Restoran Kak Kak 佳佳点心茶楼

Address: No. 9, Jalan Maju, Taman Maju, Johor Bahru
Hours: 5:00 - 12:00 (closed on Tuesday)

Visited on 4 May 2016.

Wanted to go to our beloved 果条仔 stall, but they were closed cos it's Wednesday. Alas, no way to satisfy the craving. Anyway, this gave us a good chance to try something new. I remembered there is a dim sum place near Pelangi, so went back to the car to look at the map. We asked a nearby bookshop (where we bought parking coupons from) and realized Kak Kak was just a few shops away!

Oh on the part about the parking coupons, the bookshop owner told us last month that we didn't have to put any coupons cos the government hadn't printed or distributed the new ones, so don't need to put for the entire month of April. Apparently the coupons came yesterday and it was sold out really quickly, and the first two weeks of May, we don't need to display the coupons.

Back to dim sum. So we found a seat at Kak Kak, and started ordering.

Very yummy fried carrot cake, soft in the inside but oh-so-crispy on the outside. Though this is nice, I would say the one we had at Chang Man was definitely better.

Beancurd skin with fish cake... ok only.

Chicken feet... taste was ok only.

Pork ribs. This was super duper nice, the meat was well marinated and very 入味.

Siew mai, bite size and really good.

皮蛋粥. It was different from the ones we eat in Singapore, but very nice... I think they put one whole salted egg in!

The lo mai kai is the best! The glutinous rice was very fragrant and tasted really great!

Total damage for 2 cups of tea and this spread only cost us RM$25.

The Little Island - Penang Delight

Address: 56, Jalan Sutera Tanjung 8/3, Taman Sutera Utama, Johor Bahru
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Little-Island-Sutera/1581168538829964

Visited on 4 May 2016.

After massage at 古泉 at Sutera, we chanced upon this little eatery and decided to drop in for lunch as it was getting late.

The menu looks pretty simple and interesting. I ordered the White Mee Siam with Ayam Merah and hb ordered the Penang Prawn noodles. Food was pretty decent and not too expensive.

More Penang Food

Address: Near Uncle Tetsu, No 47, Jalan Austin Height 3, Taman Mount Austin, 81100 Johor Bahru
Hours: Evening time (closed every Tuesday)

Somehow or rather, we just love the Penang food in Johor. When we walked past this stall the last time we were there with Fiona and Audrey, and despite being super full, hb still had a bowl of prawn mee and Fiona a bowl of assam laksa... 我们就对这间小吃念念不忘. And so here we were, here for dinner. It is just a mobile foodstall, parked outside Uncle Tetsu.

Penang Prawn Noodles, fragrant and yummy.

Assam Laksa full of oompfh, spicy and sour... typing this makes me salivate!

Ice kachang, not fantastic. Just sweet and full of syrup taste. The roasted sunflower seeds was interesting though.

Jade Garden Seafood Corner 翡翠园海鲜酒家

Address: Lorong Siakap 1, Sungai Rengit, Pengerang, Johor
Hours: 11:00 - 23:00
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jade-Garden-Seafood-Corner%E5%9B%9B%E6%B9%BE%E5%B2%9B%E7%BF%A1%E7%BF%A0%E5%9B%AD/644180449010245?fref=ts

Visited 17 Mar 2016.

During our road trip to Desaru, we dropped by Jade Garden for lunch... cos it's a pretty popular and recommended seafood place when you visit Desaru. The seafood restaurant was very easy to find, and driving in Desaru is quite easy... not many roads, and very simple to drive... but do look out for the potholes on the roads.

So here we were at Jade Garden... the place is huge. We flipped through the menu and I was quite disappointed... the price was on the high end... not cheap one. And my bad for not doing my research properly, and not knowing to order the lobster. We ordered kangkong, lala, poached prawns and deep fried baby sotong. We had to wait really long for the deep fried baby sotong too cos the cook was overwhelmed. Only the poached prawns was ok... the rest so-so only. This place is over-rated and we left disappointed... will not visit this place again.

U Mobile UMI 30

Since we have been travelling a lot to Johor, we decided to get a prepaid SIM that has some mobile internet. It's hard to travel around without mobile internet... when you want to Google a place, or use iphone map, then oops, no mobile internet. Feels so handicapped.

So after googling a little, decided to get U Mobile UMI 30... comes with 1.5 GB (+1GB limited time offer), 5sen/30sec call to all networks, 30min call time, all at a monthly subscription fee of RM30. Very worth it lor.

Uncle Tetsu

Address: No 47, Jalan Austin Height 3, Taman Mount Austin, 81100 Johor Bahru
Hours: 10:00 - 21:00
Telephone: +607-364 7777
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncletetsumalaysia, https://www.facebook.com/uncletetsumountaustin/
Website: http://www.uncletetsu.com.my/home

Visited 26 Feb 2016.

This was our maiden trip into JB, first time we are driving into Malaysia without my dad. We were joined by OPF, Lianne and Makcik Elena. Initially it was pretty 心惊胆跳 cos of all the "horror" stories about driving in Malaysia... but hubby was really brave and drove like a pro. Armed with printed addresses and names of the destination, and the car GPS system... we made it into and out of Johor without any hiccups... we did a bit of detour here and there, but that was expected... GPS is quite a confusing thing sometimes... and we made it. That trip paved the way for more future trips for hubby and I... so much that now, my dad just lets my hubby drive when he joins us for our JB trips.

Anyway, OPF said that there is this very famous cheesecake which used to have a shop in Orchard, but closed down, called Uncle Tetsu. And I was like... got meh? Never heard of it before. So ok, googled and printed down the name. When we finished shopping at Aeon Tebrau, we went to the shop to buy cheesecake. I still remember along the way, we kept saying how come OPF bring us to such ulu places (GPS keep bringing us to small roads)... bring us to sell is it? When we reached Jalan Austin Heights... wow, we were surprised... the area seemed really atas, as they had a lot of restaurants and shops... all looked trendy and upmarket too. And we bought one chocolate and one original flavored cheesecake to bring home. The cheesecake has to be kept in the fridge if not consumed within 12 hours, so we usually try to coincide this place as the last stop.

The cheesecake is soft and light... in fact, feels a bit like eating sponge cake. Pretty good... @ RM21 for the signature cheesecake... less than S$10 for a cheesecake leh... value for money.

They have this in original and chocolate flavor. Both are nice. The chocolate flavored one reminds me of the Rich & Good Cake Shop's swiss rolls.

Uncle Tetsu Cheese Zuccotto (Hat Series) 

We wanted to try the Strawberry flavored one, but at 2pm they were sold out already! Next time then.

Restoran Changman 常满 Dimsum

Address: 24G, 26G & 28G Jalan Bestari 5/2, Taman Nusa Bestari, 79150 Nusajaya, JB
Telephone: 016 765 1190, 07 2444 936
Hours: 08:00 - 18:00 (only closed on first day of CNY)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChangmanDimsum/

Visited on 28 Mar 2016.

Tried this place for dimsum after our massage at 古泉. Loved the food, especially the egg plant and the shark's fin dumpling. The chicken tasted like the kampong chicken we always have at Upper Thompson. The fishball can don't order, not that fantastic.

First bite, the taste explodes in your mouth... fragrance from the oyster sauce plus garlic.

Ever saw the Stephen Chow movie, 食神, with the chef that goes "太好吃了！" ... Thats exactly what we felt on the first bite of this, the secret is mainly in the sauce which is so good! Wanna make it last? Take a bite, then go for other food then come back to this again! 初恋的感觉！

Tender and great tasting chicken

油菜 was normal

Scallops dumpling... can't really taste the scallops

Xiaolongbao was really good, better than Dingtaifung

So naturally when we say 鼎泰丰，not everyone is convince whether it's really good or not. Let me clarify that when it first appeared in SG, I was not a fan of it as i felt it was overrated. Gradually the QC in 鼎泰丰's food has gotten alot better and is now one of my fave places for 小笼包. To say that its better naturally is saying alot!

Siew mai was great

Sharks fin dumpling is a must-order

I have to say i don't really have a good opinion of this dish when i ate it in SG, but I was always open to trying new food so hey whats the harm right? Amazing 上汤 which i suspect is seafood and chicken broth with really good ingredients like sharks fins inside! (Sorry WWF and Gordon Ramsey, yes we still eat sharksfins...) The dumpling skin is amazingly nice and the ingredients well mixed into the nice succulent soup, makes this dish one of the best in the shop.

Fishball - no big deal

Torazou Ramen Restaurant

Address: 45, Jalan Austin Heights 8/3, Taman Mount Austin, 81100 Johor Bahru
Telephone: 012 717 9178
Hours: 11:00 - 22:00
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Torazou-Ramen-%E8%99%8E%E8%97%8F-Austin-569672723160177/

Visited on 28 Mar 2016.

As we changed our itinerary for our trip today, Taman Mount Austin became our last stop. Wasn't really prepared for dinner to be in this area and we did a last minute scramble to find a eating place. I initially thought of MaMa Nyonya Restaurant in Taman Molek... we arrived, walked into the shop and after 5minutes walked out... cos the price was steep! And they didn't even have soup on the menu... how can a Peranakan restaurant not have soup?! So we decided to go back to Taman Mount Austin area to have dinner.

We initially wanted to try Warakuya, but as usual, queue was long. The waitress told us we had to wait at least 25mins for a table. So we took a number, sat down for 2 minutes and flipped through the menu. The price was not very cheap, so we decided to drive around the area in search of another restaurant. I remembered KOBO 烤霸工坊 and we wanted to try it, only to realize that they are not opened on Mondays. Great. So bobian, have to 随便吃 and we wandered into this ramen restaurant, called Torazou Ramen Restaurant. Was a bit apprehensive walking in, cos at 745pm, there was only 1 table filled, the restaurant only had 3 people - 2 customers and 1 waiter... with us, that made 5.

We sat down and ordered the ramen and some side dishes, and surprisingly, the food was actually quite good. Another plus point is service was good too... and the waiter reminded us of our gaming friend, Josh. We were also pleasantly surprised when the waiter wrote down the wifi password for us to connect... not that we needed it since we have the uMobile prepaid card... but it definitely added points to the place.

It's called big char siew raman, but not char siew lah, it's actually pork chop to me.

Your normal char siew ramen, quite nice.

The shishamo is really good.

Mentaiko gyoza... totally love it... I can never get enough of mentaiko...

Pork skewer recommended by the waiter, marinated with salt and pepper and grilled. Very nice.

Restoran Rong Shu Xia 榕树下果条仔

Address: 24，Jalan Maju，Taman Maju Jaya，80400 Johor Bahru
Hours: 07:00 - 13:00 (closed on Wednesdays)

Visited on 4 Mar 2016 and many times after that.

Lervonne first brought us to this 果条仔 (pronounced as kway teow kia in hokkien) and hubby and I totally fell in love with it. For lovers of pig innards, pork lard and fried shallots, you will totally heart his place. From intestines to tongue to lungs, I think they sell all parts of the pig, from the head to the toes here. They put loads of fried shallots onto the food... and it is totally HEAVENLY! This is our MUST-HAVE breakfast whenever we go into JB (nearly weekly affair).

如果进新山不吃果条仔，会浑身不自在。哈哈。

They always say that us Chinese foodies have something against a pig, if they give us a pig, and when we are done feasting on it, you get nothing left.

For local SG foodies who actually dare to eat kway chup and all the weirdo stuff, this is a must go to! I used to remember going down to the hawker center and dapao kway chup for my breakfast every morning, the auntie felt i was special because i always ask for the special liaos that old uncles order like pig's blood and pig's lungs. These are stuff you can't get in SG anymore.

If you want to taste the old fascinating flavors of yesterday, this tiny joint is one of the best for you to go to! Food that is served is amazingly cleaner than even some of the places in SG (You know its not clean when you taste something weird honestly, its not that its cooked wrongly, its that its cleaned wrongly!) If we go into JB in the morning, this is a must go for us! Try if you dare to challenge the pig, don't go if you can't stand lard, intestines and other weirdo stuff!

Just Want Coffee JWC, The Factory 30

Address: No 30, Jln Mutiara Emas 5/3, Taman Mount Austin, Johor Bahru
Telephone: 07 350 7508
Hours: 14:00 - 00:00
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefactorythirty

Visited on 4 Mar 2016.

Came here after having lunch at Chai Jia Chai @ Mount Austin, since it was just around the corner. We had to park along the streets and being in a factory area, just somehow didn't feel too safe initially. But then, everyone else was parking along the road, so it wasn't as unsafe as I thought lah.

4 of us - Lervonne, Alison, hubby and I - ordered drinks, brownie and chicken wings. The chicken wings were so-so only. The coffee was good and the brownie was the most interesting. The brownie came on a hotplate and the waiter poured the chocolate syrup onto the cake and ice-cream after serving us. It was really good. That was the most expensive "meal" we had in JB that day too... bill came up to RM90+, which is quite expensive based on JB standards.

Chai Jia Chai 蔡家菜

Address: 45, Jalan Rosmerah 2/3, Taman Johor Jaya, 81100 Johor Bahru
73, Jalan Austin Height 3, Taman Mount Austin, 81100 Johor Bahru
Telephone: 012 775 7928 (Mr Tan), 016 410 5998 (Goh)
Hours: 11:00 - 15:30 / 18:00 - 21:00 (Johor Jaya closed every Wednesday; Mount Austin closed every alternate Wednesday)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChaiJiaChai/

Visited on 4 Mar 2016.

Lervonne brought us to the Taman Mount Austin branch to eat. We loved the meetaimak, the peppery pig stomach soup and the lor bak. We found the vegetable choices somewhat limited and ordered the lady's fingers... not too bad. Even though hubby didn't like lady's fingers, liked it... pretty surprising.

Meetaimak and lor bak