During the day this restaurant looks like an old single story colonial house... with lots of land (partially overgrown)... but with some play of lights, during the night it seems classy...
anyways... this is supposedly the newest western food joint in kuantan... Plus with its location along the main road towards the Teluk Cempedak Beach, it will certainly attract any foreigner visiting the area... it should last a while... :p
Serving grill, pasta and pizza, they have a big enough menu to tempt your tastebuds, only lacking is their dessert selections...
the ambience here is nice, with lots of paintings scattered all over their dining areas. with a smoking deck outside too... plus a private room for functions, which u can pre-book.
the grill food here is good and the pasta portion ample... the pizza is on the so so side... I ordered their grill chicken this round... served with mash and onion rings on top, sauce is given in a separate bowl for your own seasoning. [rm16]
hannah took the kiddie fish and chips... the fish nicely done [8.50]
Julie had pasta with salmon, shared some with phoebe & hannah too... big portion [rm16]
my mom took the chicken chop... they really did the batter well.[rm14]
no service tax... only govt tax... i think they don't have service tax in Kuantan, unless in hotels only.
Slightly more then half an hour's drive north out of Kuantan lies an old abandoned mining town... with dilapidated buildings and old hunks of partial rotted buildings still sticking out here and there... some parts of the old mining building already burnt to the ground, showing its stark foundations with pools of water flowing admidst a secondary jungle creeping to reclaim back its territory.
Sounds so story book like eh... well Sg. Lembing, Kuantan is almost like that except certain parts are still habitated & some food shops remain open to cater to the people still living there (majority old folks) and those that come all the way here to hike up a small hill in the wee hours of the morning, just in-time to view the dawn of a new day.
We will try the hike another time... cuz... by the time we actually took off from the house it was already like 10.30am... but we did come here to try out their "famous" Sg.lembing mee and tou-fu...
It had started to rain when we arrived so we ran in to the only food centre... alas... it was too late it seems... most of the shops were already closing... plus the fact we didn't know any prior recommended eatery... the one we sat in provided just "plain" sustanence... normal... bordering on lousy...
I guess we didn't pick the right shop... anyways... Kuantan has their sg.lembing version of mee and tou-fu in a shop we havent gone yet... so there is still hope...
But the rest of the town is like as i described... slow... and sparsely populated...
The town is just a stretch of road with shops in both sides... and a unique petrol pump in the middle. a few hanging bridges span one side of the town to a residential area the other side of the river... there a few low bridges too..
The historical muzeum on top of a small hill is a must go! Really well maintained and very informative about the mining town... the 2 story ex Sultan's residence is now converted to house all the artifacts of the towns mining era.
The hanging bridges too are a nice walk... just to experience it... nothing scary or dangerous, cuz they are well maintained and the folks here use them on a daily basis.
Overall... this sleepy ex mining town... is... well... about to disappear from the maps within another generation or 2... go visit while it's still around...
If u come to kuantan... and go to Taman Rekreasi Gelora... do stop by for a snack.
An obscure shack selling out of the frying pan piping hot curry puffs, popiahs and cucur udang. It's quite well known to the kuantan people as the shop has trouble frying enough curry puffs to satisfy the hoards of people wanting to buy it back for their afternoon tea.
This bunch of warongs (stalls) are located at a large carpark adjacent to the childrens play area in Gelora. It's the back car park and not the earlier one (where people park to walk in the park) All the stalls sell ... well kuih or tea time stuff... lots of tables and chairs are set around under the trees for u to sit and eat.
I'll focus on one particular stall, facing the stalls... it's the left most... their signature or "famous" thing was curry puff. Quite alot of people has mentioned... 2nd best in kuantan... nvm... it's their most expensive snack... at RM0.60 per piece. Slightly spicy with potatoes and chicken strands in a curry mix... the pastry is nice too... i can't really say why people rush for it... but it's OK lah... quite good... can't say to die for lah...
I would wholeheartedly recommend their fried popiahs... at rm1.00 for 3 pieces... really bang for buck... more so than any of their other offerings. Nicely fried, crunchy on the outside and dense vegetably insides... with the chilli sauce... yum!
U can give a miss to the "cucur udang"... unless u prefer the crispy skin and soft insides kind... i'm a crispy all over fella.... it is also cheaply priced at RM1.00 for 3.(they chop to 4 parts each)
Drinks are aplenty around also... Coconut at RM2.00 per cup or RM4.00 per fruit, Teh Tarik is RM1.00 and many others too...The other stalls do sell lekor, goreng pisang... and other misc. kuihs... so this is the place for cheap and good tea-time snacks.
Do u know how long it took to blow up this darn pool?!! All the air pumps we had couldn't work... a balloon pump and a bicycle pump both had wrong heads... or the darn pool actually needs to be blown by mouth...
anyways... one of Julie's collegues passed us an unused pool for us to use... u can imagine the thrill in Hannahs eyes when she heard this news. So far in our search in Kuantan, there isn't any public pool at all! so a portable soak pool was like heavenly news.
anyways... it took me almost 20 minutes of huff and puff to blow the pool up! Plus the pool had 2 holes without a stopper in sight... i think it had gotten misplaced... so i had to makeshift 2 stoppers out of baby bottle nipples...
eventually both phoebe and hannah... had a terrific time... my mom did help a lot to keep phoebe from loosing balance in the pool... initially the pool was too full for her to sit down so after a trial error on water reduction, all was well.
hah... after the water play... i didn't deflate the thing... so it's now kept under the porch in its inflated shape... i'm not going to blow that thing again in the near future... :p
We didn't want a heavy lunch, so we went to Mustafa's Cendul for lunch... heh... a cendul/rojak place in Kuantan eh...
It's actually located at MFC (Midnight Food Centre) along the main road (Jln. Teluk Sesik) towards the Teluk Cempedak Beach... so it's quite near the house... thus convenient.
Well, cendul (Green pandan flavoured flour noodles in Ice shavings with cocnut milk and brown sugar) and Mamak Rojak was our meal. The cendul here is not bad, abeit without the fragrant version of gula melaka. The shop self proclaims itself as the "best" in Kuantan... it's good... but i wonder... the best? We took the cendul kacang variation (with red beans) [RM1.30]
the rojak was better IMHO, slightly dif... in that they give less vege and more crispy stuff... in thick peanut sauce... super yummy!... and filling. [RM2.80]
Hannah for the first time tried the rojak after much coaxing by my mom... and she finally discovered treasure! hah!... all my telling her it wasn't spicy... couldn't convince her... must have grand-ma to tell, only can...
the last time we came to Teruntum Park, Kuantan we tried their traffic play area... and missed out on their mini-zoo...
the mini-zoo seems to be run by the govt. and it's totally free...even though its not exactly super maintained and the enclosures are not world-class... it's not bad... besting some of our local zoo's even.
anyway here are some pics of the animals they had in the zoo.. ranging from bears to monkeys and even a couple of ostriches...
as u can imagine... the kids had a super time... 
we also tried out their snack shop this round. Lekor, sotong goreng, teh tarik and coconut drinks with a super breeze... ahhh... relaxing....
there was a sign also saying the park was in for a refurbishment in the children play area... so we can expect only better things... also take note, there are tons of wild monkeys going around... some even stealing the caged animals food!
heh... its odd to be eating "French" food in Kuantan... u would expect it in KL or something... There was this shop in Ampang (behind the main Jalan Ampang-near Ampang Point, same row like an italian and mexican restaurant) which we never ventured into due to its exclusiveness or something... it just says... only welcomed if u are a fine dining person...
well, we came to this restaurant Le Parisien in Kuantan... no such air of high class dining... but it did say french... apparently this restarant was started up by an authentic french guy... with a gals name... :p
anyway... we did enjoy our meal there... abeit smaller portions then normal... but taste wise... not bad... and didn't blow our wallets at the same time
Hannah had "French onion soup" and Gratin(mash baked with cheese on top)
Julie took their duck special... interesting... with peach!
I went for their other speciality... chicken on cream fettucini... nice!
point to note... they all had frenchy names for the food... which we cant remember... i lost the receipt so i cant give exact pricing... but the total bill was rm50+ [5%govt tax... no service charge]
U know Tmn Melawati has a hill... i've personally climbed it less then "1 hand" time, there is also Bukit Tabur... the mountain range in Tmn. Melawati itself... (never climbed before)... and i've stayed in Tmn. Melawati for the past what... 12 years??
Anyways, not far away from my present place... is Bukit Pelindung. Lots of people climb up this hill for exercise.... so last Sunday, we with julie's collegues decided to hike it... prior to this... it had been raining for the past 36 hours nonstop... i kid u not... so the break in weather was a pleasant thing.
We parked at the base of the hill, and started our walk up... the first leg, before reaching the sign (pix above) was like super steep... i was already like... whoa... is this going to be like that? all the way to the top?
Yep... it was steep all the way... with some ... some flatter areas... but the forest was nice... cooling... so Thank God! for the weather, cloudy and windy. They also had many benches (to rest) and exercise stations all the way up.
At the top, u come to the radio towers for the telcos around... lousy view... just towers... yeah... anticlimax... but nevertheless... a breather and off we go down a different route down. 
U can climb up Bukit Pelindung either using the paved road... or a jungle trail from Pantai Telok Chempedak. So today we climbed up the paved way and were going down the jungle trail to the beach... one of Julie's collegue had left his car on the beach so we got transport back.
it was quite a while to climb down... with the kids and the trail was longer also... but we could hear the waves crashing on the rocks as we neared the beach.
All in all a very nice hike... took us longer than i anticipated... 2hours plus! of course we did have drinks at the beach, yummy coconut & iced jelly drinks... so refreshing after a climb....
I spied this shop, when i went to check out the surrounding area after having "3-color-pan-mee" for breakfast nearby (i will leave that for another time). It's kinda located off Jln Berserah, Kuantan, quite near town... a bit of a "huh? where is it shop" because u can't see it from the main road, and u have to drive in a bit before u eventually come to it.
Anyways this place is a gem! I brought the family here after a day of kiddie clothes shopping in Berjaya Shopping Mall, Kuantan. The place was surprisingly full also... as it was already 2pm+
This is a traditional kind of place serving kuih, "thong-sui" and such... but wooh interesting and tasty food.
Fistly i headed to the counter to see what was available for u to self-pick... they had tart's, bun's & kuihs'.I picked out "chai-kueh" (mix veg in dumplings)[RM1.00 per pc] and "lobak-kou" (steamed radish dish)[RM0.70 per pc]. Julie loves "chai-kueh" and their rendition certainly met the mark. The "lobak-kou" was also tasty, and nicely soft with lots of "heh-bee" (dried prawns)
We also ordered their cool drinks... Their speciality 3 layer drinks! (instead of sugar, it's honey). We took the 3 layer Iced-tea, Pineapple Juice with Honey and a Cincau drink. Great drinks! [RM2.90,RM2.90,RM1.50]
Since it was lunch we also ordered some heavier dishes... "Simple Mee Soup" for Hannah, basically like a home cooked maggi noodle soup with sausages & egg.[RM3.90]
I took their "wa-tan-hor" (noodles in egg sauce), not bad... Hannah ate 1/2 of this since she prefers kueh-teow and i ended up eating her mee... [RM4.50]
Julie took their Prawn mee... a tad salty but nevertheles OK... nothing can beat the original Penang version anyways... [RM4.50]
So the total bill came to RM26 , govt tax of 5% included. When we left... it was still full, i think people do come for just the "thong-sui", kuih and drinks.
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