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Uncle Tom's Tavern (Western Food) in Plentong, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Uncle Tom's Special, a whopping, delicous ¼ pounder!

Last night, we went to check out Uncle Tom's Tavern in Plentong (near Tesco Extra) which is probably JB's newest Western food restaurant (opened for business just two months ago) at the invitation of the owners, Tom and Michelle.
 

We met the warm and friendly Uncle Tom (after which this restaurant was named), and his lovely wife, Michelle.

Michelle shared that this Western food restaurant is dedicated to Uncle Tom, who had been in the oil and gas industry for over thirty years.


At Uncle Tom's Tavern, Michelle would lovingly prepare the food for guests as she would for Uncle Tom, thus bringing new meaning to the phrases "family restaurant" and "home cooked meal".
 

Michelle is assisted in the kitchen by an able crew and Chef Hernan - here whipping up Uncle Tom's favourite fried rice.


Chef Hernan helps Michelle with the finishing touches to the food before serving.

Let's take a look at what we had :)


If you are a beef and burger lover, be sure to ask for this Uncle Tom's Special. It's a whopping quarter (¼) pound of fresh ground beef. Made with fresh low fat beef, the lean but thick patty was tender and delicious, without the greasiness and saltiness of the usual fast food burgers.

The beef patty was sandwiched between Uncle Tom's homemade buns which were teasingly sweet, soft and nice to the bite. At RM17.90, Uncle Tom's Special quarter pounder was worth every ounce of money. For people with a regular sized appetite, the usual sized Classic burger is available at RM10.90.


Grilled lamb chops nicely sizzled with the outside layer slightly caramelised, while inside, it is still juicy and retaining that distinctive flavour that make lamb lovers swoon. These lamb chops for RM22.90.
 
 
  
As someone who has to watch his cholesterol, this Cajun Salmon was my guilt free favourite of the evening :) Michelle again got the outside nicely seared and the insides still moist and wet with natural juices. Made with fresh salmon fillet, the Cajun spices brought out the delightful flavour and aroma of the tender, oily salmon flesh.
 
 
Since this Cajun Salmon (RM14.90) was my favourite, you are treated to extra shots of this :P
 

I also love this grilled steak (RM32.90). Thick chunky bars of well marinated grilled tenderloin carefully stacked and laid on a bed of fried potato slices and asparagus.
 

Tender, moist, flavourful, smoky tasting, well done tenderloin steak.


To round up our dinner, we had the Arrabiata Chicken Pasta. Nice al dente pasta tossed in a creamy, tangy, subtly spicy tomato and herb sauce. This large delicious plate of pasta cost RM11.90.

 
Must really share with you about Uncle Tom's homemade bread and buns. Everyone from our party agreed that Uncle Tom's bread was really special. The bread was a well balanced blend of delicate savoury and sweet notes, and its texture was nicely soft inside with a gentle pleasing bite. You have to try it to know what I mean. Uncle Tom's homemade and baked bread was so good, we took home additional pieces to enjoy :)
 

To help wash down all the good food, Uncle Tom's Tavern has a well appointed bar, well stocked with a good range of beers, wines and liquor.

 
Uncle Tom's Tavern will be adding more varieties of drinks served at the bar.
 


Everyone at the dinner agreed that Uncle Tom's Tavern offers very good Western food with sincere service, at very reasonable prices :)

Uncle Tom's Tavern is easy to get to from Singapore or downtown JB. With the EDL (Eastern Dispersal Link), travel to Plentong is just about 20 minutes from the JB CIQ.

Restaurant name: Uncle Tom's Tavern
Address: G31, Jalan Masai Jaya, Plentong (near to Tesco Extra Plentong)
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/fYQy5
GPS: 1.522167,103.813574
Hours: 8:30am to 10:30pm (closed on Sunday)
No pork, no lard

Date visited: 24 Sep 2012

27 comments:

  1. looks delish. and it has been a long time since i saw u post western cuisine. Normally is hawker local food =)

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  2. Excellent place to have lunch or dinner and chill out. A must try !!!!!


    Alan McRobb

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  3. May I know whether the chicken, meet, lamb is halal? No pork or no lard doesn't mean it is halal. Thank you :)

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  4. Any corkage or is it byo?

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    1. Hi Pat, unfortunately, our application for that license is still in process, we will hope to have this in place at our earliest for you, currently we offer a good variety of beer and hope in the meantime that this suffices.

      We will update the status on this page AND our FaceBook page http://www.facebook.com/uncletomstavern and hope that you would take the time to "like" us both there AND in person =)

      Best wishes always.

      Tom & the crew!

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  5. Looks good, hence we decided to visit yesterday, the service was very poor, and it took forever for the dishes to be served for 6 pax we order 2 pasta arabiatta, 2 chicken chop, 1 salmon and 1 grilled lamb chop, the pastas came together, it was average tasting, then 1 chicken chop came, 10 mins later, the salmon arrived, another 10 mins, the lamb chops and it took another 10 mins for the 2nd chicken chop. ALL ORDERS WERE PLACED AT THE SAME TIME!! the fries served were cold, the cutlery was given after asking at least twice PER DISH!The drinks only came about 30 mins after we placed our order AND we were overcharged for drinks(as in they billed us for drinks we never ordered). Never saw the owners, it was totally runned by Filipinos,I wonder if good service raved were because the owners knew that the writer was a blogger.. it was TERRIBLE.. It cannot be compared to the Top 5 of JB... maybe top 50??

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    1. yea.. agree with just average taste.

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  6. Dear Sonia

    I feel saddened to hear that you have had a poor experience in your first visit to our establishment.

    As the owner ((Uncle) Tom Laight), I would love to meet with you to personally extend my apology.

    We appreciate your comments, as these will only help us improve our services and aid us in striving to do better.

    Regards.
    Tom Laight (Uncle Tom).
    Uncle Tom's Tavern

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  7. WOW!!!! Thanks to EVERYONE for coming down, we REALLY appreciate your best wishes and good custom!!! We have been SO overwhelmed with customers we sincerely hope you understand how busy we have been.

    Bearing this in mind we must ask that you, wherever possible, to book in advance, (+6073527691) as our only endeavour is to serve you in a timely and hospitable fashion, of course, with only the FINEST CUISINE in ALL of the Malay Peninsular !!!!

    Please LIKE our kaki blog page AND our FB page (see below) and get ready for some teasers for discounts and value added services you're SURE to just LOVE!!!!

    From myself and the crew, we wish you all the VERY best and once again thank you for your loyalty, patience and ...discerning palette!!

    Tom (and the crew)

    P.S. Find and like us on facebook ... http://www.facebook.com/uncletomstavern We'll make it worth your while!!!

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  8. My friends and I decided to visit Uncle Tom's Tavern after read Tony's blog. But we are very very disappointed during our visit. Almost half of the dishes in menu is unavailable on that day due to chef on leave. I personally can't accept this excuse, if chef on leave will cause 50% dishes unable to deliver what if chef resign? Restaurant will close down?

    Mushroom soup taste like canned soup. Coffee taste like 3 in 1 coffee. Lamp chop is over cook and hard to chew. Knife that provide is difficult to cut lamb chop too. Cajun salmon size is too small, stomach still feel empty after finish it. The only thing that taste good is burger.

    Best part is when we want to pay bill then only Uncle Tom's staff inform us that credit card service is unavailable at the moment. They should put a notice or inform their customer in advance that they temporary accept CASH only. This might embarrass customer if they didn't bring enough cash that day.

    Bad experience with Uncle Tom's Tavern from beginning until the end. Most probably it is my first and also last trip there.

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    1. Hi Y S Chee, I have forwarded your feedback to Uncle Tom's Tavern. Thanks for your comments.

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  9. We are very sorry for your bad experience at our place.It's probably a bad experience for you but we will make sure it won't happen again. We are thankful for your comments as it will help us to improve and serve our customer much better. We hope to see you soon as we like to serve you better next time. And for the credit card issue, we are hoping the agent send as soon as possible.

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  10. My family and I was at Uncle Tom restaurant this evening for dinner. We Likes the place and foods, waiter and waitress is very polite and helpful. Even though there is some hiccup on the food that we order some came quite late, I think is it OK. The price of foods is very reasonable, I think it is one of the cheapest with the quality of foods that they served. I hope with this comment, uncle Tom will continue to maintain these prices.
    Hope all you after reading my comments, make an effort to taste the foods in uncle Tom restaurant, yummy food and HO CHIAK!!!!
    Danny Leo
    Nov 15,2012

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  11. Thanks for your comment Mr Danny Leo...We from Uncle Tom's Tavern will make sure all the our customers satisfy with our food and service. We are creating an environment where customer can enjoy their time when they come with their friends/family and we will sure you that the foods will be reasonable by not effecting the taste and the quality of the foods. Hope to see you all on the Thanksgiving as we are doing a special menu for that day...

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  12. Hmm...i don't like to say this but the food taste very bad..not fresh..the vege already change colour.such a waste of $.but the service is good.i thought can go again but no more second time due to the food...

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  13. Dear Anonymous,
    Thank you for your feedback.As they said,if it was bad you tell only to us,and if it was really good you tell your friends and family.We are really sorry that day/night that you dined in was the worst case that ever happened of the food prepared by the kitchen crew.We were really busy on Friday,Saturday and Sunday so the kitchen crew must missed that great "touch" on your meal due to the chaotic kitchen.We regret that to happened to you but we promise that it won't be happening again to you or your friends and family.

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  14. We have breakfast at the Uncle Tom's Tavern today. It was a very bad experience as we thought we might have authentic western cuisine at there. In contrast, it was not what we have expected. My mum and cousin ordered fish and chips, however, the fish was not fresh, and the chips were just normal frozen chips. I ordered seafood spaghetti which I thought should have the special homemade tomato sauce but the sauce tasted awfully. It was like the stir-through pasta sauce that I could simply get from supermarket! And the mushroom soup also tasted like canned soup as someone mentioned in the previous post. I thought the chef should at least cook the soup with fresh mushroom instead of using canned product!! I couldn't agree that this is a good western restaurant that offers sincere "home-cooked" food for customers as it is more like a fast food restaurant. We all are really disappointed at our first visit and would never give another try there!

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    1. Thank you very much for your comment...And we will look into the issue. At our place we only serve the best and to provide the quality service, without any extra chargers..well as we think that is our priority... and this was practice since the day one..the chips that we are getting are grade 'A' and per cut as per our requirement and standard (but it be audited back on the supplier)....all the sauce are made in-house, where we feel as the best way to do the western food is to be fresh....and we want to serve a quality western food to our beloved customers and to anyone who comes to our place....the soup are freshly made with hand pick mushroom, which you won't get from a canned soup....I hope to again as I would like to thank you personnel for your comment as it will help us to improve and serve you better.

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  15. date: 2/3/14 this was the 2nd time for us to dine in but also the last time for us to visit this restaurant again.... wat a bad experience i ever tried before. we requested for the mayonnaise, chilli source to top up/refill as the portion for the mayonnaise & chilli is very small. the staff told us that Rm3 will be chargeable for the refill..this is the 1st time i heard that chilli source n mayonnaise refill will cost us $$. this never happen to me even i went to 3 star or 5 star restaurant.... i checked through the menu, no remark show that refill will cost rm3. Mr Tom, if you really wan to charge us on the chilli source n mayonnaise refill. please show in ur menu. thanks....

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  16. Been there 2 weeks back, i love the Signature Beef Burger so much, Probably the best in town. Staffs are very friendly too. Definitely will be back again.

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    1. Thank you sir/ma'am . Happy to served you .

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  17. after reading some of the comments here....don't really feel like going coz don't wanna get d disappointment, plan to celebrate me n my best fren bday together actually coming friday......hmm.....where should i go.....??

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    1. Hello ma'am/sir . Im Miaca, the one organized for reservation and arrangements for uncle tom's tavern . For any inquiries for planning any events , let me just know @ facebook.com/uncletomstavern2, you can leave your comments and suggestions . I'll be the one who will prepared the event for you . Thank you and Have a nice Day !

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  18. Uncle's Tom, the 'it won't happen again' seems keep on happening !! what's the problem???

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  19. Hello ! Ma'am/Sir, I'm Miaca of Uncle Tom's Tavern one of the management , for your comments, complaints and suggestions kindly leave some message or go to our facebook page facebook.com/uncletomstavern . The management take action on that . Thank You !.

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  20. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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