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.