Chilli Vanilla @ Jalan Haji Saman, KK

We've actually heard of Chilli Vanilla a while back but since the cafe is closed on Sunday (and Sunday our favourite day to cari makan), we never got around to visit it. Nonetheless, we've heard quite a lot of good reviews about their red velvet cake and never having reviewed a Mediterranean restaurant in KK, we made a point to drop by Chilli Vanilla for lunch.

First Look

Located in a small shop lot directly opposite Kinabalu Emporium (same row as Moon Bell Restaurant, facing the main road), Chilli Vanilla can be quite hard to spot from afar. But as you come closer, you'll see a small shop with a rustic-looking signboard bearing its name.

Overall, Chilli Vanilla has a homey and casual ambience--a nice place to chill out with friends over a glass of iced calamansi drink on warm balmy afternoons. They also play groovy 80s and 90s music, which is a refreshing change if you're tired of listening to One Direction.

Food & Beverages

Chilli Vanilla is owned by a Hungarian lady, therefore, you can expect to sample  more exotic offerings on the menu. The cafe serves Hungarian and Mediterranean speciality dishes such as the Frikadelle (beef meatballs with Hungarian paprika and herbs, stuffed with cheese and spicy salsa), the Moroccan-inspired Lamb Stew (MYR16.90), Spaghetti Milanese (MYR24.90) and the homemade Liver Pate.

Sticking to a clean, healthy diet? Fret not as Chilli Vanilla also serves an array of wonderful salads such as the Mediterranean Mix (MYR16.90), the Waldorf (MYR16.90) and the Aphrodite salad (MYR18.90) which are all gluten-free. 

Oliver and I decided to try something a little less exotic for a start. I ordered the Chicken Breast and Mashed Potato lunch set (comes with a complimentary creamy mushroom soup and a slice of butter cake), while Oliver ordered the Spicy Grilled Duck Tortilla (MYR17.90).

Grilled chicken breast

Chicken Breast and Mashed Potato lunch set (MYR16.90)

Creamy mushroom soup

Butter cake with walnuts

Grilled Duck Tortilla

Unfortunately, the famed red velvet cake was unavailable on that day. Nonetheless, Chilli Vanilla still has an array of lip-smacking cakes such as the chocolate brownies, apple crumble pie and butter cake with walnuts.

Chocolate brownies

Apple crumble pie

Butter cake

You can also have a glass of wine if you like.

Verdict

We give props to Chilli Vanilla for its uniqueness--there aren't many restaurants in KK offering Hungarian or Mediterranean dishes--but the portion size and pricing are on the skimpy and more expensive side respectively. 

We loved the duck tortillas but found the chicken breast and mashed potato a little too salty. The butter cake that came with the lunch set was also only half the size of an average cake slice and was a bit dry for our liking.

We'll probably come back to try the red velvet cake, other than that, the overall gastronomic experience wasn't particularly exceptional.

Food Buddy rating: 3.38/5

Ambience: 4/5

Service: 4/5

Price: 2.5/5

Food & Beverages: 3/5

Tung Fong Seafood Restaurant @ Taipan, Inanam

When you're looking for a seafood restaurant that also specializes in serving generously-portioned fish/seafood noodle soup, look no further than Tung Fong Seafood Restaurant in the Taipan area of Inanam.

While Tung Fong isn't exactly easy to spot, you can always count on the Inanam Shell station as a reliable landmark. If you're coming from KK, make a U-turn around the roundabout and take the first junction on your left after the Shell station.

Tung Fong is surrounded by several auto shops/workshops, so when you spot a lot of car accessories shops as you turn in, rest assured you're in the right direction. From the junction, head straight and you'll see Tung Fong seafood restaurant located at a corner lot, right next to a home furnishing shop.

First look

The first thing we noticed about this seafood restaurant was its bustling lunch crowd and how good business was. We had decided to come over for late lunch (past 2pm) to beat the lunchtime traffic, and while we managed to dodge traffic on the road, the traffic at the restaurant was still pretty heavy.

Food & beverages

As the name would suggest, Tung Fong offers a variety of seafood dishes to be ordered a la carte or with rice/noodles. From what we've heard, some of their best offerings are the seafood kon lau mee (MYR7) and seafood noodle soup (MYR7).

Normal-size kon lau mee

Seafood kon lau mee

If you'd like to have a bigger portion, opt for the 'ka liao' version which is almost 1/4-size bigger.

Ka liao seafood noodle soup

Ka liao (large) seafood noodle soup (MYR12)

The next time we went to Tung Fong, we brought four friends with us so that we could order more a la cart dishes and sample them all together. Here are some of the signature a la cart dishes on the menu:

Egg tofu with minced meat and mushroom

Mixed vegetables with mushroom

Sabah veggie with eggs

Fish fillet in sweet sauce

Oyster omelette 

Crab cake wrapped in seaweed

Overall the pricing is pretty reasonable, we only paid MYR151 for 10 dishes plus drinks--averagely MYR25.17 per person for a decent seafood meal. 

Verdict

We give Tung Fong Seafood Restaurant two thumbs up for food quality, portion size and pricing. If it wasn't for the horrible traffic surrounding the Taipan area during lunch hour (it took us 45 minutes to reach the restaurant from Likas!), we would've come every day for the fish noodle soup! 

Also, we waited more than 30 minutes for our food to arrive. Probably not the place to have lunch at when you're moody and ravenous.

Food Buddy rating: 3.75/5

Ambience: 2/5

Service: 3/5

Price: 5/5

Food & Beverages: 5/5