I planned to eat at Antipodean @ Bangsar after my previous breakfast at Chawan (Read:
Breakfast At Chawan, Bangsar: Food Sucks...But Good Coffee). I could still remember seeing a lot of people having their breakfast by the 'kaki lima'/ sidewalk when I drove past the restaurant. It gave me a warmth and home-ly feeling and I regretted for not eating there instead at that time.
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Antipodean @ Jalan Telawi 2, Bangsar
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Anyway, I'm back at Antipodean this morning to sample their breakfast. Is Antipodean as good as the previous crowds indicate? Or does it match the high recommendations mentioned by some food blogs?
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| Antipodean simplified menu. There are more complicated menu inside the restaurant (see below). |
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| Inside Antipodean restaurant...menu at the wall. Recommended by the waitress to try out their famous Big Breakfast (RM18, gosh!), which consists of toast, bacon, mushrooms, scrambled egg and hash brown. Okay, I had to bite the bullet..or my tongue when I ordered the Big Breakfast. Well, the sacrifice that an un-sponsored food blogger have to endure...expensive foods. I just hope the food taste will be quadrupled of McDonald's RM4 breakfast:) |
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| Another part of the 'wall' menu showing their famed coffee selection. Again, I asked for recommendations from the waitress and she suggested to me to try their 'Kopi Luwak Plunger', RM40! I heard of this brand of coffee before and I'm sure it's great but I observed some strict principles, one of those is never order a drink which is more expensive than the food:) Maybe other time. I ordered latte (RM8) instead. |
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| Empty restaurant! Nola, actually...I was the first customer:) |
Finally, my latte and big breakfast arrived!
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| Latte (RM8). Lightly-aromatic, 'kiamsap' (see the amount of foam in it!) and mediocre coffee only. Is my expectation too high or their coffee that...normal? |
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| Big breakfast (big RM18! Ouch!) |
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| Bacon, 3 pieces only, medium-size, 20% fat. Did Antipodean achieve the 'sinfully delicious' level for their bacons? Bacon is the easiest food to prepare. You just put in some butter on the pan and then the bacon, fry it until it's fragrant. You can't fail but yet, at Antipodean, it's not fragrant! Nevertheless, the bacon's intrinsic salty taste save the day, but not Antipodean. Even my mum or myself can make better bacon than this. |
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| Small mushrooms, respectable amount, tasted sweet and nice, plus chewy texture but it's just not matching with the rest of the food. Maybe it's just me. A nice try anyway. |
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| Scrambled egg, pass. I just hope it's some branded, healthy Omega-3 eggs that I'm eating since I'm paying RM18 for the whole Big Breakfast. |
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| Toast and hashbrown, one failed and another failed miserably. The hashbrown was lightly fried outside but inside, it was bland, whipped potato-like and super difficult to swallow, nauseating! The toast was good in the sense it was whole grain bread (if I'm not mistaken) but it wasn't fresh! |
Antipodean Cafe
20, Jalan Telawi 2, Bangsar, KL
Tel: 03-22820411
Open daily, 8am- 10pm
Tasty Or Not?
Rating: 4/10. Another hyper-hype restaurant serving overpriced, mediocre foods. Wasted not only my RM18 but my precious breakfast! Although I may not be a 'Bangsar-material' (more of a Larut Lane material, and proud of it! hahaha) yet, I knew it when a food is good or otherwise. Don't kid me!
Do you even know what you're talking about? a cafe latte consists of 1:1 ratio of milk to coffee. If you didn't want foam and wanted more "coffee"...ask for flat white instead.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, your taste buds prefer McD's coffee and hash browns to coffee roasted on site and freshly made hashbrowns (and for the record, antipodean doesnt pay me to advertise for them nor do I have any financial or non financial kickbacks from them).
Totally agree with u
DeleteHonestly I dont think your blog qualifies you to be reviewing food in great places such as antipodean. Perhaps you shoudl stick to gerais and macds
DeleteHonestly I think you are one of those idiot affiliates of this F shop!
DeletePerhaps YOU should go stick your head back inside the ground!
thanks for th comment!
ReplyDeletecoffee ratio or roasting not important if its tasteless/taste-light
hashbrown? horrors:)
try it out and see if u get 'value' for ur money
i did admit im not 'bangsar' material,didnt i?:)
thanks again!
Err it's all personal preference . But I think it's value for money . Rm18 and ouch maybe 10 Years ago yes . And the flat white is nice .
ReplyDeleteRead your review before I visited, and man you are dead wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe breakfast was a delight. I'ma Perth/ Melbourne girl too and this comes pretty close to the Aussie cafe culture I'm soused to.
Plus you did have the choice of going for the Pork/beef sausage instead of the bacon, which were sinfully tasty.
The coffee was pretty good. Not the best, but I'll put it up there under good. Wish they'd start serving Campos though, and I'll be completely sold.
The staff were friendly, the bosses even gave me & my friend a coffee card each!
Anyway you need to take a trip with someone who knows how to order food. Maybe you just had a stroke of bad luck that particular day, I don't know.
No one really gives two shits where you're from Lily.
DeleteJust sayin' :)
Or maybe you should just stick to going to maccas or the coffee shops for paratha and kaya toast!!
ReplyDeleteYeah stick to McDonalds or Marrybrowns, you obviously don't know what you are talking about. Don't give up your day job
ReplyDeletei think mr.tasty is right when he said that the breakfast is rather 'normal'. money-wise, some of you may afford it but the point is whether it's worth it or the money is better spend elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteimho, spend it elsewhere. foods rather dull. coffee i think better to go starbucks nearby
Hmm?
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued as to exactly how you conclude that the bread used in the toast was not fresh?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming to be the world's leading expert on the art of toasting, but in my experience the process of showing fresh bread to a hot grill usually results in it taking on a crisper, harder texture somewhat akin to that of an untoasted possibly stale bread.
Again, I'm no physics lecturer, but I'd wager it had something to do with the removal of the moisture content.
Just a guess like.
For what it's worth, I enjoyed my breakfast. To compare it to the processed rubbish spewed out by McD is just plain rude.
Antipodean provides an efficient and friendly service, whilst offering perfectly palatable if unremarkable brekky in a western cafe/deli context.
In summary, perfectly decent "scran" for what I would consider a reasonable price.
Thanks for all your comments,
ReplyDeleteI'm just writing based on my experience there. If it's good, I'll praise, and will even recommend it here...just like countless of exceptional foods that I'd written here.
Antipodean, lousy..
omg, i've been there and totally agree with u, i think overall of what i havin there is bland for my malaysian taste bud, sorry but totally not recommended.
ReplyDeleteHi there, first of all, your English might give a bad name to Malaysians as we speak and write with proper grammar. No pun intended. I'm a little curious as to what you're doing as a profession since you 'rate' the food and give further comments on the food at the end of each post. Food critics are of very high standards and have an immense amount of experience. Ratings on food is acceptable but some of the posts I have read in your blog are contradictory and very insulting.
ReplyDeleteExample: Mille Crepe Cake and Cappucino "....not to mention the amount of calories in it!"
Have you ever considered the fact that your all time favourite Hokkien Mee has an immeasurable (exaggeration)amount of calories when compared to a measly slice of cake and coffee, not to mention the additional lard (yucks!!).
You might say the my comparison is irrelevant but at least I don't compare quality food with McD's all the time. Processed, fast food cannot be compared to something prepared on the spot. Truth, you might say, but food bloggers do not mock and criticise food created by others. I would really like to see food made by you. I really would. Again, no pun intended.
Your views and thoughts are honest and profound but sadly, the way you form sentences really ticked me (probably other readers as well) off. It gave the impression that you were better than everyone else, especially in the kitchen.
I just hope you actually read your previous blog posts to avoid contradicting future posts.
P/S: I have NEVER tasted stubborn meat. Would be good to try though. Neither have I ever felt nauseated after having a not-so-good meal. Wonder how that feels.
So sorry that my 'England' not very good but really appreciate your analysis of my other blog entries here, plus your critical comments too:)
DeleteTotally agree with : Anonymous March 26, 2012 at 1:03 AM
Deletewell, no surprises here. plenty of super-hyped up restaurants in kl. it's really hard to find objective reviews of restaurants here. what we need is a website where people can voice their true opinions anonymously. antipodean follows after the whole ben's craze -- bad food at extortionist prices. another non-surprise is that malaysians should flock lemming-like to these locations. perhaps if we had more restaurants serving real food, malaysians will be tutored in the art of distinguishing the finer foods from the non-foods.
ReplyDeleteI'd just like to say that I came here looking for an opinion before deciding to try out antipodean, and I got that. So thank you. And may I add that before judging somebody for their taste, other commentors should respect the blogger for his opinion. We have rights to our own opinion and how to express them, without being judged for doing it in the first place.
ReplyDeleteYup! Agreed to the person above me. Seriously its his tongue and his taste people. If you feel that he is disturbing your sleep for saying the food sucks and you cant get it out of your head,. Then just get a life. People are entitle to their opinion. If you like the food,. Then enjoy it to the core till its out of your system. If you dont,. Then its totally up to you to turn into scary monster who throw ups everything he eats. To the writer,. No problem man! Thanks for the info, i might go there for a try. But thanks for your review!
ReplyDeleteHate the one who said people english no good.here malaysia, why not use malay?english educated not mean somebody here, i swear that you might not know chinese at all! My chinese will surely better than you,but so what......poor guy
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with the writer. He just wrote about what he has seen and tasted based on his experiences and stand n obviously this is his blog. His taste bud is clearly different with other people, if this restaurant really serve good foods, a blog post wouldn't defame the reputation of the restaurant easily. take an easy people. And I didn't know that commanding of english that could relate to a NON-LOCAL restaurant which even not serving local foods as well as also could give a bad name to malaysia.
ReplyDeletethe writer definitely has different taste buds. mee sotong, roti canai, duck rice?
ReplyDeletewhile i agree that everyone is entitled to his or her opinions, it's another thing when what you say is damaging and humiliating to another person (or business). granted, you didn't enjoy your breakfast, but perhaps over-hyped and overpriced should not have been used. after all, you're not exactly gordon ramsay or even a chef, are you?
i'm from penang and i know how the kind of miserable cheapskates we tend to be everywhere we go.
thanks for spending your time here.
ReplyDeleteall comments are most welcome.
thought id be free after passing my exam but instead, im much busier now:(
Come on la. everyone is entitle to his/her opinion. If he thinks that the taste of coffee or the breakfast not up to his mark. Then he can makes his comments. So it is for us to judge whether the food is worth to try or not. Personally for me, RM18 for breakfast which consist of egg, mushroom, bacon, a slice of toast bread and hashbrown is consider expensive. It is nothing wrong to compare with McD. Personally I think hashbrown at McD taste quite good. :)
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I believe that the writer is free to state his/her own opinion. Also, please do not act like foolish people trying to belittle the writer based on his comments. Have an open mind people!
ReplyDeleteKeep up your good job Mr Writer!!
ReplyDeleteI don't blindly rush to any food outlet just because of rave reviews on the Internet.
ReplyDeleteBut when I saw the photo of the bacon (above), I have already lost interest in Antipodean.
At last, after having trying all kinds of suede loafers
, you'll still feel that TOD's are the best. So, for a reasonably priced big breakfast that looks way better than the photo above, I'd still go for Bangsar Shopping Centre's La Bodega
The Pavillion LaBodega breakfast is not as good.
I haven't tried this cafe but looking at the menu, it does seem mediocre to me. I believe many cafes here in KL/PJ can offer the same type of breakfast sets- the ordinary french toast, big breakfast, etc. In terms of food range, nothing new or exciting. Quality wise I'm not too sure. It's something I'll have to try before making any further comments on it.
ReplyDeleteI too, agree with the author and would never come here for coffee just by looking at the picture. It's definitely a cappuccino, not a latte. I have yet to find a cafe in KL/PJ that can serve real coffee. It's frustrating that many baristas here can't even differentiate between a flat white, cappucino, latte, espresso, double shot, affogato, macchiato and etc. Most of the standards they're using is taken from starbucks, gloria jeans and all these other coffeehouse chains out there eg. frothing the milk until it's 40 degrees. Hence, the mediocre coffee. Also compare the latte shown above with the one posted by Kampung boy & city Girl,
http://kampungboycitygal.com/2012/01/antipodean-cafe-bangsar-best-brunch-in-kl/
if you cant see the difference, it's the thickness/amount of foam. Such great inconsistency is a major turn off for coffee lovers/drinkers. Then again I have to be fair, it's the hype over their breakfast and not their coffee we're talking about here.
I believe it's worth trying at least once. There's not a need to belittle or to condemn the author. Afterall, everyone's taste might be a little bit different. Don't get all riled up over a comment on the internet LOL =)
Cheers
I agree coffee in Antipodean is not great. I love a good cup of coffee and the few times I ordered coffee in Antipodean, the quality is not consistent. Sometimes, it is nicely done but most other times badly done. And its fustrating to have a good breakfast and end up with bad coffee. So we prefer to eat and then walk to Artisan Coffee in Bangsar for our daily c dose.
DeleteI was browsing for good breakfast places in malaysia, and came upon this blog. Well I do think this is a fair blog. I'm surprised with the number of personal attacks towards the writer. All he did was blogged about his food experiences. His English is fine too. For those opinion critics don't abuse your anonymity on the internet just because you can. It just shows that you lack class and courtesy. This is after all a food blog n ot a professional food critic site. Would you ever insult your friend when they post up comments about food theyve eaten on fb? Some of the vicious comments were uncalled for especially the ones that insult his language ability. Knowing english well doesnt make you better than someone who speaks german well for example. youve just insulted your own fellowman when you make fun of the way they speak and write.
ReplyDeleteFair.
DeleteYes! Since when?!
Haha anyhow the anonymous attacker(s) std not as good tot or their 'talented' ego brain mutated enough to und Macha blog and replies.
Well done and congr to not just their disgusting attitude & 'blindly' taste bud but also thier wordings as well :D
Since when do you need to be good in your command of English to write blogs. HO LANG KAN LA. Dont you guys get it ? Even the hash brown in McD looks better than this rm18 crap. He shouldnt be comparing this with McD fast food but dont you guys get what he means ? He d rather get mcd hashbrown than to eat this crap here. You open a food business without a friggin menu. Thats just unbeliavable.
ReplyDeleteHave to agree with Mr Macha, the breakfast is just so so, nothing to be wow about really.
ReplyDeleteOnly good thing about it, is the huge portion! That's about it....
Oh dear Mr Macha...looks like you've been attacked by people who are affiliated with the outlet you've just disparaged:) I agree with you- been to Antipodean a few times to meet friends and regretted the long wait for tables, and the so-so food and drink. Its not a bad place,just nothing special.
ReplyDeletemr macha - agreed with everything you had to say. i was disappointed in the quality of antipodean's breakfast...bloody tasteless crap for rm18! chinoz-on-the-park (bsc outlet) serves much better breakfast.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with the author. The food at antipodean is nothing to be boast about. I've visited the place recently at Jalan Tun Razak and my conclusion is the food is not bad. My capuccino tasted ordinary. Don't start judging now, cos I have been to few places which served nicer coffee with same price. The author might have greater liking towards hawker food, but then his view and critics are just a mere guide for food hunting. I really doubt that the first few comments are from the company's affiliates. If really so, you should try to improve the food quality instead of hauling nasty remarks on other's food taste. Maybe his comparison of the food to something like McD is a bit too much, yet I don't really think people will blindly believe food blog. Well, not for me, i will at least give a try and see how reliable is the blog.Enjoy the day and have great food.
ReplyDeletePS: Take note that you don't necessary need to be a good chef before you place a commend on the food. And to all restaurantier, you serve food to the public and commoner, not chefs and only the rich.
The food look and taste exactly what you can expect!
ReplyDeleteOne word - SUX!
MSG to who ever idiot affiliates of Antipodean go evaluate your hell price and crap food rather harassing around here!
Is our freedom to voice out. If you think this blog deteriorate your business then why not just close it and go back to your mommy womb! Save the hassle you provoke! World of mouth do speak ok! We not fool!
(totally pissed dining there)
bravo!
DeleteAntipodean is okaaaay la. It's not as bad as you say, but you did order the most disappointing thing on their menu — the big breakfast.
ReplyDeleteI've lived in Bangsar, and keep returning since I tend to stay nearby. Its prices are also quite standard for the cafe scene in Bangsar la :)
I had my brunch at antipodean too today with my friends who were dying to have it cause it seems it's the best brunch in bangsar. They love it and said they would come back there for it but for me, I find it nothing that spectacular and yes, I totally agree with you on their bacon.
ReplyDeleteJust a suggestion of a next breakfast place that you could visit and I would love to hear what you think of this place. Do try out Ferringhi Coffee Garden in Penang when you have the chance. I tried once during my holiday in Penang and I love their breakfast especially their french toast that comes along with beef bacon. Nice environment and nice workers too =) Enough to keep me yearning for another visit to Penang just to have Ferringhi Coffee Garden's breakfast again.
I went once for dinner, ordered caborana and hot choc... caborana taste bad...the white cream was just like some tofu texture... the hot choc taste like tea, yes TEA...
ReplyDeletetheir breakfast just normal, nothing special , ok to eat...It doesn't attract me to queue for 30 mins -1 hour or more ....
Wow, such butthurt comments.
ReplyDeleteGuess they must be upset that their so called cafe scene culture illusion has now been disrupted :).
I have had a smilier experience to yours when I visited the branch in Menara Tan & Tan. The latte I ordered tasted worse than horrible, in fact it tasted really bitter and way too milky. The staff seemed really condescending too that I only ordered a drink and opted not to any order food - In my defense, they seemed rather overpriced and sounded bland.
Don't think I'll be retuning here, would rather stick to RAWCoffee K.L