Clara’s 30th Birthday Gathering

Clara’s birthday was last Tuesday and Chen Wei organized a surprise belated birthday gathering at Senja Restaurant. Clara will be moving to Labuan in early March next year to settle down early as she will be getting married in September 2018. So, we thought we do this birthday gathering before she officially moves to Labuan to be with her husband. She’s legally married by the way but wedding banquet will only take place in September next year.

The first intended date for the belated birthday gathering was set to be last Friday but it was postponed to yesterday as one of us couldn’t make it. Chen Wei prepared everything from scratch, venue’s reservation to decoration set up. Kudos to her hard work and effort in making this event a huge success despite that Clara was feeling dubious the moment the waitress escorted her to our private room. LOL!

Table set up by Chen Wei. She’s a full time interior designer but she can do freelance too. She brought all the props from home and set it all up by herself with the help of Shew Hiang and Kiaw Han. She even brought her own mini Christmas tree pot.

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake by @butter.n.eggs

Chen Wei ordered Earl Grey Chiffon Cake with cream cheese frosting and requested for gold drips. The drips didn’t look golden but orange in color. Surprisingly enough, the drips looked slightly more golden in picture than in real life. The cake was decorated with fresh flowers. The Earl Grey sponge layers were wet in my opinion. The cream cheese frosting was creamy and slightly salty but it was good. However, it can be a bit sickening when overdose.

Happy 30th, Clara!

We requested one of the waitresses to take us a group picture but the outcome wasn’t satisfactory. So, I used one of Chen Wei’s props to make do as my tripod. It took me at least four to five attempts to get this shot. It wasn’t the best one either but at least good enough as compared to the others.

Now that we are done with the birthday pictures, let’s get started with the food pictures!

Pot of Chips | B$4.50

Homemade Spinach & Mushroom Ravioli | B$14.00

with creamy Pomodoro sauce

Grilled Chicken Fillets | B$17.00

with lemon cream and garlic sauce

Traditional Fillet Steak (180g) | B$24.00

prime fresh tenderloin cooked to your liking, served with mushroom or black pepper sauce

Fish & Chips | B$16.00

served with salad and tartar sauce

I contemplated between this or Grilled Chicken Fillets and decided to go with the former. Before placing the order for this, I inquired the kind of fish they use for the fillet. The waitress informed me that they use a kind of fish which is similar to seabass. The fish fillet was deep fried to perfection. It was juicy and the batter was crunchy too! The chips were honestly good in my opinion.

Verdict: The overall dining experience at Senja Restaurant was a good one as we pre-booked a private room to ourselves. Food were decent enough for our liking. However, there is a minimum spending quota required for private rooms. We only got to know this when I approached the counter for our dining bill as no one came after pressing the bill button twice.

According to the waitress, our minimum spending for the room should be at least B$30 per pax totaling up to B$180. So, she suggested that we order a few more mains or desserts to cover the minimum spending quota. It was about 10PM at the time we asked for the dining bill. It was almost impossible to order that much when we were so stuffed from the meal earlier on.

The waitress who attended told us that one of her colleagues had informed about this minimum spending policy when Chen Wei called in to book for the room. Chen Wei claimed that she wasn’t being informed. If she had been informed, I’m sure she would have notified us through our group chat.

We then suggested that we will come back to make up for the minimum spending in another day. The waitress left the room to consult her other colleagues and later came back informing us that they had waived off the minimum spending limit this time and at the same time emphasized that there will be a minimum spending requirement the next time we book for the private rooms. Lesson learnt, do inquire about minimum spending when booking for private rooms at any restaurants!

Senja Restaurant
Ground Floor,
Seri Kiulap Complex,
Kampung Kiulap,
BE1318, Bandar Seri Begawan,
Negara Brunei Darussalam
Tel: +673-7203734