piasau boat club

a family regular place, if anything for our munchkins place to release energy at the playground and the beach. the dolphin swing being the all time favourite and everything else second. the club was setup by the company to help provide some recreation facilities for the staff, mainly for the expats to not worry about what to cook. its located within the piasau camp area, a members club but was told that you can walk in and pay cash too if you want to eat at the restaurant, else it works by a chit system. the makan is ok overall, it has a range of locals and western favourites, and even catering to some part of our demographics, it even feature bitterballens (dutch deep fried meat stuffed doughballs). its not the same as the haram version in nl, but those were the jahiliah days...a good thing about this place is they dont use msg in their recipes so you dont get that thirsty feeling after you had your meal even after downing a few glasses of drinks. so whats good? the laksa sarawak is quite alright, chicken chop is pretty and burgers. they do a kuching style noodle, which is tomato based, pretty good too. if you have a big group go for the beef black pepper honey, or if your on company lunch, go for the pre-ordered fried cod fish, it is simply deelish. the fish is slightly crispy outside but oh so tender fish meat inside, its so juicy. overall a good place to have a makan and relax during the weekends. oh and i have actually gone sailing with one of the lasers there...but havent got the helms tix yet, that to come.

imperial hotel restaurant

this is one of our regular places whenever it rains or just want to go somewhere simple and air conditioned. its got a chinese and mixed menu. the restaurant is fairly large and mostly unoccupied so we tend to get our usual table by the windows and the little toddler gets to roam around whenever she doesnt want to sit down. we've only gone for the simple goreng, sup stuff from the chinese menu, so never really ventured into the lauks. the gorengs and suppy stuff is done well, though not superb. the mixed menu has the western and local range, and bistro stuff like sandwiches and italian menu, wide enough but not super extensive. the club sandwich is ok, and worth trying the fish (salmon). we stayed at the hotel for a good 5 weeks when we first arrived, so this place has a place in our stomach. prices are reasonable and parking is free when you eat here so all in all a worthy proposition to give it a go. located on the ground floor of the hotel next to the reception counter.

secret recipe

those from west my will be familiar with this chain. we had to give it a go, though it was a while after it opened that we tried it. we did have a peek just when they opened, but they had a simops thing going with final construction work going on and people ordering and eating food at the same time, which was a no no for us considering we have an interpid traveler with us. when we got round to it, its pretty much consistent set of menu with a bit of miri oil town boosted price, or brunei market factor, or whatever you want to call it. we had a go at the vietnamese beefball noodles, the tom yam noodle and little one had one of the fish...ok lah, i think they could tweak it a bit to give a bit more oomph to the flavours. anyway we tried it again and tapau'd the shepherds pie which went down well with our daughter and me too. so that was recommended. the wifey would have their apple juice with something in it (kasturi?). of course they are more well known for their cheesecakes, but we havent tried that yet! for you to have a go. located at the pelita roundabout along the 'bright, happening' part of miri with its nightlife row. overall worth to check out.

Cafe Rosita

been wanting to try this place out for a while, but just never came round to it. one day i just mentioned it to the mrs that we go there for lunch and off we went. its at the ground floor of the dynasty hotel, one of the older hotels here. looks ok from what we saw of the lobby but no idea what the room are like. 3 star ish...apparently owned by a local malay family but sold out due to problems running it. anyway back to the main reason. i was told this place can be busy, but we took a chance and turned and there was a table for us, though not many left. its popular with the buffet. we had a flick of the a la carte menu, and it did look interesting. alas we went for the buffet. overall it is ok, some ups and downs, our daughter happened to enjoy the chicken roulade with roast potatoes and gravy, which is always welcome. they had some ok dishes, though the ingredients (meat cuts, lamb) was not up to scratch. they do need to work on the matching, they had nasi minyak but only one dish to go with it. the rest was more a white rice dish..salads range was acceptable, and so was dessert. overall ok value for lunch. atmosphere is about eating, table/chairs have been optimised over the years of experience. would certainly come back to try their a la carte range pulak.