[Travel] Across the Causeway - Saturday Day Trip 2026 Version @ Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Breakfast 1 (10:04 am)

皇家咖啡店 WONG GA KOPITIAM

This coffee shop has a drinks stall (obviously), an economic rice stall, duck rice/noodles and a beef noodles stall.

Spacious place and there was a table available. One can place order at the various food stalls and the staff will bring it over when it is ready. Pay when served. 

For drinks, you can order via the order chit placed on the table (which we didn't notice) or via the staff, or at the drinks counter. Cashless payment is available. Recommend to order and to pay direct at the counter.

assorted braised - tofu, duck gizzard, pig skin and ear

braised duck (portion for 3 pax)

kway teow kia (dry)

Our breakfast was mainly from the duck stall. Paid RM60 for the duck, assorted braised and a bowl of kway teow kia. Food was good.

mixed beef soup (RM15 - large)

For the beef soup, it was different from what I imagined it would be. Suggest to order it with noodles instead of without as the soup tasted better with the noodles.

cham (tea and coffee mixed)

I liked the cham here but probably better to go for the less sweet version. 

Address: 141&142, Jalan Lumba Kuda, Bukit Chagar, 80300 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Ta'zim, Malaysia

Business Hours: Daily, 6 am–8 pm

Breakfast 2 (11:07 am)

13 Units Hong Kong Cafe - Danga Utama

shop front

Do you think we'd be here to eat say, just a bolo bun? Never. Haha! Let's see what we ended up with.

bakes on display

merch corner

Staff was friendly and we got our table almost immediately. However, after placing our orders, we asked the staff if we could move as the place didn't get the fan coverage. He was rather nice about it and warned that the table nearby had strong air conditioning and if we were ok with that.

themed concept

menu

might order this if I hadn't had breakfast prior

The hardcopy menu looked like it had seen better days. Order via the QR code. Liked that for the drinks that we had selected, one could choose the less sweet option. 

HK chee cheong fun (plain)

The rice rolls were more sweet than savoury. Tasted like dessert. 

pistachio egg tart

cross section view

nornal egg tart

We were happy with the egg tarts. Crispy, flaky shell and good flavours from the pistachio and egg custard.

signature ice milk tea

ice-lemon tea

Hehe, that tiny piece of mahjong tile on the ice-lemon tea drink cover, can be plucked out and take home by the diners.

bolo bun with butter

nissin noodles with egg and luncheon meat

steamed milk custard

Total meal costs around RM95.

Address: 60G, Jln Pertama 1, Pusat Perdagangan Danga Utama, 81300 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Ta'zim, Malaysia

Business Hours: Daily, 10 am–10 pm

Entertainment and Tea Break (3:00pm - 5:00pm)

Chun K Music Family Karaoke 纯K

The first KTV place that we went was inside a shopping mall but it was strictly for members' registration only but it was fully reserved. Hence, searched around and decided on Chun K as it accepts walk-in and was available. 

We took the RM99++ 2 hour package which included a jug of drinks (choose 1 from 3 selections), some fruits and snacks.

Song selection was alright, service staff was polite and helpful. However, one of the mic at times no sound or sudden burst of sound. Not sure if it is a technical issue or our voice needed better control. Hmmm.

Address: 37, Jalan Austin Heights 8/3, Taman Mount Austin, 81100 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Ta'zim, Malaysia

Contact: +6072886648

Business Hours: Daily, 2 pm–3 am

Pre-Dinner Snacks (7:05pm)

B&B Bakery

This shop sells one of the larger sized shio-pan that I've encountered thus far. The Penang shio-pan size was similar to Singapore. 

dining space outside the shop

shop front

I bought a couple of flavours for breakfast but my bro at the fancy flavours while I tried the yam mochi and the normal shio-pan. One could also add selected fillings into the plain shio-pan inside the shop, to customize the bun. 

shio-pan with additional butter fillings

Address: 1, Jalan Kasa 7, Taman Sentosa, 80150 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Ta'zim, Malaysia

Business Hours: Daily, 9 am–8 pm

BBQ Dinner (7:40pm)

Tanba Japanese BBQ 炭马烧肉专门店(Twin Galaxy)

shop

One could opt for either hot-pot or BBQ in this same shop. That night, we observed more people having hotpot than BBQ.

We chose the RM198+ per pax Basic Course package for the BBQ.

BBQ package

wasabi and yakiniku sauce

I was wondering why Hence kept asking me if I need to get the sauces from the sauce counter. I didn't as I was using the sauce available on the table. Turned out, the sauces from sauce counter were already charged per head. 

charcoal ready

Was a tad skeptical on the tiny pieces of charcoal for the BBQ as it looked like it might not have enough fire. No worries there as the meat pieces served were pretty thinly sliced. 

tiny plates per serving order

beef karubi

fresh lettuce is a must 

kimchi is recommended

let's start cooking

munch on karaage while waiting

next round of orders

can request for staff to replace the grill once it got too much char on it

beef fried rice

Hmm, not too sure about the beef fried rice. Didn't like the rice texture here. 

matcha ice-cream

Cold tea, iced water and dessert are included in the package. For dessert, one could get the aiyu-jelly, matcha or vanilla ice-cream or the marshmallow. Hence and Tracy recommends the aiyu-jelly. 

The place was pretty packed during dinner time on a Saturday evening at 730pm. 

Address: Twin Galaxy, 01-03 #01-05 #01-06, Jalan Dato Abdullah Tahir, Taman Abad, 80300 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Ta'zim, Malaysia

Website: https://linktr.ee/tanbachiguitwg

Business Hours: 

Sun - Thu: 12–11 pm

Fri-Sat: 12 pm–12 am

This trip was made possible by Hence, Tracy and Ivan. Thank you for the company!

Girls' Just Wanna Have Fun! @ I'M KIM Korean BBQ | Cash Studio Cuppage

It was after office hours, and where to go? The singles have gathered and off we went to treat ourselves to a good meal. Since most places will be super duper crowded, we made reservations at I'M KIM Korean BBQ, located near SOTA. They do not have online reservation, so had to call their telephone. Had to call multiple times though, before someone picked up.

mascot

Dining there has a two-hour limit, to ensure that all guests had a chance at the buffet. Was informed at the point of payment that they had increased the price with an extra 90 cents charged per head. One pax for dinner buffet (2 hours) is about $29.30.

From observation, walk-ins are still possible if you're there before 7pm. The place gets really crowded around 730pm. Seems popular with young adults. 

at 7pm

Tried sikhye, traditional sweet Korean rice beverage. Free-flow from the drinks dispenser. Enjoyable drink on a warm humid night. They also have unsweetened roasted barley, mango drink or plain water.

sikhye 식혜

For this place, the cuts of meat were a plenty. From the porky section; pork collar (spicy, non-spicy), bacon, belly. Then, the beefy section; sirloin, short-ribs and thinly sliced meat. For chicken, they have volcano chicken (not that spicy la) and garlic-chicken.

let the grill begin~

taste enhancers

While waiting for the food to cook, help yourselves to the cooked food section. Japchae, chicken wings, nuggets, and soups. If you take beef, give its radish beef soup a try. Familiar and agreeable taste.

chicken wings

The soy marinated deep fried wings make a good beer food. Sweetish, savoury and some bits crunchy. But a bit of disclaimer since I'm biased towards wings anyway.

have some kimchi first

There wasn't anyone to clear the used plates for the first half hour. Our grill plate got changed once during our two-hours there.

The pork belly was leaner than expected. Beef was good and tasty, but towards the end of the meal, the winner was volcano chicken. Thigh meat with some skin on, marinated with mild spices, grilled till slight char equates to tasty bites.

Wrap those meat with fresh lettuce (which gets cleaned out pretty fast, by the way), fresh garlic and kimchi, and yeah, that's how we rolled.

hello there, delicious 고기

Wash it down with a small bowl of warm radish beef soup. So good.

Two hours later, and with super full belly, we adjourned to our next stop. Vocal exercise!

Someone recommended Cash Studio Cuppage, so off we went... smelling like the BBQ-aftermath that we were.

Had to wait though even though we had booked the room. First time at Cash Studio, and boy, the room was interesting.

disco lights

standing mic

Songs selection and controls made through mobile phone-app? That's new for me. Had to download the app from App Store, and connect it to the room's wifi before the songs can be selected. The room doesn't have any remote!

The downside was that the app hangs sometimes and one need to have a charged-phone or have charger cables. To loan a cable, they will take hold of your NRIC which will then be returned when the charging cable is returned. I think that was rather unnecessary. If the cable is not returned, simply charge the cost of the cable into the room price.

need room wifi password

Songs selection were adequate. Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Malay and Japanese songs available. Drinks were of canned variation with one canned drinks included in the package price. Three-hour package for 5 pax costs about $22 per pax. And, yes, guests are required to leave on the dot when time is up.