Hai Kah Lang Seafood Review @ TRX KL ● JB Branch @ Sentosa 海脚人海鲜粉 ● Menu & Full Paying Customer Review

✍️ 24 Apr 2024. After trying the popular Hai Kah Lang seafood at TRX Kuala Lumpur, I was curious to check out their equally famous outlet in Johor Bahru.

We were here just before midday and the quite large restaurant was full house with a queue waiting for tables.

But, they have a good system. The staff will take your orders and arrange a table for your group while you wait, so things move fast.

The menu for your reference. The staff will guide you through it. It's basically mains (fish, crab, clams, etc), choice of noodles, sides and drinks.

We sat down and got our food pretty fast, despite the crowd.

I had fish belly and kway teow soup.

The soup was quite viscous, medium body, which is good. The first impression was it was rather sugary sweet. The savouriness and fish flavour came out as the meal progresses.

The fish belly meat was fresh, soft and tastes naturally sweet. Be careful as fish belly has some bones, if you are ordering this.

There are options for various noodles, I chose kway teow. They were generic but done alright.

I ordered the octopus as it was the memorable item from my TRX KL Hai Kah Lang meal.

However, over here in JB today, it was overdone which made the octopus slightly mushy soft. The savoury sauce couldn't really rescue it.

I wanted blanched fish eggs in my bowl of noodle soup but they don't have it today. They only have the fried version.

They were alright, fresh enough.

Hai Kah Lang is a good place for singles to groups. It is clean, well organised and well run, so customers get served quickly despite the crowd.

The food was tasty and prices were at just a slight premium.

Restaurant name: 海脚人 Hai Kah Lang JB Sentosa

Address: 173, Jalan Sutera, Taman Sentosa, 80150 Johor Bahru

Tel: +6011 1686 3739

Hours: 8 am - 9:30 pm

Map:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ha1gt5i2iNaDAzNK9

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Written by Tony Boey on 24 Apr 2024

✍ 28 Mar 2024. Buddy Rayner happened to be in KL and wanted to try out the famous Hai Kah Lang seafood place together. Hai Kah Lang has a new outlet right outside the spanking new, swanky TRX shopping mall. 

(Originally from Cheras KL, they also have an outlet in Taman Sentosa in Johor Bahru.)

At TRX, it's a large restaurant, busy even on a Tuesday evening before the dinner peak.

The cooking stations at the back of the restaurant. Fish and seafood were displayed on beds of ice or swimming in tanks.

The fish were fresh.

The signature seafood soup (with kway teow). The tea colour soup was clean tasting savoury sweetish. There was neither floating grease nor strong tasting fried aromatics (garlic / shallot) oil. Nice.

Our food came within 15 - 20 minutes despite the full house. The little army of staff was well organised and efficient.

There were grouper fish slices, prawns, razor claims, etc. The seafood were fresh - we could taste their sweetness and feel their flesh's natural spring in our bite.

There were three of us, and the staff brought three bowls without us asking 👍

We wanted crab porridge but it was not available. So we settled for fish porridge instead. Nothing to see, as everything was under the cloudy stock 😂

Umami savoury sweet from the stock and natural sweetness from the rice and leopard coral grouper fish slices. The rice was boiled till the grains bursted but not dissolved.

We had a small bowl of blanched spongy crunchy tender moist octopus tentacles which turned out to be my favourite of the evening. A bit of savoury sauce and fried aromatics brought out the natural flavours and sweetness of the fresh octopus.

I wanted fish belly but it turned out to be rehydrated fish maw braised in soy sauce. 

It was alright, savoury salty flavours infused into the soft springy braised fish maw.

(I still prefer fresh fish belly though, the fatty part at the pelvic fin.)

The soft shelled crab came chopped up, battered and deep fried till golden brown.

Not very photogenic but the expected texture for battered deep fried soft shelled crab. Slightly crisp outside, a bit of spongy soft feeling inside. Layered kind of mild savouriness, a subtle umami. I didn't use the purple sauce they dribbled on the serving plate.

The fish cake was quite likeable. 

Springy, soft leathery outside as it was deep fried, but inside it was soft, and moist. Slightly salty taste with a bit of fish sweetness.

Cockles because we were going to chat a while 😂

Simply blanched, could neither see, nor taste the blood. So, good for the squeamish such as me (at this age). Just a little tender crunch with a bit of cockle taste and sweetness. Very clean. No sand at all.

They have several different drink concoctions. This was alright. A bit sourish and a blend of vegetables and fruits.

We had the simpler dishes, small servings, the flavours were familiar, comforting, likeable. The food was good though we didn't have anything mind blowing based on the dishes we had. I would go to Hai Kah Lang again for get togethers and try more dishes. The food and environment are nice for casual gatherings. Total bill was RM165 with 10% service charge and 6% service tax included. Thanks buddy for the treat 😄

This reminds me, it's time for me to revisit Matang Seafood Porridge at Mount Austin which serves nice crab and seafood porridge.

Restaurant name: 海脚人 Hai Kah Lang TRX

Address: 32 & 34, Jalan Utara, Off Jalan Imbi, Imbi, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Nearest MRT: Tun Razak Exchange (TRX)

Tel: +6011 3628 3989

Hours: 8am - 2am

Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/bHEs1nkwKACqhdQT9

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Written by Tony Boey on 28 Mar 2024

🎗 Opinions in this blog are all my own as no restaurant or stall paid money to be featured