Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Food Around Kota Kinabalu

KK is never lack of nice food. A buffet dinner at Promenade might be one of them. The buffet was nice, western, eastern, local, Japanese style, BBQ etc. However, we got some negative feedbacks from our friends, saying the quality of the food there was compromised. Well, advice for all, take a look first at the site and let your intuition free for a wise decision.

Another one before the locals' roll into our list- Little Italy. Located on the ground floor of Capital Hotel opposite Merdeka Shopping Complex. Little Italy serves nice food in Italian style. Well, might because of the uniqueness of food, so did the price (really expensive, at least for Malaysian, with RM 35++ per person per meal).

Buffet dinner at Promenade Hotel with Betty's sisters, from left Katty (youngest), Betty, Jenny, and Nancy (younger). It is one of the best venue for buffet in KK. Promenade Hotel is located adjacent to the coast line of KK township. Our last visit for buffet dinner was in December 2008.

Nice environment in Little Italy. We visited the restaurant twice, the latest was in December 2009, when this photo was taken with full Chrismas gears.

If we visit KK, the best food that we shall not miss is the local seafood. The seafood, great varieties, good restaurants with good locations, and most of them are low in price (comparatively). Can you imagine, in Nov 2009, crabs with RM 40 per Kg in West Malaysia was sold with RM 8 per Kg in the restaurant there (RM8.50 per Kg on Dec 2010)? Sweet sour prawn with chilli was RM 15 per Kg, that's cheaper than the frozen prawn sold in Hypermarket!

We went to several places to try the seafood, including Sri Mutiara at Kampung Air Food Court (Formerly known as Asia City Food Centre or Sedco Complex). Sri Mutiara is easier to access from city center. Located at Asia City, it just takes about 5 minutes walk from Centre Point.

Supertanker and Welcome Restaurant at Grand Industrial Phase 2, off Bundusan Road, Penampang are a distance away from city area, where you might need somebody to drive you there. We tried a new opening seafood restaurant at Asia City Complex (cannot recall the name for now) recently, and our conclusion, all the chefs really know how to cook!

Fresh seafood in front of the Sri Mutiara, ready to be picked personally. Crabs with RM 8 per Kg, lobster, RM 15, and fish with attractive prices.

Photo taken in front of one of the restaurant. We went to Sri Mutiara Restaurant (nearer to my side @ Asia City) rather than Twin Sky, as the price at Twin Sky was a little bit higher that night. The price for seafood might be varied from time to time, from one restaurant to another. So, always keep in mind to check for the price before we step into any of the seafood restaurant.

Seafood @ Sri Mutiara Restaurant, Asia City, KK. Asia City is just 5 minutes away of Centre Point by foot.

Other places for nice food in Kota Kinabalu, we tried nice laksa (curry flavoured noodle with some special spices), kolok noodle, wantan noodle at some kopitiam around KK (especially around Kampung Air area). Few of them, average, and many of them, nice.

Taking Sarawak's noodles in Sabah? Taste was ok, but not quite similar to those in Sarawak. On the right, kolok mee (top) and laksa (bottom). In Malaysia, mee means noodle. In KK, we could always take a sit in kopitiams (coffee shops) at take a sip of kopi-O (coffee with sugar) with noodles. There are many kopitiams in KK. The one showed in the photo is at Kampung Air (Kedai Kopi Kinabalu).

Oh, just a personal advice from us, don't touch the japanese food in KK. We tried two of them, one on the very top floor of Centre Point offered very attractive "low cost" food, while another one in Asia City Complex, expensive.

One of the Japanese Restaurant at Asia City Complex, offered expensive but not so tasty food. The sashimi showed on top right cost RM 18++. Expensive!!! And the taste, no much different from Sushi King. So, why not Sushi King (cheaper indeed)?

A view inside the Japanese restaurant.

So, our personal opinion, we should concentrate on local food, especially the seafood in KK. Well, that's about the food. How about shopping in Kota Kinabalu?






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