A Disappointing Meal at CODO

I was looking forward to a nice non-home-cooked meal. So, I took the opportunity to suggest dining out as we had to go to MVMM to change currency. The Husband obliged. ;D

My choice of cuisine? Vietnamese. There were two restaurants both at the top storey of MVMM near the cinema. We chose Codo as we wanted to try something new. BAD MOVE!

Although the decor of the place was very elegant and we had an aerial view of what was going on in MVMM, everything else left MUCH MUCH MORE to be desired.

We were greeted by an enthusiastic Chinese waiter (whose actions povided the saving grace for the restaurant). He took our orders - stir-fried clams on rice (a so-called 'Must Try') for me, Phoa with mixed beef for Alan and a platter of side dishes (lamb, crab stick & mango parcels and vietnamese spring rolls). Feeling decadent, I also ordered a red bean smoothie to wash down the oil. (And trust me..there was alot of oil).

We waited and waited and waited for our orders to appear in front of our faces. But the lone chef (pronounced 'chehft' by 9/10 Malaysians) could not impress. Alan guessed that the rest of the workers had probably gone to (a) fag in the loo , (b) gamble in the stairwell or (c) a Fag in the loo and THEN gamble in the stairwell. :P

20minutes after he had taken our order, our dutiful and polite waiter brought the iced water for Alan (ahem.. he had asked for warm water). I told my husband not to change his order though, if not his warm water would take another eternity to be placed on our table. We then proceed to wait and wait somemore. Not-so-soon, my stir-fried clams (extremely countable in number) clams were served on a bed of chunky non-fragant, probably overnight white rice and endowned generously with wind-causing fried and oily shallots. Two stems of lifeless greens lay beneath the blackened shallots, as if placed there to surprise the unassuming eater.

I ploughed through my meal, unimpressed. It was definitely NOT worth the RM12.80 and NOT A MUST-TRY in my humble opinion! :P Alan's beef phoa came next (after another 10minutes of waiting). The soup was lukewarm and unappetising. It tasted of the swollen kuayteow that was swimming in it, rather than the beef. The stomach of the cow was likened to plastic and the raw beansprouts were given a miss because the cold soup would not have softened and cooked them.

All of a sudden, there was an influx of workers who returned from doing (c) - please see above, to pretend to help the hapless cook (who lacked drive and speed to say the least). There was a Ma-chik who emerged out of nowhere to wash the dishes. And a chinese-looking man who looked to be the ASSistant chehft, and a slow-moving, disinterested Malay waiter (dressed in traditional Vietnamese get-up, no less) who dragged his feet wherever he went. The first thing he did after appearing was to pour himself a glass of water from the side table which was used to serve the guests of the restaurant. TERRIBLE!

THEN, my red bean smoothie came. For Rm9.80, it was painfully small but thankfully tasty. I will learn how to do it so that I can savour the likes of it at home. :P

FINALLY, (after apologies from the hardworking waiter), our side dish platter came. Normally, appetisiers are to be served first, you'd think?! The lamb was overdone and rubbery, the mango & crabstick parcels were oily and tasteless and the Vietnamese spring rolls were blackened and oozed oil. It was absolutely not worth the Rm24!

Alan and I left the restaurant shaking our heads. We will NEVER EVER go back again.

We headed to CarrerFour next to pick up a few items. We bought our dear Ening a trolley - she is always borrowing the neighbour's maid's one to do our shopping hahaha. Poor thing. Then, we picked up 1 packet of Fitti diapers, 1 packet of Pet Pet diapers and 1 packet of Pampers diapers. Our Mamypoko diapers always leaks nowadays and I am trying to find a better alternative. If those don't work, I will just have to resort to tying up Ethan's legs so that he can't kick them and therefore losen his diapers. :P