Return Visit To Pavillion KL

Well last Sunday I gambled on a return visit to the Pavillion Kl, reasoning that there will be not that much of a crowd as they should still be away for the Chinese New Year holidays and our own guest workers favourite gathering spots itself are away from the area. Well I threw the dice correctly and was rewarded with easy parking, not so hectic crowds and a surprise buy at the infamous JCo donuts. Well more about that that later.


Well the reason I made this return visit is because I wanted to check out the Loaf Bakery and the Mercato Supermarket that seems to be getting some good press. I have no interest in the premium shopping experience because I already work in a similar premium shopping district so this holds no attraction to me. However the main reason was because I wanted to dine at Tony Roma's because my wife just got her bonus and she wanted to give a treat for the family and this was the nearest location to home. Well the experience at Tony's is always great as evidenced by my daughter's reaction in the video below. We tried out some new starters and the kid's loved it so they will become a fixture in our future visits there.




Since Tony's was sited in the Gourmet Emporium, it was a short step away to the Mercato. Expecting a great display of foreign foodstuff, imagine my disappointment that there is actually nothing much on offer except for a good pasta sauce and canned sardine selection at reasonable prices. Although it has an admittedly superior bakery within of Norwegian origin, when compared to The Marketplace at Gardens it is a poor imitation of a premium supermarket and will not see me a hurried return visit. A similar disappointment awaited me at The Loaf, since I was expecting a similar bakery experience to what I have seen in Japan but the store does not actually measure up. You can get similar or better offering from any of the other Japanese Bakeries locally, even the bakery at the now defunct Yaohan was much better, so unless you are willing to pay premium prices just for the privilege of dining at a bakery owned by our ex-premier I would suggest you ignore the hype.

And hype is what bedevils another store for me, that is the overhyped JCo Doughnuts shop that has seen queues snaking around the shopping floor. Well we tend to avoid being like lemmings and sheep in following the crowd, but since this time the queue was much shorter than the first visit we joined the queue to see what the fuss was all about. Well first up the bad impression I received was the fact there is a staff going around saying you can jump the queue if you buy a dozen, without any choosing allowed, together with a beverage which to me is a sign of bad marketing as an ethical store do not resort to such hard sell tactics. I applaud their policy of allowing pregnant ladies to go to the front of the queue, bad this hard sell just leaves a bitter after taste. And when finally we bought two dozen of many types(well they had an offer and this gives an opportunity for us to taste as many types as we can what) and had it at home, imagine my disappointment when my family cannot distinguish the difference between their donuts and donuts from DunkingD for example. Granted they may have some "premium" toppings and fillings, but sorry to say my wife and I especially cannot taste why these doughnuts are so sought after, especially in the dough. So we both agreed that there will be no need for a return visit to this store or Pavillion unless we happen to be in the neighbourhood. Visits to Suria KLCC and Gardens Midvalley would do as nicely. At least our disappointment (so many disappointments are used in this accountlah, I know) was salved by the fact that we had free parking for the occassion, courtesy of spending more than RM100 at one the Pavillion outlets.