The Red Beanbag @ Publika

Hello guys! Supposed to be more productive in blogging since I'm having my semester break now but instead I'm even less productive as compared to before wth.. -.-ll Okay I guess it's my addiction to Sims that I can be on my laptop for god knows how many hours non stop which is super bad for my eyes... D: I just have a thing for interior deigning and stuff. Hmm.. I guess I should switch to majoring in ID lol JK xD I seriously cant. I just find designs online and TRY to recreating them but end up cincai putting all the windows. ahaha! Kays, back to the main topic! Wooo previously I talked about Metal Box @ Empire Damansara (READ HERE) right, and said I really should try The Red Bean Bag since it's from the same founder. Well I finally tried it yesterday & it was bombdiggidy! If you don't know what that means, read on! If you do, still read on & support a bit lar. :P

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If you've never noticed RBB in Publika, it's actually at the outside area on the 2nd floor above Dr. Cafe Coffee.

If you come around peak hours *which is what I did*, waiting time is around 20-30 mins depending on the amount of people infront of you. I waited for a little less than 20 minutes which was a decent waiting time despite there being quite a number of people infront of me waiting.

Note: Do get a "number" (actually a card that has a pic & name of an item from their menu) & the staff will take you to your seat when the table is ready. I think this way is more fair for those who's been queuing first. Also, that tactic of putting a pic + name of an item from their menu is pretty smart to me. Makes people notice it and want to order it :)

The place is called The Red Beanbag what so beanbags hanging on the walls with red teddy bears is a must! So cute :D

Their brewing area is quite small but there lies the 2014 Malaysian Barista Champion leh! Gao siao. So obviously ordering their coffee is a must!

Their menu don't look like the typical book kind of menu and instead looks really "hamm choi" LOL. The menu I got what so darn faded I couldn't really read the description about the dish. 

RBB, please do something about that hahaha! Anyway, since we were starved so we just went ahead and ordered all their signature dishes!

Expresso - RM8

Okay so my dad ordered their expresso & it came in a super small cup and we were just kind of like "whut??" & well there's a spoon there so I'm pretty sure it was going to be beyond bitter. Which I was right. I'm not a coffee person but even though it was just so darn bitter, you still managed to taste the aroma of the coffee towards the end.

Salmon Chowder - RM16

This was new on the menu and I was quite intrigued to try it because you'd normally see soups like clam chowder and seafood chowder on the menu and rarely salmon chowder like ever. *maybe for me* So we decided to give it a go & it was totally worth 16 bucks !! The soup came in a perfect amount and there were bits of salmon in the soup in addition to the considerably big piece *for RM16* on top! I mean where can you get this for under RM20?! The soup was fragrant and delicious, loved the way the salmon was cooked because it wasn't fully cooked through which meant that the salmon was under cooked in the middle. Loved it a lot & me as a salmon lover has tried lots of good and not so good salmon, but this was a really good one! One in the top of my list of salmon dishes!! <3

Look at the salmon bits in the soup omg. Typing this already made my mouth watery!

Benedict III - RM26

I think it's called that because they've kept improving this dish? Idk but I think that this dish is already really perfect! The hollandaise is in the right thickness, the poached eggs cooked to perfection, french toast styled bun soft and not oily and everything else sauteed and blended together like BOOM. A perfect family. :D I have no clue what vege they put there but it's really good and worked really well in the whole dish! I just cant find any changes to make in this dish. It's just too good.

Look at it! Just look at it!! OMG.... Oh, you can choose either you want turkey ham or beef bacon for this and we chose beef bacon cuz it's BACON! :P

The Atlantic - RM25

Similar to the previous dish but with salmon instead and one toast had just veges while the other has just mushrooms. Just look at the perfection of this dish! This dish was also really good, but I still prefer the Benedict III better. I still do recommend this to salmon lovers!

Oh my gawd. Look at the yolk bursting!! Should have recorded this and turned it into a GIF.

RBB's Specialty Baked Eggs - RM22

Lastly, we've got RBB's specialty baked eggs which has eggs, sausages, beet, cheese, tomato sauce and toasts on the side. It literally tastes like pizza when you eat it with the bread. I just loved, loved LOVEDDD the beet. I actually thought I'd hate it *although I've never tried it*, but I loved it! I gues it's been in the sauce for a long time because you can just taste the sauce infused in the beet! OMG Just so damn gooooood! Too bad we were all pretty full if not I would have licked the plate lols.

OH MAIIII GOD THE CHEESE!!! <3

A day out equals an #ootd opportunity! Snapped at BlackBox Publika where Raffles College had their 37th Graduation Showcase! My turn will be next... D: So not ready...

Ending the post with Bae admiring him and his group mate's work :P

Overall, I had a really great and satisfying experience at The Red Beanbag and I can't wait to visit again when I crave for breakfast food! Even my dad who always eats chinese food and thinks cafe food is no good thinks RBB was really good! Just a tip, share you food with friends because you're going to want to try each other's dishes when the food comes! Also, only towards the last dish we realized that all our three main dishes had 2 eggs each, so it was just too much egg man. Even said, it was surely a great lunch and I really want to try the other food they offer!

P.S.: Go hover around my header! I added a new category called food because why not! :P Also I categorized the foodie places to PJ, KL, Cheras and Else where so you'll get to search for food reviews for those areas with ease! ;)

The Red Beanbag

Address: Block A4 1st Floor A4-1-08, Publika

Jalan Dutamas 1

Solaris Dutamas

50480 Kuala Lumpur

Phone: 03-62115116

Operating hours: 

Monday (CLOSED)

Tuesday - Friday (10am - 10pm)

Weekends (9:30am - 10pm)

Metal Box @ Empire Damansara

Hello guys! I'm sure you've heard of Metal Box at Empire Damansara right? Okay la, Even if you haven't, it's basically from the same founder of The Red Beanbag at Publika Solaris Dutamas (I haven't tried it but going to try it soon), and it's called Metal Box because there's literally a container in it! :O The kitchen is in the container and we don't dine in it la. Anyway, I've read reviews that Metal Box is a great breakfast place so my friends and I just decided to try it since we were there for a photoshoot. We dined in at around lunch time so most of us ordered from their pasta menu instead of their breakfast menu which was really a disappointment. Read along if you still want to try Metal Box and avoid ordering what we did.

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PC: Lim Carmen's blog

Didn't really snap much of the interiors as we were all just so sweaty from the photoshoot and just starved ahahaha!

PC: timeout.com

As you can see, they really placed a metal box in their restaurant! I'm a huge fan of these containers and man I must visit the container shopping mall in Seoul one day! :O

Based on the name you can guess that the interior also has to be metal-ish wan la.

So this is their menu! As you can see, there's a decent amount of choices here and a lot of breakfast food so obviously their breakfast food is the famous... I wish I've spotted this earlier!! >:(

Vegetarian Aglio Olio - RM16.90

Obviously hearing from the name of it, you can tell that this would be a dish for someone who loves veges la. Somehow Amanda ordered this and didn't like all the veges lol... -.-ll Anyway, this dish was just decent. Yeah its like 50% vege 50% pasta but it was just a regular pasta. Nothing special.

Seafood Marinara - RM24.90

Sadly, this was my order.. Huge fan of red sauce pastas so it's certain that I've tasted many types in 19 years of my life la. *talking like a food expert now lol. P.S.: I've always wanted to be a food critic because I'm always so particular on my food and my mum says I have a good pallet but I don't wanna get fat.* But seriously this was just a let down, the muscles were overcooked, the fried calamari wasn't even golden or crisp *it said so in the menu* and the sauce was just lacking the fragrance of onions and pepper taste a marinara sauce should have. It was really no different from the typical tomato sauce pasta. Really... =.=ll The only good pointers was the tiger prawns were grilled and seasoned well. Huge disappointment...

Hello blurry Rynn in the background :P

Face-Off Salmon - RM16.90

This was Rynn's order as she's a super salmon lover and would just order anything with salmon in it LOL.. Okay la, same like me also. ahahah! Anyway, this salmon is strangely more orange than typical salmons because it has yukari sauce flavour smoked onto it. Overall the dish was good as the scrambled eggs were soft and fluffy, salmon really tasty and fries weren't oily or too salty. The best dish among all our pasta dishes!

Cabonara Pasta - RM18.90 *if not mistaken

This was Darlene's Cabonara and it comes with either turkey ham or beef bacon. Darlene chose turkey ham but I personally think that it'll taste better in beef bacon because well, IT'S BACON! Anyway, the cabonara is topped with a poached egg but the one served here wasn't poached long enough as it was too watery in combination with the cabonara sauce which was already quite watery making it unpleasant. I wouldn't say it was bad, it was just not thick or creamy enough. You can still order it if it you don't like too creamy cabonara la, but what is cabonara if it's not thick?!

Smokey Chicken Pesto - RM18.90

In the picture above it just looks like a normal pesto pasta but in actual, it was just super green and kind of yucky looking. Anyway, this was also just normal, and towards the bottom, the plate was just flooded with pesto sauce which looked really disgusting as though they didn't drain the pasta and the water just dripped in the plate as they put the sauce. So watery again! >:(

The only good thing about this place is they've got not bad service as they served us quick and nice.

Lastly, an #ootd from the photoshoot! Okay this wasn't my ootd but it's actually a whole set from Forever 21! How did I get my hands on these?! Well, it's part of a project (Raffles KL x Forever 21) where we collaborate with Forever 21 to set up a booth at our college! It's long gone already & was supposed to upload this post earlier but I forgot hahaha! In case you missed that post, READ IT HERE.

Overall, my first visit to Metal Box Restaurant wasn't really a pleasant one for my appetite as the food was pretty disappointing as compared to the amount of crowd dining there (the place was packed by 1+pm). Maybe because we didn't know what to order (they didn't state the specialties) and should have ordered the breakfast menu instead. But how can a successful restaurant be super good in only their breakfast food but totally not in their pasta section?? They might as well just serve breakfast food.. This is called inconsistency which would most probably make me not visit this place again. If you were at Empire Damansara, I'd recommend you to try something else instead. (read here) But, if you still wish to visit Metal Box and try their other food, here's the location.

Metal Box Restaurant & Cafe
Address: G12, Empire Damansara,
Jalan PJU 8/8, Damansara Perdana,
47820 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Phone:+60 3-7731 9560
Operating Hours:
Monday (CLOSED)
Tuesday-Friday (10am – 4pm, 6pm – 10pm)
Weekends (10am – 10pm)

Coco Ichibanya Curry House @ 1 Utama

Calling all Japanese food lovers! Okay typical Malaysians whom love Japanese food, it would normally sushi, ramen or bento stuff right? Not many like Japanese curry maybe because it's quite hard to find it here. I rarely find places serving good Japanese curry let alone a whole restaurant just serving that. That was until I was introduced to Coco Ichibanya Curry House located at 1 Utama! It's actually the world's most famous Japanese curry house that has chains all around the world (1,350 restaurants in Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, North America, and Singapore! :O) but I haven't heard of it until that day! LOLs outdated sia... Okay la, I wasn't really a Japanese curry fan because I've tried it twice and both times wasn't good experiences so I never bothered to try it again until like a few days ago my boyfriend bugged me to try it. *SPOILERS: I don't regret trying it!* Anyway scroll for more photos!

Coco Ichibanya is located at Lot LG333A, Lower Ground, New Wing. It's close to the outside because it's non-halal.

OMG the fake food already so tempting imagine the actual with all the aroma !! :O

The interior is really clean and organized. The shop isn't so big, having to compact the seatings weren't easy but the way they arranged it kinda has that Japanese touch to it.

Bae always on his phone. Da mang ren ohh :P

We were given these appetizer thingis which I didn't try because it didn't look so appetizing to me ahahha! 

So this is their menu! Okay it consists of more pages with a wide range of different selection of meat or vege and sauces can be curry sauce with some cream sauce on top. Not sure how that works but should be not bad since they put that on the menu right? :P

The tagline of Coco Ichibanya is “The Tastiness You Can Choose” and kinda like Nandos you get to choose the heat of your sauce. I almost ordered the mild curry which was for kids and I kena laughed at by the waiter LOL.. Normally I eat like super spicy food but was kind fo chicken to try this because I've never really had a good Japanese curry before hahaha! If you're not a "rice bucket" / 饭桶, you can choose to order less rice and you'll get a discount because of it! Say no to food wastage right! But if you're like me day day also must have rice then too bad la, no discount for you xD Also if you want more sauce you'll have to pay extra which I find it kinda expensive cuz like 1 scoop for RM6?! Okay la, it's really not necessary for you to add sauce anyway because the normal serving is already super generous with sauce. Any extra would make your plate look super flooded and kind of disguisting lo..

If you're a super big eater and want to try more varieties but two portion will be too much, you can always make you own with the toppings they provide. But trust me, you'll be spoilt of choice because they just offer A LOT of varieties for you to choose from. A way to target a mass market ahaha! 

Bae with his happy face when the food arrives. In his mind he must be thinking, OMG faster la I'm so damn hungryyy... :P Ooh, if you can't spot Coco Ichibanya since it's at a far end of the complex, keep an eye for Kluang Station because it's just opposite each other!

Pork Cutlet Omelette Curry - RM26

We both ordered the same dish because this was the famous one and both of us wanted to have the same thing... hahahah I guess the review is only on one food then. ._. So i chose the original spiciness while my bf chose 1 level higher. Not much of a difference on both but I preferred the original heat as it was slightly less powdery and Japanese curry aren't typically that hot so I guess it should be that way ahaha! They were super generous on the sauce as you can see so I don't think you'll need additional sauce as a regular serving of rice plus sauce is just right. 

The pork cutlet was fried nicely, not too oily but yet still crispy and it doesn't have stinky pork smell or any bulging fatty layer which is good for me cuz I hate those! The omelette was very slightly overcooked but still really good! Loved the whole balance of light flavoured egg and heavy curry. All of it wasn't over seasoned if not it'll just be a punch in the mouth and we'd just be drinking down water most of the time. o.o

Speaking of drinks, I don't recommend you guys to order drinks there because IDK, to me looking at the menu and they charge some drinks pretty ridiculously. Like RM8 for green tea?! Okay la maybe it's like that in most restaurants but I don't normally order any drinks so probably I'm unaware of it. But seriously? .___. Bring your own water guys! :P #cheapskate

See so tempting right?! :OOO

Don't want to break the perfectness of the omelette!

Overall, this is definitely my go-to place if I'm craving for some good Japanese curry. The portion may look small but it's deceiving as it was super filling! Or maybe my appetite became smaller?! :D *syok sendiri moment* Anyway, the only side note is that I'm allergic to food preservatives (not severe) and after having this, my lips turned a little numb. Probably it's the pork cutlet la but if you guys don't have this problem, just go try it! :D

Coco Ichibanya Curry House

Lot LG 333A, Lower Ground (New Wing)

1 Utama Shopping Centre,

Bandar Utama,

47800 Petaling Jaya,

Selangor.

Telephone: 03-7732-8937

Operating Hours: Daily from 10.00am to 10.00pm

Forever 21 x Raffles KL PreFall "Back-to-School" campaign !

Hello peeps! <3 If you've noticed my social media posts lately on my Instagram & my Facebook, you'll probably notice that I kept mentioning or hashtaging #RafflesxF21 or #Forever21MY. Well, the day of the event finally arrived and not sure if we felt excited or relieved that we were so done with that campaign as we had to do PR & Media work that will be graded on that day. Well, I'm just  so glad that's done. Anyway, I was quite surprised that the event was quite lively and better than I expected because our lecturer never really mentioned the whole thing, we only knew what we had to do. So enjoy the photos guys! :)

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Raffles staff setting up the DJ table and setting up the speakers for some good ol' music!

My lecturer sternly delegating people hahah! He's not as fierce as he seems in real life than in the photo la..

Our posters! We were separated into 3 groups of PR & media team and these were the end product of our posters.

The juniors in our course were in charge of the Visual Merchandising which in this case there wasn't any window display space so for them it was just dressing the mannequin! I so wished that I could do this... :(

Towards around 9:30am when more crew members arrived, we began setting up the booths under our infamous big tree! The tree isn't really super big but the shelter you get is big enough to shade you from Block A to Block B! Okay la, the distance isn't thaaat far but it's still a great shade!

Soon the mannequins were moved to the front alongside our posters! Fall-ish feel right? Even though Malaysia doesn't have the four seasons but I bet we all can so totally wear this out! You know where to get these clothes la.. (Forever 21)

Was kind of guilty for just snapping photos and not helping in filling in the tote bags, I went and helped along as well. Ahhh I've seen a lot of POPCULTURE magazines in cafes and I finally get to lay my hands on one myself! Just love the whole layout of this magazine and the fact that its made with thick paper and not the typical smooth thin ones that tear easily. The only bad thing was you can easily get paper cuts from them which I got it yesterday when filling up the tote bags.. :( Oh yea, the thing in the white envelope is actually a RM20 voucher from Forever21! I kinda wish we got something more special compared to everyone else since we helped out and did a lot of other things as well. But it's okay la, the experience was priceless.

P.S.: my lecturer told me to snap photos and shoot videos so technically I'm doing something :D

Tote bags! I thought the tote bags we'd get were the really cheap and thin kind like the ones in Cotton on that can easily rip apart but these were really thick and just the type I was looking for to put my laptop in when I bring it to college. *using one right now already!*The size was slightly smaller than regular canvas tote bags but fits my laptop perfectly! So happy that stole another one for my mum LOL

By the way, did you know that students get to recieve a 10% off when shopping at Forever 21 from Mondays to Thursdays? They never really put a sign about it and I only knew about it yesterday... >:(

Documenting myself helping out hahaha! *macam yes tapi bukan*

Ended up getting a paper cut which sucked and my mum always said that I'm just too "siew jie" (little missy) cuz most of the times when I'm asked to do something, I'll probably injure myself... Clumsy me from young until now I'm still as clumsy... xD

The real people that were actually REALLY helping hahaha!

More people REALLY helping out ahahah and I'm just here documenting them :D

The FOREVER21 people came over as well to help set up a photo wall to make this event come to life! What is an event without a photo booth or photo wall nowadays when technology and social media is literally in the realm of our hands? A sleep fest la obviously..

The juniors were also selling freedom wristband that had Korean words and symbols printed in the inner layer as well. First time seeing wristband with double prints leh! Kinda liked the inner print but too bad they were too loose for me.

Freedom :)

Me faking a candid shot pretending to be interested in the wristbands when they're totally not my type and not my size either :P

Darlene blocking my panaroma shot. Thanks :P

Finally at around 10:30, everything was perfectly set up and all set for the campaign! YAY!

Me, awkwardly standing beside the poster with me on the far right. Compare that photo and me in actual. Okay la I upload a clearer pic below.  

No photoshopping on both photos but man, with sunglasses I'm so chio, without it, I'm just so kiddo.. :( I really wish I looked more like my age sometimes..

Anyway, moving along! As you can see from backdrop of the first photo, you can see a part of the photo wall! So our job as the PR and Media group is in charge of approaching people and letting them know that once they've snapped and then uploaded a photo of them on Instagram with our photo wall and #Forever21MY, they're eligible of a tote bag that has a RM20 voucher and a POPCULTURE magazine! 1 upload per user so snap away while stocks last! 

Still don't get it ah? Okay la, step-by-step visuals for you :P

STEP 1: SNAP A PHOTO!

Group or individual, up to you but if you're snapping a solo pic you do look kind of lonely when everyone staring at you while waiting for their turn ahahah! Tip: when snapping this kind of photos, do it with your friends la, it's just more fun that way :P

STEP 2: UPLOAD IT ON INSTAGRAM & #Forever21MY!

STEP 3: SHOW THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE TO CLAIM YOUR TOTE BAG! :)

So so simple and easy and I also did one myself as well!

#squadgoals hahaha kidding. We are way way far from being a slight close to Taylor Swift's famous girl squad because none of us are eligible to be a model ahahah! okay except mummy Darlene who's more than 4 inches taller than the 3 of us.. >:(

Oi guys why so stiff la? Make me look like a silly one only.. :P

Horrible quality front camera iphone selfie is a must for these kind of photo walls! :P

Adele who came over to photobomb my photo hahah Sorry Adele, I chose this cuz I look cute here :P

Solo shot is a must! :D

Bae visited me even though he didn't have class and was having a flu plus sore throat. Awww can you see my super happy face while he's just so pale. :D

More people giving their go on the photo wall and even getting pictures with the lecturer.

Pretty coursemates snapping away!

Towards around 11am, we had to present our posters to the judges and trust me it was nerve wrecking because most of them are lecturers from other courses...

Me giving my best, presenting on behalf of my group. Even though we didn't get best poster and also knew that ours wasn't as nice compared to the others (super rushed work), we still took the whole project as a great learning experience. Was quite surprised that the Singapore Forever 21 marketing manager said my presentation was the best among the teams as I was super nervous and shaking throughout the whole thing hahaha! The job was only passed down to me minutes before we had to present as my friend wasn't loud enough to present her design.

Overall, this was a great learning experience and even though we didn't win, I was still happy in the end of the day. Sometimes you've got to lose some in order to learn from your mistakes, not repeat them again and do better the next time. :) It's actually quite hard for me to accept failure as I'm naturally a perfectionist which really breaks me sometimes but we all know that it is impossible for a person to succeed every single time. Just a message to myself and every other perfectionist like me to remember. 

Lastly, if you're interested in going to the Forever21 PreFall "Back-to-School" campaign, you still can! The campaign's last day is tomorrow at Forever21 Sunway Pyramid and 1Utama, view the pic below for the time!

Go join the fun! <3