirty vein of the prawn was still there, how on earth am I suppose to eat that? I ended up cleaning it myself urghs. The salmon was a pretty thin slice, but still okay.
Taste: Ebi was not fresh, there was no taste (I suspect it is from prawn farms instead of the sea). The salmon was chewy (not sure if it is suppose to be that way) but Ms E said it was nice.

Salmon mayo sushi

Review: 3.5/5
Presentation: Doesn't look like how the picture advertise
Taste: I would say by far that this is the best among the rest. It wasn't too salty, just nice even without soy sauce and wasabi.

That was all we had because we were on a budget: All the items costed Rm2 (for 2 pieces) expect for Salmon with was Rm4 (for 2peices). With service tax, this meal costed us RM25.30 (with 2 cups hot green tea).

And the funniest thing that happened was the restaurant actually got the wrong order for us. We were sure that we didn't order that little but they said everything was served. This got Ms E into bitchy mode and I was just laughing there enjoying the chaos. Anyways, thank God we took pictures of the sushi before eating so we compared it with the bill and indeed they missed out the tuna & kani sushi! The waiter even took bff's phone to show the chef LOL.

That's all for my food review today, will try to be more hard working to blog this year (esp about food)! Happy Valentines 2014 <3