Restoran Tiong Hokkien Mee

6 of 10 croutons

Saturday, June 15, 2013 – 6pm

85, Jalan 21/37

Damansara Uptown

Petaling Jaya

Tel: 016-305-0444

Hours of operation: 4pm – 2am

The layout:

My wife is out of town on business so I decided to take the kids and inaugurate our quest to find the best Hokkien Mee in Kuala Lumpur (and beyond). On the recommendation of a friend for a place not too far from Bangsar where we live, we headed to Damansara Uptown, where after circling the block we came across Restoran Tiong Hokkien Mee, and parked easily right across the street.

Upon entering we were seated at the back of the restaurant, close to the kitchen, amongst a mainly Chinese clientele, with one Indian family. The next time I would probably opt to sit outside at one of the handful of tables on the sidewalk. The restaurant was recently tiled white and presents a clean, if somewhat antiseptic ambiance. There was no menu and looking around the offerings were limited to something like wat tan hor, Hokkien fried kway teow, lor mee, and nam yue. I ordered a Hokkien Mee for one person, a fried rice for my daughter – who hasn’t acquired the taste just yet – and a small Tiger. The beer arrived right away but was room temperature. When I complained the waiter smiled guiltily and said he had opened it and it was too late. Ha – nice try, I sent it back and ordered a glass of tea, which was quite dark with a robust, even pungent, flavor.

The goods:

The Hokkien Mee (RM7) arrived after about 10 minutes. It looked and smelled very good! The noodles had a nice bite to them, moist but not too flimsy. The sauce was good, if not exceptional, however it has a slight bitterness to it that was quite pleasing – was this the liver which I could otherwise find no trace of? I felt there was enough room to allow just a hint more sweetness in the sauce, which would have added to the dish without overwhelming anything. I added some black vinegar to try and get there. There was also a decent amount of pork in the dish, which did not quite make up for the sad amount of pork lard, which was unfortunately, overwhelmingly disappointing. Also disappointing was the fact there was no baby squid on the plate. Squid and lard make this dish! The prawns were fine: medium-small ones most certainly grown in a small and dirty salinized pool with too many chemicals in it. No complaints though. I don’t expect to find anything better at any of the hokkien mee places we will be visiting. There were a few pieces of Chinese cabbage thrown in irreverently, which is how it should be.

On the side, the garlic was flavourful but chopped a bit too coarsely for my liking. Red and green chilies were fresh and tasty, and there was a nicely tasting batch of sweetly pickled chilies as well. The sambal was on the flavourless side with little heat, but a surprisingly pleasant after taste.

The standouts:

I really dislike when someone tries to fob off a warm drink on me by opening it quickly and distancing themselves from the table immediately. I knew there would be a problem because there was no sweat on the bottle so I asked the waiter to come back immediately. There should also be more lard in the dish – come on. Add another Rm .50 to the cost and give us the goods – we aren’t here for the health properties of the dish.