Pasadena Burger & Coffee, Lot 10, Kuala Lumpur

Pasadena Burger (Level 4 Lot 10, 50 Jalan Sultan Ismail, Bukit Bintang, 50250 Kuala Lumpur) was one of a handful of recommended burger joints. 

Got the one with blue cheese.

It's a miss for me. Meat was fine but there's too much going on between the buns - like the bacon, caramelized onions, sliced cheese, crispy cheese and sauce that in my opinion was muddling up the blue cheese.

I figured that getting their basic minus sauce plus blue cheese will probably be the best way to go. We'll see about coming back.

Muchas Muchachos (as transpired end June 2026)

Surprise update on Muchachos because we came back again.

To get the double cheeseburger before we can't get it anymore.

If anyone's wondering if it's juicy...

...wonder no more.

More of their country fried steak and buttery mash.

Trying their birria ramen for the first time. Sans cilantro.

Of places, Muchachos was definitely one of the last I'd expected to find an equivalent of a kickass 红烧牛肉面. I've never had a birria before and this was what it tasted like to me with that bovine depth, spicy greasiness and salt. A much better/more satisfying rendition of Chinese 红烧 beef noodle than what we've actually had in Taiwan. This was also just like how I remembered the beef noodle broth from Lai Lai back in the day when they were the Taiwanese beef noodle shop to be eating at.

Double cheeseburgers, burritos and country fried steak from Muchachos

I read that Muchachos is closing sometime towards the end of July. Which is a pity because I kinda dug their California burrito and breakfast burrito - a couple of things they have on menu that didn't have coriander/cilantro. But we didn't head down today because they were closing. I wanted to try their cheeseburger which I've been meaning to for ages. Now that we have, I've shifted from that sense of pity to something akin to sadness that they're closing.

Because what they did was nice. Cheese, nice coarse beef patties, pickles and lettuce without excessive saucing.

They didn't do fancy which was kinda what I've been looking for. Was it coincidental that this reminded me of the burger at the defunct One Night Only and Muchachos was part of them? Maybe I'm over reading this.

Also tried their country fried steak which I've also been curious about for some time.

Meat's tender, well done and has a bit of beefiness underneath a crust that reminded me of fried chicken. Quite peppery. The one thing I thought could have been improved was their gravy. Would have liked it richer and less starchy.

A couple of weeks later......

I knew I would be missing these so we came back for them. In the event that Muchachos never re-emerges somewhere else in the future, we'd have these last memories of them.

The breakfast burrito with maple syrup no less.

And the California burrito with hot sauce.

Morel chicken soup with cordyceps and hot corn juice in May plus other stuff from Tsui Wah (翠華)

Some stuff we ate from Tsui Wah in May. We were here a couple of times recently because of the morel chicken soup and hot corn juice. Those were limited time menu items for May.

Mostly it was for the morel chicken soup with cordyceps. Soup's mushroomy and pretty flavourful with peppery notes. Chicken was tender and not dried out.

Their corn juice is the less gritty version compared to what Putien used to have. I don't think 'corny' is the best word to describe them but it's what they were. You know what I mean.

Probably the nicest char chan teng luncheon meat and egg sandwich around.

Have seen the char siew and scrambled egg fried rice for some time. Finally tried it. While I generally love some fat in the meat, I think there's too much of it in this one. Won't be getting it again.

A few days later......

More morel chicken soup with cordyceps.

More corn juice.

Finally tried their jumbo hot dog. Bread's dry-ish and studded with sesame seeds but not getting any flavour from them. The dog was falling apart as we ate. Bun's too dry. At least we've tried it.

Streets of Cairo, BK Eating House @ Jurong Gateway Road

This was from the same BK Eating House as Zhen Xiang Hainanese Chicken Rice. Something called stackers - which was basically a sandwich. Got the one with beef. It didn't look like what was depicted on their sign which was what prompted me to order it. Didn't taste good. Too much mayo. 👎🏼

Plain Vanilla, Yong Siak Street

I was just saying not long ago that we never come into Plain Vanilla (1D Yong Siak Street) because of the crowd. This somehow happened.

Niçoise salad. Tasted like Niçoise salad with fishiness from anchovies and tuna.

Got the portobello mushroom & Stilton flatbread because Stilton. In the end, it was mostly mushrooms and rosemary I tasted with occasional nuttiness from the pine nuts. Not so much the blue cheese. 😔 Felt like they were trying to do something and half assed it because they were afraid.

This was nice. Bacon, scrambled egg and halloumi sandwich with chipotle mayo. Buns were soft and the in betweens were deliciously hearty. Every element in here was bold and discernible; unlike the wannabe flatbread that tried to involve Stilton and failed right at it.

Menu called this tomato veloute soup with grille cheese soldiers. The non-fancy name could be cream of tomato with grilled cheese. Passable but I'm pretty sure I preferred the one from Josh's Grill.

Unremarkable ice mocha. Would have been enjoyable if they made this a lot more gao in consideration of all the ice in there. But that's me.

Shiok Burger (新奇汉堡), Tiong Bahru Plaza

Shiok Burger opened up Tiong Bahru Plaza not long back (#01-159 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road).

Came over to try the XXL Mala Inferno Burger. Given the name, its appearance was a little underwhelming.

Meat's a little thin. Decent mala sauce like what we've had previously but I'm not feeling the 'inferno'. McSpicy has more burn. For an "XXL" sandwich, it sure didn't feel that way after eating.

Mr. Bucket Chocolaterie, Dempsey Road

They're (#01-03/04, 13 Dempsey Road) apparently a chocolatier that has started incorporating chocolate into their food so we were here to try them.

That's the Chocolate BLT. What intrigued me was the 45% milk chocolate mascarpone which turned out to be really good. Sadly, the beef bacon was no good at all - it was tough, chewy and sinewy. Some parts weren't edible. Pretty sure it would have been much better with regular bacon but the food's Muslim friendly so that's never happening.

There's steak frites with 72% dark chocolate peppercorn sauce. Kitchen has obviously little experience with plating. Sauce appeared to be watery because of the juices from the meat. Meat's edible, not great quality and also had some chewy unswallowable parts. Adequately salted though. The fries were the best tasting things on the plate.

Was nice of them to oblige when we asked for more sauce because there was barely enough to taste. It's creamy, not bad tasting but also neither memorable nor dark chocolate-y. Felt more like milk chocolate without much discernible pepper.

Pan seared duck breast with chilli cocoa powder was mediocre. I'm not sure what's their definitely of sear because I wasn't tasting any of it on the duck.

Meat was lean and had a powdery feel to them. There's little to no fat under the skin and that skin was very chewy. There were bits of silver skin in them. Apricot gastrique on the side didn't taste bad. Reminded me more than a little of tamarind but I didn't think it worked with the chilli cocoa powder.

Quite a bit of stuff we couldn't chew and/or swallow.

Chocolate's not bad though. We were offered samples and ended buying some.

Sausage McGriddles with scramble eggs from McD

So now there's a limited time Sausage McGriddles with liquid scrambled eggs as opposed to the regular disc of round real egg. Didn't taste bad though. What bugged me was that the kiosk didn't allow for much customisation beyond adding chicken bacon. Technology has brought McD a few strides back, not improved them. Cements the sentiment that what the customers may want aren't as important to them anymore. 

Back to brunch at Wooloomooloo Steakhouse

I mentioned coming back here for their burger. 

The butter with the onion focaccia is like the icing on the cake.

Their crustacean bisque is always a good choice.

One of the first course option in the brunch was an open faced beef gyoza with avocado. Beef's really tender but the flavour was almost totally muted by the yuzu mayo.

There's a Australian wagyu carpaccio which was pretty good tasting. Not so much because it's wagyu but more of the combination flavours with the tuna sauce and sweet pickled onions. That and the textures from the diced onions and not too salty crispy capers.

So here's that double cheeseburger. Special sauce on the side.

Nice, hot and meaty between buttery buns.

Picanha from Pure Black cattle. Meat's beefy and metallic, tender and chewy at the same time. Much like skirt/flank. The sweet glazed carrots that came with it was awesome. 

Sticky coffee pudding with vanilla mascarpone to end. Pretty good.