If you are a beef noodle lover and don’t know about Yung Kee yet, then you need to make your way to Pudu to try it. Despite being relatively new, Yung Kee has been making waves with their HK-style beef noodle prepared with premium imported beef.
The proprietor is Albert who’s clad in white t-shirt. He speaks fluent Cantonese with an unmistakable Hong Kong slang after spending 17 years in the F&B industry there.
Since they are serving HK-style beef noodle, you will see more parts of meat being offered other than just the usual beef brisket, tripe and tendon.
Most of the meat parts sound foreign and are more of nick names coined according to their taste and texture. Price are clearly displayed on a big signboard too.
If you can’t read Chinese you might face some challenges while ordering off the menu, but you could always ask for recommendations because they are the experts. For those willing to spend more, you could even get Australian Wagyu (subject to availability) to pair with the noodle of your choice.
Due to limited seats and the overwhelming number of customers, do expect to share tables with strangers. Once you have found a seat, you’d be given a number and have your orders written down to avoid mix ups.
We reached the place around 1.30pm and found that most meats were sold out. So we were left only with striploin, shin (金钱腱), tongue, tendon and beef balls. The most expensive cut on the menu is the striploin which clocks in at RM25 per portion. Noodle is provided FOC as long as you order a portion of beef.
Among all the cuts we had, my favorite has got to be the beef tongue. It’s out-of-this-world tender with a nice chewy bite. I extremely enjoyed it so RM15 is a price I didn’t mind paying at all. It’s not everyday you get to savor something as delicious as this.
Next favorite is the US striploin, which is called ‘US fat cow’ when translated literally from its Chinese name of 美国肥牛. As you can see, it has a beautiful and even marbling of fat and they are served in paper thin slices.
Cooked perfectly, they simply melt in your mouth and that’s not an exaggeration at all. The soup was stunningly delicious and we were impressed by tasty it was, even more so considering there’s no added MSG in it – just pure beefy goodness extracted from fine meat, bones and herbs.
If you are not in the mood for noodles you could opt for a bowl of mixed beef with soup. Good thing is they are unstinting with the portion and for RM20, we got a generous serving of beef shin and tendon as shown above. But of course, that would also depend on the cuts you requested for.
As for the chili dip, it’s balanced in terms of spiciness and sourness and it goes hand to hand with the beef noodles. More importantly, it does not distract the taste of the beef noodle at all. Instead, it enhanced the overall flavor and gave it an uplifting touch of zing.
Lastly, do note that they only serve normal beef brisket and tendon noodles from Monday to Thursday. Come Fridays and weekend, the specials will make their appearances which also include the dry beef noodles. Don’t push your luck and try to get here as early as possible (before 2pm) to avoid disappointments.
Yung Kee HK Style Beef Noodles 庸記 (香港) 牛腩面
Kwai Hup Restaurant
24, Jalan Kancil, Off Jalan Landak
55100 Pudu, KL
Business hours: 8.30am till finish (around 3pm)
Tel: 012-215 8009
Went there today, and gotta say the soup is tasty, real beefy flavour, although some might say its a little ‘home-cooked’and perhaps not polished enough, I’d say it was hearty and for the price paid, worth it.
the tendon is the best of all. The stock is far from HK, taste more like the bak kut teh you have in Malaysia. My wife tends to agree with me (she was born and raised in HK).