Chuan Xin Kway Teow Soup Restaurant at Taman Skudai Bahru, Johor Bahru 创新鲍鱼粿条

We passed this Chuan Xin kway teow soup shop a few times and noticed that it is always doing a brisk business. Today, we decided to stop by and give it a try.


Service was good. As we stepped into the clean and neat shop, enthusiastic staff were ready to show us to an available table in the crowded restaurant. As soon as we sat down, the staff were ready with tablets to take our orders.

The menu is a combination of Teowchew kway teow soup and Cantonese dim sum. We ordered a small sampling of both to try. 

I had the Teowchew kway teow, of course.



The snowy white kway teow comes with a drizzle of dark coloured sauce and seductive looking pieces of lard crackles.



Tossing the kway teow in the sauce, I can smell the aroma of fresh lard and fried shallot oil.

The sauce coated kway teow was tasty though I prefer my kway teow to have a more discernible rice flavour and softer texture.



I like the soup because everything inside the savoury light bodied broth was fresh and naturally sweet.

It was really impressed with the liver. The boss was supervising operations and all the cooking were left to young staff. Yet, the liver was "done just right" - it was as good as that from any old hand that I have eaten, so far. The soft texture and flavour of the "just done" fresh liver was just beautiful.



I am not a big fan of canned shellfish, though in JB kway teow soup shops, canned shellfish is a common selling point. The popular kway teow soup shops always throw one or a few slices of these savoury tender chewy shell fish in the broth. 

The kway teow and soup came to RM7, which I thought was very reasonable for the well executed dish with fresh ingredients and pleasant environment.



Chuan Xin's chili sauce is good. It is a blend of tangy, sweet, savoury and spicy hot. It will come to the rescue should anyone find the soup and kway teow not flavourful enough. I didn't find myself having to use this good chili sauce much :D

Looking at what the other customers were eating, I got the feeling that Chuan Xin has hit on the right formula to keep the restaurant running at full house. Chuan Xin combines Teochew comfort food (kway teow soup) with dim sum (Cantonese comfort food). The two cuisines go well together and appeal to a wide cross section of people.

We ordered a small sampling of dim sum to try.



Chee cheong fun with char siew RM4.80


Liu Sah Bao 流沙包 RM5.20 (3 pieces per tray)

I like Chuan Xin's liu sah bao. Small size bun and the thick liu sah 流沙 or "golden lava" filling doesn't really flow. But, I love the savoury sweet blend and heavy, slightly grainy texture of the salted egg yolk, pumpkin lava. I will order this again.


Ma Lai Ko 马来糕 RM4.20 (4 pieces per tray) 

Ma Lai Ko 马来糕 is one of my favourite dim sum. Chuan Xin's version is soft, bouncy with many air pockets like a washing sponge. It has two layers of kaya-like spread. Refreshingly sweet yet not sugary. I will order this again at my next visit.



(Note: The bill comes with 3% service charge.)

Restaurant name: Chuan Xin Kway Teow 创新鲍鱼粿条
Address: Jalan Hang Tuah 26, Taman Skudai Baru, Johor Bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/qrMiM
GPS: 1.519977,103.652518
Hours: 7:00am to 6:00pm
Non Halal

Date visited: 19 Dec 2013

Back to home page.