Restoran Ya Wang 鸭皇 in Downtown Johor Bahru near City Square

✍️ 24 Jun 2024. Went to Ya Wang today and enjoyed our food. 

Ya Wang is at their new location at 44 Jalan Segget, near their old place.

The new shop felt the same as the old one. The interior is simply laid out, basic but with humble, comfortable furnishings, bright, clean and air conditioned. 

The roast meats menu. 

They have roast suckling pig occasionally, like today, but we were just two and had to space out our meals between many eating stops.

We just had an upper quarter cut (breast and a wing joint) and a plain (kosong) noodle. Our bill came to about RM30.

The duck came in large meaty chunks, and doused with an aromatic sloshy brown sauce.

The skin was golden brown but soft. Truth be told, I wasn't too excited in the past as I expected roast duck skin to be crisp. 

But, I soon learnt to appreciate Ya Wang's roast duck because the soft skin was aromatic with dangui 当归 smell, and with robust savoury flavours.

The thick sliced meat was moist and soft tender. It was well infused with savoury, Chinese five spice and dangui flavours in a well balanced blend.

The dangui sauce is Ya Wang's signature and top up is available at additional cost. 

Besides dangui roast ducks, Ya Wang also have ginseng roast ducks.

The kosong (plain) noodles came doused with a savoury dark sauce. The factory made generic noodles were nicely springy and delicious with the tasty, robustly savoury sauce. 

The chili sauce at the table was nice too. Spicy hot, garlicky with a slightly sourish bite. Good with fatty, meaty dishes like sio bak which we didn't order today. 

Chopped and double confirmed excellent JB style dangui roast duck that is drawing customers from both sides of the Causeway, all these years. Worth the calories and time during your JB day trip. 

I have another post on Ya Wang from 2016 when I also tried the sio bak and char siew 👈 click

Try out this JB downtown food trail on foot 👈 click

Restaurant name: Restoran Ya Wang 鸭皇

Address: 44, Jalan Segget, Johor Bahru

Tel: +607 224 8624

Hours: 8am - 6pm (Weds off)

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Written by Tony Boey on 24 Jun 2024

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✍ 16 Jun 2012. “Because it’s there.” These three most famous words in mountaineering was the reply British climber George Mallory gave in 1924 when he was asked why he attempted to climb Mount Everest.

I guess this was the reason why I tried out Ya Wang 鸭皇, because this huge loud duck is always there whenever I passed downtown JB.

Update 4 May 2024. Ya Wang has moved a short distance away to 44 Jalan Segget. The iconic duck has gone semi indoors.

Ya Wang has a towering reputation. Declaring itself the "Duck King", Ya Wang was the shop that pioneered herbal roast ducks in Johor Bahru. Ya Wang is also the appointed adviser to the popular Dian Xiao Er 店小二 herbal roast duck franchise in Singapore.

Despite its stature, the exterior of Ya Wang restaurant looked worn with its signage bleached white as a sheet by the sun. The ducks and roast meat were hanging haphazardly behind the hazed glass case.

Inside the restaurant, it is air conditioned, meticulously cleaned, and dazzlingly flooded by bright fluorescent lights. The staff was attentive and wore the obvious pride of working in the oldest established 闻名老店 herbal roast duck shop in JB.

The duck meat and skin were soft and had a distinct herbal flavour due to the copious amount of herbal sauce (choice of dangui and ginseng) doused over it. Much of the duck meat was literally soaking in the sauce.

Initially, I wasn’t thrilled as I was expecting something with crispy skin and juicy flesh.

It turned out that Ya Wang's tender duck meat was tasty and nice to chew on, though I remained unconverted. Nevertheless, this Ya Wang 鸭皇 style has its own loyal following, judging by the steady stream of customers that kept flowing in.

The tasty soup was typical of Cantonese double boiled soup – loaded with lotus roots, dried cuttlefish, groundnuts and pork.

My plate of duck, lotus soup and a large plate of steamed rice came to RM14 (2012 price).

Give Ya Wang a try, if you have not – you might like this style of herbal roast duck.



Restaurant name: Restoran Ya Wang 鸭皇药材烧腊大王

Address: 28 44, Jalan Segget, Johor Bahru

GPS: 1.458154,103.764337

Hours: 8:00am to 6:00pm (Weds off0

Date visited: 17 April 2012