✍ 18 Jun 2025. Met up with buddy yesterday in JB. He's away from JB for a while and missed the Malay roti canai at Johor Jaya Rosmerah.
Yeah, in Johor there's Indian roti canai, Chinese roti canai and Malay roti canai. In Malaysia and Singapore, food binds people with community variations of the same dish.
Roti canai was featured on the postage stamp commentating Malaysia Day 2019.
Anyway, I am a big fan of Selera Selatan - buddy calls it, the Malay roti canai Rosmerah (because it is in the Rosmerah section of Johor Jaya).
Thirty four years liao, boss Fahrul is still in charge - kneading, flipping, frying every single piece of fried bread at Selara Selatan.
Buddy had one kosong, and one with egg and onion.
I am more disciplined.
I just ordered one with onion as I didn't want too much carbs and grease. Roti canai is a guilty pleasure as they are made with flour, greased and fried with margarine (Malay), palm oil (Chinese), or ghee (Indian).
One mouthful and I was re-blown away (if there is such a phrase) by Fahrul's roti canai.
The layers of fried bread were thin, well browned outside and crisp while the folds inside were chewy. I am always careful about eating margarine (Planta) but Fahrul's rendition seemed light handed with it. I don't feel the grease in the crispy chewy fried bread.
The onions were finely sliced. The tiny slivers crunchy, and juicy sweet.
I like the roti with onion so much that I surrendered to Fahrul 🙇 Ordered another one, a kosong because a man must know when resistance is futile 🤭 I am weak 🤭
The kosong roti was thin like a biscuit, it was dense and compressed, not the fluffy kind. The leopard spotted outside was crisp while the inside was chewy. There was scarcely any grease at all.
Almost like a big biscuit, except that it was not (or maybe it was 😄).
Fahrul provides a sambal robust with umami, savoury, sweet flavours rich with anchovy taste and spicy heat.
Forgot to take a picture, but the dhal was thick with lentil, savoury, sweet and loaded with gentle spice taste and aroma.
Selera Selatan also has staples like soto ayam, lontong, tauhu goreng, and for lunch they serve nasi campur (rice with assorted vegetables and dishes).
Actually, I wrote several articles about Selera Selatan since 2012 when I just started blogging. Google is still punishing me for SEO (search engine optimisation) for too many repeated posts about the same place i.e. duplicate content 🙄 But, I can't help it lah 🤦🤷 Each time I came, Selera Selatan is slightly different and filled me with renewed enthusiasm.
Since 2012, Selera Selatan keeps getting better and it is now better than it had ever been 👍 Of course, in my humble opinion lah.
Restaurant name: Restoran Selera Selatan 马来煎饼
Address: 34, Jalan Ros Merah 2/13, Taman Johor Jaya, 81100 Johor Bahru
Tel: +607 364 7441
Hours: 7am - 11am (Sun off)
Written by Tony Boey on 18 Jun 2025
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✍ 19 Jun 2019. Selera Selatan in Johor Jaya Rosmerah is one of Johor Bahru's best loved roti canai stalls (known as roti prata in Singapore).
Encik Fahrul's day is rather busy the moment he opens for business at 7am. His customers start streaming in immediately, many are regulars, filling up his little eatery quickly. Fahrul has been making roti canai for over 30 years, starting as his mum's helper at the stall. Now, he runs the stall with his wife and helpers.
My usual orders at roti canai places - 2 kosong (plain), 2 bawang (with onion) and 1 plaster (with egg on top). Today, I added a mee soto to try out. Total bill for all these with a glass of tea was about RM17 or RM18 (I can't remember exactly - I got change for RM20). Note: This was 2019 price.
The plain prata about 6 inches across was light and lightly crisp outside with a slight chewiness inside. The bread fried with peanut oil had flaky crisp dark brown patches and was not greasy.
I can taste a bit of wheat flour flavour in the bread (roti) - the kind in a wheat biscuit like Jacobs. The folds inside sponged up the curry dip well. The taste of wheat and mild sweet spicy curry combine very well.
The bawang (onion) version is filled with chopped fresh onions inside the folds.
The onion softens the roti's crisp slightly but adds soft onion crunch and sweetness to the bread.
Roti plaster with an egg stacked on top of the bread.
Selera Selatan's dahl is thick with lots of lentil. It is sweet with a bit of mild spice flavour. If you like your dip more spicy, spoon in some sambal which is spicy hot with anchovy flavour.
The roti plaster's runny egg makes the roti softer but adds an eggy taste to the bread.
Seeing many people ordering the soto ayam (spicy Indonesian style chicken soup) with paru (beef lung) add on, we ordered one too.
The soto ayam soup was nicely savoury spicy. They were rather generous with the add-on of boiled beef lung. The spongy lung have their strong characteristic taste which dominated the dish. Next time, I shall skip the add-on paru 😄
Recommended for you 👍 Still one of the top of my mind places to go to when I crave for roti canai in JB.
The best roti canai / prata stalls in Johor Bahru 👈 click
Restaurant name: Restoran Selera Selatan
Address: Jalan Rosmerah 2/13 (opposite Ang's Laksa), Taman Johor Jaya, Johor Bahru
GPS: 1.534345,103.795089 🌐 1°32'03.6"N 103°47'42.3"E Tel: 07 352 7080
Hours: Roti canai from 7:00am till sold out (usually about 10:30am but sometimes by 9:00am). Selera Selatan serves nasi campur for lunch till 3:30pm. Closed on Saturday & Sunday.
Halal
Date visited: 19 Jan 2019
Selera Selatan in Johor Jaya (Rosmerah) is my favourite place in JB now for roti canai (or prata in Singapore).
The roti is so crispy it's almost like a cream cracker but thicker and more moist.
Then, there is the spicy fish curry and sweet spicy sambal with lots of anchovy flavour to add spice to the savoury sweet crispy roti.
Besides the roti kosong (plain), we had a roti telur (with egg). The egg yolk and white were spread between the folds of the crispy pan fried, slightly flaky bread. An eggy taste was added to the same savoury bread along with sweet spicy curry and sambal chili.
Yum yum.
We also had a roti plaster - its two crispy roti kosong stacked one on top of another and then crowned with a fried egg with runny yolk. The eggy flavour is more pronounced than in roti telur and it has a more interesting contrast of textures. One of my favourite ways to eat roti canai.
Friendly owner chef Encik Farul has been serving roti canai for over 30 years.
Encik Farul's griddle is relatively dry as he uses peanut oil and only sparingly.
The result is heart friendly crispy roti canai that tastes even better than those that are practically deep fried in a puddle of ghee or margarine.
I unconsciously popped over to the next table because I couldn't resist taking a picture of these gorgeous sunny side up eggs. I am
👉 My favourite roti canai in JB now - plenty of spicy sweet flavours and a nice crisp without the grease. I love the runny eggs here too.
The best roti canai / prata stalls in Johor Bahru 👈 click
Restaurant name: Restoran Selera Selatan
Address: Jalan Rosmerah 2/13 (opposite Ang's Laksa), Taman Johor Jaya, Johor Bahru
GPS: 1.534345,103.795089 / 1°32'03.6"N 103°47'42.3"E
Tel: +607 352 7080 ☎ +607 364 7441
Hours: Roti canai from 7:00am till sold out (usually about 10:30am but sometimes by 9:00am). Selera Selatan serves nasi campur for lunch till 3:30pm. Closed on Saturday & Sunday.
Halal
Halal
Written by Tony Boey on 21 Nov 2012, 7 May 2016 | Updated Apr 2023
🎗 Opinions in this blog are all my own as no restaurant or stall paid money to be featured
i get annoyed when i order plaster / tampal goyang and get nonrunny yolks
ReplyDeleteThey also have good nasi dagang. I cant recall which day they serve nasi dagang, but sure it is tasty
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I think this is the best roti canai in jb. I can eat this without the curry, which is good because the curry is nothing much to shout about 😆
ReplyDeleteOh i learnt something new again from you. In JB, there are 3 kind of prata, Malay, Chinese and Indian and they all use different oil. So Chinese selling prata is not rare in JB. In SG, it is so rare that there is only one Chinese prata stall in Yuhua Village Market FC and prata is monopolised by Indian. There is another Chinese owned (non Halal) prata that sells their signature spring onion prata that is very popular but they also hire an Indian to flip the prata
ReplyDeleteTony Boey they do not serve the nasi dagang everyday. You may ask the owner. But if I was not mistaken, usually on Thursdays
ReplyDeleteThis looks good, can see the layers. Recently I found nice one in Ga-hock, pretty good. Go try their onion prata, theirs is green onion+ purple onion, fluffy and nice. Morning till noon session only.
ReplyDeleteYes yes, I want to try the Ga Hock prata
DeleteTony Boey And rmbr to try the fish soup! This is my favourite deep fried version now, try the deep fried fish and let me know hehe. Usually sold out 12-1230pm. Close on Sunday.
ReplyDeleteHow about fendi roti canai? 😅 selera selatan is one of the best, but after their son many years ago 遇到了车祸，整个口感不如以前，也不懂为什么会这样，不过还是依然不错吃,离我的工作地方才几步而已，却7年没有去吃🤣
ReplyDelete