Johor Bahru 2D1N: Mutiara Hotel + KSL City Mall + IT Roo Cafe

Day 1: Saturday 27/5/17

Finally my exam ended on 24 May, it's time to take a breather, relax myself and enjoy the school holiday. The past one month was a tough one as I have 3 exam revision to manage on top of my work. Each night after work and during weekend, I coped myself at home to revise what I have learnt for the semester. I rejected lots of events and gathering.

So now that exam was over, I give myself a break that weekend  from the bustle city life and traveled up to Johor Bahru  (JB) for a staycation. Travelling to JB is all about eating and shopping.

We reached JB at about 1pm. We were famished so the first thing we did was to have our lunch at City Sqaure. Everytime we visit JB, we always tried out new place for food unless we have something in particular that we want to eat. This time round, we picked on Canton I, located at J3-05, a place for an authentic taste of Hong Kong..

Selfie while waiting for food.

Both of us are dim sum lover so we ordered quite a few dishes for sharing. 

Char Siew Sou 叉燒酥.

Beneath the flaky pastry was juicy and savoury char siew filling. We both love it very much.

One of their all-time favourites is this wonton noodles. I'm personally not a fan of wonton noodles, but I love their prawn dumpling wrapped up in a moist skin. 

We also ordered fried dumpling, salted egg yolk custard bun, dumpling and you tiao roll. Our lunch bill totaled up to RM85.30. We have a sumptuous lunch to kickstart our day in JB. We left Canton I feeling satisfied and full. Cravings for dim sum satisfied too.

After the lunch, we strolled awhile at City Square before heading to our hotel by cab.

This time round, we tried another new hotel for staycation at Mutiara Hotel, 15 minutes drive away from City Square. Mutiara Hotel is a 5 star hotel that is strategically located within the city's central business district. The hotel offers 336 smoke-free guestrooms.

A glance of their hotel lobby, it was filled with many cosy spots for guests to lounge in.

Though Mutiara Hotel's exterior looked a bit rundown, the interior was actually very beautiful, comfortable and spacious. The bed was so cozy, we found ourselves very reluctant to get out of the hotel room.

There was even a sitting area for us to wear our shoes before heading out.

This was by far the best hotel I have stayed in JB.

There was a bathtub in our toilet.

We were staying at level 4 and we were treated to the greenery scenery when peeked out of the window. I spent a few moment enjoying the scenery ahead.

Coming to JB for staycation was all about lazing ourselves in the hotel until evening time where we headed out again for food and shopping. It's our relax time.

We decided to leave the hotel at about 5.30pm and made our way by foot to KSL City Mall which was about 10 minutes walk away.

Our must have coconut ice cream whenever we were at KSL. It cost only RM7 for coconut husk ice cream and RM2 for the coconut cone ice cream.

We then walked around the mall to some of my favourite shops to check out their latest fashion trend but came out empty handed. We proceeded for dinner after finished checking all the shops.

We decided to try something new for dinner, hence we tried out KD Hong Kong, 港都香港.

I have fried pork chop rice. Though not very fabulous, I think it was worth it for the price paid at RM10.90.

Still not feeling satisfied from the dinner, we went to hunt for more dessert.

We went Snow City Desserts 雪山飞狐  for dessert and chit chat the remaining of our time away at KSL since we have no other plan. It was a cozy place where we can enjoy some dessert or cakes and spend time catching up.

I ordered Green Tea Milk Crepe Cake with ice cream. I love the crepe cake which simply just melt in my mouth.

We ordered another Blueberry Sawdust Pudding for sharing. Total bill was RM41.50

We learnt another lesson, never over-order our dessert, one each is just nice. We have a hard time clearing all 3 of them. Nevertheless, it was still a perfect note to end off our night at KSL.

Day 2: Sunday 28/5/17

We have a cozy one night stay at Mutiara Hotel, totally perfect for both of us. We would love to come back for a stay again.

We just took our time to get ourselves ready for checkout since we have ample time until 12pm.

Before we checked out our hotel, we went to level 3 to check out their swimming pool area. Wow, it really gave us a resort feel together with its scenery behind too.

It was our tradition to have cake at the hotel cafe before leaving as bf is a cake lover. The cheese cake caught my attention as it seemed delicious, hence I picked this.

Bf picked on red velvet cake. We paid RM16 for both cakes.

After having the cake, we set off for our lunch before bidding good bye to JB. We went back to the stretch of shophouses that we explored during our last JB staycation because we wanted to buy the char siew pastry back and also to try out other cafes.

The first cafe that we passed by was IT Roo Cafe, where the best chicken chop in town is found. We immediately went for this. It was full house by the time we reached at 12.50pm, but we were lucky to found 2 seats.

The cafe interior was very old school, it resembled 1950s era coffeeshop scene.

Our drinks were here, bandung and coke float.

I ordered the Grilled Chicken Chop with mushroom sauce at RM14.

For chicken chop selection, we can choose either grilled or fried. I picked on grilled because I was afraid fried chicken might be too dry and I prefer it served drizzled with sauce. The portion was just nice for me together with salad and potato wedges.

We ordered a plate of fried prawn but was shocked by the portion served. The portion was too much for the 2 of us, we tried our best to clear as much as we can. This was what happen whenever we went overseas, everything also want to try. We need to control ourselves next time. 

The deep fried prawn was coated with batter that was crispy upon bite, revealing the soft texture prawn.

It was a hearty lunch that left me feeling full till dinner.

IT Roo Cafe

17, Jalan Dhoby, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Operating hours: 12pm to 9.30pm

After getting our pastry, we walked back to City Square and ready to leave JB. It was a great 2D1N getaway. Look forward to the next trip or staycation.