Fikcles Cafe, TTDI

The deal: Meal + drink for 2 for RM28 at Fikcles Cafe

What we got:

Lontong goreng (RM10.90)

The lontong goreng seems to be a much raved-about item in the blogs we trawled prior to visiting the cafe (yes, research is important!). Fried rice cake with onions, garlic, ginger, chilli and an egg, the portion was big enough to share. As it was our first time tasting this dish, we have nothing to compare it to, but on a stand-alone basis it proved to be rather decent. We would've loved it more if there was less chilli oil pooled at the bottom of the dish.

 Hearty breakfast (RM14.90)

We wanted to try the salted egg squid, since this also seems to have garnered positive feedback from previous customers. Alas, we were informed that they would not be offering this dish that day, as they did not want to compromise on the taste of the dish as the quality of the ingredients were not up to par that day. We got the hearty breakfast instead upon their recommendation.

The scrambled eggs, unfortunately, suffered from too much of a good thing--with the good thing being butter. Not sure if it was a fluke that day, but like how Kaffa Cafe botched their scrambled eggs with way too much salt, the chef here seems to be a bit too generous with the butter. The sausage was slightly spicy and very delicious, while the mushrooms, baked beans, tomato and croissant was average. 

Green tea extravaganza (RM14.90)

Essentially ice-blended green tea with milk. You'll love this if you love Starbuck's ice-blended green tea cream. Serving size was great too.

Flat white (RM8.90)

If there's one thing we would recommend they improve on, it would be the ventilation of the place. Because the kitchen wasn't properly separated from the dining area, we could smell what's cooking the moment we opened the doors to the establishment; not exactly what we expect when we choose to have our meal at a cafe. That aside, our waiter was really friendly, making for a pleasant dining experience.

Tax: None

How  much we paid: RM28

Kaffe Cafe, TTDI

The deal: All-day big breakfast set at Kaffe Cafe 

What we got:

All day breakfast (RM20)

When I chanced upon the Kaffe Cafe deal, I thought it was a pretty good one--two all-day big breakfast sets at Kaffe Cafe, TTDI for just RM25. After all, some of the cafes in Bangsar/Publika serve up 'big breakfast's for about 20 bucks per person sans drinks, so at RM12.50/pax, the deal seemed reasonable enough. As you can see above, the plate had scrambled eggs, 3 cocktail sausages, 2 slices of ham, 6 coins of pepperoni, 2 mini hash browns, baked beans, mushrooms, toast and half a tomato on a bed of lettuce--value at first glance, I'd say.

While the cafe's environment was decent (cosy and inviting), unfortunately we couldn't say the same for the food. The first thing I reached out for turned out to be the worst--the scrambled eggs. It was so salty that I could taste the egg only after I'd tasted the salt. It was practically egg-flavoured salt! To say it was a chore to finish the eggs would not be an exaggeration; my partner decided he could not finish it because it was too salt-laden to bear. Truly the worst eggs prepared any style I've ever had.

The mushrooms didn't fare much better. They were wet--not in a good way--and tasted like they'd not been cleaned/had the juice squeezed out of them properly, if you know what I mean. Thankfully the rest of the breakfast tasted all right; the sausages, ham, pepperoni, hash browns and baked beans were fine, while the grilled half-tomato and toast were average. 

Cappuccino and flat white (RM9 each)

For drinks, we got the cappuccino and the flat white. Nothing to complain about here.

All in all, it was a rather disappointing breakfast. Whatever was good on the breakfast platter was marred by how bad the scrambled eggs were; we went searching for more drinks after just to get rid of the salty aftertaste in our mouths. Based on this first impression, we doubt we'll be revisiting anytime soon.

Tax: Service charge of 10%

How much we paid: RM25