Café Review: Village 5

Café Review: V5

By Farzana Jeffri, ICT

Hungry? Don’t know where to go? Perfect! This is part of a series of reviews we’ll be doing pertaining to the cafés available on campus. We’ll be looking into them so as to assist you with choosing exactly where to go to satisfy your dietary desires.

We’re starting with V5 café, which is well known for its wide-ranging cuisine and is often said to be the best in UTP. It boasts 5 separate vendors and the largest seating capacity among the eateries on campus. 

Perhaps only V6 could hope to compete with such scenery.

Kafe Sayang.

This vendor serves a mixture of Malay and Chinese-Malay foods; ranging from Kampong Fried Rice to Mee Hun Hailam. Kafe Sayang is divided into two stalls, with the one next to the sink offering warm, cook-to-order meals (all (or most) of the fried foodstuffs is available here), and the other your average daily breakfast, lunch, after-lunch, and dinner fare. Their menu changes over the course of the day, e.g. nasi goreng and fried noodles in the morning, other types of noodles during the afternoon, fried chicken and other dishes at night. Service gets pretty slow, especially when the crowds get big.

In particular, the fried chicken served here is absolutely fantastic. Its meat is soft and succulent, its skin crunchy and flavoursome. In short, it’s finger licking good. Their Chicken Rice (Nasi Ayam) is highly commendable; its ‘Nasi Ayam’ sports enticingly warm rice, complemented with freshly chopped chicken topped off with zestful chilli sauce and tantalizing chicken soup.

RZ Aishah Food and Catering.

This is the stall you should (probably only) go to when your tummy is craving some Naan. They specialize in Indian/Pakistani cuisine, and their huge Naans go with everything on the menu. This vendor is hugely popular among our friends from the Middle-East and India.
We tried the Tandoori Naan, one the most highly-demanded dishes at V5 cafe. We’d attest that the Naan does indeed fulfill every specification required to qualify as legit Naan; it was soft, the texture was doughy, and it smelt tangy. Wonderful, wonderful Naan.
The dishes are so colourful and so delightfully aromatic; you’d expect it to taste as exotic as it looks, and you won’t be disappointed. The various ingredients used to prepare the dishes are utilized so much so that they’re practically oozing with herbaceous goodness.

Happy patrons enjoying a meal at V5.

V5 Water World.

Geared with at least a dozen drink machines and approximately half a dozen fridges, this little booth supplies a broad assortment of beverages; from milk cartons to F&N’s Iced Lemon Tea to ‘Sirap’(Syrup) to ‘Teh Tarik’(pulled tea); this shack has all the drinks that are priced within your average daily budget.
Despite the impressive range of beverages available, many of the students we interviewed believe that most (if not all) were far too sweet. Even so, the drinks are tasty and have never failed to sooth the parched throat.

Western Corner.

Their menu’s largely dominated by deep-fried chicken, albeit with different names; ‘Chicken Chop’, ‘Alamak Chicken Chop’, ‘Alabama Chicken Chop’…all sorts of chops. If you’re tired of chicken chops, you can always substitute with chicken grill. Yes, it makes that much of a difference. If you’re tired of chicken, you can try the fish and chips or fish grill. Other than deep-fried chicken and fish, Western Corner also serves at least two types of pasta with four variations of sauce; Bolognese, Creamy chicken, Beef Carbonara and Concasse.

Western Corner provides a delectable variation of western classics. Students are always flocking around for their fried fitters; ‘Alamak Chicken Chop’ and ‘Alabama Chicken Chop’ are the common favourites. These are normally savoured with their highly-sought-after Black Pepper sauce.

Al-Quds.

This humble stall serves the classic Malayan cuisine: Kampung style food. The food here is affordable and relatively cheap; it’s worth the shillings you spend, it’s delicious and is very popular among Malay students. According to a final year student we talked to, students simply love Al-Quds. The dishes prepared on the counter changes daily and it runs out real quickly.

For international students, it gives them the chance to enjoy classic Malayan dishes such as ‘Ayam Rendang’ and stuff. If they’re daring enough, they can also try out the renowned ‘Sambal Belacan’. As for Malaysian students, Al--Quds kampung style dishes are reminiscent to that of their mother’s or grandmother’s cooking; transporting them back to their much missed hometowns.

So yeah...

The level of V5 café’s cleanliness proves just how much effort the workers are putting in to keep the place conducive for us. The tables are almost always clean and the plates are usually taken away as soon as they are left behind.

V5 Café is equipped with plenty of lamps, ensuring that the place is well-lit. There are quite a number of sinks too. Customers won’t sweat excessively in the daily heat, as the walls and ceilings are furnished with functioning fans. Furthermore, there are no less than 3 flat-screen TVs in V5, each featuring a different channel. Students get to enjoy some TV time while munching down on their grub.
V5 Café’s popularity is not limited to its residents; it is well-received throughout the entire campus. Students from other villages are willing to travel to V5 to enjoy its dining, even by foot.

V5 Café’s dynamic combination of stalls, along with its aesthetically-pleasing environment and TVs, makes it a popular place for students to gather during chow (and football) time.

The V in V5 must stand for 'variety'.