As a friend was engaged for her food photography service at Car Born Cafe located at Danga Utama, Johor Bahru, hence I tagged along. As such the photographer is paid but not the blogger. As such, all the food in this blog post is courteous of Car Born Cafe for the photography session. I just took the opportunity to share since I partake in the feasting as not to waste food. Lol.
According to the food photography, who is well versed in JB cafe, she mentioned that Car Born Cafe is the first and only car theme car in JB. The restaurant is so cool. They have display of a car and various real car engines under the table.
At Car Born Cafe, there is no lack of selection with a lengthy menu. Read on to find out.
Salad & Soup
There are 5 salads and 1 soup on the Car Born Cafe menu. We tried 4 of them.
Most of the salad has the same mixed of greens with different toppings as such we tried only the Garden Salad (RM 12) and Smoked Duck Salad (RM 16.90). The former is with simple olive oil as dressing while the latter is with a homemade dressing. For alternative, diners could opt for either the Grilled Salmon Salad (RM 16.90) or Potato Salad. These are with their special homemade dressing.
If greens are not preferred, diners could opt for the only fruit salad, Mixed Fruit With Strawberry Yogurt Salad (RM 15.90). This is a very simple fruit salad with crowd pleaser fruits.
The only soup available is the Creamy Mushroom Soup (RM 9.90). We could savour the mushroom and the soup was smooth and creamy, somehow it didn’t wow us.
Main Course
Car Born Cafe offers 8 Main Course dishes with largely chicken and fish as choices. There aren’t beef and pork but with cooking method of deep fried or grilled.
First the deep fried food, there are 2 Chicken Cutlet dishes with different original or salted egg to choose from. First is the Chicken Cutlet (RM 16.90) and next the Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Chop (RM 19.90). Both were crispy and lightly salted.
Next, we have the American Fish & Chip (RM 20.90). The batter was thin and light while fish was fresh. We thought well of the dish.
We next proceeded to the grilled items. It is mainly with Teriyaki sauce with an option of Honey Mustard for a chicken chop dish, the Honey Mustard Chicken Chop (RM 19.90).
Diners could opt for the Mixed Grill (RM 29.90) for best of both world as on it consists of succulent grilled chicken and salmon with moisture retained. Even though I would usually avoid cooked salmon dishes, I approve of this dish.
Should diners want only either the chicken or salmon, this is also made possible with Grilled Salmon (RM 23.90) and Teriyaki Chicken Chop (RM 19.90) as selection.
Pasta
A total of 8 pasta dishes are found on Car Born menu.
3 Aglio Olio with various toppings. First and foremost is the Aglio Olio e Scoglio (RM 23.90) for the seafood lovers with prawns, squid ring and mussel. All the seafood were fresh. Second is the Wild Mushroom Aglio Olio (RM 16.90) and lastly the Smoked Duck Aglio Oilo (RM 19.90). Depending your one preference for ingredients, diners could choose accordingly.
Next is the Carbonara series with 3 choices. The Chicken Ham Carbonara (RM 20.90). I like the creaminess and fragrance of this dish. It was pretty understanding. The next choice is the Streaky Beef Bacon Carbonara (RM 22.90) for those who like beef.
With the Salted Egg craze in Singapore, it influences Johor trend too hence Car Born Cafe introduces Salted Egg Yolk Prawn Pasta (RM 23.90). I didn’t enjoy as it was a little too sweet for a savoury dish.
Alternatively, Chicken Bolognese (RM 18.90) for diner who prefer tomato based pasta.
Trendy Homemade Burger
All 4 burgers on Car Born Burger Menu are Chicken Burger. The ultimate burger to order is The Queen (RM 26.90). It is such a high stack of burger with layers made up with chicken patty, beef pepperoni, beef bacon, sunny side up, cheddar cheese, tomato, gherkin, caramelize onions and grilled pineapple sandwiched in between a Charcoal bun. It is such an enormous burger which we don’t know how to start.
The Signature Chicken Burger (RM 20.90) with teriyaki sauce is the second chicken patty burger. The last 2 are fried chicken burger. The first is a chicken burger with wasabi mayo, Anything W Chicken (RM 20.90). Lastly, a burger with salted egg yolk sauce, the Salted Egg Yolk Charcoal Burger (RM 19.90).
Whatever With Rice
Beside burgers and Mains, some might prefer rice. And over here at Car Born Cafe, they have provided 6 dishes with option of fried rice, white rice and baked rice.
The only fried rice dish available is the Car Born Fried Rice (RM 15.90). It has sausages, ham, cheese and egg coupled with strong black pepperish flavour from the sauce.
For white rice option, there are 2 dishes with both teriyaki selection being Teriyaki Chicken Rice (RM 16.90) and Teriyaki Salmon Rice (RM 20.90)
In the baked rice series, they offer Deep Fried Chicken Baked Rice (RM 16.90), Seafood Baked Rice (RM 22.90) and Mixed Mushroom Baked Rice (RM 17.90). Similarly to the first dish, they uses fried rice in them.
Cheese N Cheese
More cheese dishes for diners who love their cheese with 4 dishes to choose from Car Born Cafe Menu.
The cheesy dishes are Grilled Chicken W Baked Cheese (RM 18.90), Baked Combination Of Three Types Mushroom (RM 16.90), Baked Salmon (RM 23.90) and French Fries W Baked Cheese (RM 15).
Pizza
Likewise, Car Born Cafe offers 4 pizza, each 10 inch.
Namely, they are Smoked Beef Bacon W Wasabi Mayo (RM 16.90), Japanese Delight (RM 17.90), Smoked Duck (RM 16..90) and Hawaii (RM 16.90).
Little One
Little One are basically finger food with a total of 7 choices.
2 of the less common dishes that I have not seen in Singapore cafe are Takoyaki (RM 9.90) and Pumpkin Korokke (RM 13.90). Both are equally delish.
Other available choices are French Fried Lover (RM 11), Spicy Wedges (RM 12), Mashed Potato (RM 6.90), Tempura Chicken Nugget (RM 11) and lastly, Fried Squid Ring (RM 13.90).
All About Waffle
Waffle, who doesn’t love them? Moreover, the waffle are shaped in adorable kitty. At the present, Car Born Cafe offers the Charcoal or Buttermilk that they named it Homemade.
Out of the 5 selection, we tried only 3 of them; namely Mango Madness (RM 20.90), Chocolate Devil (RM 16.90) and the last but not least, the Strawberry Delight (RM 20.90). Diners could also opt for the other flavours such as Matcha With Azuki Bean (RM 17.90) and Charcoal Waffle With Salted Egg Yolk Sauce (RM 18.90).
If one prefer more waffle, diner could opt for either the Sky Tower (RM 28) which is meant for sharing as it is gigantic or the Signature Double Deckers (RM 20.90) with soft serve flavour of choice.
In the sky tower, there are 4 flavours, from top to the bottom, are Pea Butterfly Flower, Strawberry, Salted Egg and lastly Matcha.
In general, the waffles has dense texture and they are kinda dry.
Bingsu
Next up is the trend food, Bingsu. In addition to the classic flavours such as Injeolmi, Choco Oreo Bingsu and Strawberry Bingsu, Cafe Born has crafted the Bingsu into cute food too.
We tried the Mango Cheese Bingsu plus the Matcha Bingsu (RM 19.90) for the classic flavours. The cute Matcha Bingsu shaped into a bear reminded me of Bingki in Singapore.
Bear Bingsu (RM 22.90) is the other cute food among the Bingsu offerings. The bingsu is insulated by the large white fluffy bear shaped cotton candy. All except the Bear Bingsu is at RM 19.90.
The bingsu texture isn’t as fine as what we experience in Singapore but for instagram worthiness is high on the score.
Other Dessert
A few other instagramable or rather cute food dessert is first being the Cotton Candy Affogato (RM 15.90). Pour the espresso over the fluffy Cotton and let it dissolve and sweetened the bitter espresso. At the same time, enjoy the cotton candy as it is.
As the name, Rainbow In The Cloud (RM 28) suggested, expect a colourful cotton candy over a dessert consisting of homemade cheesecake, chocolate truffle and ice cream.
Lastly, an alcohol dessert, the Fire Ball (RM 19.90). The lit alcohol is poured over the chocolate ball consisting vanilla ice cream and diced fruits. The combination of ingredients result in an enjoyable tasty dessert.
Dessert Beverage
The Dessert Beverage on Car Born Cafe Menu is referring to Over The Top Milkshakes. There are Caffe Dolce Cioccolato (RM 18.90), a chocolate OTT Milkshakes.
Second is the Caffe Dolce Vigoria (RM 18.90), that is a Caramel OTT Milkshakes
The next 2 in the list are Caffe Dolce Balzana (RM 18.90) that is Tiramisu in flavour and Caffee Dolce Nocciola (RM 18.90) which is Hazelnut in flavour.
Among the 6 flavours, my favourite is the Caffe Dolce Matcha (RM 18.90) that is a Matcha flavoured OTT milkshake.
Lastly is the milkshake that I won’t order at all, Caffe Dolce Inostrale (RM 18.90), a Raspberry OTT Milkshakes as the flavour tasted dilute.
More Dessert
Lava Toast is as popular in Malaysia too. Car Born Cafe offers 3 types of Lava Toast with popular flavours such as Matcha, Salted Egg and Chocolate.
We find the sauce flavourful but the bread were a little too chewy.
Newly Created Dessert
Car Born Cafe has introduced a series of irresistibly cute Choux pastry that will smitten diners. Flavours such as salted egg yolk sauce, matcha, chocolate will be available.
Coffee
At Car Born Cafe, they offered a comprehensive list of coffee, that include 3D Latte Art on them too for both Cold and Hot beverages.
The beverage list consists also extensive till you find all sort of flavoured tea, flavoured latte cum some White Coffee and “Moo Moo” Selection plus Chocolate drinks.
NAHMJ Verdict
At NAHMJ, we thought the price versus value from Singapore dollar perspective is value for money. We couldn’t really comment from Malaysian Ringgit perspective though. By and large, savoury food are tastier than the desserts. Nonetheless, we won’t want to give the cute dessert a miss. In addition, the good part of desserts are they are very lightly sweetness.
Car Born Cafe
78, G/F Jalan Pertama 1, Pusat Perdagangan Danga Utama 81200 Johor Bahru, Johor
Tel: +62 011 1618 6590
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Car-Born-Cafe-1489447711329091/?fref=ts
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Friday 1400 to 0000; Saturday – Sunday 1200 to 0000; Closed on Mondays
Getting There
By Car
Rating: 7/10
