There are quite a number of places in Klang Valley that are famous for their char siew (bbq pork), and a couple weeks ago my colleagues introduced me to another place that serves one of the best char siew in town – Restaurant Soo Kee at Jalan Ampang.
I think some day I should compile a list of the best char siew places, but until then… lets talk about this place instead.
restaurant Soo Kee is where you find awesome char siu
Restaurant Soo Kee is situated at Jalan Ampang, just right next to the flyover heading to Ampang Point. While you can’t park directly outside the shop, it’s not exactly tough to find a spot at nearby roads.
It’s an old school restaurant with even older owners, but the place is air conditioned, and pretty clean too, that’s always a plus.
intestine, salted roast duck, and the char siu (bbq pork)
For the 7 of us, we ordered the char siew, salted roast duck, intestine, deep fried spring roll, and their signature tofu dish. I think we had initially ordered a vegetable dish to go with, but canceled it somehow.
So the char siew - it was easily one of the best I’ve had. The skin was slightly charred, the meat soft, succulent, and the layer of fat almost transparent. This is what we came for, and none of us were disappointed.
Then there’s the salted roast duck, this too was a dish not to be missed. It tasted essentially like .. well, salted version of a good roast duck. I do like the extra dimension that the saltiness bring, the skin was crispy, and we devoured everything.
The intestine though, was a bit of a disappointment to me, it was a little bit too tough (perhaps overcooked?). Not bad per se, but could be nicer if it was a bit softer.
deep fried spring roll and signature tofu
Deep fried spring roll actually looked and tasted nothing like spring roll, but a lot closer to fish cake instead. However, it was a really good fish cake and something that I’d order again without a doubt.
The signature tofu is basically Japanese tofu in egg drop soup with a bit of seafood ingredients. Offers some contrasting taste to the mostly oily/fatty dishes we had, a good balance, but nothing to shout about.
KY, Debran, Sarah, Yin Foong, Angelina, Michelle & another ninja
We had an awesome Friday lunch for sure, and Soo Kee is definitely a place worth revisiting. The lunch came to something like RM 15-17 per person. Reasonable for what we had.
That Friday afternoon was spent fighting the zzz bug though. Just one of the disadvantages of having a lunch too good on working days
Address:
Restaurant Soo Kee
No. 373-1, 4th Mile,
Jalan Ampang Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.158449, 101.747088
Tel: 03-4257 0767
Closed on Mondays
Every once in a while, usually on Fridays, we drive out from the enclave of Bukit Bintang to eat at a land far away. For example, Ah Koong Eating House (亚坤纯正西刀鱼丸) at a grand total of 2 kilometers away from the office.
Ah Koong Eating House, Imbi, plenty to choose from
Ah Koong Eating House has quite an extensive menu of various fishball noodle with different choices of fish, oyster, fish cake, yong tau foo, and more. It is in essence, similar to the likes of B & Best Seafood Noodle and 60s Teow Chew Fishball Noodle, but with even more varieties on offer.
The good thing about Ah Koong though, is that the shop is airconditioned too.
some deep fried goodness as side dishes
Ordering at Ah Koong is simple, you proceed to the front of the “stall” pick your choice of noodle/rice/porridge/kuih teow etc to go with your choice of different fish meat, fishball, oyster, and more. There’s also a choice of different soup to go with – dry, tomyam, curry, and clear soup.
curry mee, dried noodle, soup noodle, and oysters
We ordered some deep fried fish cake and yong tau foo items to share, and I had the fishball kuih teow soup with oysters (RM 14 + YTF price per item), and it was actually quite delightful. A colleague had their curry mee, and another elected to go with dried lou she fun, and each gave pretty decent feedbacks to their dishes.
While the place might have a reputation of being expensive, I found that the price is pretty much in line with other shops that serves similar type of food. Parking at Imbi area can be a drag, but if you’re looking for a bowl of good fishball soup with choices of other goodies to add in, this would be a place to go in KL.
p/s: if you want those with pork lard, head to B & Best instead.
Address:
Ah Koong Eating Place
Ground Floor No.172,
Jln Changkat Tambi Dollah,
Off Jalan Pudu,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.140039,101.712858
Tel: 03-2143 3477
For those who work in the vicinity of KLCC and haven’t discover Wisma Sentral yet, this entry is especially written for you. The more seasoned workers around the area would most probably have visited this particular mixed rice outlet for years.
a wide selection of dishes for your choosing
There are at least five eateries in Wisma Sentral offering Chinese style chap fan, and each have their own unique properties to stay in business. For example, the one closest to the Japanese ramen shop has the pretty hot owner’s daughter working; another ground floor outlet is semi outside with a smoking area; yet another serves vegetarian food, etc etc.
My favorite is “Ah Sou” on the first floor closest to the polyclinic (at front-left corner after the stairs). The selection is huge, the dishes are tasty, and they are very reasonably priced too.
each plate of rice was less than RM 5.00
There are at least some 40 dishes to choose from to go with rice or porridge at Ah Sou on a daily basis. I particularly like their luncheon meat, Chinese sausage, stewed pork belly, steamed egg, tofu, and curry chicken. Other yummy dishes include tofu skin (fu chuk), herbal chicken, fried roast pork, and more. To be frank, I haven’t had anything that disagree with my taste buds from there yet.
Ah Sou also started a trend that spread through the other mixed rice outlets at this building by providing self served free soup and Chinese tea (with ice too) to go along with your rice.
map to Wisma Sentral
I usually don’t have to pay more than RM 5 for lunch there. The dish with half a Chinese sausage, 2 pieces of curry chicken and potato, vegetable, and a portion of steamed egg was RM 4.50. Doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. I wonder if we’re going there again tomorrow. emmm…
Address:
Ah Sou Chap Fan,
First floor, Wisma Sentral,
50088 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.158728, 101.714473
On a lazy weekend morning a few weeks ago, I was looking for a lunch buddy and happened to see Lorna coming online over MSN.
I said okay with a mixture of apprehension and curiosity, then proceed to get ready and wait for the lady to pick me up. (sexual equality, right? 
)
note: sadly this place is closed.
Lorna sipping her syrup ais
As it turned out, the nasi ayam bakar special (special roasted chicken rice) place is located pretty close to where I stay, at SS5 just next to the big Kelana Jaya Giant. The Malay food court area was not as busy in the afternoon as it is at night, there were only a few tables occupied.
drum stick, rice, soup, satisfying
We ordered two sets of nasi ayam bakar with drum sticks, and another extra drum stick for good measure. To properly Malaysianised the meal, we had iced syrup to drink.
The bbq chicken was rather unique, I could only describe it as a cross between roasted chicken and the chicken tandoori with the sauce that is somewhat similar to paprik style, slightly sweet and a little spicy. The rice was cooked together with other chicken parts (such as neck) and I presume, fats; thus carry a very fragrant smell that goes very well with the meat. It was very unique and certainly delicious. We finished devoured everything to the bones.
If I remember correctly, the chicken rice was less than RM 5 per portion and only available during lunch. The same place also have a big sign board that says “steamboat”, I wonder how Malay steamboat tastes like, maybe another time.
Address:
Jalan SS6/2,
Kelana Jaya, PJ, Selangor
GPS: 3.101791, 101.598172
While the KLCC area offers quite a variety of lunch choices, one eventually gets tired of them, that is when we decided to head down to Bukit Bintang area to hunt for something more satisfying and ended up at Ka Soh (家嫂) Restaurant. This little restaurant actually sits right in a parking lot opposite Ritz Carlton hotel.
big prawn *drools*
The place is famous for their fish head noodle, but for this session, we decided to go for their dishes with steamed rice. For the two of us, we ordered some big prawn with dark sauce (明虾), a tofu dish, and fried Hong Kong choy sam (菜心) vegetable. A standard dish of delicious achat (pickled vegetable with crushed peanuts) was served as appetizer.
The food didn’t arrived in less than 15 minute’s time and were served pretty much all at the same time. Taste wise, they were all excellent, the prawn very fresh and sweet, and the brown sauce was probably just a simple combination of dark soya sauce and some other seasoning; but proved to be very effective as the compliment to the succulent seafood. The tofu too was very smooth and the sauce not over powering. Lastly, there must be something about Hong Kong and Chinese vegetable that is just so juicy and sweet (“organic” fertilizer maybe?) that made the simple choy sam dish so delicious.
The simple trick to ordering is to provide a varying texture and taste across the dishes. In this case, the firm texture of prawn, the smooth tofu, and the slightly crunchy vegetable, we also have the taste of seafood, fresh vegetable, and the more subtle tofu.
three dishes and an appetizer
This wasn’t a cheap lunch (their fish head noodle would be cheaper), the meal costs a little over RM 30 per person. However, the 6 big prawns were huge and would probably cost over RM 10 each if you order them from the mamak stalls. Locals usually aren’t ready to pay this type of price for Chinese food but will happily shell out more for foreign cuisine, which is somewhat of a puzzlement to me. This place is totally worth it though, you will find photos of celebrities dining there on the wall as a testament to the good food served here.
Ka Soh is just right opposite Ritz Carlton Hotel
Address:
205, Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.147619, 101.715835
Tel: 03-2148 2207/3207
Other Branches:
