Among all the cafes in Sri Petaling I’ve reviewed, this one sprung the most surprises. 103 Coffee Workshop is located on the same row with several other cafes, including being just beside Soft Serve. This particular café serves Japanese fusion food that has been creatively thought up by the team behind the café. The first surprise sprang when I opened the heavy sliding door to enter. It was packed to the brim!
Granted I came on a Sunday afternoon for lunch, but I was not prepared for a crowd this size. Almost every seat was taken and we were shown to the last two seats available. Thankfully it was in a cozy corner at the back of the café. Even when filled to the brim, 103 Coffee Workshop allows you to feel like you have your own space. Seats are not too close together, and somehow it works.
I loved the décor, especially the use of cement finishing on the walls, and the little touches here and there with sweet looking ceramics and knick knacks. Even the table numbers were artfully done on expired tin cans that were really heavy. Each table comes with a complimentary bottle of water so you don’t have to feel embarrassed or trouble yourself asking for plain water to balance out your coffee or beverage.
Their menu is pretty original and impressive. Right off the bat you have the various coffees, as well as teas and non-coffee beverages like green tea lattes. For a healthier choice, there are fruits juice mixtures called Smoshies. Coffee and other drinks are priced between RM 13 – RM 18 depending on whether you want it iced or not.
The main dishes on offer include several sub-groups. There are the Donburis which are rice bowls. There’s also Udon, appetizers, sandwiches and pasta. Main dishes range from RM17 to RM36. Appetizers are slightly cheaper at less than RM10. I settled for a Spam sandwich (oh I forgot to add that the place is non-halal) and hubby ordered the Yasai Itame Don or vegetable rice bowl. I got a Maneki Onigiri on the side because I was feeling peckish too.
For something sweet, we ordered a glass of Earl Grey Iced Chocolate. If you didn’t already know, Earl Grey is a pretty mild tea that blends Bergamot orange, lime and other refreshing herbs with back tea leaves. This means that it has a fresh lemony flavour. The drink was the first to arrive and although it looked exactly like iced chocolate, it tasted completely different. You could distinctly taste the Earl Grey tea; really delicious and a completely new experience for me.
The next main dishes were the Spam sandwich and Yasai Itame Don. I should mention that all their dishes are visually stunning, which is a truly Japanese characteristic. The Spam sandwich can with in-house fries that were a mixture of potato and sweet potato. The fresh vegetables in the sandwich provided a crunchy texture that really evened out the salty properties of the Spam.
The Yasai or vegetable don was topped with carrots, mushrooms and a wobbly egg that tastes best if mixed into the rice. If you’ve ever had Cantonese ‘Mun Fan’ or ‘Mui Fan’, this don tasted uncannily like that. The small salmon onigiri was okay, but I wished the shredded omelette that came with it was a little too sweet.
All in all, I can see why customers keep on coming back to 103 Coffee Workshop. It’s not just the food and atmosphere. The servers were all very warm and well trained too and made you feel quite special.
103 coffee Workshop
- No.103, Jalan Radin Bagus Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Phone: +603-9054 5512
- Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday: 11:00 - 22:30, Friday: 11:00 - 23:00, Saturday & Sunday: 10:00 - 23:00
