Thursday was Day 5 of the Chinese New Year and school would reopen soon. We had been staying home almost all of the time so I suggested going out for lunch that day before my girl gets bogged down with all that schoolwork and everything all over again.
There is a sparkling new Japanese restaurant in town and we decided to go and check it out. Generally, it was quiet all over town, no jam, no crowd – I guess most everybody who was back for the festival had gone back home – until we reached the vicinity (Hanns Residence). There was a very long queue of cars going into the place but we were in no hurry so we just followed everybody else in the line patiently. We were in luck because a young girl was leaving and her car was close by and I was able to turn in the instant she vacated the space.
Unfortunately, when we got to the Japanese restaurant, we saw that it was packed and there was a whole lot of customers lining up at the door. We did join in for a while but it was not moving at all so I told the ladies that we might as well go to this place opposite…
…and have our lunch there.
My girl had their fish & chips (RM32.00)…
…and yes, it was very good. They use sea bass here and it came across to us like those very nice fish fillet that we bought not too long ago, the barramundi (ikan siakap) aka Asian sea bass. Unlike the battered ones at that place where we loved their version of this dish, here, they used bread crumbs and looking at the colour and the texture, it seemed like they made their own, not what came out of a box.
The mum had the sea bass fillet (RM32.00)…
…which did not look as good but yes, it was great! She said it was probably just grilled in butter in a pan but the fish was good – very fresh and sweet and there was no fishy smell.
Mine was disappointing – their classic pork chop (RM25.00)…
It was a bit hard and dry, probably because of the very lean cut that they used and though dipping it in their own-made black pepper sauce did help a bit, I don’t think it was anything I would want to order again the next time we drop by here.
My girl wanted to try the pork nuggets (RM23.00)…
…that she saw in one of the banners hanging outside – she has this soft spot for the chicken nuggets at McD or KFC.
Our favourite here is still their babi bakar (RM25.00/200 gm)…
…which I also ordered to share and yes, we all loved it! No, we did not manage to finish the last two so I asked the girl to tapao (pack) them up for us to take home. It sure was a delightful lunch – the total, inclusive of drinks, came up to RM146.00. Service was great, very prompt and cordial and the sweet young things were conversant in English, no problem at all in communicating with them.
As we were walking back to the car, I noticed that the queue outside the Japanese restaurant was even longer than when we got there earlier. Looking through the window, I saw one empty table and one table where the customers had left but they had not cleared everything on it nor cleaned it yet – I guess the new brooms simply could not cope with the crowd and were not sweeping well. I sure would not bother to come back here, not so soon, that’s for sure!
OINKS Sibu (2.286075, 111.847044)…
…is located at Sublot 7-01, Ground Floor, Hann’s Commercial Centre, Jalan Wong King Huo.
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