However, the original humble non air conditioned part of the restaurant is retained with almost the same decor and furniture. A considerable number of their customers still use this old section of the restaurant. Some even prefer the tables on the shop front walkway in spite of the spanking interior. The reason is perhaps that the restaurant is very noisy. The place lacks some curtains or drapes or some soft furnishing to absorb the noise. When the place is full, you can hardly hear your own voice. I personally like to dine open air on a small plot of land across the road that they used to set up some tables. But the open air dining is gone. It could be the local authorities did not approve.
The signature of this restaurant is their fresh prawn noodles or san har mein (生蝦麺). It was excellent. Almost every table ordered it. It had big tiger prawns split in halves, cooked in a delightful gravy of egg and I-don't-know-what and poured over freshly fried crispy noodles. The quantity of prawns in the plate depends on the number of diners. They make sure every person has at least half a prawn. In the past they used fresh water udang galah, which was more head than meat. Now, the tiger prawns were much more worthwhile.
The fried rice was also good. It was fried with bits of char siew, shrimps, long beans and lots of deep fried small ikan bilis. You feel the crisp as you munch on the tasty rice.
The deep fried pork knuckle was a major disappointment. To start with, the skin was not crispy. It was immersed in a light gravy which made it even more soggy. The meat was rather bland and after a couple of mouthfuls, I had enough.
The la-la fried "kam heong" (金香) style was quite ordinary. The flavour was a bit too heavy for my liking.
We had an unique vege combination - pumpkin and asparagus fried with prawns. My first time. Not a fantastic dish. The pumpkin did not taste like it at all. And asparagus is not one of my favourites.
The crispy kai lan (芥蘭) was another of my first time experience. It was good. They cut the leaves of the kai lan into tiny strips and deep fried till crispy. They then stir fried normal kai lan and mixed in the crispy leaves. Ingeniously tasty. I almost forgot to take a picture of this crispy kai lan. By the time I got to it, the plate was half gone...
The deep fried squid was crunchy and rather sweet. It was not bad. More of a side dish to go with beers.
The steamed crab was the last dish. By the time it arrived, I was pretty full. I still had some of it. The crab was steamed in egg white that form a thin layer of chawan mushi at the base. There was a generous sprinkling of ginger - perhaps not quite necessary. I found the meat rather soft. It was fresh but it did not have the firmness of good crab meat. I noticed from the bill that the crab was from Indonesia. Perhaps the local crab would had been better.
It was a heavy meal. But I still found room for some dessert. It was a cheese cake with blue berry topping, baked by my 17 year old nephew. It was good considering that it was made by a guy of that young age.
