Shinjuku Restaurant with MyDeal coupon

After the 5-hr hike in the morning, both of us were exhausted. For dinner, we went to this Shinjuku Restaurant where I had bought the voucher months ago. Was looking forward to a nice Japanese meal BUT....

Shinjuku Restaurant, located at Jalan Chow Thye

It actually looks quite cozy from the outside, but when I saw wooden statues of elephants at the entrance, I was like hmm....??

The interior was nothing Japanese-like... and I really don't like the table cloth

I looked at their menu, and then looked at the pictures of the Thai King on the wall: it confirmed my thoughts - the owner must be a Thai and this restaurant does Thai, Malaysian, Chinese and Japanese food. Uh-oh...not a good feeling...

We amused ourselves by taking random pictures

Since I bought the voucher, the dinner was pre-set. We're supposed to get a total of 13 items (which I don't remember now), including the green tea. Although I was pleasantly surprised at the sake (because I don't remember what I should be getting!), it tasted rather bland. The chawanmushi was ok, ALL of the sushi were terrible though - the rice was cold and hard and tasteless. The yakitori was too sweet, the shisamo and unagi tofu (both not pictured) was not good, even Ping2 who never complains about food said they were bad.

Our nabeyaki ramen (kimuchi soup) tasted nothing like kimchi...

All in all, this was THE worst experience I've ever had with food where EVERY dish failed! It was a very disappointing evening for us, but especially for me because I had been looking forward to it for a while. DO NOT recommend this restaurant. I think they tried to do too many different cuisines but ended up having none of them outstanding. Money wasted.

Bkt Jambul （北笑山）- June 19 2011

I've never hiked here before even though the college I went to was just around the corner. It was still kinda dark when we got there at 7am.


A tar road leads up for maybe 200m and then we were in the woods. There were some lamp posts but none of the bulbs worked.

A spot where light shone in through the opening. Steps and more steps, just like Mt K.

Looking back...spooky!

And then suddenly we came out in the open...(hike was only 15 mins??)

...with a view of the northwest of Penang and Pulau Jerejak in the distance (~Ping2)

All hiking places have a tea kiosk and gym equipment

This one even has big mirrors (though broken) and posters of Bruce Lee - motivation??

Very old (and abandoned?) tea kiosk. It looked like it was once a popular gathering spot for local hikers. There were pictures of hiking expeditions all over the walls - Mt K, Nuang and other places I didn't recognize. I wonder how old and where these people are now...

Another foggy morning, Penang Bridge in the distance

We hung for quite a while up here, chatting and taking pictures. Then we took another route going down, "and that has made all the difference".

I've seen this before but I never knew what they are

Deep into the woods we go...

...chanced upon a durian tree (spot the durians??)

Rubber tree! Yes I'm a city girl, haven't seen a real rubber tree up close

Rubber trees are tapped by cutting into the bark and collecting the white latex in a cup

An old tree that is not tapped anymore

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood... (~Ping2)

...on and on, we felt like we were getting lost coz there was no one in front or behind us (but we weren't too worried)

...got distracted by mushrooms...

Then we heard voices and saw some people and an exit sign! (~Ping2)

So now we know there're two paths leading up. This was the one we took going up.

Let sleeping dogs lie...

Headed to Supertanker for breakfast. My roti canai - curry fail

Ping2's Loh Mee - ok

Aki Pancake - the one and only tattooed pancake man in Penang, and IMO, the best pancake

Husband and wife team, operates in the mornings on weekends and at night on weekdays

My furkids