Seak Yuen or (GW)Shark Yuen??

Was supposed to post this earlier but did not have the time to do it.

During our recent trip to KL, we managed to get in to this old restaurant named Seak Yuen which was situated along Jalan Pudu. They have 2 shops side-by-side. One of the restaurant has air condition and the other without. This restaurant has been around even before I was born and currently the third generation was running the place.

Dad and his colleagues used to patronise this restaurant many years back when he was working nearby. I went there a few times with dad too when I was doing some vacation job in dad’s company. I remember vividly the food was okay, price wise was reasonable and the portion was much bigger. Apparently, they still use fire wood to cook hence the food will taste better…

According to dad, Seak Yuen’s business suffered recently as the there were more eating places mushrooming around the KL area and also their staff (most are bosses too as this is a family business) are all getting on with age and none of their younger generations wanted to take over the operation of the restaurants.

Then earlier this year, Ah-Xian from ASTRO made a review on the restaurant and since then the place was jammed packed with patrons. The Q was so long even after 8pm! We tried going once but was sent away by the Q. Since the review, I we have this urge to try those dishes so we did not give up. Finally we managed to get a table.

We went to the air conditioned one as the weather was pretty warm. The place was rather crowded and noisy too. We then ask the lady to recommend some of dishes apart from those reviewed by Ah-Xian.

First we had the Pei-pah duck. We ordered 1/2 a duck since there were only 4 of us. The portion don’t like 1/2 but less. The skin was supposed to be crispy but it was quite soggy. Look at the presentation…. don’t look appetising at all rite? They charged RM18 for that. The one I had in Penang taste better and it’s only cost RM15.

Next was the so-called special dish… a all vege dish calleed ‘Kah-Hiong Jia’ or My Hometown Vegetarian. It has a mixture of shredded brinjal, lily bulbs, cabbage, tau-pok, spring onion, balck fungus and tang hoon. Dad said it taste good but mom said it is too oily and PiggyBeng thinks the portion was a bit pathetic. To me, it’s just so-so… nothing so special.

The following dish was the prawns. It was cooked dried-fried style. They ran out of the salt water prawns so replaced with fresh water prawns for us. We never think much of it until we saw the price. Guess what? For 13 miserable looking prawns… they charged us RM40! Those were not even Tiger prawns! This was a real shocker.

 The last dish was the coined Japanese tofu cooked with dried prawns with preserved black beans. This dish is ordinary enough and nothing to mention about. I think I can do better myself.

We did not managed to try one of their special chicken fried on cane net. We also never order their signature dish, the herbal duck. What the heck anyway!

Then it’s the time we asked for the bill. It took quite a while to reach us. You know why?? They are still using abacus to calculate!!! Did not know they were so behind time until now boi! *Duh*

Well, the place is just too crowded and the service is hardly commendable. The food don’t taste to our expectation and the price is shocking. We can get better food at a more reasonable price elsewhere. That’s why I called it Shark Yuen (just like the Great White Shark… once you are biten… that it is!). No more second time…

Related posts:

1. Air Itam Pei Pa Duck
2. The Final 5 things to eat before RIP