Recently, a friend and I went across the causeway to Johor Bahru. We had planned to go to the new Aeon Tebrau City, which is the biggest shopping mall in Malaysia. But because we were late, we decided to just hang out at City Square instead.

Lunch was at Robin’s Portuguese Chicken. As usual, I had the half chicken with spaghetti that I suspected was just yellow noodles. It costs RM9.30, and they also charge an additional 7% GST. Pretty much all the other eateries here charge GST, too. So people would be walking around with a whole bunch of pretty much worthless 1-cent and 5-cent coins jingling in their pockets.

Spent some time shopping around buying almost nothing. I think the only things sold there that would look good in both Singapore and Malaysia are the accessories and shoes. With the exception of street fashion shop, radioactive, most of the clothes sold there looked horrid.

Bracing myself for a long overdue shopping spree, I had brought a thick wad of Malaysian currency over there and even hid some between the pages of the book I’m currently reading (so that in case we got robbed of our wallets, we might still have some hidden cash!). In the end I didn’t even get to use the money!

Dinner was at Secret Recipe. That seems to be the staple stop every time I visit City Square. The service there totally sucks, but because their cheesecakes are so good, they keep me going back there. And the cheesecakes are half the price of the ones in Singapore! Those in the secret recipe outlets here are sold at $4.50 each, whereas those in Malaysia are sold at RM5.30, which is cheap, cheap, cheap!

I had the chilled strawberry cheesecake which was good, but took forever to be served. I had asked one of the staff to bring it to my table. He said okay, but then he decided to convey the message to another waitress instead before walking away. Ten minutes later, and no cheesecake.

Later on, the same guy walked back to the counter and hollered something at the waitress. I assumed they were talking about my cheesecake. But another five minutes passed and still, no cheesecake! Finally, another Guy #2 took out the cheesecake and placed it on a plate. He then proceeded to walk away! My cheesecake was now sitting on the counter top threatening to be eaten by flies.

I contemplated going over to the counter myself to bring it over. Just then, Guy #2 went back. Some people walked past and I lost sight of my cheesecake after that. Later on, I found that my cheesecake had found a new position on the counter top. A long while later, Guy #2 finally decided to bring it over to my table. Argh!


We also ordered a lemon frosty fruit juice each which was way too sour. So the service sucks, the drinks also suck. The only good thing about the place would be the cheesecakes. And seriously, those are the best cheesecakes I have ever eaten at any one place.