Had lunch at Shook! (JW Marriott Hotel, Kuala Lumpur) today. This restaurant features three stations: Chinese, Italian, and Japanese. The ambience is good and the service friendly and prompt. I was, however, dissapointed with the food. I ordered a seafood pizza which came undercooked. The replacement pizza was also a little undercook. The waiter and chef tried hard to please, but the frozen dough they used wouldn't let them have their day. In my opinion, OGGI at the Regent Kuala Lumpur (read about my experience here) serves better Italian food than Shook!.

I often fly with Japan Airlines on my Friday night trips from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. The cabin interior looks refreshing and clean. The service is also efficient and friendly. One feature that Japan Airlines have over the other airlines is the offer of bird's eye view from the entertainment system. You can see the runway when the plane takes off and lands. You can see the airport and how the airplane approaches it. Interesting.

Had buffet dinner at Vogue Café (Renaissance Hotel, 128 Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur) with Philip Tan in early October. Variety is not too great but the dessert counter is marvelous. I especially like the huge and juicy strawberries and cream.

Had dinner at House of Sundanese (Suntec City) with family last Sunday. We ordered deep fried gurame fish (gurame goreng), grilled squid (cumi-cumi bakkar), curry vegetable (sayur lodeh), candle nut chicken (ayam buah keluak), chicken otak (tom ayam), fried bean curd with egg (tauhu telur) and fried seafood bean curd (taupok goreng). Food quality is not bad.

Had dinner with family at East Ocean Teochew Restaurant (1 Scotts Road, #02-18 Shaw Centre) last Friday. We had salt and pepper scallops, steamed scallops, jellied pork knuckles, deep fried cuttlefish tentacles, braised seafood, teochew style steamed garoupa, snow crab steamed in hua diao (chinese wine), and steamed bamboo clams. The dishes were all very nice. The service is also tip top, with frequent change of plates and fulfilling every request. We brought along a bottle of Rosemount Show Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 to accompany our dinner. Wine was served in proper wine glasses, without corkage charges.

Flew back to Singapore from Jakarta on Cathay Pacific Airways today. I used to fly with Singapore Airlines to destinations served by them, whenever possible. However, since about 6 months ago, I started exploring other airlines as alternatives in the face of slow global economic recovery, and some bad experiences with Singapore Airlines. In the course of that, I discovered several airlines which I deem as good as Singapore Airlines. Among these is Cathay Pacific. I am particularly impressed by the standard of English spoken by their stewardesse. In-flight service is also good. I seriously think Singapore Airlines has to increase its quality/price ratio to make it competitive again.

While staying in Hotel Nikko, Jakarta, I had one of my dinners at the Mei Restaurant there. The restaurant is rather huge, with several sections, each with a different theme. The cuisine is Chinese-Japanese fusion. I had grilled taraba crab (king crab) legs. It was nice, but the portion is a little small. The ambience and service is first class, however.

Johan Sudiato (Head of Card Centre Division, BII) invited me to lunch at Ming Seafood Restaurant (Setiabudi Building, Lantai, Blok C-4, Jln. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav. 62, Jakarta 12920) yesterday. The restaurant is along the interesting restaurant stretch, which also includes Goku, (see my Goku experience here) in Setiabudi Building.

Ming is a rather expensive restaurant but the food is unspectacular. We had pigeon soup, fried spinach, salted chicken, braised seafood tofu, dim sum, and fresh mango for dessert. All of the dishes were ordinary.

I stayed at Hotel Nikko, Jakarta, on two of my trips to Jakarta in August, but had forgotten to add a review till now.

Hotel Nikko, Jakarta, was previously President Hotel, and was taken over by the JAL Group and renamed Hotel Nikko. The hotel was refurbished and a new wing, called Nikko Tower, was built.

I stayed in the old building on one of my trips. The rooms there are very small. On my return trip, the air conditioner in the old building broke down and I was put up in the new Nikko Tower. The rooms in Nikko Tower are huge, at least twice the size of those in the old building, and very nice.

Hotel Nikko is situated in the expensive location of Jalan MH Thamrin, being directly opposite Plaza Indonesia.

Went to Plaza Indonesia, Jakarta for lunch after a morning's hard work last Sunday. Noticed a highly packed Chinese restaurant, called the Courtyard, on the 3rd floor of Plaza Indonesia, just next to Kinokuniya and decided to give it a try. I waited for 30 minutes before I could get a table, and fortunately there's Kinokuniya where I can browse some books.

The place is very nicely decorated and very cosy with a plush feeling. I ordered some dim sum which turned out to be rather nice. The dim sum dishes are priced at either Rp9,000 or Rp9,500. Service is friendly but forgetful. I gave up on dessert after asking twice for a dessert menu which never come.

Went to the movie S.W.A.T. with Hardy and Harianto, together with their spouses, in Jakarta last night. We went to the cinema belonging to the 21 Group in Puri Mall, Puri Indah, Jakarta.

Harianto loves movies and told me that he never fails to visit a cinema even when he travels, no matter which country he is in. In his tour of cinemas in Asia, Europe, and North America, he finds that Jakarta still offers the best cinemas in terms of comfort. I was skeptical.

When I entered the cinema, my skepticism quickly vanished. The seats were indeed plush and big, draped in velvet, with wide arm rests. The leg room is very good too! I myself have been to cinemas in Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and the US, and in the end, I have to agree with Harianto's opinion.

Had coffee at Kopi Town along Gajah Mada in Jakarta a number of days ago. Was attracted to this small coffee shop by its serenity along the busy Gajah Mada and its promise of traditional coffee. But it was a big dissapointment! The black coffee (kopi-o) is so watered down that it's like coffee-coloured water. There is no coffee flavour at all and tasted like soap water.

Had dinner with colleagues and business partners two nights ago at Ganesha Ek Sanskriti (9th Floor, CP 901, Center Park Gedung BRI II, Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 44-46, Jakarta 10210). This Indian restaurant is only 4 months old and is very nicely decorated. We ordered tandoori chicken, tandoori prawns, butter chicken, chicken tikka, lamb curry, vegetable kebab, naan, kulcha, and a bottle of red wine, which is nothing to shout about.

The papadams given to us as appetizers were not very good and became a little soft at the end. The tandoori chicken is surprisingly succulent, a change from the usual dried out tandoori chicken you get in most Indian restaurants. The tandoori prawns were a let-down though. The prawns were not fresh and had a mushy texture instead of being firm and crunchy. The butter chicken is flavourful. I did not try the lamb curry and vegetable kebab as they look rather unappealing to me. The naan and kulcha breads are quite well done.

On the whole, the dinning experience is above average, but they really need to train their waiters to handle wines. A waiter wanted to pour wine to the brim of the glass for one of our guests when I noticed and abrubtly stopped him!

Had lunch with family at Kam Boat Chinese Cuisine (1 Scotts Road, #05-14 Shaw Centre) this afternoon. This is a Hong Kong-style restaurant. We ordered dim sum and the daily special (kampung chicken on Sundays). The food is quite good and price very reasonable -- there's a 30% discount on all dim sum items. I like the service. There's frequent change of plates and refilling of tea by the waitresses.