Beyond Berjaya Redang Beach Resort.

When you're on a holiday in Malaysia, you'd always wanna keep a ear out for local restaurants that sit nearby the resort you're staying in. Simply because you'd never know what 'treasures' you're gonna unearth.

After having 3 meals at The Palm Restaurant in Berjaya Redang Beach Resort, Terengganu, I was determined to take my family out from the premise of the luxurious resort, and set out on a one2two adventure.

The adventure, as it turns out, was a rather short walk (approximately 2 minutes) from the resort's guard house. It's up a staircase on the right of the road, to Aima's Grill Fish. You won't miss it.

The wait for the food was a little long. That's because a lot of tables are filled with people from the resort. But maybe, it was also because we were hungry after the swim in the sea earlier, and we were rushing to go on our snorkeling trip next. (That's the life!).

Meanwhile, the wait was made okay as there were sufficient entertainment to keep my restless boys busy till the dishes started rolling in...

The awesome Nasi Goreng Belacan was the first to arrive. (A word of advice: When you eat at Malay restaurants anywhere in Malaysia, the safest choice is to always order something that's more Malay like the above or Nasi Goreng Kampung. Because you know they won't do as well with Chinese-style cooking or anything foreign.)

Then came the not-so spicy Mee Goreng, followed by centre-pool dishes like Sotong Goreng Tepung (Batter-fried Squid a.k.a Calamari), garlic-fried vegetable and other varieties of fried rice dishes that passed the test with flying colours when compared to typical resort food.

The biggest regret for me was, we didn't get to try their signature Ikan Bakar (Grilled Fish) because we were rushing for time.

In the end, the entire experience wasn't 5-star. But nobody complained.

Good morning Berjaya Redang Beach Resort.

The day began with wonderful sounds of the sea outside the room where my family and I rested blissfully the night before. The waves however, at the Berjaya Redang Beach Resort, Terengganu, do not rest. They seem to go on and on, which was heavenly.

And the island was just beautiful. No complaints there.

The food on the other hand, was disappointing.

For most of our meals when we were there, we ate at the Palm Restaurant.

The breakfast was complimentary. The buffet lunch costs RM70++ for adults, which comes up to about the same, or more, if you opted for the a la carte menu. And RM80++ for their 'Japanese' buffet dinner (which wasn't very Japanese at all) and their 'International' weekend buffet dinner (which wasn't very international) as well.

On the lighter side, there were 2 costumed characters, standing behind a counter at the end of a short buffet spread, armed with a frying pan each.

One made strangely horrifying 'spongy' omelettes. The other turned over my sunny side up.

And that's that, at the Berjaya Redang Beach Resort.