大头啦啦煲 Dai Tao Lala Pot @ Mount Austin in Johor Bahru [Malaysia]

The time was 4.33 pm, far before the official dinner time for most people in Singapore and Malaysia. Hence, we assumed we were somewhat early at the famous 大头啦啦煲 Dai Tao Lala Pot, given its opening hour of 5.00 pm. 

There was already a line of 10 persons in front of us! It's actually manageable as the line stretched to a crazy, almost 50-person long five minutes before 5.00 pm! 

Indoor and outdoor seatings were available and while it would not stink up our clothes if we were outdoors, I have always preferred indoor as the weather in this part of the world can be very unpredictable. 

Hungry customers all streaming in! 

We were given table number one! Every table had a bamboo side stand with trays that held your cutleries at first and served as a useful space for the raw ingredients later on.

Gosh, how many pots had this wooden coaster been hosting?! It was so charred I wonder if it could eventually be repurposed as charcoal fuel for the lala pots in the restaurant.

After making your order, the first you should do wasn't to wait. Do make your way to the back of the restaurant where you can prepare your chilli sauces, minced garlic, spring onions and coriander. All complimentary. p.s. queue can be long.

Our side ingredients; the vegetables platter, the pork balls, the cheese tofu and the tiger prawns! Main dish shall be the lala hot pot but you can choose from two types of soup; the dai tao signature soup or the pork stomach soup with white peppercorns. 

Fire spectacle at the other table.

Time to prepare your phone for video recording! 

Here's our pot! This wasn't my first experience trying lala pot yet my eyes went wide with the huge plate of lala, otherwise known as clams! 

Even though the dish was cooked by charcoal, please be assured that the smoke emitted was quite minimal. Must be some high quality charcoal.

I tell you; the soup was darn flavorful, packing in punches of umami that had an interesting touch of spiciness! If not for the fact that it was a hot day, I could have easily downed the entire pot. Praying hard that my next visit would be a rainy day! 

Size wise, the clams were of a bigger size that, while fresh and satisfying, lost out to the side ingredients in taste. As you can can see, I love my soup with spring onions and coriander.

Loving the tiger prawns; fresh and plump and we had to order a second serving as one plate was simply insufficient! Pork balls were nice whereas seafood tofus were not too bad; I think cheese tofu would be a better alternative. 

Video for your viewing pleasure! 

 

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We left about an hour later and the queue outside the restaurant was even longer! Those who don't mind a late dinner or even supper would be pleased to know that Dai Tao Lala Pot closes at 3.00 am!

Address

No.49, Jalan Austin Height 8/5 , 

Taman Mount Austin Johor Bahru, 

81100 Johor, Johor Darul Ta'zim, Malaysia

Map

As above.

Menu

As above.

Pricing

Dai Tao Signature Soup - RM 38.00

Tiger Prawns - RM 22.90

Vegetables Platter - RM 16.80

Seafood Tofu - RM 10.90

Pork Ball - RM 10.90

(Subject to Service Charge)