Let’s Goyang!

• Sahara Cafe,
• Lot 9642, BL. 11, Ground Floor,
• MTLD, Tabuan Laru 93350,
• Kuching, Sarawak, MALAYSIA.
• (in a bloody nutshell - drive straight down Jln. Song, pass the church, pass the traffic lights, first shop-house on your left)
• Tel: 082 - 366 263

I came here recently for a dinner with some friends. The place is abit far (by Kuching standards) and is located in the residential area, making it abit ulu.

Hard to miss the bright yellow lights in a block of dark shop-houses fronting the main road.

This is a new place and we came here because it is only one of two Western restaurants that serve pork dishes in Kuching. I love pork - specifically bacon and sausages. I’d stop short of frollicking with pigs in a field of mud, but I wouldn’t dismiss the thought of eating an old boot if it were wrapped in bacon =P.

Interesting and cosy deco

I brought along a bottle wine, and the proprietor was kind enough not to charge any corkage fees! The reason being that they just opened and aren’t officially selling any wine yet. My guess is that it means they haven’t gotten their alcohol permit yet.

I’m sure its because the staff are new - and that’s why they aren’t very efficient. But what irks me is that they can’t seem to speak English. I mean, its a Western restaurant! And I don’t expect them to be fluent or anything, but I do expect them to know the phrase “I’d like to order”. The restaurant is very small with only a few tables, but I had to tell our waitress three times that we were ready to order! What annoyed me is that each time she would give me a confused look, nod her head, than go back to the bar and just stand there!

I’m a guy who is very picky about dining and service. I don’t mind if this was some Kopitiam or cheap place. But I was under the impression its alot more than that. The price reflects it. Also I guess its because of my experience being a waiter back in New Zealand, I’m more attuned to these little things. Also you won’t find any bullshit from me when it comes to reviewing. I tell it like it is.

The food didn’t take too long to come out. But I think the chef was cooking one dish at a time, cause we had to wait about 10 minutes for each of our dishes to come out. Again, perhaps this place is new, and therefore the staff are still learning the ropes.

This is the cheesy rice with pork chop. It costs only about RM$13 but the portion is small. The pork chop is actually a baked rib and is quite tasty and tender. The cheese they used were processed slices of cheddar, which made this modern Hong Kong dish all wrong. But aside from that, it was enjoyable.

This is the pork cordon bleu, at about RM$19 (Forgive the pictures of half-eaten food! Its my bad). It comes with fries and salad. This dish was not bad at all. Its not outstanding, but for $19 its good value for a pork dish. Its basically a pork fillet stuffed with ham and cheese and than deep-fried in bread-crumbs. This is the best dish of the lot.

This is the worst dish of the night. Its Spaghetti Carbonara, and as you can see, it resembled more like soup. The sauce was very thin and watery. This was not pleasant at all. Its one of the worst Carbonaras I’ve ever tasted.

Good on Sahara Cafe for introducing pork in their menu, but they’ve got a way to go when it comes to staff efficiency and food. But to be fair, we didn’t try the dishes that they are supposedly popular for (but strangely is not in the menu) which is Pork Char Siu and pork sausages. The sausages are store bought which we felt wasn’t worth it to order, and as for the Char Siu - well, we just didn’t really feel like having Char Siu I guess.

• Ambience: 8
• Cleanliness: 9
• Service: 5
• Food: 5
• Value: 5

Average Rating: 6.4 / 10

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 31st, 2006 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Eating Out. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.