First Visit – Not too good experience

This cafe is a few weeks old. So, keep that in mind and do cut them some slacks – I know I did. I had to make 2 attempts to this cafe just to taste their food. Why? Well, first attempt was on a Saturday night, for dinner. They usually close shop at 10 pm and so here I am – all excited to try out this new place – arrived there at 8 pm only to be told that they are closing early for the day. Say what???? These guys have no Facebook page – nothing. So, you cant possible know if they are closing early for the night or not – which sucks epicly, especially if you do not live nearby – like me ! Last I check – still no Facebook page. I sure hope that was the only time ‘closing shop early’ happened and that they create a Facebook page soon or else – Its gonna suck for them.

Second attempt there was today, for lunch. Just a head up – They DO NOT accept credit/debit cards for now as a means of paying. Good thing I thought about it. The first impression Ziffy left me was not pleasant. They did not strike me as a cafe that is customer centered, the first time I headed there. This second time around, I kindda foresaw that they may not have fully settled in yet? Perhaps in terms of lack of staff, unavailability of credit/debit payment systems and delays in orders? True enough – they had no credit card payment system. So – CASH ONLY. It’s a good thing I asked as soon as I entered the cafe or else, I would have been pissed. Having to wait quite long for food to arrive and once done eating, only to be told – we accept cash only. What if I had no cash? Lord knows, Nexis has no ATM. you would need to go out and cross the road to widraw. I dont know about you – but it would piss me off. So, thank god I asked prior to eating. I had to leave the cafe – cross the road and head on to RHB Bank – which is the nearest to Nexis.

Another area you would need to cut them some slack in would be serving time. There were many newly opened/operating cafes I’ve frequented of late and Ziffy by far, has the SLOWEST SERVING TIME. Since I was lucky enough to sit near their kitchen, I can fairly conclude that this occurred perhaps because there was only ONE CHEF/COOK. There were no few plates going out of that kitchen, it was one dish out – 10 minutes – another dish out – 8 minutes – another dish – 10 minutes and it goes on that way. You can see the customers getting restless. I was lucky, my man and I were the first peeps to arrive for lunch. The first dish arrived 13 minutes later, we both dug in, finished dish No. 1 , waited another 9 minutes before the second dish arrived. While we placed our orders, 3 other customers came in and waited for their orders to be taken. Since only one person takes the order, naturally my orders would get to the chef first before the other tables did. So, the combined time of my dish No. 1 and No. 2 arrived with a combined time of 20 – 25 minutes, imagine how long the 3 peeps at the other table had to wait? Their were certainly getting restless after 15 minutes. It kindda sucks. They take pretty long to serve the dish and on top of that, the dishes do not arrive together. Which means your friends food only arrives after you have eaten you dish and this leads to you having to wait till your friend completes eating and then you both end up waiting because then the 3rd persons dish arrive. I hope this is not an ongoing thing – cause it would definitely suck. The food is delicious, but this management aspect of this eatery sucks. I myself decided to not head there again anytime, just to allow them the chance to grow and rectify their shortcomings.

Teriyaki Fish Sizzle, 19 ringgit

If you fancy yourself some fusion asian dish with a modern take to it – do give this a try. This dish offers you a bowl of chinese style garlic fried rice + dori fish with teriyaki sauce with red pepper, mushrooms, carrots for a price of 19 ringgit, which I think is pretty reasonable. It certainly is not one of those dishes that will leave you overwhelmingly full at the end of it, no, this is one of those ‘just nice’, ‘just the right amount’ kindda dish. My partner and I shared this dish because the other dish we ordered took some time to arrive. When 2 people shared this dish – if felt like it was not enough. The garlic fried rice was soo tasty but with 5 spoons between us each – it disappeared from sight within 5 minutes. I loved this chinese style fried rice so much that I was actually contemplating ordering another bowl – but, with the delay in their serving time, they would most probably start cooking it perhaps 30 minutes from now by which my 2nd dish would have arrived and well gobbled up. It was delicious.

The dori fish with teriyaki sauce and vegetables was equally as delicious. It can be eaten on its own or together with the fried rice. Well, teriyaki sauce would mean this dish is a Japanese dish, however – similar to the garlic fried rice, it does resemble the Chinese style fish cooked with sweet soy sauce? The dory fish was boneless, so – worry not. The sauce provided a sweet & spicy flavor that aided in making the soft dori fish delicious and the vegetables provided a crunchiness that elevated the otherwise monotone texture this dish would have presented.

Salted Egg Heaven, 20 ringgit

Once I realized that a salted egg dish does not taste like salted egg yolk – I kindda developed a liking towards it, which was why I decided to order this salted egg burger. It was another yummy dish but again like the garlic fried rice – it was small, as in it came in a barely ‘ just enough’ size. The kind that makes you wanna order another one . The burger bun sort of decided the size of the burger. As the image above showcases, it is not the usual buns used in a burger. To give you an almost accurate picture would be to compare this with those anchovies/ikan bilis sambal bun from Gardenia that you can find at 7 Elevens, supermarkets and petrol stations. It is smaller than you regular burger. Basically, if you cut the burger into half – you would get 2 and a half mouths on each side, which means – 5 mouths for the whole burger. Noticed how I said mouths rather than mouthfuls? Yea, cause it was not mouthful – so that was how small it was. I guess, going around to various other cafes and having burgers here and there, this burger had an obvious difference in size. That would be my only complain, other than that – the dish as a whole, was yummy. There was a chicken fillet patty that was soaked in salted egg sauce and bits of spinach scattered all over. – me Loveeeeeee it. The sauce was thick and creamy, exactly how I like my salted egg sauce. The chicken patty looked and tasted like it was literally soaked in the sauce. When you cut into the patty, you do not see a dry patty, the kind that has a surface filled with sauce but the middle part is dry. Not the case here, any part of the patty you cut into – the sauce is all over, which was another thing I like.

Would I head here again?

I like the food and the place but I would give it some time before I head here again. They are new, perhaps a bit more time needed for them to get settled.

Second Visit – Good and Pleasant Experience, a Definite Positive Upgrade

So, here I am, paying a visit to Ziffy again, a month later. I figured, if the food is delicious, then it is worth being given another chance. At the same time, hope that its shortcomings has been dealt with. Was it dealt with? Yess ! My biggest issue with Ziffy was their serving time and happy to say that that issue has been resolved. Yay! Food arrived pretty fast – it arrived within 5-8 minutes from one another, which is awesome because then everyone at the table can eat together. If you read my previous experience ( Visit 1) , that was not the case. In Visit 1, The arrival time between one dish to another was at least 10 minutes – which meant the person that ordered the first dish gets to eat first while the rest of the people at the table wait and watches and the pattern repeats, which sucked epicly. Now though, food arrives fast and everyone at the table can enjoy their meal together. Awesome!

Mini Bao Platter, 13 ringgit

This was delicious! I gobbled it up within seconds upon arrival. After taking my order, the server inquired wether I would like the Bao to be brought ahead or together with the other dishes – since I was hungry as hell, I requested for the Bao to be brought ahead and it arrived within 7 minutes. Yay! I loved it! Man, this was dope! The steamed bun exterior was really good. It was soft and warm and biting into it was pure bliss.Yes, I am one of those weirdos who like eating just the bao itself, without fillings, and this was really good.

The platter came in three, each with a different filling. Chicky Bao – sambal grilled chicken filling, Dory Bao – chrispy dory fish with tartar sauce and Ducky Bao – teriyaki pulled duck. I wish I can explain what each one tasted like, but i cant, because it was all yummy and I did not take a minute to think and try and distinguish one taste from another – I just greedily gobbled it all up as soon as it arrived. The only thing I did notice was that I gobbled up the duck bao as well, which is a surprise because I am not a fan of duck meat but this one at Ziffy – I ate it all and wished there was more. There was sweetness, spicyness, hotness. you name it. A super satisfying starter.

Pesto Shrooms, 19 ringgit

This was one really tasty vegetarian pesto dish. That’s right, folks – it is vegetarian friendly. For meat eaters like myself, most of us definitely are used to saying ‘NO” to vegetarian dishes, same here. I dont see much use for ordering vegetarian dishes when I have already added ‘eating vegetables’ quota for the day, every day. Anyways, when I initially ordered this dish, I just assumed it was gonna have slices of chicken in it, like most cafes do – well, I saw the word pesto and I just went for it. When it arrived and I dug in – despite the lack of chicken or any other meat on the plate, I ate it all. In fact, I did not realize there was no meat till almost the end when bits and pieces are scattered everywhere and you need to use your fork to pick out some mushrooms and some pasta separately, yea – it was at that point that I realized that instead of chicken bits, I was scooping up mushrooms. The button mushrooms was definitely a clever alternative because the lack of meat went unnoticed for a long time. I loved it. For pesto lovers, there was plenty of basil all over the noodles, each spoonful had the flavor in abundance. It was really good. This would be my first vegetarian pesto pasta dish and I must say – it is nothing short of spectacular. I did not even notice the abcense of meat.

Salted Egg Chicken, 23 ringgit

This was another tasty dish. What you get is friend chicken mini fillets soaked in salted egg sauce + vegetables + basmathi rice. It was yummy. The rice tasted like Chinese style fried rice – which I like very much. The chicken was crispy, tender and flavorful. All ingredients worked well and compliment each other.