Restoran Loi Fatt Baru (New Loi Fatt Seafood)

I must confess that this is a restaurant that I have been planning to visit for about 15 years but have somehow never managed to make it previously. Located in the Batu 9 Cheras New Village, it is known to locals as a hidden gem, serving up good and fresh seafood. It is located just next door to Restoran Loi Fatt which may be a bit confusing at first. Both are popular and have their own set of regulars and fans. Loi Fatt has appeared on Taste with Jason (or at least Jason has visited the place as his photo is on the wall) whilst the Ho Chak crew had just filmed at Loi Fatt Baru the day before we visited. We learnt from the owner and cook at Loi Fatt Baru that he is the brother and was a former cook at Loi Fatt. He set up his own restaurant and has been cooking for the last 40 years.

The walls of the restaurant were plastered with articles and reviews from various newspapers and magazines. Photographs of their signature dishes on the wall were also a great help in deciding what to order. It was the eve of Hari Raya when we visited and we were the only patrons in the restaurant – I guess everyone was busy balik kampong. It was however good for us as the chef/owner himself came out to take our order and make recommendations.

The chef/owner showing us a large prawn!

This restaurant is particularly famous for their udang galah (large river prawns) and we had to try some, despite the rather prohibitive RM98 per kilo price tag. The prawns were imported from Indonesia and were apparently just delivered the previous day. There were 5 us so we ordered 5 medium sized prawns which turned out to be 1 kg or 200g per prawn. Those are pretty big sized prawns, but we were told that the big ones go up to 600g per prawn! 

 

The special prawn dish 

The prawns were cooked in a thick black sauce, somewhat like the kam heong style but without chilies or curry leaves. The outer shell of the prawns were singed, which made us suspect they had been grilled before being stir-fried. However the cook later told us that it had only been wok-fried, which actually revealed the skill of the cook in creating the wok-hei (breath of the wok) for this dish. This was very good and is worthy to be their signature dish.

Another signature dish was described as curry shark 'mouth'. What arrived at the table though would be better described as assam shark instead of curry. Served with ladies finger, brinjals, tomatoes and onions in a slightly sweet assam sauce, the pieces of sharks 'mouth' were crunchy, somewhat like the pieces of squid or terrapin. It is quite tasteless on it's own and needed the slightly spicy assam sauce to lend it some flavor. A pretty unique dish especially for the texture of the shark 'mouth'. RM40.80 for a medium sized (600g) serving.

The chef recommended pork ribs cooked in a claypot with yam. The yam used was a good variety and had a nice yam fragrance. Cooked until soft, the ribs were coated in the yam gravy. The ribs were tender and soft and had an almost melt-in-your mouth texture. We would recommend this dish.

The chef also recommended their special taufoo. The soft taufoo pieces were served in a gravy with various types of mushrooms, baby corn, shallots and chicken meat. It was nice, but not particularly outstanding.

To complete the meal, we had kalian cooked in 2 styles – shredded and fried till crispy (like seaweed) and stir-fried with garlic. Again, nice but not particularly outstanding and we felt that places like Wan Fatt did this dish better.

Overall it was a memorable meal – especially since we were able to chat with the chef/owner. We were told that their crab dishes are very popuar too – we'll keep that for our next visit. I guess business will pick up after their appearance on Ho Chak. They certainly do deserve more recognition.


Location : No 168, 9^th Mile Cheras (just before the traffic light junction to Hulu Langat)
Contact : 9075 1853 or 017-356-6592
GPS Co-ordinates : E:101, 46'14.8" N:3, 4'10.6"