vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
Bukit Bintang
The Magnificent Fish & Chips Bar @ Changkat Bukit Bintang – Not So Magnificent After All
Dec 27th
It is a shame that a nice restaurant such as Engka Portobello had disappeared from Changkat Bukit Bintang. Their all day breakfast was one of the best around and most importantly does not cost a bomb, which is commendable considering their prime location.
Now that our favorite is gone, we settled at the Magnificient Fish & Chips Bar located just a stone’s throw away. Besides their famous Fish & Chips which some say is the best in town, they serve all day breakfast and other English dishes too. By the way, this is a bold name for a restaurant don’t you think? And looking at their expensive menu prices, their food better be ‘magnificient’ or else.
Fish & Chips is the obligatory order since that is their signature food here. And for that you basically have five types of fishes to choose from: Silver Cod (RM46), Parrot Fish (RM38), Barramundi (RM36), Plaice (RM30) and Butterfish (RM28) I had the Barramundi and it comes with a lot of chips placed on top of a scrunched up newspaper which is separated by a thin sheet of white paper for hygiene. Presentation wise it seems pretty much like the real deal and looks authentically English enough, but that is all about it.
Soo Kee’s Son (Meng Chuan) Prawn & Beef Noodles @ Medan Imbi
Sep 3rd
Pan Heong’s Sang Har Hor Fun was good but the not-so-fresh prawns triggered me to look for a better one. Since there is no way I will ever step foot into Soo Kee, I walked into their son’s shop instead which is situated just across the road at Medan Imbi. You will definitely be able to recognize the restaurant just by looking at the signboard that says “Soo Kee’s Son (Meng Chuan)” Prawn & Beef Noodles.
In fact, this was Soo Kee’s original location before they moved to the current one (under big tree), then Meng Chuan took over. There is certainly some family dispute among them but let’s not go into that and just enjoy the food.
Besides Sang Har Noodle, I am also here is to try Meng Chuan’s famous beef noodles that always comes with plenty of recommendations.
This is the main reason the beef noodles here is famous – soft and tender beef slices that make all the difference. The noodle itself is not bad too, skillfully cooked with lots of ‘wok hei’, delicious even without the beef. Even though the beef slices are really out of the world and melts in the mouth, there is a weird metallic aftertaste after consuming too much of them, which I suspect is due to the huge amount of baking soda used to tenderize the beef. A normal serving costs RM9 but ours cost RM15 because we requested additional meat.
Ying Ker Lou Chinese-Hakka Cuisine Tea Time Promotion @ Pavilion KL
Feb 24th
Ying Ker Lou – an expensive looking and award winning restaurant that claims to serve authentic and MSG free Chinese-Hakka cuisine. If it’s not for their tea time dim sum promotion, I don’t think I’d ever step in for a meal. But also thanks to the promotion, I wouldn’t have the desire to dine there anymore. But just to be clear, this post is only valid for reference if you intend to try their tea time promotion. Their “normal hour” food could paint a different story though.
I will start with the dim sum we liked most – Steamed Siew Mai with Prawns @ RM6. The compact texture is a rarity in Siew Mai, plus the prawns were fresh and intensely sweet so there was really nothing to fault with it.
Hakka Bamboo Shoot Dumplings @ RM5, the skin was way too chewy while the fillings tasted forgettable.
Tangkak Beef Noodles Restaurant @ Jalan Imbi, Kuala Lumpur
Sep 20th
I love beef noodles, I really do. So when a friend highly recommends his favorite beef noodle to me, I just had to try it. Restoran Tangkak Beef Noodles should be familiar to Johoreans reading this, as this restaurant at Jalan Imbi is indeed a branch of the famous Kuang Fei at Tangkak.
As much as I want to drive all the way to Tangkak to have a taste of the original, I will have to settle for the nearest available to me first lol. By the way it’s worth mentioning that the food served here is Halal certified so anyone can eat here.
The variety is good considering the many different combinations of meat, tripe, tendon and shin you could have for your bowl of noodles. Besides the selection of meat, types of noodles like koay teow, mihun and even ramen (extra RM1) can be ordered. But we simply stuck to having koay teow, which I feel should be the best choice for its silky smooth texture.
Beef + Tendon Koay Teow @ RM8.90.
