DESARU BEACH JOHOR HOLIDAY | 3D 2N Weekend Escapade Day 1

Picture courtesy of Lembaga Kemajuan Johor Tenggara

Desaru is a beach and resort area in Kota Tinggi District, Johor, Malaysia. It is located approximately 

88 kilometers east of Johor Bahru, facing the South China Sea. It is a very popular weekend escape for tourist from other states and Singapore who come to enjoy the attractive 25 km stretch of beaches and splendid golf courses.

Xplore Johor - Tourism Johor

+BestRestaurant ToEat was invited by the Tourism Johor to join in the Xplore Johor program to this beautiful resort town Desaru, Johor for a 3 days 2 nights (3D 2N) escapade to explore some of Desaru places of interest and Desaru attraction.

Picture Courtesy of Wikimedia

We started our exploration from the Malaysia Tourism Centre (MATIC) office in Jalan Ampang Kuala Lumpur early in the morning as we are scheduled to arrive at Desaru in time for lunch.



Our first destination is the Desaru Fruit Farm one of the popular tourist destination; as there are plenty to explore on this farm.

On arrival, after a wash down, we were served an array of juicy and sweet local fruits which is freshly harvested from the farm; are offered to us to eat as much (buffet style) as your heart desire.



The local fruits which include my favourite fruit i.e Jack Fruit,



Guava & Passion Fruit,



Pineapples,



Red and White Dragon Fruits



Jambu Air & Rambutan and more; are freshly cut and peel to serve to you. Too bad, it was the end of the Durian season, so we didn't get to eat the King of Fruit and Mangosteen from Johor.

For some of the other fruits, the farm has also preserved some of them, so you get to eat the preserved Kedondong, Mangoes, and Papayas.

After our fruit buffet, we were then served our lunch. The dishes here are very special; in that, most of the recipes for the dishes are using the farm fruits as one of its ingredient like our first dish which is the Fresh Papaya Chicken Soup With Tongkat Ali.

followed by the Assam Pedas Stingray With Passion Fruit Juice

Next, is the Deep Fried Squid with Red Dragon Fruit sauce.

As part of the Desaru Fruit Farm entrance fee (RM58.30 - Adult, RM50.90 - Child) which includes the fruit buffet, the set lunch; it also comes with a Fruit farm tour where you can experience and explore all the different fruit trees and its growing process which are explained during the tour on a specially crafted lorry.

Desaru Fruit Farm Tour 

We were delighted to have learned a lot about the planting and caring process of these fruit trees.

Dragon Fruit

The fruit farm has over 100 varieties of fruits and herbs that are planted in this 100 acres (45.5 hectares) fruit farm.

Pisang Seribu

Passion Fruit Juice, Roselle Juice, and Lime Juice

Halfway thru our tour, you can also enjoy a cooling Passion Fruit or Lime juice to soothe your throat on a hot day.

As part of the attraction at the fruit farm; it also has a mini zoo where you can get up close with the Rabbits, Ayam Serama, Goats, Turkeys, Goose, Pythons, and more.

Dirt Kart Ride

For a premium entrance ticket (RM72.10 - Adult & RM63.60 - Child), the farm also offers you a chance to drives the Dirt Kart. The difference here is the Go Kart in on a tarmac road while Dirt kart kicks out a lot of dirt and dust. Truly enjoy the experience; good thing it was a dry day so no dirt but end up eating dust.

After our fun stop at the Desaru Fruit Farm, it was time to check into our hotel. Our stay for the entire holiday is at the Tiara Desaru Seaview Residence located at Jalan Tanjong Lompat, Bandar Penawar, Desaru Johor - a service apartment home stay style which has a beautiful beach facing the South China Sea.

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At Tiara Desaru, there are 4 swimming pools where you can take a dip to relax your tired soul.

As our units are located on a block which is nearer to the beach, there is also a swimming pool for the residents in this block which offers a more private swim.

We had the single room apartment (RM190.00) which is quite like a suite as there is a spacious living room area where we can chill out or just watch the television before calling it a night.



there is also a small pantry area where you can do some light cooking.

For our rooms, it comes with a queen bed and is quite spacious on its own.

with an attached bathroom.

After unpacking, we decided to take a stroll around to check out some of the facilities available at Tiara Desaru Seaview Residence, the first is the Gym which faces the beach where you can work it out while enjoying the serene view of the beach.

Or if you decide to cycle around, you can rent one of the bicycles to leisurely check out the places.

For those that loves BBQ, there is numerous BBQ pit available inside the compound and on the beach hut facing the sea. Please arrange with the staff if you plan to have a BBQ.

After that, we decided to check out the famed Desaru beach; as there is no adjoining development, you can virtually have the entire beach which stretched to around 3 km all by yourself. It is this seclusion that makes city folks like us enjoy the quaint & tranquil moments to relax while enjoying the quiet moment and the sea breeze.

For dinner, we headed to the Lotus Desaru Beach Resort which offers a water theme park and beach activities where we had some specialty dishes crafted by its Penang born Chef Leong which includes his signature



Penang Rojak - who would have thought that you can eat such nice Penang Rojak in Desaru Johor.

followed by his creamy Authentic Seafood Tom Yam Kung

and his aroma filled Deep Fried Chicken with Lemon Grass.

Deep Fried Fish Dressed With Miang Kham Sauce (Daun Kodok)

Grilled Squid

and the flavourful Authentic Thai Chu Chi Prawns to finish our dinner with.

After our hearty dinner, it was time to go back to Tiara Desaru to have a good rest for the next day event. Catch our Day 2 adventure here.

Tiara Desaru Seaview Residence Video

Desaru Fruit Farm Address and Location



Tiara Desaru Seaview Residence Address and Location



Lotus Desaru Beach Resort Address and Location

Explore Best Restaurant Other Food Trail

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Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang Food Trail - What To Eat in Sungai Lembing

There are 2 things that Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang is famous for; One is the picturesque village & mountain views and the second is the food that is served here. After more than 2 hours of driving, we finally reached Sungai Lembing after our breakfast stop at Bentong Town.

As we arrived a little later after our stop at Sungai Pandan waterfall, it was already 130pm. After parking our car, we decided to take a walk to the food court hoping to try our luck whether there is any food store that is still selling any food.

When we arrive, most of the hawkers at the Sungai Lembing Food Court are already in the midst of cleaning and packing for the day. We then decided to take a walk around town to see whether any other shops are still opened; we manage to find one which is a Coffeeshop next to Kwong See Association (Lembing Tea House) which sells duck egg noodles. It looks more like the pan mee, but here they served it with a braised pork belly and some meatballs.

The taste of the broth was very tasty; much like the taste of the Japanese Ramen pork broth. The small bowl that we had was RM7.00 and RM10.00 for a big bowl not that cheap considering we gotten only 2 pieces of Pork belly and 2 meatballs.

mind you, this shop owner uses a Chinese abacus to tally your bills.

We decided to order one bowl just to try it out; while waiting for the noodle to arrive, the shop also sells some tea leaves and also the herbal eggs (RM1.50), which we decided to try one of it as well. The taste of the eggs are on a much sweeter note and lack the herbal tea taste that we like.

After that; while walking around town, we met with some locals and chatted with them to find out what are our option for dinner. According to him, the most original shop that sells the famed tomato noodles is at the Restoran Hoover and ask us to check it out.

We then checked into Pollock View Resort and decided to do some sightseeing (you can check it out at the link below). After that; we visited the noodle making factory over the other side of the river, this place also sells the famed Mountain Spring Water Tau Foo Fa, we decided to give it a try and it has quite a smooth silky texture.

After that, we decided to have an early dinner at Restoran Hoover as we didn't have much for lunch. 

As we were walking over, a lady selling wild boar skewers were promoting her fare. We decided to order 5 sticks of the skewers and it tasted not too bad as wild boar meat tends to be firmer in texture.

Although it was just a little past 6, the restaurant is already fully occupied. After getting our table; we started to order some of their specialty dishes (recommended by the locals that we met earlier), we were told that they don't have anymore as it was reserved for some customer and for their next day customer. She mentioned, we should have booked our dishes earlier if we wanted those dishes. Anyway, we ordered whatever was available, and the first dish is the Thai Style Tilapia. The fish is fried to a deep crust and topped with some vinaigrette mango.

Followed by the Spring Onion Wild Boar Meat. We didn't like the taste of the dish, the texture of the meat was too tough and it didn't taste anything like what we expected.

Next, is the Tau Foo with Minced meat. the dish is passable but the tau foo has once again scored better marks in Sungai Lembing.

Our final dish is the famed Sungai Lembing Tomato Noodle. The noodles are pre-fried much like the Cantonese style noodle and topped with a tomato based gravy. We are not so used to it, it was quite like a mild version of a spaghetti sauce that you either like it or not.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for an earlier night out as tomorrow we need to get wake up at 5am to trek up the Bukit Panorama to watch the first light of the day.

After spending more that 1.5 hours at the hilltop, we decided to trek down and have our breakfast at the Sungai Lembing food court which serves the much touted Spring Mountain Water Tau Foo. We were told that there are 3 different shops selling the same Tau Foo; one of the shops was not open, so we explore the 2 other shop and decided to ask one of the local which shop they fancied. 

According to the local, the other shop which is at the end of the food court is more popular with the tourist as they were featured in an Astro program but we decided to stick to the locals which the owner said that it is now in the 3rd generation-spanning more than 80 years history.

For Tau Foo fans, you will like the soft silky smooth texture of this Spring Mountain Water Tau Foo (RM0.80) per pcs.

We were surprised by the generous portion of fish paste in each of the "liew"  which is the ladies fingers and green chilies (RM0.70 per pcs), here we have it in the curry soup. you can choose either the clear soup or the curry.

Another dish that must be tried from this store is the Beef Brisket Noodle Ngau Lam Mee (RM5.00). Fragrant and braised to a soft firm texture. Loves the taste and texture of this Ngau Lam.

There is one more speciality item from Sungai Lembing which is the Honey Lime Drink (RM14.00) which you can purchase to be made at home. This is the cheapest price that you can get from Sungai Lembing. He sells the Eggs Chee Cheong Fun too but we were a little too late; he sold off before 9.30am.

After our satisfying breakfast meals, we check out and left Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang to continue our journey to Kuantan. More on this in our other post below.

Link to our Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang Food trail and holiday

Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang Holiday

Bentong Food: What to Eat and What not

Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang Food Trail

Kuantan Food Trail - What We Eat in Kuantan
DurianBB University - Raub Pahang Durian Farm Education Tour

Restoran Hoover Sungai Lembing Address and Location

Sungai Lembing Food Court (Hawker Centre) Address and Location

Sungai Lembing Bukit Panorama

Explore Best Restaurant Other Food Trail

Explore with us on our Road Trip Food Trail

Join Us On Our Food Trail

Club Marriott Launching Putrajaya Marriott Hotel IOI Resort - A Night of Pies

Picture Courtesy of Club Marriott 

Club Marriott Launching Putrajaya Marriott Hotel IOI Resort City - kicks off the launch with an offering of savoury and sweet pies with the theme of A Night of Pies.

Attended by Club members, the management team of Putrajaya Marriott Hotel IOI Resort City and the media,



the Chef has prepared a variety of savoury hot Pies ranging from Cheesy Spinach Turkey Toasted Pie, Chicken Hot Pie, Crabmeat Quiche and more.

and the sweet pies offering of Apple Crumble Pies



Lemon Meringue, and more.

As a member of the Club Marriott, you will be able to experience 5-star dining and accommodation at special preferential rates with the Club Marriott membership. You will also enjoy a world of benefits at over 100 participating Marriott International Hotel in Asia Pacific.

Year round savings of up to 30% on dining at more than 350 restaurants and bar including the special members-only rate for accommodation and dining certificates.

membership are available at RM695 Nett (including a FREE Supplementary Card) for New Member

 and for Renewal Members (RM645 Nett - includes 1 FREE Supplementary Card)

To learn more on your Club Marriott privileges, please call 014-7287865.

Putrajaya Marriott Hotel IOI Resort Address and Location

Bentong Food - What To Eat and What Not in Bentong Pahang

Bentong town in Pahang is a very popular stop for travelers to the east coast. This is the town where many people will make a pit-stop before continuing their journey. There have been many blog site featuring Bentong Food, so on one our latest food trail to Sungai Lembing and Kuantan for a short break, we decided to try out some of these recommended food places.

We started very early in the morning so that we can reach Bentong by 8am to have our breakfast in Bentong town which is famed for its Wantan Noodle. 

As we arrive at the Kedai Kopi Yuen Kee which is next to the Bentong morning market; it was already very pack; we started looking for a seating place at the coffee shop. It looks like every table is waiting for this Wanton Noodles. We were hoping for a real treat.

Upon our order of the dry wanton noodles, we also decided to order the Yong Tau Foo like every table does as the waiting time is about 45 min to 1 hour for the wanton noodle.

The verdict of the Yong Tau Foo was not bad, we like the Tau Foo Pok, as the texture was quite soft and smooth compared with those from KL which has a firmer texture. 

we also order the others "Liew" like the Bitter Gourd, Brinjal and Fried bean curd which the verdict is passable. 

Next, we tried their Chee Cheong Fun from the same store, but the sauce fails miserably and it has a taste that we are not really accustomed to.

Our order of the Wantan noodles came soon after we finish our Yong Tau Foo. There were very little pieces of thin slices of Char Siew and taste wise there are nowhere frankly speaking is nowhere comparable with any of the KL wanton noodle seller. 

The dry wanton noodle which was ordered was just drenched in black thick soya sauce and no other taste. We were really disappointed after all the hype and waiting for this must eat in Bentong. The only saving grace was the Yong Tau Foo in this Kedai Kopi Yuen Kee.

We then left to go to the KOW PO ice cream shop which has been in business for more than 40 years. As it was 930am, the shop is not opened yet as can be seen in our photo, but after some chat with Mr. Kow, he obliged to sell us some of his ice-cream for us to taste as we told him, we are from KL and on the way to Kuantan and won't be coming back.

The Ice cream is made fresh and has many flavors to choose from. We tried out the peanuts flavoured ice cream (RM3.50 per scoop).

and the chocolate flavours which was really chocolatey and has a very smooth soft texture. We left Bentong after our ice-cream stop and continue our food journey to Sungai Lembing, Kuantan. More of this in our other post below.

Link to our Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang Food trail and holiday

Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang Holiday

Bentong Food: What to Eat and What not

Sungai Lembing Kuantan Pahang Food Trail

Kuantan Food Trail - What We Eat in Kuantan
DurianBB University - Raub Pahang Durian Farm Education Tour

Kedai Kopi Yuen Kee Address and Location



Kow Po Coffee Shop Bentong Ice Cream Address and Location

Explore Best Restaurant Other Food Trail

Explore with us on our Road Trip Food Trail

Join Us On Our Food Trail