This café in Taman Desa is more than just a café: the owners, Desonny Tuzan and Debra Leong – a husband-and-wife team from Sabah – are firm supporters of charities and worthy causes. There’s a Pay-It-Forward wall, for instance, where you can buy and pin up a meal voucher for those in need of a meal. We organised our first Rojak Party here, and since then this place is our go-to restaurant when we want to look up anything about East Malaysian food.
WHAT TO ORDER: The UFO tart – a custard and meringue dessert unique to Sandakan – and their chicken chop is seriously one of the best we’ve ever had. But if you don’t have anything else, at least have their durian soft serve ice cream. It’s so friggin’ good that it’s still on our minds.