Be at home no more

Finally my time of seeing new lights has come. Although I was the first to finish my finals but I didn't feel any excitement or joy until some of my housemates finished theirs. Not that I am complaining about finishing early. I'm glad that I don't long intervals in between my papers. Waiting is a torture by itself. Monday was only the start of having others to join me in shake-leg and hanging around mode.

Celebration did not come straight away like how it used to be. Waited till night fall then the party starts. Every time when we go out, we'll find a new place to eat and most of the time is Western cuisine. And for some reason that I've yet to find out, there are a lot of Western cuisine in town! A lot of them do it al fresco style or home dining-ish style or a mixture of both like the one I went to Monday night. 

 A night out also means that it's time to dress up / doll-up / not-the-average-campus-look. The only time where you see me somewhat different.

I have being dubbed as the human GPS by my housemates. Not a human Google yet. So locating it was not that difficult when some reference here and there and the old fashion of looking up into a map, Google map! It is still not that 100% or 99% reliable but satisfactory enough. Not long into our mini road trip, we came to this.

Secret Garden Bistro Bar

It was the place I thought of it all along. Fascinating after entering the gates. First to be in the path of our sight is this lovely looking building.

A big house with lots of dim lights and ample room for parking.

Took no time at all to enter the premise and see what's so lovely inside.

On my left. Always love to sit on the couch section.

Very nice ambience. Good for those who want to take wedding photos perhaps. The warm yellow light is kinda soothing but not good for taking pictures. Deco wise it is a little homey on the inside, a little wild wild west bar at the entrance, some resort-ish for dining outdoors, and there's a place just for holding big parties. Reservation is a must I guess for that.

Menu please.

When we were looking up for price range of the places we had in mind, we could not find any, ANY price indicator or something. So I just took the liberty to take a few snapshots of the menu. This restaurant? I wouldn't call it a restaurant. This home dining place serves both Western cuisine and Asian cuisine. We only had the Western part, yet to try the Asian dishes. Price wise to be is a bit higher than average when it comes to lamb, steak, and salmon. The rest would be average for a place like this. 

Small snacks?

Bring in the dollar sign

Let's have a closer look

My principle is if you do not know what to eat or order prior any recommendations or reviews, go for the ones that the place recommend. I got Chicken Kieve for myself while the rest of us got Chicken Roulette with apple sauce, Chicken Cordon Bleu and Fish and Chips, and a small bowl of mushroom soup as starters. 

Here comes the food verdict.  

Mushroom soup

The mushroom soup is lacking in some taste and density. I like having my mushroom soup thick and dense with some chucks.

Chicken Kieve

I was satisfied with my dish and it was recommended as shown in the menu. Did not really fancy the vegetable choice. Just some carrots and that green vege with I do not know what it is called. But happy with the mushroom sauce over the chicken. I think it was chicken breast they served. Presentation wise was a little bit off as you can see in the picture the placement of the dish is not exactly anywhere near the middle.

Chicken Roulette

Note: That was not the original presentation of the dish. My friend was clearly was not liking this. It was dry but the apple sauce was distinctive. The mashed potato was nice even on its own for me.

The other 2 did not have any pictures. Fish and chips was normal except the only difference was there was coleslaw and chips while the chicken side dishes were all the same. 

So onto photo taking session to redeem the lacking of the food. 

CNY is just around the corner!

The big party reception area. Look a bit Balinese

Chilling in the nest.

Spot for more seats!

Slowly walking down to the parking area.

Am I in some kind of getaway?

A fairladyZ with a tower that overview the whole of Kuching

Total damage for 4

Overall I find it acceptable with the price I pay for the food and the whole shebang. I look at the whole package while one of my friend only see the worth of the food. So it's up to preference. I'm no food blogger

Next we head out for part 2 - Karaoke! How can we just go back home after eating and on the day where holiday starts. Holiday is holiday - no work, all play.

This was supposed to be up like 2 days ago. Look what am I doing in my free time rather than doing FYP. Procrastination much.... Keep on procrastinating...