Meng Kitchen 铭厨房 @ Johor Bahru [Malaysia]

A Malaysian friend recently commented that I visited Malaysia more often than he returns to his home  in Johor Bahru, and I can only smile and encourage him to go home more frequently. 

Nevertheless, it didn't stop me from going across the causeway shortly after! As always, one key attraction for Singaporeans would be the food in Malaysia and my review today would be Meng Kitchen! 

Featuring both indoor and outdoor seating, we opted for outdoors as the air-conditioned indoors was packed and we were lucky that it wasn't a very hot night. 

Said to have ten signature dishes, Meng Kitchen did the correct thing by listing them down on the menu! This would make it so easy for lazy-to-research individuals to decide what they would want to have for their meal.

Problem; only two of us! Hence, I still would have to take time to decide what to order. Given that KL hokkien mee was featured on this lightboard, I guess it's a must to have it on our to-eat list. 

Our order - frankly too much for Alex and I. I can only wish the food was delicious enough so that Alex would have the appetite to eat beyond his usual limit. Let's now begin with the food review! 

Stir Fried Green Dragon Vegetable - have I mentioned before that this green dragon vegetable was my favorite tze char veggie dish? It's always delightful for the palate and in this case, the addition of beansprouts added crunch! 

BBQ Pork Ribs - why was this classified as a signature dish?! Meat was tough and while there was this layer of sauce enveloping the ribs, it was just plain savory without any exceptional flavor that stands out from its competitors. Honestly, it's been a while since I last had such disappointing pork ribs.

Ming Sauce Prawns - six prawns for this small portion may seem a bit pathetic but do note that the pricing was just RM 30.00; which wasn't too big for the size of the prawns.

I don't know what's this ming sauce all about although it had this strong dose of tomato taste and reminded me of a tomato prawns dish that my sister used to make. A truly nostalgic moment and then only thing lacking was a bowl of plain rice to soak up the sauce! 

 

Salted Egg Sotong - the addictive aroma of salted egg wafted to our table before it was even placed on our table! Such was the power of aroma / smell.

Batter was surprisingly not oily with a crunchy, airy texture that didn't result in that cloying sensation after a while. Squid was also not rubbery, with sufficient dosage of salted egg. Something I would order again in the future. 

KL Hokkien Mee - the fight between the Hokkien Mee in Singapore and Malaysia had raged for years and to be totally honest; both are two distinctly different dishes! 

The saucy gooeyness of this Malaysian KL style hokkien mee was something that appealed to me and for someone who disliked thick noodles, I particularly enjoyed the alkaline-tasting noodles which was said to be fried with a lot of lard! 

While not as impressionable as the signature hokkien mee from Restoran Uncle Pou Wok at Mount Austin, it was still a great, slurpy plate of hokkien mee topped with large pieces of amazingly yummy crispy pork lard.

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Before and after (we didn't bother with the horrid BBQ pork ribs). Out of their 10 signature dishes, I only tried three at Meng Kitchen; hence, I would be back again, especially if I am too lazy to travel to Mount Austin and was craving for Malaysian hokkien mee.

Address

29, Jalan Keris 1, Taman Sri Tebrau, 

80050 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Map

As above. 

Pricing

Stir Fried Green Dragon Vegetable (S) - RM 15.00

BBQ Pork Ribs (S) - RM 25.00

Ming Sauce Prawns (S) - RM 30.00

Salted Egg Sotong (S) - RM 25.00

KL Hokkien Mee (S) - RM 9.00

(NETT)