Teow Chew Meng

Teoh Chew Meng is a chain of restaurants serving Teochew food in Penang and the Klang Valley. I am no expert on Teochew cuisines and I am not sure if the dishes they offer are all Teochew in origin.

My wife and I have so far eaten in 2 of their outlets. Our latest visit was about a few weeks ago in their SS2 outlet, located on Jalan SS2/30 in PJ.

We were there for dinner. This particular outlet is situated in a quiet part of SS2. The inner road of SS2/30 was rather dark. The restaurant stood out hustle and bustle amongst its quiet neighbours with an almost full capacity. I think the restaurants appeal to the more mature diners. The menu offers rather sober traditional fare like porridge and mee sau. It may be co-incidental, but just take a look at the crowd...

Their signature dish (or pot) must be their mee sua tow. If you ever go to TCM, you have to try their mee sua tow. We ordered a pot for 2 persons. It came out looking very good. There were some shark fin on the surface. Inside were various seafood - fish, shrimps, sotong, crab sticks, etc.  The mee sua was in a thick broth, not unlike shark fin soup. They even provide black vinegar to go with it.

You could opt for abalone in your mee sua tow. But be prepared to pay. Mee sau tow with shark fin is RM11 per person. If you want the abalone, it would be another whopping RM180. That evening, we were not in the mood to indulge. The shark fin mee sua tow had sufficed. And it was good. My wife and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

We also had the seafood roll. It looked like any other spring roll, with a chilli sauce and pieces of cucumber. It was not particularly tasty. I did not find the seafood roll exceptional. 

So was the vegetable. We had the steamed lettuce. It was like any lettuce you would get from any makan shop. Rather boring. Like I mentioned - sober. It's saving grace? - the deep fried dried shrimps garnish.

The apple beancurd was not so ordinary. It was good. The tofu were apparently "home made". They were deep fried with some apple salad and the same delightful fried dried shrimps over them. The tofu were crispy and delicious.

We ended the meal with a typical Teochew dessert. It was a yam paste called "oo-ni". The dessert came in a tiny bowl, with 3 pieces gingko on the surface. It was a very small bowl. Not enough. Hardly a few spoons full - teaspoons. I don't know why they are so stingy in their serving. But the oo-ni was good. It was smooth and sweet. Absolutely delicious.

All in all, it was a very pleasant dining experience. The restaurant offers a variety of other food - most of them somewhat uninteresting. They serve different types of porridge and noodles. They also have octopus, oyster and prawn side dishes. Below is a snapshot of their menu. Click on it to enlarge.

I saw a a poster on the wall announcing the opening of a new outlet in Prai, and wondered how many they have in total. I asked a cute little girl (assumedly the boss' daughter) who brought us our bill. She said there are 4 in Pulau Pinang and 3 in PJ/Subang Jaya. As we walked out, we managed to talk to the boss himself. He confirmed that they indeed have 7 outlets. He also said that the outlets are not franchised and that they are all family businesses. Must be one heck of a big family.