The black pepper lamb (RM22.00)…was certainly an improvement from how I remembered it to be. My late father used to buy home from here for everyone in the house to eat, those years when my late mum was bedridden. This time around, the meat was very nice and tender and unlike before, the sauce did not taste like what came out of the bottle like what one would get when eating that once-a-year burger in the hope that one would strike it rich and be very prosperous!
My girl also wanted their salad prawn balls (RM13.00)…and I would say that this dish was my favourite of the three.
We wanted fish and settled upon snow fish…also known among the people here as Alaska fish or 鱈魚 in Mandarin which is, in fact, cod. My missus said it would be very expensive as one slice at the frozen foods stores would cost over RM20.00 each and we got two slices but as far as I was concerned, I thought it was perfectly all right as we would not be eating it all that often and besides, my girl enjoys it very much, just like how she loves the just-as-expensive salmon.
I loved this fried tofu topped with seaweed and garnished with enoki…and whatever else – I certainly would want to order this again the next time I drop by here.
We had one of their signature dishes, the kampua mee…which was very nice but I think it had been cooked for a while already before it was served so the strands of noodles all stuck together and it was quite a task to toss and shake them loose.
their sweet and sour giant udang galah (freshwater prawns)… New Capitol sweet & sour udang galah …certainly were like no other sweet and sour dishes that we had had elsewhere and this one was truly a winner!
We also ordered the lamb with lime sauce…and I only found out that night that they had mayonnaise in it with the lime. It was nice but I think it was nicer when we had it before – the meat was not grilled that well enough.
This very nice claypot fish dish…which was very nice though I wouldn’t mind a little bit more fish and yam and tofu puffs – the next time I order that, I will certainly ask for more of those and maybe, pay a little bit more.
We had the sizzling venison on a hot plate…something we had not had for quite sometime and the general consensus was that it was very nice.
I had these…and also this very nice pork, RM6.00…that was a cut above the sweet and sour fish fillet that I also had, I must say.
Their own-made tofu…was very good
This time around, I ordered their bak chang (meat dumplings) with salted egg (RM5.50)…and it was very good – lots of meat inside and one whole salted egg yolk that was very nice and fresh…
This time around, I tried the supreme prawn noodles (RM13.80)…and I had that with hor fun…It certainly looked a whole lot nicer in their promotional photograph and at best, I thought it was all right – I just did not like the sambal. It reminded me of those canned ones that I simply do not enjoy.
I ordered their Nam Heong chicken hor fun (RM11.50)…which turned out tasting different from what I had at Old Town or Pappa Rich – it did not have that hint of sweetness in the soup but yes, I thought it was good and I enjoyed it.
The steamed char siew pao or what they call their Supreme BBQ Pork Bun..were very good and at RM1.00 each (2 for RM2.00 in the promotion), that sure was a steal.
I asked for a recommendation and they unreservedly told me the Fish Fillet Burger with Egg and Cheese (RM 3.90) was their bestseller. This actually tasted pretty good! I liked the crunchy fish fillet and the creamy egg with the pillowy soft chu nu miang. Nice!
She had her favourite sambal fried kway teow here…with a special request for it to be extra spicy, of course and I ordered the same for my girl but I asked for it to be fried “white” or without soy sauce, that is…She did not seem to enjoy it so much though and was struggling with it and in the end, I think she barely finished half of it. I did try a bit and I thought it was all right just that it was not quite the same – I guess we are more used to having soy sauce in our char kway teow and would prefer it that way.
She ended up having the tom yam hung ngang (big bihun) from one of the stalls instead (RM8.00)…The mum declared that she had it before, praising it to the skies and insisted it was really very good and kept saying repeatedly that they made their own bay kar /ikan tenggiri (mackerel) fish balls and so on and so forth.
Thankfully, the kampua mee (RM2.80)…was very good – I certainly would rank it among my favourites and it is a little cheaper than a lot of places around town, usually RM3.00…or more.
This is called the Green Dragon vegetable (青龙菜) or the royale chives…which I hear is not available locally and is served at this restaurant by special order. I quite enjoyed it – it had a slight hint of the fragrance of regular chives.
Unlike most elsewhere where the broth tastes of black soy sauce and garlic soup, more or less, the one here (RM8.00)…has that exotic fragrance of the spices that go into the cooking and I would say that initially, it took a little bit of getting used to. Once I got the hang of it, I started to enjoy it…a lot!
Mee sapi/beef noodles (RM6.00) The soup was great, wouldn’t mind if the beef taste had been a little bit stronger and I seemed to detect a hint of sweetness in it. However, despite that, I rather enjoyed it and I loved the noodles and the meat with their special own-made chili dip…which I finished while I was halfway through and I had to ask for some more.
Their braised pork rice (RM5.00)…Of course I wasted no time at all in ordering that and yes, it was very nice – very generous with the pork…and there was one whole hard-boiled egg by the side. I certainly would much sooner go for this than what I had here for a ringgit more and no egg.
I remember I quite enjoyed what I had there sometime ago but this time around, the red wine was very sour, so sour that it would have been great had it been a bowl of zhao chai hung ngang. I suspected they did not manage to get hold of a good batch of the wine – sometimes it can be sour – but a friend commented on Facebook that she would go there quite regularly and everytime she had the mee sua, it was sour. If I had known that, I would have gone some place else, not there. I remember it was RM6.50 the last time I had it but it is only RM6.00 now, I wonder why.
Of course, Jas wanted his kampua mee tossed in chili sauce (RM3.00)…which pleased her to no end so much that she was actually contemplating on ordering another plate but I said no, we would go some place else for some other thing.
I had the “white” (RM3.00)…and I added the chili sauce myself…while my missus had the “white” tossed with chili sauce…I still am not convinced that this is, as what many will insist, the best in town and my missus agrees with me too, that it was all right and there are others elsewhere that are more to our liking. I liked their pian sip before and would have wanted to order that but business must be really good as by the time we got there at around 11.00 a.m., they only had the noodles left – everything was sold out for the day!
I ordered the tomato kway teow special that I had before not too long ago, the regular not the special and it was really good. The kway teow was so very well-fried…I could detect the wok hei fragrance as I loosened the strands of the noodles.
Soon, my order arrived (RM8.00)…- my Foochow fried noodles, the moon version, special with all the liver and innards, char siew, strips of meat, fish cake slices, fried tofu and oh me oh my, it was as good as it looked.
Fried kway teow (flat rice noodles), wet (with sauce/gravy) I tried it and was glad to find that it was very nice. It had that much coveted wok hei fragrance and the guy was very generous with the added ingredients…unlike elsewhere where you will get bits of meat and green vegetables hardly visible to the naked eye for that same amount of money.
Fried pek koi (rice cakes)…so I ordered that and true enough, it was really very good. I don’t know if they made their own but they certainly looked different from all the rest, thin and long like fries.
It was good – there were lots of ingredients including a few prawns and bits of sotong (squid) , a couple of fried fish slices and some vegetables plus the pork fat crusts (bak yu phok) but I would not mind a stronger wok hei fragrance. Yes, they do not use plastic here too – a pat on the back for that.
I ordered their fried noodles, moon and sat there and waited. Boy! For reasons unknown, it sure took a mighty long time like that time when I was there for the kampua mee and when it was served…I must say that I was quite disappointed. It sure did not look all that enticing. However, when I tried it, I thought it was quite good…but for RM4.50 a plate, I sure wouldn’t mind a few thin slices of their char siew or roast meat. This place is famous for those or perhaps I was too early in the morning and they were not ready yet – the cabinet at the stall designated for those was still empty
I had no intention of joining all the cars moving at a snail’s pace so I decided to stop by the aforementioned coffee shop for the kampua noodles…I was delighted to see that they used real char siew (barbecued meat) instead of those wannabes – boiled pork coloured red, and the char siew was really very nice! All this while, I had been grumbling that I could not get very nice char siew here, nothing like those in KL or elsewhere in the peninsula, but this one here wasn’t too bad. Now I know where I can go to should I happen to have a craving for it.
It tasted all right, more like kampua mee, I would say, right down to the chili sauce given. By right, we would get sliced chili soaked in vinegar with kolo mee. The minced meat…looked like it had been reheated over and over again many times till it became rather salty, not something to my liking and the serving was really huge – in fact, I was quite shocked when I saw the lady taking the noodles to cook so of course, I did not finish all of it. All I wanted was something light for tea but there was nothing else.
I asked for the kampua mee with egg (RM3.00) and got the noodles, kosong (without meat)…and one wok-fried egg…Yes, the mee was great and the egg was done the way I love it!
The kampua mee was in a bigger bowl and the soup…came in an even bigger one, not the usual aluminium bowl that was somewhat small. I sure enjoyed both the noodles and the thick and rich soup with a whole lot of meat, beef tripe and beef tendon in it.
The noodles came – this…kampua mee kosong with black soy sauce. Now, we never said we wanted it black. I am no fan of it black as the strong taste of the soy sauce would be overpowering and it would drown out the nice subtle taste of really good kampua mee.
I felt like having their beef noodles, our favourite in town, so I ordered the special (RM8.00)…with all the tripe and tendons…and the meat that all went so well with the chili dip that came with it.
They certainly were very generous with the meat and the noodles…and there was tripe too, no tendon and yes, it tasted nice enough but I still prefer the ones here though I am not all that keen on going back there anymore after some not-so-nice experiences once there and again on a later occasion, the last time we went, when the young Indonesian guy doing the serving spilled the whole bowl of hot beef noodles, soup, onto our table. Luckily, we were not scalded by the hot soup.
The kampua mee with braised pork (RM4.50)…was very good, very fragrant with the fried garlic and shallots but I thought the price was a bit steep for I felt it was not really exceptional, very nice but not anything that would stand out above all the rest and for one thing, those would be much cheaper but of course, this is a very much classier and nicer place and air-conditioned some more, not some coffee shop.
However, when we heated it up…to eat, we were somewhat disappointed. No, it was not supposed to be that way, nothing like rendang as I know it to be and definitely not like one of my favourites that I had enjoyed before. It wasn’t really like curry either but it was closer to that than rendang – let’s just say it was their version of curry, not the best, of course, but it was all right, that much I would say. One thing I would give them due credit for would be how the meat was very tender.
Yes, I could taste the original flavour of the Maggi kari and its spiciness but no, sad to say, I was not overwhelmed unlike those people who seem to love this so much and keep praising it to the skies. I loved the green vegetables in my order and other than those, there were bits of minced meat and char siew, cut into thin strips and egg. All in all, I would say it was good enough to want to have it again but given a choice, I would much sooner go for something else.
The instant the plate of noodles (RM4.00)…was served, I was swept away by the very strong and most delightful wok hei fragrance. Gee, this is going to be good, I thought! Unfortunately, my excitement was short-lived. This was cooked by frying the noodles in the intense heat of the wok and after that, the sauce/gravy was cooked and poured all over the noodles. Personally, I prefer the moon (braised) method and when they cook the mee this way, I like the sauce dark, not pale like this. Other than that, the mee was a bit on the firm/hard side, not soft enough for me
Kampua mee (RM3.00) The kampua mee was good though there wasn’t anything to make it stand out above the rest but the slices of meat were dry and hard so I dropped them into the soup and they were a little bit o.k. after that. I sure wouldn’t go out of my way for that, that’s for sure, but while I was there, somebody was frying something and it did smell good, the wok hei fragrance and when I had a glimpse behind the panel, I saw that there was a kampua mee stall and another section for the frying and cooking. Maybe I’ll try the fried stuff next time…