Brunei Restaurant Review: Kausar Cafe

Kausar Café is located on the same block as Misato Sushi in Qlap. It used to be a simple Sri Langkan restaurant – but has recently gone through good renovation to become the current café, which serves North, South Indian and Sri Langkan cuisines.

 

It’s pretty spacious and I like the touch of these dark wooden furniture. Yellow lights and an aquarium adds a touch to its ambience.

It’s fully air-conditioned for comfortable dining – possible to cater to a simple dinner date or a family gathering.

What’s interesting about this restaurant is their selection of good quality tea and fresh brewed coffee – owing to the hotel background of the owner – one can look forward to having a nice cup of coffee or tea in this café.

I settled for a brewed coffee tarik ~ using Vittoria coffee beans – doesn’t this feel like a cappuccino? Lovely stuff – though you should tell them to put less sugar if you don’t like your coffees sweet.

It’s really funny to see a Café Latte served in an old school kopi tiam glass. A good choice for latte drinkers like me.

Their Marsala Tea is a spiced up brewed tea – very fragrant and highly recommended. We all enjoyed a good sip of this tea.

This is off the menu – but we actually had Affogato – Ice cream served with espresso and Amaretto liquer – our version of course – did not include the Amaretto!

You can’t go wrong with a good glass of Lassi ~~ hmmm ~~

For starters – we tried out their Sri Langkan breakfast item called Aappa – a rice flour item made using special pots to give it’s special shape – crispy sides and soft centre. We ordered the ones with an egg in the centre – and I must say – they go very well with the spicy onion jam. I wouldn’t mind having this for breakfast often!

These are string hoppers – which you can see – are string like texture pancakes served with onion jam and coconut curry gravy. Something unique from Sri Langka!

Another Sri Langkan Special – Fish and Potato Cutlis – it’s got a crispy outer texture with a soft potato centre – almost similar to bagadel but crispier.

Hmm ~~~ beautiful ~~~

This is their Peshwari Naan – stuffed with dried fruits and coconut.

Laccha Paratha – a crispy multi layered bread – very suitable for dipping into rich gravies!

Puri – a puffed up bread – from the steam within the dough during the deep frying. It has quite a soft texture.

My favourite bread is their Tandoori Paratha – Layered bread cooked Tandoori style – crispy and has a strong hint of spices. Very very good.

Their beef vindaloo – a spicy hot beef dish served with potato wedges.

Acharri Gosht – a pickle style lamb curry – with a slightly sweet sour and spicy taste

Lamb Jalfrezi – A very complex tandoori lamb slices cooked in a blend of ginger, green peppers and spices. Rich and delicious!

One can never go wrong with ordering butter chicken – sweet creamy rich sauce served with moist chicken pieces.

You could easily mistaken this as tofu but this is their Tandoori style grilled cottage cheese (home made) – loving the fragrant of the cheese! Tandoori Paneer.

This is my favourite dish of the night – Paneer Makhani – home made cottage cheese – cooked in a tomato and butter cream sauce – I must say I could eat a whole bowl of this dipped with paratha myself! Om nom nom nom nom!

For desserts, we tried their Kheer Badami – a dessert served with ground almonds cooked in milk and sugar – flavoured with saffron and cardamon.

Watalappan – This is a Sri Langkan delicacy – made from gula melaka, coconut milk, eggs and spices – it has the texture of soft bread pudding with the added kick of spices.

Kausar Café has won me over with their comfortable settings, great choices of Indian and Sri Langkan cuisines – as well as having the option of having good quality coffee and tea. The Paneer Makhani alone is enough to make me come back often!

Brunei Restaurant Review: Xinful Cafe

Crumbs café made quite a name on Facebook selling their home made cakes such as Yam Cakes and Durian Cakes. It was not open to public but more of an pre-scheduled appointment basis.

The Xinful Café officially soft opened recently in Gadong Central. The name Xinful Cafe - means Sinful in English and Xing Foo (same as happiness) - both having the same sound. Sinful desserts which brings Xing Foo (Happiness) ~~ hmm .. sounds good to me.

The Xinful Café is still in it’s soft opening stage – still a learning in progress for their staff and chefs. Most of the decorations in the restaurants are DIY by the staff. Be patient and give feedback and advice to the managers.

The Xinful café offers quite a fusion concept to their food. Combining Taiwan, Hongkong style snacks with Western desserts.

Taiwanese style breakfast: Char Kueh with Soya Bean Milk ~~

Taiwanese Scallions Pancake – or we call them Chong You Bing.

Cheesy squid balls to satisfy your snack cravings ~~

Ooooo melted cheese ~~~~

The Xinful café has limited selections for their desserts at the moment and the popular ones run out pretty quick.

Opera Cake

Durian Pancake – Thin crepe like pancakes stuffed with durian cream

One of her popular Yam Cake with desiccated coconut – nom nom

 

If I were to nominate their strongest dish – It would most definitely be their Durian Cheesecakes – a heaven on a plate (unless you hate Durian – which would mean Hell breaks loose). Soft Creamy Durian goodness ~~~ thumbs up! I would come here again and again just for this dessert alone!

Drown all that dessert with a nice cup of Hot Hong Kong Style Milk Tea (Si Mak Nai Char)

Or fancy an ice cold Hong Kong Milk Tea ~~

They had not hang up their mascots – Sinful and XinFoo yet because they are still on soft opening stage. Hopefully the Café would get plenty of good feedback to help them come up with new ideas for food and service.

Brunei Restaurant Review: Empire Hotel Spaghettini Taste of Italy Promotion

Well known as the “prince of Milan's hotels” and a member of one of the world’s most prestigious 5-star hotel groups, the Dorchester Collection, Hotel Principe is sending two top chefs from its signature restaurant Acanto to present the fine dining experience.

Spaghettini restaurant is presenting the impeccable cuisine of Acanto for fine Italian dining experience. Highlights are the hotel’s Chef de Partie, Davide Cassago, formerly in Michelin star restaurant, Vecchia Filanda, and Sous Chef Banqueting Ivan Maffi, a protégé of celebrity chef Gualtiero Marchesi, famed as the founder of modern Italian cuisine.

It was kind enough of Empire to invite me to this prestigious event and to be able to check out their kitchen and watch the two chefs from Italy working together with out local talents is an eye opening experience for the foodie inside me.

This is where orders are being lined up and the communication point between chefs and front line staff. You could see they have a long list of orders lined up!

Chef Davide Cassago in action as he prepares the sauces ~~

Chef Ivan Maffi preparing the appetizers ~~

Chef Davide Cassago and Chef Raj smiling while the media takes pictures of them ~~

Chef Davide Cassago finishes up the seafood pasta dish ~~

A candid photo of Spaghettini Chef Ajoy ~ the creative chef of Spaghettini!

 

Now on to the food! For startes we were given the option of butter, refreshing mint butter and reduced balsamic to go with our breads.

Hmm ~~ I personally preferred the balsamic with my bread while others prefer the unique taste of mint butter!

For our appetizers, we begin with thinly sliced Angus Beef Carpaccio, served with Fig Compote to add some subtle natural sweetness and in the center ~ a parmesan cheese flan for richness and flavour. A lovely start to our taste of Italy.

Our second appetizer is this Liguria Octopus Salad, served with black olives, French beans and topped with sweet potato chips. The salad’s dressing wets our appetites for our mains!

 

The next appetizer is one of Acanto’s signature dishes~~

Acanto’s Crunchy Prawns with Toasted Almonds sitting on a Fresh Parsley sauce, served with Salsa Verde.   Oh my yummers!!

When one talks about Italy – one simply cannot miss out pasta and pizza~ You will be able to order two pizzas and two pastas from the menu.

This is the simple straight forward Napoletana pizza ~~

Their Frutti Di Mare – mussels, clams and prawns pizza ~~ naturally – the hungry me preferred the seafood pizza!

Pastas in Italy tend to be fresh tasting and making full use of the fresh produce. People who are used to strong flavours of South East Asian cuisines might find them bland but I personally love the flavours of this Clam Pasta – but others might no share my preferences.

This is their Eggplant penne, served with mozarella and cherry tomatoes – another traditional Italian pasta dish.

This is their Casoncelli Ravioli ~ with spinach-ricotta filling, served with pinenuts with butter and sage. Hmmmm ~~~

I must say I am a fan of their risottos. This is their squid ink risotto with squid confit. Oh my risotto! According to Chef Ajoy, the secret is their air flown rice just for their risottos!

This was my personal favourite of the night ~ the saffron and butter risotto with crispy Parmesan and a piece of gold leaf for that posh feel! Notice the generous portion of saffron threads as well ~~ hmmmm …. not surprised that this is my favourite dish of the night! Chef Ajoy divulges another top secret – their butter and shallots combo packs a punch in this dish!

 

This is their baked cod, which looks good already freshly out of the oven before being plated~

Oven baked cod fillet, served with asparagus, squid, capers and cherry tomatoes ~~~

This is their other main – the rack of lamb served with a side of Aubergine ‘Parmesan’ and side veggies.

A close up photo of those delicious lamb morsels!! ATTACK!!!

On to the desserts ~~ this is Acanto’s unique tiramisu with strawberry, masala and dark chocolate – I loved the strawberry one the most out of the three. This is their Tiramisu Mignon – a trio of tiramisus~

You can also choose their other dessert – which is their Trio Panna Cotta – an Italian milk based jelly like dessert – comprising of Vanilla, Mint and Raspberry flavours.

The best moment of the night is of course – to take a picture with the two talented Italian chefs! Thank you Chef Davide Cassago and Chef Ivan Maffi and I hope the rest of Brunei will enjoy the Taste of Italy!

For reservations: Please call +673 241 8888 @ The Empire hotel and ask for Spaghettini! Book early to avoid missing out on this limited special!