Malay food: Mawi

Status: Halal

Venue/landmark: KingFisher, end of lot, along with Kodak and Restoran Sri Juara.

Time open – close: 10.00 am – 9.00 pm (Monday - Saturday)

Basic RM per meal: RM 5 (with drinks)

What I like here are their rice and dishes. And their pricing. I think they’re the cheapest Malay restaurant in KingFisher that actually serves pretty decent food. Menu varies daily so it’ll be pointless to describe them one by one except to note down some of my favourites. I’ll go for these when they are available: plain, old sardine, love it when they cook it with eggplant; asam pedas fish; tofu of any kind; sambal eggplant but sometimes a tad too oily and most vege.

Overall, hygiene is fair, good service. And serves pretty decent food. I don’t like the ordered meals though. They charged plain / iced water RM0.20.

No, this restaurant has nothing to do at all with Mawi the artist. NOTHING.

Malay food: Restoran Ibadah Rohani

Status: Halal

Venue/landmark: KingFisher, end of lot, along with Restoran Serai Wangi.

Time open – close: 10.00 am – 9.00 pm (Monday - Friday)

Basic RM per meal: RM 5 (without drinks)

This one opened some time ago early 2008. Every time I went there at 12.30 – 1.00 pm, it’s always crowded (a rare sight in KingFisher’s Malay shop) and they always had no rice dishes left so I can’t comment much on this. But I did try several items on the menu which are quite satisfactory. Service is fair, good hygiene, nice setting. If you look around, you will notice that they have many different lamps hanging on the ceiling and wall. They serve plain/iced water FOC.

1. Nasi Goreng Paprik

It was not specified what but nevertheless I was happy with the content, presentation and price. The paprik came as mixed seafood, chicken and vege, RED in colour (instead of the usual colourless Sabah – style paprik) with heaps of fried rice. It’s too spicy for me that I had tears running down my cheek and positively sniffling by the time I finished it. But don’t rely on this much since my threshold for spicy is below average… ^_^

2. Nasi Goreng Kerabu

For those unfamiliar with the term “kerabu”, it basically refers to mixed vegetable or a form of salad. So this fried rice was prepared with lots of them, including bunga kantan which gave it a zest. Much recommended. Good price, large serving.

3. Nasi Goreng Thai

There’s a subtle taste of tom yum in this one, chicken, egg, dashed with tons of pineapple which made it a savoury meal. Again, thumbs up. Good price, large serving.

4. Nasi Goreng Kampung

The names doesn’t imply much but I like this simple fried rice of anchovy, kangkung, egg and chili. The belacan taste was there, to make it more savoury. But troublesome to pick out the onions and chili. (2 things that I don’t consume directly, as in their original form)

5. Lemon Kitchai

This one I regretted ordering. There’s this weird taste in this drink that I can’t pinpoint what but it’s not worth it. I’ve to down some water to wash out the taste. Really not my taste…

KingFisher food situation… no, we ain’t starving but we are starving…

Yippee! Kohinoo has opened a branch in Kingfisher (KF). Finally that crappy Hana branch closes down for good (their sushi sucks, unlike their other branch in CityMall). So for Indian cuisine lover, this is good news since Kohinoo, albeit expensive, offered some of the best Indian cuisine in Sabah.

Which brought up this topic, KF shops, or more specifically the Malay eateries there. There is just something wrong with them, or maybe it’s lack of luck, or just plainly too expensive for the crap they offered, but throughout my 4 years stay here in Sabah, I’ve seen too many management changes in one lot while the Mamak next door continues to thrive, of course. And the Chinese shops too.

Actually I’m very biased in this article because, well, I’m not exactly too fond of KF Malay food, with the exceptions of a very few like Mawi and Sri Juara. And Mamak food. But I got good reasons for it. In the first place, like I mentioned above, the price is not worth the crap they give you, some offered lousy services where the waitresses glared at you when you mention that they are giving a tad too small a portion and tossed your food around sloppily on the plate, the hygiene… well, I regret peeking into their kitchen since it totally robbed me off my appetite; the floor stained with years worth of crap; the trash send out whiffs from time to time, the lighting set off suspicious glow of the suspicious thing on your plate, the interior a pain for your eyes, and the list goes on…

Amazingly, aside from the Mamak stall that thrives like anything thanks to their cheap food and numerous wide - screen TVs, the Chinese shops managed to stay open for many years and a few more cropping up. There’s one explanation provided by a Chinese friend of mine for this “phenomena”, as compared to Malay shop which charged RM 3.50 for rice with (usually meager) 1 meat dish and 1 vege dish, a Chinese shop will charge you the same for any 3 dishes accompanying the rice so more of the Chinese eat out compared to Malay.

So there…