Several weeks ago I managed to convince the girls to try a new place, and we ventured out to the land of gangsters that is Kepong. We past by the glamorous Desa Park City and turned into the older part of Kepong where steamboat restaurants are aplenty and finally arrived at where we were going to have dinner – Jan Jan Thai Restaurant.

Jan Jan Thai restaurant at Kepong
Jan Jan Thai restaurant at Kepong

There are in fact, two Thai restaurants within 50 yards from each other here. Directly opposite Jan Jan is the older and almost equally as busy Thai restaurant by the name Janwa. According to the locals, the head chef from Janwa left to open Jan Jan as a competitor (similar to Rakuzen and Jyu Raku at Subang Jaya)

There’s an on-going healthy debate as to if Jan Jan or Janwa offers better Thai dishes, but for the purpose of this trip we’re not going to worry too much about that.

excellent tomyam and steamed barramundi
excellent tomyam and steamed barramundi

Once we found an empty table and made our order, which took a while on a weekend, food did not take very long to be served.

Seafood tomyam soup (RM 16-29) comes in either clear or red, and we opted for the latter, more chili laden variety. It was hot, spicy, and filled prawns, squid, fish, tomato, and more. Perfect dish for us since it was raining so heavily.

The Thai style steamed barramundi (market price) turned out to be pretty good dish too. The fish was fresh and the soup positively sour and flavorful. This dish is not quite De Chiengmai‘s standard, but it holds its own.

the lala was great, green curry not so much. Yuki, Haze, KY, Kerol
the lala was great, green curry not so much. Yuki, Haze, KY, Kerol

Thai golden lala (RM 17) was my favorite dish of the night. The shellfish were big and juicy, and I particularly love the unique Thai style sauce that the dish came with. It was a combination of sweet, spicy, with a hint of sourness. Very different any Chinese or Malay style preparation.

The disappointing dish turned out to be the Thai green curry (RM 12). I love my green curry thick and flavorful, but this one was just watery and very sweet. We took a few spoonful but otherwise left the dish almost untouched.

There are definitely more dishes at Jan Jan Thai that I want to try on other visits – petai prawns, deep fried brinjal, paku with belacan, mango chicken, bbq crab and Thai curry crab all sounds very enticing. I’ll just have to remember not to order their green curry again.

map to Jan Jan Thai restaurant, Kepong

Address:
Jan Jan Thai Restaurant
No.33, Jalan 5/62A,
Bandar Menajalra, 52000
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.193859, 101.631517
Tel: 03-6277 7598

KY eats – Jan Jan Thai Restaurant, Kepong
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24 thoughts on “KY eats – Jan Jan Thai Restaurant, Kepong

  • May 14, 2013 at 12:24 pm
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    great to hear that two thai restaurants can do so well and both attract great business despite being so close to each other. we could open a third thai restaurant next door and try to capture some of their market, heheh! 😀

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    • May 14, 2013 at 4:39 pm
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      Sean: call it Sean Sean? haha.

      Reply
  • May 14, 2013 at 1:14 pm
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    I drove past this restaurant a few times. Will remember not to order the green curry if I go. 😛

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    • May 14, 2013 at 4:39 pm
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      Bangsar Babe: haha ya, best to avoid

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    • May 14, 2013 at 4:39 pm
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      PeoniesandPancakes: time to visit 😀

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    • May 15, 2013 at 4:48 pm
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      Jean: spicy is awesome! but suffer the next day :/

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    • May 15, 2013 at 9:47 pm
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      Augustdiners: ok next time I ajak!

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  • May 16, 2013 at 11:35 am
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    Hey BTW Jan Wa (just behind Jan Jan, brown) has decent budget Thai food.

    Their green curry and tomyam is a bit useless, but their steamed fish, somtam, chicken feet kerabu and pineapple fried rice is not bad too!

    Go check it out. Intro-ed to Nic Chay and he loved it.

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    • May 17, 2013 at 8:35 am
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      Tan Yee Hou: ya they’re related. lol

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  • May 16, 2013 at 11:54 am
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    kepong full of thai gangsta mangsta

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    • May 17, 2013 at 8:35 am
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      immature: I don’t think so. hahaha.

      Reply
  • May 16, 2013 at 11:55 am
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    this one time i met this thai gangsta ooo scarey hor… but he offered me this chick who can massage nice nice for me wan… so i said… i said…

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    • May 17, 2013 at 8:36 am
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      immature: that’s the good kinda gangsters?

      Reply
  • May 21, 2013 at 7:05 pm
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    Kepong is the land of gangsters? Lol

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    • May 21, 2013 at 8:25 pm
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      eiling: kepong gangster yoo

      Reply
  • October 31, 2014 at 10:34 pm
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    Wrong info yo. Janwa and Jan Jan is actually own by the same family. Both menus are the same and pricing are slightly different. One the wife jaga and the other the husband jaga.

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    • November 1, 2014 at 4:32 pm
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      Candice: ahh, interesting

      Reply

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