Dynamic Kitty Food & Places

Commercialized coffee here referring to Starbucks, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, or whatever coffee shop that is famous that you can think of.

Starbucks has been an expensive place that I never attempt to enter during my college time. As I was a poor little fella that has no extra budget for those luxury time. As time flies, I had earn a job with moderate income, having Starbucks once or twice a week won't make me feel anything. At first I thought that this is the luxury coffee experience that everyone talking about. But later when I get to experience other option, I have to change my mind about this concept that I had for years.

The great thing about the commercialized coffee is the great overall feel and coffee that they can offer. Great environment with nice ambient, nice marketing strategy that make you feel you are paying the cost for something worth much more than that, well trained staff and good service, new and creative flavor once in awhile, nice and sweet taste of coffee..... Well, that's basically the main problem: Nice and sweet taste of coffee.

I had many friends who enjoy Starbucks, and Starbucks is basically the only coffee place they would go. You might or might not surprise it, they actually can't really drink coffee. If they happen to order an actual Cappuccino or Latte in other coffee shop, they would think that "Yucks... this coffee is terrible" and of course it's not, the problem is just that they are too adapt to the sweetness and modified commercialized coffee.

Commercialized coffee not only serve original coffee that most people couldn't accept, they also serve modified coffee with little bit of coffee taste like Nescafe type, additional sugar, and other special flavor like caramel, fruits, or other stuff that results in a sweet drinks. But coffee is not suppose to be sweet, most people consider the taste as "bitter" although it's not accurate. That's just the taste of actual coffee.

Of course, everyone has the right to get a coffee with any extra flavor they like. It's not like the old times when coffee drinkers only get to taste the original brewed coffee or adding some milk that results in Cappuccino, Latte, Macchiato, and other coffee that is about the same thing. And there is nothing wrong to drink commercialized coffee all the time as long as you like it. For serious coffee drinkers, it's a matter of people can only adapt to commercialized coffee and couldn't accept the real, original coffee.

For consumers, it's definitely a good thing because they can get to drink coffee without experiencing the true taste of coffee. But commercialized coffee is perhaps the end of journey for coffee drinkers, because their consumers are so adapt to the taste that they can't taste any real coffee. Unless they willing to get out from their comfort zone and start drinking any Cappuccino, Latte, or real coffee, instead of Caramel Frappuccino and other modified coffee.

Getting to taste real coffee is not only a matter of understanding the truth of coffee and spreading the greatness of coffee to your friends and family, coffee has been existed for over hundred of years with lots of evolution. There are over 5000+ type of coffee flavor throughout the world. Exploring the world of actual coffee is a pleasure experience to explore to the culture of other countries and get to know the world better.

Despite this post, I still visit Starbucks nowadays. Mainly because of their wifi and it's everywhere, I don't need to travel to a specific place just for them. I have nothing with Starbucks or any commercialized coffee shop out there. But just bear in mind that we need to remember how real coffee suppose to be and the world of coffee is far more wider than any coffee you can get in commercialized coffee shops.

Feeka located at a not so popular place that make it hard for people to find them at the first time if you are not familiar with the place. Usually, you won't expect a cafe hiding in such place and frankly, I don't see what business you would usually have in this area. But this also make them a special gem although Feeka is not that infamous. In fact, they are really famous and if you don't go earlier in the morning like reaching before 11am, you probably couldn't get any empty seats.

Around the street where Feeka located, the place seems more suitable for residential houses despite there are few restaurants and bars nearby. The outside and inside of Feeka is actually based on an ordinary house concept rather than shop lots. So Feeka is the type of relaxing place that doesn't give you the feeling of visiting a shop for food but feel like enjoying your own sweet time in a house.

About Feeka

The overall design of Feeka is nothing too special as most of the design is based on black and white concept, or just plain and dull colors, except for the layout and placement of their seats that provide comfortable sofa with a quiet and calm environment for eaters, chatters, and people who seek relaxing time. And at the outside, the environment and atmosphere is more like a place where you can enjoy some natural wind around the trees and nature. But of course, if the weather allows that.

One special element is the darker design and dim light that is much more obvious at night. While some of the restaurants demonstrate much relaxing atmosphere with dimmer lighting that allow people to feel less intense and calm, this also give people a hard time for those who read books and looking at their gadgets. Personally, I found that day time visit would be good. The lighting is just right, as the entire place is not too dark and not too bright. It's quite relaxing and peaceful with some light and energetic music. And for me who doesn't have a good eyesight and need to strain my eyes in darker environment, night time visit sometimes gave me headache. The seats is quite limited thou. Although there are two floors, but the seats are only available on the ground floor. You only go to the first floor for washroom or when they have exhibition or event up there. From the inside, there are roughly ten small tables, one big table and one long table in the corner; outside is about the same. This is more than enough on the week days, but not the weekend.

The inside of Feeka is a cooling and darker place with comfortable seats and relaxing ambience. Great for reading books during day time, using your laptop/gadgets for any purpose, and chit-chating. Outside of Feeka is smoking area. The seats near the door have fans on the ceiling, while outer side of the seats is more "near to nature". No matter you want to sit in the inside or outside, again, do come earlier, else you have to wait for empty seats. And there is not much alternative around if you are looking for alternative unless you go to Pavilion.

What's more, they provide free wifi. But, I only manage to connect to their wifi successfully once after so many visits. Not sure why. Anyway, the network coverage around that area is quite good for me. So using my own internet sharing is not a problem.

Feeka's Secret Recipe

One thing special about Feeka is their kitchen. I'm not 100% sure but Feeka do has their own recipe when comes to food. It's not just the ordinary western food you found out there. From the taste of it, there is an unique quality in their food that you will only taste it here.

Feeka's kitchen is based on western style. Their food range from spaghetti, sandwich, burger, salad, meat savory, and breakfast. Although the available option is not too rare that you have no idea what food it is by looking at the name, but I would say you can give anything a try without worrying if they are good or not, because each meal I had so far gave me quite some surprises and they are not the average taste I would expect. As usual, my first cup of coffee for my first visit is Cappuccino. This cup of Cappuccino (RM10) looks really great, and the aroma is really nice when I get the cup near to my mouth. But the first sip make me think that I might not order Cappuccino again next time because this taste more like espresso with a slight additional of milky taste. If you prefer a Cappuccino that has stronger espresso taste than milk, you might like this. For me who prefer the wonderful combination of espresso and milk in a cup of Cappuccino, the espresso taste is too much. I think Feeka use a type of coffee bean that has stronger taste when they prepare the espresso. So some of the drinks might have much stronger espresso taste that cover up others. But for this cup of Mocha (RM12), I really like it because not only I can taste the chocolate, I can also taste the sweetness and the aroma of the coffee really well.

One of the tough part of making a good cup of Mocha is the chocolate. Chocolate has stronger taste that could cover up food and ingredient when it's being used in a dish or drinks. It could be they are using chocolate syrup that has lighter taste, mixing with their stronger taste of espresso make a good pair in one cup of Mocha.

I still couldn't taste much on the milk, but the combination taste of espresso and chocolate gave me an enjoyable pleasure on my sweet-caffeine craving. Another good thing is, the chocolate is not too mild, so you don't feel too thirsty or feeling "full of chocolate in the throat" after drinking this. Flat white (RM10) is a cup of coffee that I finally taste some milk after some coffee drinking experience in Feeka. Unlike Cappuccino and Mocha, this cup of Flat White provide much balance mixture of the espresso and milk. It somehow feels more like a latte as I was expecting much more coffee taste. But this Flat White has the good steady taste from the first sip until the last. It's adding lots of good feeling for some relaxing hours. Beef sandwich (RM18) is one of the recommended foods (or was it Beef Burger? Couldn't recall much) in the reviews at the time when I discovered Feeka on the global resources (a.k.a, internet). I will have to divide into several parts. One thing, I took the beef sandwich in less than 5 minutes after it was served, and it’s not even warm. Everything is quite cold…. I don’t think the air con is the cause of it.

For the bread, it's quite hard.... I've been cutting the bread into bite size until my finger sore. FYI, I perform exercise regularly so I don't consider myself weak. It’s basically tasteless and need to eat along with other ingredients. Seems like they had prepare the bread earlier and left aside to serve when needed. They really need to soften the bread before serving it.

For the Roast Beef, quite hard to cut too. I'm not sure if they have prepare the beef much earlier or it's overcooked. On the other hand, the beef is really good and tasty. Only if the roast beef's texture is much softer.

For the melted cheese on top of the roast beef, I really like this one. It taste a little salty, adding on top of the beef make it really nice. The melted cheese is not watery and not too sticky, seems to be prepare at the right temperature. And it’s not too cheesy taste. It's really make me wonder how they prepare it.

As for the veggie that scatted around the plate, the taste is superb. A small tomato that cut into half but it’s not the ordinary tomato you can find out there. The texture is a little hard, but the taste is super good and sweet. There isn't any dressing for the veggie, so all I could taste is the freshness of it. The only thing is, it’s too little… I wish I can have more.

Lastly, the french fries are not the ordinary french fries too. It’s quite soft and fried with some type of spices, which taste really good. Too bad they don't sell french fries in ala carte. I hardly take meatball pasta out there because many meatball pasta I had don’t taste good, but after tasting this Meatball Pasta (RM18) I found that I like this meatball pasta really much. The tomato sauce is not so salty, I don’t feel very thirsty after finishing the whole pasta including 90% of the tomato sauce. That is one impressive point compare to many meatball pasta I had so far. Actually the main great thing is the beef meatball, it's not really big but the beef is soft and tender, and really juicy while cooked at the right temperature. Lastly, the spaghetti is great too, soft and chewy. If we are talking about trying new things for salad, Beetroot Salad (RM17) may be a good option. But I got a feeling that, it's either you love it or you hate it. Yeah, kinda like Durian. As beetroot is not too common out there, you don't find it everywhere. It's sweet and full of watery yummy juice for every bite. And you can enjoy a lot of beetroot pieces in the entire plate. The green leaves is not just for decorating, they are arugula leaves or simply, rocket. Good for detox and add extra taste to any food.

The main reason why you hate it or love it is the sauce, or specifically the overall taste that this plate has. A slight portion of goat cheese is added for extra taste. Not exactly the taste that I prefer thou. The orange in the salad just taste perfect, not sour and quite sweet while maintaining it's citrus taste. What's more, this plate of salad is prepared with thyme flavor. The mixture of everything give a unique taste that I have not experience before.

The only issue I have with this beetroot salad is the portion. It's too little. Feeka Big Breakfast (RM20) is another meal newly added to my favorites list. Although it's not considered as the best big breakfast I had compare to Antipodean, Plan B and VCR, but this breakfast do has its own selling point.

The fried egg is nothing special, but it's fresh and delicious. The chicken sausage isn't too special either, a little salty and the meat is a little crumbled, taste a little overcooked. At least this time, the bread is not that hard, although it's taste a little plain, but eating with other stuff on the plate taste quite good, especially with the bacon and egg. The beef bacon is a little salty, it is cooked until medium rare if I'm not mistaken, as it's full of meaty flavor. For a sinful breakfast, this made a great choice. Another tasty one is the mushroom, freshly cooked, nice and chewy with buttery taste.

As for the potatoes, it has little bit of taste, and it comes with larger portion. Seems to me that they are there to make you full. Pesto Pasta (RM18), is an adventurous decision that I randomly order. But as I said, you do not need to worry about ordering anything here, as each meal give you surprises. The Pesto Pasta is cooked with coriander but good thing is the taste is lighter, not too heavy in the green veggie taste. Because some of the Pesto Pasta has stronger veggie taste that result in a slightly bitter taste. Almost every bite comes with crunchy and delicious nuts pieces. If you notice, there are some green leaves scatted around the plate. I'm not sure what are they, but taste quite "healthy" and consist of nice smell of greeny taste although it's a little bitter.

Despite it's delicious and healthy, the portion is too little and there is no meat. So it's not really fulling for me. In fact, I felt hungry 30 minutes later. If you are looking for something light and not too fulling, this could be a good choice. But if you are comparing for the cost and looking for something fulling, this might not be a good choice for you.

Contact & Location

Monday to Thursday - 9am to 10pm
Friday to Sunday - 9am to 11pm

Feeka Facebook: Click Here

19, Jalan Mesui, Kuala Lumpur.

Phone Number: 03-2110 4599

If you are going by public transport, you can take Monorail to Raja Chulan station, get off and walk down at the platform that is nearer to the Menara KH building which is where the New INTI KL located. You can find a small restaurant name Paradise Poolside Coffee House where you can see swimming pool inside the place right near to the station where you walk down. As the Paradise Poolside Coffee House on your right, head to 12 o'clock direction to cross the road to the other side and turn right. Now Hotel Istana Kuala Lumpur will be on your left. Walk straight and turn left at the first turning point and you will reach Jalan Nagasari. Keep walking straight until you see Parkroyal Serviced Suites Kuala Lumpur on your right and some Mamak restaurants on your left. Follow the building of Parkroyal Serviced Suites and turn right, you will see an entrance with the sign "Lion Group" or "Lion Tower" on your right. Walk further a little and check on your left, you will see Feeka very soon.

Other Facility

Payment type: Cash and Credit Card
Wifi: Yes but password-protected, hardly able to successfully connect to it
Power Cable Availability: Approximately 5 tables, only in the inside of the cafe.
Smoking Area: Available

Nearby Option

1. Paper + Toast (less than 100m away): A-0-5 One Residency, 1 Jalan Nagasari, 50200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2. Pavilion (less than 1km away)

Note: Around Feeka, there are a lot of bars and restaurants. Some of them do serve coffee but the environment is more like places to chit-chat and enjoy beer instead of relaxing.

Rating

Quality

Good. The third time I said this: you do not need to worry about anything when you ordering something. The quality and taste is not the best that you could find but each meal has their own uniqueness, and this is the thing that you can't find out there. While some of the foods might has some stuff that doesn't taste that great, but they definitely has something that is good in every meal.

Coffee wise, the taste is stronger compare to out there. There are good and bad about it, but the important thing is their coffee is really good and special. Worthy to be cup of coffee that allow you to relax throughout the day.

Portion

Nice. Most of the foods does not has big portion, so you might need to order something extra to fill your stomach.

Cost

Worthy. The overall costs are quite normal compare to other places, but Feeka has their own strong selling point that make their foods and coffee great and worthy the price.

Service

Average. There is either staffs who take your order and perform your payment, or staffs that bring your food to your table. They don't usually talk much, but you can always ask for recommendation at the counter when you need, and they can recommend you well. Other than that, they don't really talk much to the customers.

Good thing is, they serve really fast despite having lots of customers, especially coffee. They are preparing it immediately upon order and serve to you shortly.

Environment

Nice. Simple and classic design. I'm not sure if the wall in the inside is a type of decoration, I think I'm seeing crack and looks old. Seating is quite limited, but there are high numbers of comfortable seats. Dim lighting could be their selling point but, it's really bad for the eyes.

Dine-in Date: 19th April 2015 & 10th May 2015

The new level seven floor of pavilion is an all-eating place for the extreme eater. Here, you can find the famous Rocku Yakiniku BBQ buffet, Pig & Wolf, Village Roast Duck, and also Serai.

For this year mother’s day, I had decided to give this place a try due to the reason that my parent is usually fancy of Chinese or local cuisine, and a little bit of western stuff like coffee. So this is a perfect place that fulfil my needs.

About Serai

If you ever tasted Serai satay, then you probably heard of Serai before. Serai Satay Bar and Serai are both under Serai group, so you can find the signature satay in Serai as well. I'm not sure if it's exactly the same as the taste and quality of Serai Satay Bar as I have never tasted before, and I don't plan to try due to the cost and many reviews stated that their satay is good, but you can find much better quality out there.

The main cuisine idea for Serai is a Malaysian & Western style. Not only that you are able to get a taste on the local delights, you are also allow to select western style cuisine from their menu. Western menu range from spaghetti, cakes, juices, coffee, tea and much more.

One thing worth noticing, many restaurants who that serve more than one type of cuisine types often face the problem of specializing on a certain dishes while having difficulties to maintain the quality of other cuisine type to the top, or at least their customers think so. But in Serai, I am quite satisfying with their food for both Malaysian and Western delights. You won’t have the feeling of I’m-eating-western-food-in-Malaysian-cuisine-restaurant-but-the-western-food-is-not-nice…..

As a specialization in both Malaysian and Western cuisine, it means you are able to experience both cuisine right here. If you in search of tasty Malay's cuisine and fried snacks, here will be a great choice to fulfill your desire; if you are looking for western desserts and tea/coffee for after-lunch break, there are range of coffee & tea for you here. The overall design of the restaurant is also quite well done. It’s the type of high class food place that you can expect. Although they are serving any really high class food, the place give you a feeling that it’s wide, comfortable, and surrounded with westernize furniture and Malay style decoration. The environment is easily adapt to most people favour, as you don’t have to be a fans of western or Malay style to like the place.

Malaysian & Western Cuisine of Serai

One of the spaghetti with massive amount of salmon I had in my life so far. Spaghetti Smoked Salmon (RM23) offer the best salmon savory experience for a dish that has salmon as the main dishes. The salmon is not pieces but bite size, soft and chewy texture with fresh pan-fried salmon taste. It's just lacking of the smoked flavor as stated in the menu, mainly due to the sauce. The napoli sauce is nicely done, consist of amazing taste of various veggies in one sauce. But for me, the sauce is too much, and it cover most of the plate, including the salmon. Spaghetti vongole (RM23), a special dish originate from Italy with freshness of clams and combination of green veggie as the extra taste. This is the first time I had clams with spaghetti, a really new idea as we don't usually found such dishes out there. This spaghetti vongole is slightly spicy, but doesn't cover up the freshness of the clams. Apart of the clams is a little small, this is a great dishes if you like the taste of seafood on a spaghetti. But I wouldn't recommend this too much because the specialty of this dish is mainly clams and slight spicy spaghetti. The veggies are ordinary. There are lots of better foods compare to this one. Nasi Ulam is a Malaysian rice dish mixed with herbs that unique with in taste and it's always served as a healthy dish. While "Ayam Bakar" means grilled chicken. So Nasi Ulam Ayam Bakar (RM22) is basically a steamed rice with Malay's style with grilled chicken. Malay's dishes often consume herbs & spices that add tasty flavor and aroma into each meal. This Nasi Ulam has a special taste that I haven't had before. I don't always consume Malay dishes so I couldn't comment too much. But if you like marinated chicken that is full of salty-sweet flavor, you may give this a try. With some of the Malay's fried snacks as the side dishes, this is a plate full of Malay's style flavoring. Nasi Ambang (RM20) from Serai has quite some good reviews, and you will only understand why after you tasted it. White rice is nothing special but steamed rice, the killing shot in this dish is the beef rendang that has great aroma of marinated sauce and spices covered in the beef. The only complain I have in this dish is the beef rendang is too small. I wish I can have one more extra beef rendang. Apart of that, the veggies are quite ordinary. Fresh and crunchy, but the taste is plain after you had the delicious beef rendang. Lastly, I'm not sure why the fried noodle is there. Not a bad thing anyway. Nasi Kerabu (RM22) looks like rice with blue coloring but actually it's not. In Nasi Kerabu, the rice is cooked with the leaf of butterfly-pea, or more commonly known as Clitoria ternatea. You can find Nasi Kerabu in Nyonya dishes. In this dish, the Nasi Kerabu the main thing that provide you the aroma and taste of leafs, letting you feel the taste of natural plant mixed with "Ayam Percik", a type of marinated chicken with flavorful spices. This dish usually made with coconut milk so it's a little creamy and tasty. The chicken do has a strong flavor, but it's too strong that it result in being salty more than other taste. Nevertheless, the Nasi Kerabu is quite enjoyable. This La Royale has a great name yet suitable to this great dessert. To point out the obvious, this is a chocolate mousse cake. Non-alcoholic, but the chocolate taste is superb, yet not making us feel like this whole thing is just sugar. I would say this is what really call chocolate cake that made with actual chocolate. The great chocolate taste is not too sweet, not like just sugar, and doesn't make us feel stuffy after all those meals and desserts. A must try if you are a big fan of chocolate. Pavlova is usually really soft as each layer of it is made of super soft texture like marshmallow, or I should say softer than marshmallow because it usually melt in your mouth right away. This Pavlova has slightly harder texture like ordinary cake, except it's softer than ordinary cakes. However, the texture is not too sweet and it's still crunchy & soft. If you had tasted actual Pavlova before, this might not be the best Pavlova for you, but it's worth to give this a try.
Pandan Banana Fritters (RM13) is more like western style, but I'm not sure the exact origin as it set roots in many places in the past. But tasting the fried banana make me think of the "pisang gorreng" (fried banana) out there, so crispy and tasty from the inside and out. Although it is known as "Pandan Banana Fritters", I couldn't really taste pandan flavor. It could be hidden inside the fried outer skin. But the fried banana itself has really good texture. You may eat it as it is, or have some sugar sauce pour over it. Personally, I think the sugar is quite sweet. You may want to try a little bit to see if you like the sweetness. And the vanilla ice cream? Excellent, this dish give you the ultimate hot & cold sensation in the mouth. As its name suggest, Honeydew Blast (RM10.50) actually give you some blasts for every sip. In my experience, sometimes the honeydew comes first, but sometimes it's the lime. It's the sweet and sour taste that keep going against each other in your mouth. After some time, only you remember that there is lychee flavor in this drinks too. Just that lychee flavor is usually hidden. But surprise you once in awhile. In overall, not too sweet, not too sour. Good as an appetizing drinks.

Banana Blitz (RM10.50) is mainly banana flavor, paired with nice taste of coconut milk within the flavor of the banana juice. But, I don't really taste much of the pineapple. Perhaps a little bit sour. Nevertheless, it has nice portion and great sweetness.

Contact & Location

Serai Group: Click Here
Serai Website: Click Here
Serai Facebook: Click Here
Serai's Menu (In PDF): Click Here

Lot 7.01.04, Level 7, Dining Loft, Pavilion Mall
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Phone Number: 03-2110 5353
E-mail: info@seraigroup.com.my

Rating

Quality

Excellent. Both Malaysian and Western cuisines are at the top quality. You don’t need to worry the lack of quality in any of their meals. What’s more, you can enjoy every single ingredients on their plate and expect great & tasty food that you couldn’t find out there.

Cost

Worthy. Some of the foods are quite costly. But as a comparison of food quality, place, and services, you might not be able to find a place as good as here out there. Especially food quality and portion, considering a food place in Pavilion dining loft, approximately RM20 for a tasty meal is worthy for a treat once in awhile.

Portion

Excellent. As you can see, all main dishes have variety of foods in one plate. The ingredients might not be too much, but it's quite fulling. If you order their drinks, it will be more than enough to be full. Just remember to make some space for delicious desserts.

Environment

Good. Great, cooling and comfortable environment. The larger seats are not much, but all of the seats have sofa. More than enough for a relaxing meals and tea/snack time.

Service

Excellent. The staffs are extremely friendly and well trained. They give you a sincere smile and practice well manner behavior and gesture in serving customers. You definitely get the heart warming service here. Not to forget about the fast serving speed here, which is rought 5 to 10 minutes for each meal despite having lots of customers.

Next Visit?

Serai will be always be in my list whenever I'm at Pavilion with some friends that willing to go for tea, snack, or any delicious desserts.