Ever have cravings for meat dumplings and ikan bakar at the same time? Well, Kota Kinabalu apparently has enough people who have this unique combo from time to time to warrant a few of these gyoza + grilled fish restaurants.
Today let’s look at one of the most popular of them – Kedai Kopi New Mui Vui.
Restoran New Mui Vui, Kota Kinabalu
New Mui Vui restaurant is located at Hilltop, some 10 minutes away from the heart of Kota Kinabalu, and a stone’s throw from one of the most popular tomato soup fish noodle in town – Fatt Kee (it’s good, check it out!)
Like many local eateries in this part of the country, service isn’t looked at as an area of emphasis, so don’t take anything personally. Overall however, the restaurant is comfortable enough, and hygiene is passable.
gyoza, seafood fried rice
The restaurant serves gyoza, grilled fish/squid/lamb/beef, fried chicken wings/quails, as well as a fried rice and a selection of different noodle. Do note that your dishes may not come all at the same time. Menu is linked below.
We ordered those dumplings to go with a plate of seafood fried rice, as well as grilled stingray and squid for dinner.
ikan pari bakar, sotong bakar
Those grilled fish and squid were actually pretty good, even though the chili sauce it came with wasn’t much to shout about. Fried rice too was rather delicious, as most seafood ingredients from KK are of rather good quality. The gyoza however, was pretty subpar if you ask me, but if you’re in KK and long for gyoza, this is one of the few places you can get some, so I guess it’s… OK-ish?
Next time I may just have chicken wings instead of gyoza.
Address: New Mui Vui Restaurant 2, Lorong Gunung Ulu Merak 2, Taman Far East, 88300 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah GPS: 5.950502, 116.092648 Tel: 013-870 5781
Hello everyone and welcome to the new Malaysia! If you’ve noticed that the left index finger of people in the video below seems to have a black stain, it was because this was taken just a couple days post election, the stain was from indelible ink used on voters. And yes, the government was changed in the most shocking and democratic fashion, a new beginning for the country after 61 years of single-coalition rule. This review marks the first entry post-new Malaysia.
Anyway, let’s get to Liang Li Grilled Fish.
Liang Li Ikan Bakar, at Pandamaran 168
Liang Li grilled fish is a small grilled fish, or commonly known as Ikan Bakar, stall in Klang that is ultra popular to the locals. But since it is located almost all the way to Port Klang area at Pandamaran, it is still relatively unknown to people outside of this bak kut teh birth place.
The stall opens at 5:30pm, and it is always wise to get there as early as possible, for after 6pm or so the queue can be quite long and often wait time can exceed one hour due to the fact that the operator only grills with a small cooking area and have everything made-to-order to ensure quality.
Liang Li Ikan Bakar, with yee mee on the side
For the seven of us, we ordered a couple pieces of stingray, a portion of squid, prawns, a barramundi (siakap), and cockles from Liang Li stall. Additionally, we also ordered fried yee mee and Hokkien mee from the “tai chao” stall, and a portion of oyster omelet from another stall.
barramundi, stingray, prawns, squid
All seafood except the cockles (bakar style) were marinated the same way, with a strong presence of kunyit and curry powder of sort over banana leaf. What really stands out here is how each piece is cooked just so to a really soft and tender texture with nothing being overcooked or under-cooked.
The balacan infused chili paste that is served with the grilled seafood was top notch as well. We were really happy with the quality here.
cockles, hokkien mee, oyster omelet
The noodles were competent dish as well, but I thought the oyster omelet was a bit of a disappointment, something I wouldn’t order again.
The meal came up to around RM 30 per pax, and I believe we will certainly return for more next time.
Address:
Liang Li Grilled Fish
Restoran Pandamaran 168
168, Jalan Chan Ah Choo, Pandamaran, Klang, Selangor GPS: 3.009372, 101.417521 Tel: 017-395 6257 Hours: 5:30 pm onwards
Ever since we moved to KEN Rimba, we have had to drive out for most of our meals, until very recently – the famed Ana Ikan Bakar Petai opened a branch literally right outside at our doorstep here in Shah Alam.
Update 23/12/18: This place has since closed down
Ana Ikan Bakar Petai, now in Shah Alam
For the uninitiated, Ana Ikan Bakar Petai is a “brand” originated from Kuantan which also has a rather popular branch in Bangi. This is their 3rd outlet, occupying three shop lots, including upstairs & side walkway, a pretty big set up for the this otherwise pretty sleepy commercial area.
We’ve been to the place quite a few times since, it certainly is legit.
squid, prawns, crab, shellfish, and a variety of fish to choose from
At Ana Ikan Bakar, you get to choose from quite a variety of seafood – squid, lala, bamboo clams, prawns, blue crabs, sting ray, cencaru, siakap (barramundi), jenahak, garupa, and more. The price is per 100 gram (RM 3.50 – RM 7.00) is clearly stated on the display as well, so you know what you going to have to pay.
There are several cooking methods as well, with the most popular being bakar petai. If bakar isn’t what you want, you can have them masak cili, manis, halia, kicap, pedas, tiga rasa, asam pedas, lamprik, kerabu mangga, goreng kunyit, or steam limau, asam boi, or halia. Quite a number of permutations really.
pari & sotong with petai
On our first visit we had a ikan pari & sotong prepared the traditional bakar petai style. The fish was absolutely on point, super spicy with the hint of petai permeating from the sauce. As it is basically covered with the sauce, you really don’t need to have a separate condiment to go with. I also particularly like the texture of the fish here that is not overly cooked like many others.
all wrapped up in banana leaf, the only way!
The sotong bakar petai was pretty good too, but to be honest if you already have a bakar petai dish, it’s best to go with a different cooking method. On subsequent visits, we found out that the sotong is best deep fried, and they also serve very good ikan siakap steamed limau, with tiga rasa among their most popular orders as well.
keropok lekor, tomyam, lala, kailan ikan masin
Ana Ikan Bakar Petai serves more than just ikan bakar. There’s a full menu of traditional “goreng goreng” dishes. Their vegetable dishes are among the best I’ve had (try their kailan ikan masin), tomyam was good as well. There’s also other dishes such as various types of fried rice, meat, soup, etc.
Oh by the way, the lala is not worth ordering. Happy dining!
Ikan Bakar is one of the type of local dish that has its name completely wrong. If you translate it to English, ikan = fish, bakar = burn (or grill if you stretch it). But instead of grilling on open fire, ikan bakar these days is more like frying on a flat pan with a sheet of banana leaf in between. Which is just the way we like it.
Kak Jat Ikan Bakar, Jalan Bellamy
A few months ago I wrote my first article on Jalan Bellamy’s ikan bakar stalls at Mak Alang, and while it was a pretty good experience, we only went there because the consensus best ikan bakar stall at the area – Kak Jat Ikan Bakar, was already packed to the brim. This time around, we made sure we’re early enough to get a table.
quite a good variety of other dishes as well as ikan bakar
Like most ikan bakar places, Kak Jat also offers a variety of different other dishes ala nasi campur style. Grab a few of these, order some fish to go with, pick your sambal of choice, grab some rice, and you’re good to go.
the tilapia (on the right) was surprisingly awesome
As far as choice of fish goes, you get pari (stingray), kembung, terubok, tilapia, and more. I felt that the fish here was prepared with that extra umph to it, the skin seemed crispier with the marinate they have that is different from others.
I’m not a big tilapia fan, but if you’re at Kak Jat, do yourself a favor and order it, they are pretty special. The tilapia skin here is a chunk of coagulated spices & marinate in which we had no idea what they are made of, but so-so delicious! Give it a try!
asam pedas with stingray (bottom right) was one of my favorites
On the side dishes, other than the usual ulam, I also really enjoyed the asam pedas (stingray with salted vegetable curry), I felt that their version here is almost as good as the one at Kampung Baru Man’s Cafe Asam Pedas.
And before I forget, the grilled squid here is definitely worth ordering as well.
makcik makcik agreed that this ikan bakar stall is the best
Overall, we had a great lunch and a bucket of sweat, but it was worth it. If you’re heading to Jalan Bellamy for ikan bakar, this is the stall to check out.
It’s a bit of a tradition that our group of colleagues at work takes turn to buy lunch for everyone, usually at the frequency of about once a year or so (when got bonus lah). Several weeks ago, it was Iman’s time, and she managed to get another colleague to recommend a “new to us” place – Fatimah at Kampung Baru.
Fatimah Selera Kampung, at Kampung Baru
In a way, many of the Malay restaurants in Kampung Baru offers similar dishes at first glance, and it usually takes someone with experience in the area to know which are the must-order dishes in certain restaurants. For Fatimah Selera Kampung, what I enjoyed most was their daging salai, prawn gulai, and most definitely, the tempe. If you’re a fan of tempe, don’t miss it.
However, the true star at this restaurant, to me, has got to be their killer jangung drink. It’s basically shaved iced with corn, and it’s really, really awesome. If you’re a fan of ais kacang, this is a little bit like that, but better.
plenty of local dishes to choose from, including daging salai
Additionally, they also serve ikan bakar, asam pedas, ikan masak lada, ikan goreng asam, rendang, ulam, and more. For the lone rangers, there are also nasi/mee/meehun/koay teow goreng.
jagung ais is not to be missed!
Prices at Fatimah Selera Kampung is in tune with other such places in Kampung Baru. You may also want to check out Makanan Padang Asli (if you’re a tunjang/beef tendon fan) and Grand Garuda (for another nasi padang alternative) if you’re around the area.
Address: Fatimah Selera Kampung 5, Jalan Haji Yahya Sheikh Ahmad, Kampung Baru, 50300 KL GPS: 3.167255, 101.704149 Tel: 03-2692 1073
