Payung Cafe @ Cherating Village

Payung Cafe, a reggae pub-bistro is one of the very few cafes in Cherating that sells beer. Carlsberg is its only 'vice', there's no other alcoholic drinks on the menu. Did I say pub bistro? Yes I did. If Payung Cafe were located in KL, it would have been a full fledged reggae pub bistro, I'm sure.

With this kind of welcome, how could I stay away?  :P

At the entrance, beneath the roof, is this sign.......

It was a good thing I went as Mrs Potato, and not my alter ego, Blackie Bond. Blackie Bond would have been armed. As Mrs Potato, my only weapon is my huge elephant-sized thighs. 

The reggae-look interior, with reggae music playing in the background

Photos of the  proprietor and his wife

The proprietor, in his dreadlocks hairstyle, was about to leave with his wife when we arrived at 12:45pm. His wife is the cook, and we had to persuade them to cook for us before they went gallivanting. Other guests were not so lucky. They were turned away.


The menu was rather limited, but it's ok. We are not too fussy when we're on one of those "back to kampung" holidays.

Baked tomatoes with bolognaise and cheese

The baked tomatoes with bolognaise and cheese were yummy, but not so the garlic bread. The latter was rather common.

Penne Arrabiata

Speaking of common, I ordered a very common dish, Penne Arrabiata. It was a little disappointing. The tomato sauce was way too diluted.


On a totally unrelated subject, rice is supposed to be the Chinese's staple food. Some Chinese must have rice for every meal or they'll feel like they haven't eaten yet. We call those people fun-tong in Cantonese, or pnui tang in Hokkien, which literally translated, means rice bin. It makes me wonder, what would people call me? Pasta bin?? 

A non-paying guest.....hubby's cousin??

For other non-food related stories on Cherating, please visit my other blog:
1. Turtle watching
2. Mangrove river tour
3. Cherating, The Good and The Bad

Indinine Restaurant at Jaya 33

Last night, our friend TC was up in the clouds again. But unfortunately, due to my insomniac vampiric activities the past few nights, I was too tired to stay up till 4am for another night.

Instead, hubby and I decided to go to Wendy's for a charbroiled burger. He thought there's an outlet at Jaya 33, Section 14 PJ, which is nearer to our home than the outlet we know at Sunway.

However, when we arrived at Jaya 33, we could not find Wendy's. Hubby asked the guards, who told us that Wendy's is at Jaya 1, Section 17. To a sleep-deprived person, the idea of having to be on the road again wasn't too appealing. 

I opted, instead, to try one of the restaurants there. Hubby wanted to eat at Subway (yeah, he has a penchant for junk food), but a tiny, empty Italian restaurant, called Indinine had caught my eye. I liked the deco, and the long sofas looked really comfy. Hubby was a bit reluctant as not only were there no customers, there wasn't a single staff around.

Undeterred, I walked towards the kitchen and hollered, "Is this place open for business?" A voice hollered back, "Yes". Hmmm.....we are such a polite society.

Choosing the two most comfortable sofas, we settled down. A waiter came out, passed the menu to us, and said, "This is a vegetarian restaurant". My carnivorous hubby immediately stood up to leave. Voicing my wish to eat there, I asked him to take a look at the interesting selections on the menu.

Five minutes later, we ordered:-

- two bowls of wild mushroom soup

- a potato salad

- a bruschetta (french bread toasted with a layer of tomato sauce, topped with fresh tomatoes, olives, parsley and goat cheese)

- a linguinie pesto con funghi

The food arrived in quick order. And surprisingly, everything tasted very good. They had that fresh from the farm taste. And the linguinie in pesto sauce had lots of pine nuts in it. Yummy.....even my hubby was pleasantly surprised and full of praises. 

And the damage? At RM42.90, it's a bit more than what we would normally spend for just the two of us, but there are not that many good quality Italian restaurants in this price range. So, my overall opinion is, it is value for money.