This Singapore/Malaysian restaurant is located in Hotel Jen in Western District, with a simple decor offering comfortable and friendly atmosphere for diners. Being awarded Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2014 and 2015, it tried to recreate the tone and theme of the hawker stalls famous in the two countries with many of the signature dishes.
In the early 18th century, traders from the Middle East, India, China and Indonesia were coming to Malaya through the Straits of Malacca, merging their cuisines with all the foreign flavors and spices with the local cuisine from Malaya. This melding of tastes has evolved to the cuisines found in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca and Singapore, which are the features of this restaurant.
I ordered something I haven't drunk for ages to start: Milo Dinosaur ($58). This drink is basically an Iced Milo with Milo toppings. Although simple but really delicious, it brought back a lot of fond childhood memories when I had the same drink in the food stalls downstairs from where I lived, which nowadays is already non-existent in HK. This one is nice in that it had the right sweetness, and also not having too many ice to dilute the beverage even at the end of the meal.
We had a few appetizers too. First is Fried Carrot Cake ($108). The turnip cakes are cut into cubes and then fried with bean sprouts, radish toppings, and served with homemade chili sauce. Quite spicy, the turnip cake was soft but it lacks the steaming hot 'wok hei' in many hawker stalls. There are prawns in the dish to add some crunchy texture to the dish. Overall it is a fair dish but not impressive.
The other appetizer was Penang Chee Cheong Fun ($88). The home-made steamed rice rolls are of Penang style, thinner than the HK version, flat instead of round, and rather short in length. Reasonably silky on texture, the rice roll is paired with hoisin (seafood) sauce, prawn paste, chili sauce, with also a sprinkle of sesame seeds and fried shallots. The sauce had a really intense seafood and prawn taste, which is very different from the local one. I would say the taste is rather polarizing as I can see people might not be used to and like it.
For the main dish we had the Klang Bakut Teh ($138). The fragrant herbal pork rib soup has intense flavors, with a nice sweet aftertaste from the herbs. The spare ribs are boiled well, with the meat easily detached from the bone, paired with soy sauce and chili sauce for dipping. The bean curd puffs, which absorbed the soup, are good in taste and there are also some fried fritters which can be added too to have the same effect. Quite good in fact, but I personally like the Singapore version with the white peppers more.
The other main dish was Malaysian Curry Chicken ($128). The sauce is a bit too strong in the tumeric flavors for me, but not sure whether this is the original local style. The chicken was not particularly flavorful, with the potatoes tasting better in fact. The dish did include steamed rice so on its own this can already be a good meal for one.
Fried Ipoh Bean Sprouts with Salted Fish ($108) has something I wanted to try for a while. One of my colleagues at work is originated from Ipoh, and he always bragged about how good their bean sprouts are. Short and fat, the bean sprouts are certainly very different from the look, and I found they are in fact very good, without the grassy notes many bean sprout can exhibit. The salted fish further added the savory notes to the dish. This one is the better of the dishes on the night.
The service is decent, with the staff attentive and friendly, and the overall dining experience is rather pleasant. The total bill was $691 and I would say it is fairly reasonable.
In the early 18th century, traders from the Middle East, India, China and Indonesia were coming to Malaya through the Straits of Malacca, merging their cuisines with all the foreign flavors and spices with the local cuisine from Malaya. This melding of tastes has evolved to the cuisines found in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca and Singapore, which are the features of this restaurant.
We had a few appetizers too. First is Fried Carrot Cake ($108). The turnip cakes are cut into cubes and then fried with bean sprouts, radish toppings, and served with homemade chili sauce. Quite spicy, the turnip cake was soft but it lacks the steaming hot 'wok hei' in many hawker stalls. There are prawns in the dish to add some crunchy texture to the dish. Overall it is a fair dish but not impressive.
Fried Ipoh Bean Sprouts with Salted Fish ($108) has something I wanted to try for a while. One of my colleagues at work is originated from Ipoh, and he always bragged about how good their bean sprouts are. Short and fat, the bean sprouts are certainly very different from the look, and I found they are in fact very good, without the grassy notes many bean sprout can exhibit. The salted fish further added the savory notes to the dish. This one is the better of the dishes on the night.
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