And of course, I just had to buy the hard rock cafe guitar-shaped magnet, the second one from a different country in the span of one week (see post below on the magnet from Makati, Manila)
The room and the service was excellent of course but I've already written about that. What I hadn't written about was the buffet breakfast spread which cost RM70++/pax. Thankfully we had booked a package that came with breakfast which was less than SGD20 for the 2 of us. 
The reason I say that is because of an absolutely gem of a place we found that serves the best crab that both of us have ever had. I would absolutely advise you to spend RM150 on 2kg of crab (1kg is about RM74) at this restaurant than breakfast for two at The Majestic.
The place I'm talking about is called Restoran Lee I had the good fortune of reading about on the famous Chubby Hubby's blog. The restaurant, or rather should I say, coffee-shop because it really isn't anything more than that, is less than 2mins walk from The Majestic's back carpark. We got there about 8.30pm and the restaurant was 3/4 full but we managed to get a table. This is a Chinese-operated coffee-shop and although the server was brief and to-the-point (no smiles), service was decent and we were served quickly starting with the crackers below (keropok) which my CEB finished in a flash after holding up just 1 cracker for my photo. Hah!
At Chubby Hubby's recommendation, I also ordered the fried bean-curd with minced-pork which he said was the place's specialty. The Slog Reviews: 6/10. Although this dish cost only RM6 and isn't awful in any sense of the word, it is incredibly oily and unremarkable. Save your stomach and good money for the crabs here.
Speaking of which, one has the option of ordering bread to go with the crabs. Now, the bread isn't anything like the kind of buns that we have in Singapore to go with our famous chilli crab. In fact, I was quite appalled to find out that the bread looks like this below - the kind of bread that I would use to feed swans or birds which I did in Switzerland and China b4. Ugh!!!
In any case, my CEB and I found that the crabs that we had, were amongst the the fleshiest and biggest crabs that we've ever had. Even our favorite seafood haunt at Kong Kong pales in comparison when it comes to the quality of the crab. Restoran Lee's crabs are excellent and done so well that the white meat in both the claws and bodies of the crab is firm and sweet. Not shreds of crab meat, or soft mushy bits but firm full chunks of crab meat. That's good quality crab we're talking and as my CEB claims even today, worth every damn dime he spent. The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Crab heaven! The milk sauce is slightly spicy and not cloying at all and we both can't wait to get back to Melaka (prob 2nd week of March) to try out the other crab dishes that this coffee-shop serves!
The address of this great crab place is 55 Jalan Bendahara, 75000 which is diagonally opposite Bayview Hotel and, it would be a great pity to any true crab lover to miss eating at this great place if one is ever at Melaka.
I should mention though that this time in November when I was there, I found a new restaurant just 2 doors down from this one which sells the same satay concept. Some people who grew tired after waiting for more than half an hour or so dropped out of the queue to eat there but for those who had a stouter heart and stronger resolve to have nothing but THE most famous satay in Melaka, we stayed firmly in line until we reached the entrance of the restaurant which looks like this below:
Upon being seated at the first empty available table, one is given a tray and allowed to go forth to the huge array of food laid out in the open refrigerator to heap one's tray with as much as food as one desires. It doesn't matter if there is 2 or 8 of you in a group - the first available table is yours so thumbs up for this equitable practice. We weren't made to share a table (though there were only 2 of us) but at the same time we were not allowed to jump queue ahead of those with much larger groups.
So, after one has chosen one's food - and the spread is wide - crabsticks, prawns, fishballs, meat, century eggs, tau kee, veg, the list just goes on and on - one returns to the table and find a pot of simmering brown curry-like liquid placed right smack in the center of the table.
When the liquid is bubbling, a server then pours in the crushed peanuts into the curry-like sauce and uses the laddle to mix the same to a thick consistency. The service by the servers is rather excellent I must say because every 10-15mins, they would come over and lift up your skewers of food and stir the mix to ensure that it is properly mixed.
And then, the feast begins with one dipping the various skewers of food one has chosen into the bubbling hot peanut sauce. Now, do not for an instance think that the black marks around the pot are just dirt stains. They aren't. We witnessed one table's pot of sauce catching fire literally so be very careful to keep your face away from the pot. It is quite inevitable though to get a few hot drops of sauce on one's hands while one's hand is near the bubbling liquid.
The 4 biggish prawns above are bonus items for each table that the server dishes out along with sotong and cuttlefish (We returned those as we didn't like them) - they aren't available at the open refrigerator and are way better than the prawns laid out there.
The Slog Reviews: 8/10 for the food and experience but be prepared for the long queue and the rather casual atmosphere of the place. No reservations are allowed unfortunately unless one is somebody important (the first time I was there I saw a table reserved and then filled with important rich looking men). Definitely worth at least one visit while at Melaka - the restaurant is a distance away from Jonker 88 and is located at Bukit Cina and only open from 5pm till midnight.
Because of the relatively short queue (See pic above), we managed to get a place at the back of the crowded restaurant, from which angle I could take a picture of the "hallowed" interior of this famed chicken rice stall. It is also clear form the pic below that the sun is so bright that in the background one can barely make out the queue behind the old-fashioned gates waiting to get in.
We ordered 5 chicken rice balls and half a chicken. The Slog Reviews: 9/10 for the chicken rice balls which were soft and fragrant. Because of the oil and fat used to cook the chicken rice, the chicken rice ball kinda melted in my mouth without the least bit of grainy feeling. Definitely much better than Hoe Kee's chicken rice balls.
I am sure we ordered half a chicken but they must have gotten the order wrong because the 2 of us were served THIS amount of chicken and my CEB counted 2 small chicken thighs. 
Ok, joke aside, the Slog Reviews: 9/10. If one wants to have really tender and fresh chicken (and yes, it was so good that I forgot about my allergy to eating chicken), one should make a beeline for No 18 Jalan Hang Jebat which is right at the start of Jonker Street. 
And so because I was in charge of ordering (I had a brolly and didn't mind standing in the sun) and I couldn't make up my mind what to have given how delicious each item on the menu seemed, we ended up with more than we could finish - the seafood soup, the baba rendang chicken, and of course the assam laksa and curry laksa. I have reviewed the food before so all I would say is that you can't not try the assam laksa (extreme right). It is fantastic!
So after that heavy lunch, with great anticipation, we made our way to Philea Resort, touted to be Melaka's first six star hotel. We got lost along the way, having gone to Jonker Street first and ended up making several rounds around the Ayer Keroh area, only to find that Philea is situated just 500m after the Ayer Keroh exit from NS Highway (on the left).
The lobby was impressive and matched our expectations of what a 6 star hotel should be like - expansive with high ceilings and neatly-clad, well-spoken help staff ready to help with the check-in process and our luggage. 
Because the rooms/villas are a distance away from the reception, it was necessary for us to climb on board one of the buggies which took us on a tour of the hotel's grounds. The staff was very friendly and knowledgeable - we learnt that philea means a type of butterfly in Russian. He also told us that the owner of the resort was buying more land around it to build more facilities.
And I think that is a pretty good idea because other than the spa, the only facility they have is this very non-impressive swimming pool which runs through the resort. It IS nice to look at in the pic above but other than its size/length, there are no slides or anything which distinguishes it from a normal swimming pool. The pic below shows how the villas are like and each villa has four rooms.
Our room was on the first floor of the villa - that's us in the mirror there - I've come to realise that because my CEB is not willing to bring a tripod around, the only way we ever are going to have photos of us together will be through the use of mirrors - but anyway, the point of the picture below is to show how the entire villa is constructed out of logs.
When we opened the door of the villa, we stepped into this below - maybe because I'd stayed in Capella's seaview room before so I had similar expectations of this so-called 6 star hotel. The room while really unique (the logs and all), was unfortunately rather dark and dim within.
As expected, there were no cable channels on the 32inch TV in the room but the hotel had free wifi so my CEB set up his netbook and we spent our time watching movies on the netbook - or rather, I did, because he fell asleep after a while when we were midway through the first one.
The toiletries were placed on a wooden tray at the bottom of the sink and were the only items which made me feel that I was getting some bang for the buck. However, that feeling didn't last too long because of what happened in the evening - I used the toilet and flushed. And the freaking toilet OVERFLOWED and over my feet! We've stayed in budget hotels before - like Tune but NEVER in my life have I experienced having my feet dirtied with the contents of a used W.C from a hotel. Much less a 6 star hotel! I know shit happens, in this case, not just figuratively but still, to have paid this much for a room in a 6 star hotel and have this happen is just...wrong. 
I wanted to raise a stinker (again, not just figuratively) to the hotel mgt but my CEB was there so I merely told them what had happened. They did not offer to have us change rooms which is what a 6 star hotel should do but instead said they would send someone over to fix the problem. We waited a good 15mins but no one came so I called them again and asked them to fix the problem while we went out for dinner. When we came back, guess what - they had fixed the W.C. but not the mess on the ground which was still soaked in W.C. water/contents. And the floor cloth which I had used to sop up some of the mess was still lying there in a crumpled heap. If you know me, you don't need to guess my reaction - but my CEB being the more easy-going of us two, managed to still make his trademark smiley faces with my sunny-side up the next morning at breakfast which brings me to my next grouse.
Below is a pic of the breakfast area of the resort. The selection is...for want of better words, is limited and pathetic. Maybe it has to do with the occupancy - only 1 other table was filled but other than that, there were hardly any items for us to choose from :( It was that lousy. 
Yes, lousy is the right word for the breakfast buffet spread at Philea Resort. This was my breakfast. I'm dissing the spread, the food, but not the service at the restaurant. The chef was very friendly and helpful and I could not feel sorry for him that he was responsible for facing guests dissatisfied the selection of food which he had no control over.
To conclude, the Slog Reviews: 1/10 for Philea Resort if one is at Melaka. There are so many other hotels one could stay at while in Melaka and which are even more centrally located than Philea. If one does not have a car, getting to town/Jonker 88 will pose difficulties indeed. And to pay that amount of money for a mediocre room without hot water for the bath, a disgraceful breakfast spread and no facilities but the swimming pool and spa is a sheer waste. And if the W.C. does not overflow over one's feet, one should count oneself fortunate not to share the stomach-churning experience I had. As my CEB said, this so called 6 star hotel is 1 star facility, 1 star breakfast spread and 4 star customer service (the front end staff's service is excellent - can't speak for the repair staff though who left the dirty floor cloth in the toilet after fixing the W.C). 
Above is a pic of the front porch of the hotel which is situated along Tan Cheng Lock Road. We used the GPS to get to the road but once there, we had to slow to a crawl so as to be able to find the hotel which is one of the many joined shophouses on the left side of the one-way road. When we found the hotel, we thought we could park at the parallel parking lot in front of the hotel but one of their staff got into the car and directed us to the parking area behind the hotel. If we had just turned left earlier along Tan Cheng Lock Road (at the place with a signboard that says parking area) instead of driving all the way to the front of the hotel, we would have been able to find the parking area ourselves. I guess this is something that the hotel needs to mention to guests who are driving there.
The lobby of the hotel, as seen from the pic above is very diff from any other hotel's lobby I've seen. Guests are served with drinks upon registration at the front desk. As we were early, (12.30pm), we asked if we could check into the room earlier but were told that the room wasn't ready. So we walked to Nancy's Kitchen which is just a stone's throw away from the hotel and had lunch there first. :) The pic below shows the central courtyard at the hotel which seems to be a really peaceful place to have a game of chess or meditate.
Based on the feedback I'd read on TripAdvisor, I specifically requested for a deluxe room on the 2nd floor of the hotel. Apparently it can get quite noisy on the first floor. There are no lifts in the hotel (which has only a first and second floor) but the stairwell and the corridors smelt of lemongrass which was rather pleasant and showed the thought put by the mangement of the hotel. Below is a pic of the room we were given...we peaked into other rooms along the corridor which had their doors opened and it seems that the decor varies from room to room. Ours is quite clearly, bamboo-themed.
A heating flask was provided on the dresser per the pic below but other than that, there were no other in-room facilities like a mini-fridge/bar or a safe.
I didn't really like the design of the bathroom but my CEB thought it was just great. The sliding doors and the bamboos concept = an utter lack of privacy and that, is not always a good thing. My CEB was most miffed at being banished to the lobby everytime I wanted to use the bathroom. Oh, and there is also no lock at all to the bathroom for some strange reason.
The last pic below is of the other end of the bathroom area. The standing shower (there is no bathtub) is built with a glass ceiling and I didn't really like that either but privacy is assured (unless from within the room).
The pic below shows the dessert being prepared. Self-service all around so one is advised to have a friend go into the shop to secure seats first and have another friend queuing for the dessert.
Do not be deceived by the pic below of the interior of the shop which I took.At first, I wasn't sure if we had to queue first at the narrow entrance of the place for our dessert first before getting a seat but thankfully the heat forced me to enter the shop to see if I could get a table for my colleagues first so they didn't have to wait in the sun. And, every single blasted table was occupied with people standing around. Not a single spare table and I was desperate enough to unshamedly enlist the help of one of the servers to help me get a table.
Thankfully he pointed me to a table where the group of pp were about finishing their food and we managed to get a table. I queued outside for the dessert while another colleague queued outside for the laksa. The 5 desserts below, 2 bowls of baba chendol, 1 bowl of baba durian chendol, 1 bowl of EPC 8 precious chendol and 1 bowl of sago gula melaka cost RM13 only.
A close up pic of the famous baba chendol which is reputed to be the absolute best Baba chendol in Melaka. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. I am not a chendol fan so I have no basis of comparison. The dessert was quite sweet and should be eaten cold. As in, really cold with lots of ice (one can go back to the stall out front to ask for more ice in an empty bowl).
I have no idea what the E.P.C stands for but the dessert came with more ingredients than the baba chendol. Worth ordering? The Slog sits on the fence for the reasons mentioned above.
However, everyone agreed that the sago gula melaka (last item on the dessert list) was really good. The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. Good stuff with the right amount of milk and sweetness.
Now, just opposite the dessert cart is the cart selling laksa and noodles. Both belong to Jonker 88 and are located at the front portion of the store. As mentioned, ideally you should go to Jonker 88 in a group of at least 3pax so 1 person can secure seats within the shop while 1 queues for dessert and the other queues for noodles. And believe me, the laksa from Jonker 88 is "solid" and should not be missed if one is there for dessert.
As we had just eaten at Hoe Kee and thankfully hadn't over-eaten, the 4 of us had capacity to share 2 bowls of laksa. First, the curry laksa. The Slog Reviews: 8/10. Very thick curry gravy with fresh fish cake and noodles. If I hadn't have to share, I would have cleaned the bowl - and oh yes, I asked for more gravy and it was free :) Excellent hawker fare.
However, what stole the limelight was the dish below. The most delicious nyonya asam laksa that I've ever tasted my whole life, or rather, the 4 of us ever tasted in each of our lives. The Slog Reviews: 10/10. Just ORDER! I'll be most grateful to anyone reading my blog if he/she can tell me where one can find such laksa or laksa 3/4 as good as the one below - the gravy wasn't thin and sour but thick and just slightly sour. How's that for starters. I have to stop writing about this meal now or else I fear that I may find myself driving up to Melaka this weekend for more of this dish!
The Slog Reviews: 9/10 for the overall experience at Jonker88. All the staff, from those preparing the food outside and those helping within were friendly and obliging. Whatever we asked for, more ice, more gravy, was given with a smiling face and FOC. Jonker88 was a great ending to our Melaka road trip indeed and anyone going to Melaka should visit this restaurant at least once for its excellent food and service.
The restaurant details are:
88, Jalan Hang Jebat,75200, Melaka.
Operating hours: 10am to 6pm (8pm on weekends)
