Sabah Malaysian Cuisine   莎巴馬來西亞餐廳 

hainan chicken was good.

roti canai was very good. but the plain naan was less than impressive.

beef rendang - could be better if a bit more spiced up.

monring glory was a bit on the salty side.

fried turnip was good.

As Mr.M was having his internship in the Great Eagle, and I was having my summer job in Thomson road, we decided to have lunch together as we were both working in Wanchai.

It was raining heavily that day and we just stopped by this Malaysian Restaurant.
It took us about 15 mins to wait for seats.
I ordered Seafood Laksa and Mr.M ordered a set which includes lobster soup, main course, drink and dessert.His lobster soup's texture is like sth between solid and liquid , very sticky kind. I can tell that they did not use enough shrimp, fish , not to mention lobster, to make this soup as it is tasteless.

My seafood laksa was inside a small bowl but there are lots of seafood on top. 2 mussels, prawns, fish ball which are quite fresh....the soup is rich in coconut milk and the noodles is hmmm "al dente".

But it costs $60 a bowl, woth it or not?

I will come back and try their other specialists next time as the others say that Roti Canai and asama laksa are nice.

That is exactly what I want – the long missed Pendang Chicken. Suddenly ordered by my Mom that I had to do away beef in my diet, the dish that I miss most is the Pendang Beef. It’s so nice that I can order Pendang Chicken in this restaurant – my long missed flavor. Another plus is the deskinned chicken in this dish. Frankly speaking, it will be a difficult task to distinguish the skin and the flesh in the dark-sauce. Though the appearance doesn’t look attractive at all, I really miss the taste of it so much.
The other dish is also mouth-watering. The Assam Laksa is superb for a refreshing summer meal for its sour unique flavor. However it would be more attractive with a little more fish inside. The Roti Canai is crispy but not oily, it goes well with curry. The stir-fried morning glory is also nice. In general, we are happy with the quality of food but the meal is a bit over-priced at nearly $300 for 2 with 1 Assam Laksa, 1 Pendang Chicken, 1 stir-fried morning glory. 1 Roti Canai, 1 plain rice, 1 coconut drink + 1 Lemon Bailey. The staff there is also nice and friendly.

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After the comic expo, I went over to Jeffey Road to try Katong Laksa Prawn Mee which I have been longing for a while. Unfortunately it was already closed when I arrived the road at around 930pm. My boyfriend said there was a nice malaysian restaurant nearby and brought me to it.

The restaurant was not the fanciest around the area. It had a lousy LED ads hanging outside the restaurant, but the indoor setting was quite cosy. The kitchen was an open one, so you could check how the chief master the techniques of pancake making.

1) Iced Red Bean $25
I was in extreme thirst when I went into the resturant, so the first thing I checked on the menu was drink list. I turned to the last page but turned out the list was on the first page. The drink had an unexceptablyrich rich taste of coconut milk! The drink was mildy sweet and was of my liking!

2) Ron Canal $22
We ordered Ron Canal in plain, but it could be prepared with eggs, garlics or other ingredients. The Ron Canal looked very fluffy when it came to our table, and it did actually possess a fluffy texture. The ron canal was soft and light which went very nicely with the Beef Rendang sauce.

3) Ron Masala Potato $30
I thought Ron Masala Potato was something like Ron canal, fluffy and flat. Ron Masala Potato was actually fried pancaked with a potato filling. The pancake wrapper was made thin and thus became crispy after pan-fried, but could still retain a soft texture. The fillings were mashed potatoes mixed with bits of red carrots with a curry base. The Ron Masala did not have a strong taste even its fillings were mashed with curry sauce.

4) Beef Rendang $75
Beef Rendang is curry made with traditional malaysian flavour sauce. The sauce was quite different from what I usually have for curry. Beef Rendang was served on plate instead of a bowl, so you could imagine the sauce wasn't much. Taste wise, the sauce was not spicy at all and tasted quite nice. I could not tell what the spices were, but there were some shredded substances that were pointy in the curry, It did not hurt your throat, but was quite annoying while having that feelings in your throat.

5) Fried Turnip Cake with Seafood & Eggs $60
The saucing was nice and strong, however the turnip's texture was too soft that it broke apart when you tried to pick them up with chopsticks. The turnip didn't really has a taste with them, but the spring onions, bean sprouts and eggs were concentrated with the sauce's taste . The eggs however were position at the bottom and thus became overly sauced and thus made it very salty. Not a bad dish generally but I personally love the fried turnip in lkf more. It was absolutely amazing, crispy outside and a soft creamy inside..

6) Coconut Rice $20
I expected a yellowish coloured rice, yet the rice came to us in pure white. The texture of the rice were overly soft and was rather meshy. However, the taste was good. It had a strong coconut taste, and even if you paired it with the curry, the coconut flavour could still be tasted.

I didn't know what the authentic taste of Malaysian is, all I knew was Sabah offers really nice dishes. I would definitely come back to try their laksa and deep fried banana later.

www.cinnamon4coffee.blogspot.com

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   Open Kitchen with Pancake Master
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   Cosy Environment
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   Iced Red Bean with rich coconut taste!
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   Fried Turnip - Tasty but too meshy texture
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   Beef Rendang - Not Enough Sauce
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   Ron Canal - Nice and Fluffy
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   Ron Masala Potato - Nice but Not enought Flavour
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   Rich Coconut Taste but Too Meshy

I went to the above restaurant for dinner with my family yestesday. I was so looking forward for the meal as the restaurant was highly rated by one of the famous food critics. I must say services were really good but food was disappointed. I went to Sabah for holiday about 6 months ago, I had some excellent local cuisine over there. So when I found out from the food critic's food book saying that Sabah restaurant served dishes which were better than the local malaysian food, I was over the moon.
We had tangerine water for drinks, which was very bland. It tasted nothing like what I had in Sabah.
In term of food, we had beef rendany-the taste of kaffir lime leaves was too over powering. Seafood Laksa- the broth was lack of favouring. The only nice thing was the roti canai which was crispy and full of texture. Very good!

Good thing we called ahead to book. On a Sunday nite, we arrived at 7 sharp and got the last table. By 715 the place was packed with groups waiting both in and outside the restaurant.

Service was below par since they were quite understaffed. We asked to order beer twice, before it came, and 3 times for the plain rice.

The waiters were quite forgetful guess because they were too busy. When asked to add some items, they simply say yes to you without putting the order into the POS. On the good side, after chasing the yellow rice twice and found out we actually have no space left to accommodate it, they didn't mind cancelling it for us.

My advise is to order everything at once so the order goes into the pos and makes it into the kitchen.

Whole meal came to $596. Which wasn't cheap but neither expensive. Given the limited choices on the island, others being "Satay Inn" and "Nam Ah", I will visit this place again.

We had the folowing

Beef satay. I had 2 sticks, the first one was tender and juicy with the appropriate bbq flavour. The 2nd one, which I waited 20 minutes before consuming, became quite hard and tough. Now I understand why some places like to serve these on a grill or hotplate, they need to be eaten hot. The sauce was quite peanutty and sweet. I don't seem to be able to find the orange satay sauce where they add chilli oil and coconut paste anymore in HK.

1/2 Hainan Chicken
Chicken was tender and boneless as usual, I would say almost juicy, the chicken flavour wasn't too intense but neither did it carry any frozen/chilled aftertaste, which was good. The skin this time round, wasn't as thin or "crispy" as before, still the fat underneath the skin was minimal.

Sauces were the stand set with the minced ginger, hot and sour sauce, and darkened soy. Good to go with rice.

Highlight of the meal. Curried King Prawns.
This dish came with 5 king prawns at $19x, I won't say the prawns were too big, but they were fresh and cooked just right. It came in a humongous bowl, and plenty plenty of curry sauce. The sauce wasn't fiery, but was quite spicy and flavourful. Reminded me of thai curry crab's sauce, but alot more intense. I couldn't help drooling just looking at the sauce. Fortunately the restaurant didn't use much coconut paste or oil. I liked this dish very much. We ordered plain rice and roti to soak up all the goodness. Will definitely order this dish again. Or at least something with the same sauce.

Roti. They had a cook working behind a showcase making these fresh, but it could have been more fluffy.

Stir fried "tung choi" (hollow vegetable) with salted fish. Flavour was strong and the restaurant wasn't stingy at all in using the salted fish.

Fukien fried noodles. Don't think many malaysian restaurants in HK carry this dish, in fact Sabah is the first one I noticed. I ordered this because I saw some especially good comments regarding the dish on Openrice.

Basically it's oil noodles stir fried in sweetened dark soy sauce. according to what I read, it's supposed to carry some crispy pork fat but I couldn't find any, probably bcos I only had a taste of the dish. I find it to be too "wet" and sweet to my liking, if I had it my way, it should be dried carrying the "stir fried" flavour.
According to mom, it should taste somewhat like Stir fried thick noodles shanghai style.

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Basically for pork bone tea, this one has the strongest taste, you can even smell and taste the dong gwai.

The pork bones are chopped nicely with meat surrounding the bones.

The instant noodles taste good flavoured with pork bone soup.

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I don't frequent Wanchai because I live closer to Central and I like heading to TST whenever I meet friends because it just seems like there's everything in Central/TST so why would one need to go to Wanchai? I have now found the reason - for really good Singaporean/Malay food!

The menu here is really extensive - lots of options but as we were a party of two we couldn't order much. Lots of curries, rotis etc if you're a fan though! We opted for their much-raved dishes, and decided we'd come back to try others if these were good.

On to the food...
seafood laksa($60)
Note: this arrived same time as the Prawn Mee, which I appreciated because I hate it when one already has their food and the other one has to wait... I only expect this from slightly higher-class restaurants but here I guess they were both noodles so hence the same timing!

This laksa looked really appealing when it arrived - it was so nicely packed - all neat and everything! There were dried tofu, fresh shrimps, squid and fish cakes. The soup base was really very good, it was a yellow curry flavour with chilli oil for heat. It was rich and really very tasty! What could be improved however, is the squid - either substitute for something else or remove it. The squid was bland because it doesn't soak up the flavour of the broth like shrimp does, and it was chewy - it was a work out to eat it =P

Prawn Mee ($60)
This was also really nicely presented - with a sizeable amount of shrimps and fish cake. The soup base was flavoured with shrimp sauce, chilli oil (quite a bit there so not recommended if you can't take spice!) and fried garlic. For some, simple is good, and this was exactly that. You cannot really compare to the laksa because if you want something very flavourful and strong you'd pick the laksa, but if you're just in the mood for some good soup noodles then this is for you. I requested to have the mee changed to vermicelli but this is a matter of taste, if you like hokkien mee then leave ur order as that.
Anyway, the shrimps weren't bouncy enough for me but the fish cakes were, so it was balanced I guess?

Fried kailan with garlic($58)
I enjoy the taste of kai lan and this was fried really well with the garlic. It had the right amount of salt, and they were crisp and very fresh! However, the menu clearly said this veg was $4X but we were charged almost the price for the noodles so i'll leave it up to you to decide whether its worth it?

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   Prawn Mee (vermicelli)
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   Prawn Mee
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   Seafood Laksa

I've been here many times and the food is always excellent. The curries are all very good. The vindaloo is extremely spicy but delicious. The soup, 肉骨茶 is the best I've ever had in HK. The satay chicken ranks as one of the best I've had around the world. All in all, everything is very good here. The service is also very good and they'll help you serve the soup if they're not too busy. Give it a try, I highly recommend it.

It took my friend and I a long while to find this location because we were not very familiar with this area. We did not book a table and as a result we had to wait for about 15 minutes. It was around 8pm and the place was full house. The best thing to do at this moment was to look around to see what other people ordered. One thing I was very pleased was that even there was a long line up and the seating area was relatively small, they would give us 2 two-seater tables for just the two of us. Why? It is because they know that there was no way the single table can fit more than 3 dishes, the extra table space is really needed.

(1) Pork Ribs Soup with Herbs 肉骨茶 (Bak Kut Teh)
I have been trying this soup all over Hong Kong, but the results were not that pleasant with most of them being overly weak / light in taste. In my opinion, one of the key elements for a good Bak Kut Teh is the herb flavor. The one being served here was certainly one of the better ones I have tried in a long time with very strong herb flavor which I loved. In addition to the flavor, the ingredients were plenty and the pork ribs were very tender as well. Thumbs up from me!!

(2) Ipoh Beansprouts Chicken 怡保銀芽雞
When I ordered this dish, I wondered how exactly the beansprouts play in the cooking or preparation process; whether they were cooked along with the chicken or etc. It turned the dish should be called Hainan style chicken on top of beansprouts! Those beansprouts were place beneath the de-boned chicken. I wasn't sure what Ipoh really means, likely a name of a place but it tasted very much like Hainan chicken to me. It was good very good though with tender and juicy meat all around, including the breasts. Although the chicken skins were a bit thick, meaning fat, I could not help myself but to eat them together with the meat as well because it would be such a waste!

(3) Beef Rendang 馬來巴東牛肉
Not too spicy at all and I liked it. The sauce was thick and for some odd reasons, it tasted sweeter and I think better after leaving it at room temperature for a while. It was a perfect dish to go with some Roti. The one thing I did not like about this dish was the beef, it was very hard and difficult to chew. Maybe it was the way it should be, just not of my personal liking.

(4) Roti 油酥餅
It was a must to order either Nan or Roti to go with the Rendang, otherwise it would be a waste of the delicious sauce. The Roti was alright and it can be enjoyed by itself as well. I usually order Nan bread but I think I would order Roti more often from now on because it seemed less "floury" (less carbon hydrate) than Nan, meaning I can have more!

(5) Stir Fried Malaysia Noble Green 貴妃苗
I liked it. Very crunchy and fresh. With a little dry garlic on top, it added an extra texture to the whole experience. However, while it was fresh, for some reasons, it lacked any vegetable flavor. It seemed like I was just chewing some fiber!

Likes:
* 肉骨茶 (bak kut teh) - very strong herb flavor
* Beef Rendang 馬來巴東牛肉 - love the sauce

Dislikes:
* Even if an extra table, remain rather uncomfortable in terms of seating arrangement.
* Very noisy environment
* Stir Fried Malaysia Noble Green 貴妃苗 - very fresh but lacked the vegi taste / flavor

Original Blog Post: http://jason-bonvivant.blogspot.com/2009/07/sabah-malaysian-cuisine.html

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   (1) Pork Ribs Soup with Herbs 肉骨茶 (Bak Kut Teh)
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   (2) Ipoh Beansprouts Chicken 怡保銀芽雞
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   (3) Beef Rendang 馬來巴東牛肉
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   (4) Roti 油酥餅
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   (5) Stir Fried Malaysia Noble Green 貴妃苗

A long anticipated meal here - have passed by it so many times but still haven't had a chance to try it out. Came on a Thursday afternoon at around 1.40, and to my surprise there were empty tables.

Dining area is comfortable albeit a bit small and simple. Got seated on rattan chairs at the corner. I always like to check out the tableware at eateries - the chinaware used are brandless with a simple embedded swirl design along the rim.

Service is very attentive and a good number of waiters were available.

Ordered 1 lunch set and a separate entree

1. Chow Kway Teow (Fried flat rice noodles Nonya style) ($58)
This was the entree. Waiter gave an option of spicy nor non-spicy; I ordered it spicy. The dish looked a bit small but it is actually quite hearty, with a generous assortment of spring onions, bean sprouts, fish cake slices and prawns fried with flat rice noodles - but it didn't taste spicy at all. The "wok hay" (which depends on the amount of heat and frying skills of the cook) was evident at first bite, served straight off the wok. It was quite a dry fry, different from the traditional thick black sauce that Pasar makes it. I prefer this drier version. Guess it is more catered towards the general public not used to such "heaviness"

Set lunch ($60) includes a drink, soup of the day, entree and dessert:

Soup: Lobster bisque
The waiter said it's crabmeat with lobster soup. The soup itself tastes exactly like regular lobster bisque with that semi-thick consistency. Tiny shreds of crabmeat in the soup. As you can tell from the picture it was served with a swirl of cream.

Entree: Beef fillet with black pepper sauce on skewers
I asked for it to be served with steamed broccoli, cherry tomatoes and stir-fried shitake is served. (an option of rice, spaghetti or vegetables were given; I asked for vegetables). I really enjoyed the black pepper sauce, and the chunky beef fillet (I guess it's chuck, given the texture) was tender and softer in some parts, a bit drier on the inside - but still flavorful.

Other lunch options available include baked fish fillet with rice, Hainan chicken rice, chow kway teow etc.

Dessert: Coconut pudding
Waiter said it's with mixed fruits but the amount of it is very minimal. I don't know if it was intentional but it was served warm? Thankfully the coconut milk was not overwhelming.

The toothpick holder was some temple-like architecture with "Kuala Lumpur" engraved in it - cute detail!

Very good food indeed, just the right balance of authentic nonya that is mild enough for a novice. Will come back next time for dinner and try out other items on their menu.

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   Beef fillet with black pepper sauce on skewers
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   Lobster bisque
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   Chow Kway Teow
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   Coconut pudding
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   Toothpick holder

The Seafood Laska is very good. The seafood itself is only so so, but the soup base is very good. And we ordered a Sambal sauce to go with the noodles. Perfect.

I have always wanted to come here for lunch, but always too many people.

Came one late afternoon for tea, and had Instant noodles in Pork bone tea, and roti with curry sauce.
The noodles were the best, I dont usuallly order it, as i find the fried dough sticks too greasy, and the soup with at least a 2mm thick oil film.
I have to admit the soup is much better than all the other pork bone teas in hong kong, the taste of this one matches the one at Mr Steak a La Buffet when they offer it, except stronger.

The soup has a strong taste of red dates, and slight dong gwai herb, but drinkable.
The instant noodles also taste good too in this broth, luckily they are not that soft when they arrive, and it absorbs the broth whilst softening, giving it flavour.

The pork ribs are rather good too, at least they have meat on it, not the fatty, tough ones that have been boiled and boiled until served.

The roti, was good, not greasy, went well with the curry sauce, it also went well dipped in the pork rib tea.

Even at 5.45, it was continually being filled with customers either for last minute afternoon tea, or early dinner.

Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries, so no pictures were taken.

I kinda remembered someone told me that there is a famous Hainanese chicken rice restaurant around this area.

Having class nearby, I have decided to drop in and try the Hainanese Rice.

$72 is quite costly for the rice set.

The soup got lettuce, a bit surprised. The rice was superior with chicken flavour, used something called 黃薑粉 to make it so yellowish in colour. The chicken breast was boneless but I find an appalling thing about the chicken, was that its way too "hairy" !!! EEUUWWWWW Somehow, given the price, I would think they would at least cleared the hairy bit.

I reckon I would want to try their Roti Prata next time, it seemed quite nice.

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From a malaysian point of view, i would say this restaurant's food is not too bad where we could find it outside Malaysia.

But all typical malaysian food is hot and spicy which i totally couldnt find in this restaurant's food; all the food contains too much santan(coconut milk) which make the food smell nice but higy in cholesterol... hahha~~~
Frankly speaking the nasi lemak is good especially the ikan billis sambal, kangkung is good, laksa just so so, mee goreng ok, cendol is disgusting....

But overall is OK, next time i wish to try ASAM LAKSA which is another kind of laksa which foreigners usually dont know what is that...Let's try together.