Review of 梅林 Merlin Restaurant Muar Johor · Signature Asam Pedas Fish & Fried Dragon Tongue Fish |Tony Johor Kaki Travels for Food · Heritage · Culture

Merlin Restaurant is a household name in Muar and is well known even to foodies as far away as Singapore and Penang.

Fresh dragon tongue fish

One of Merlin's signature dishes is its “dragon tongue fish”. It is actually a small sole fish given this auspicious name because of its unique shape.

Taste wise, “dragon tongue fish” is a simple good pan fried fish. The dragon tongue’s flesh is tender and delicately sweet, and relies solely on its ocean freshness for its delectable taste.

Merlin restaurant is also renowned for their asam fish. Merlin uses only super fresh fish. The soupy gravy is more asam than pedas, so it is delicately salty but robustly sour. This sour taste clearly has a strong following. Every table around us ordered an asam fish. Our next table even asked for top up of asam gravy which they merrily and noisily slurped up.

The asam gravy brings out the natural sweetness of the fresh fish very well. No wonder, this dish has made Merlin restaurant famous throughout Malaysia and even among foodies in Singapore.

This dish is made from 3 of my favourite things - petai (bitter stinky beans), squid, and sambal. This dish is a contrasting blend of flavours and textures. The petai is crunchy and slightly bitter. The squid cut into rings is refreshingly sweet and tenderly chewy to the bite. The sambal chilli is tangy and spicy hot. Tossed and stir fried together on a searing hot wok, this petai sotong dish is a hot favourite among Merlin’s customers.

All the seafood were charged according to weight and the total bill including the delicious fried taugeh (bean sprout), tasty fried seafood tofu and pot of tea came to RM60.60 (2012 price) - great value for the amount and excellent quality of the food.