Super Lobster Restaurant a Worthy Alternative for Live Seafood in Sg Rengit 龍皇海鮮樓

I haven't been back to Sg Rengit for lobsters for over 3 years. After trying various lobster places there, I concluded that on balance Jade Garden Seafood Corner was the safest bet. But, I have continued looking for alternatives. This trip, I think I found a worthy alternative in Super Lobster Restaurant 龍皇海鮮樓.

Fei Fei Crab 肥肥蟹 in Plaza Sentosa Johor Bahru. Got More Pattern than Badminton

When I was living in Kuala Lumpur, one of my memorable dining experiences was their specialist crab restaurants - they do crabs in many different flavours just like those roti prata shops that do prata in "more pattern than badminton" as we say in Singlish. Now one of them, Fei Fei Crab have come to Johor Bahru (for one year already actually).

Crab Factory. Little Paris. Bandar Jaya Putra. Johor JB

When I visited the newly opened Crab Factory outlet near Mount Austin, Johor Bahru, I came with a bit of scepticism. Isn't the fancy fad on the wane already? But, after eating at Crab Factory, I changed my mind. Now, I feel that Louisiana seafood boil can be as mainstream as chili crab and salted egg crab - if, you do it as well as Crab Factory, that is.

Fukuryu Hokkaido Japanese Snow Crab Season Johor Bahru 福龙北海道雪蟹料理优惠 JK1523

Chef Cash Fong, owner of Fukuryu 福龙 invited Johor Kaki to taste their Snow Crab season dishes. There are four different dishes using snow crabs from Hokkaido, Japan.

Chua Kee Seafood Gelang Patah Johor 蔡記海鲜

Chua Kee (together with Tian Lai) are the oldest established kampung style seafood restaurants in Gelang Patah. Star Chef restaurant is a relative newcomer, though it also have a good foothold now too. So, here we are at Chua Kee to complete our roundup of seafood restaurants in Gelang Patah.

Johor Seafood at Tian Lai 天来 in Gelang Patah - Third Visit

This was my third visit to Tian Lai 天来 in Gelang Patah. The restaurants at Gelang Patah are just a short drive from LEGOLAND or Puteri Harbour. I picked Tian Lai tonight mainly for the crabs here and it was good the previous two times I was here. 

Seafood in Pontian at Football Field (Zu Qiu Seafood Corner) 足球场海鲜茶餐室

Whenever I asked Pontian folks which is their favourite seafood restaurant at their seaside hometown, the name Zu Qiu Seafood Corner 足球场海鲜茶餐室 always come up. The name 足球场 literally means soccer field.

Seafood in Johor Gelang Patah at Star Chef Restaurant 星名廚

I am often asked by readers, what is the secret of success of a F & B business. I am no expert but after speaking with over 600 stall and restaurant owners in Johor and Singapore, I feel a good (or poor) supply chain is half the battle won (or lost).

Johor Seafood at Restoran Todak📍Telok Jawa Masai JB 旗鱼海番村

Restoran Todak is one of the most popular seafood places in Johor Bahru. At Restoran Todak, the crowd starts to stream in and fill out the tables fast from about 6:30pm onwards.

Lobsters and Crabs at Yoou Kee 佑记 Seafood in Sungai Rengit, Pengerang, Johor

We went to Sungai Rengit, Pengerang again for another round of lobster hunting. We have tried the famous Jade Garden, and the newly opened Straits View and Hai Zhi Lian. So today, we wanted to try something else.

As usual, we walked the small shops in Sungai Rengit town and asked the locals which is their preferred seafood restaurant. Yoou Kee 佑记 came up for mention a few times and so we chose Yoou Kee for this round.



Yoou Kee is a typical, simple Malaysian small town street side restaurant. It is actually located right next door to Jade Garden, the largest seafood restaurant in Sungai Rengit. Still, Yoou Kee is holding its own well with their own loyal clientele. 



Mr Low, the owner and Chef of Yoou Kee hails from Muar and had been working in restaurants for over 30 years. MR Low worked in Singapore restaurants for 10 years and then his own restaurant Yoou Kee for the next 20 years. Observing him in the kitchen, Mr Low seemed almost nonchalant with every precise movement effortless and efficient.

It was a Monday afternoon when we were there, which is usually slow but I noticed a few regulars dropping by. There was an extended family from Gelang Patah who came here mainly for Yoou Kee's Tung Tung (sea snail). They even ta pau (take away) another serving of Tung Tung to bring home. We did not order Tung Tung this round but will definitely try it at the next visit.

We had lobsters, of course, and Mr Low suggested his popular Butter Lobsters.

The live lobsters were simply cut in half, deep fried in oil and then lightly stir fried in a butter sauce.



The flavour of the butter sauce was light which was good as it complemented and enhanced the natural flavour of the lobsters.

By now after trying a few lobster dishes in Sungai Rengit, we were pretty accustomed to live and expertly prepared lobsters.



Yoou Kee's tasty lobsters were testimony to Mr Low's 30 years of experience.



When the Butter Lobsters arrived at the table, my first impression was that it looked a tad dry. But, looks deceive - all the lobster goodness was trapped inside that thin layer of batter.



Everything in the lobster such as its juiciness, bounciness and natural sweetness of the flesh were well preserved. The batter and butter sauce simply let the lobster's natural flavours shine.



We had a large crab prepared in salted egg sauce - another popular dish at Yoou Kee.





The salted egg sauce was savoury and complemented the natural sweetness of the meaty crab well. MR Low again demonstrated his depth of artistry in wielding the wok and in temperature control.



It was almost redundant to say that the salted egg sauce brought out the natural sweetness of the crab. So, we shall just let the picture speak for itself.



MR Low whipped out this savoury fried vegetable in an instant and it had that same simple and nice signature light touch of Mr Low.



Caught sight of this simple note stuck on a glass panel at Yoou Kee promoting their Chinese New Year set menus.

There you have it - another good seafood restaurant in Sungai Rengit that won't waste your trip to Pengerang. If you are vacationing in Desaru or just want to get away from the city over the weekend, you may want to explore the seafood restaurants of Sungai Rengit.


Restaurant name: Restoran Makanan Laut Yoou Kee 佑记
Address: 55, Jalan Pantai, Sungai Rengit, Pengerang
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/v4CU8
GPS: 1.351032,104.224258
Hours: 11:00am to 10:30pm
No pork, no lard

Date visited: 4 Feb 2013

CLOSED Hai Zhi Lian Seafood Restaurant 海之恋海鲜楼 in Sungai Rengit, Pengerang, Johor CLOSED

Ah Hing, the friendly manager of Hai Zhi Lian Restaurant 海之恋海鲜楼 in Sungai Rengit, Pengerang invited Johor Kaki to try out their menu.

Hai Zhi Lian restaurant is just at the outskirts of Sungai Rengit town, smacked in the middle on the coastal road between the "Lobster Town" and the famous Ostrich Farm.

Star Chef Restaurant in Gelang Patah (near Legoland) in Johor, Malaysia

Alex the boss of Star Chef restaurant in Gelang Patah (near Legoland) invited me to visit his family's seafood farm in Pontian which supplies his restaurant. The seafood farm in Pontian uses sea water with modern machinery and technology to rear wild caught crabs and lobsters, and fish.

Johor Seafood - Star Chef Seafood Restaurant 星名廚 in Gelang Patah (near Legoland), Johor

I have been wanting to visit Restaurant Star Chef 星名廚 ever since they moved (on 12 Oct 2012) to their new address in Gelang Patah (from Skudai). This afternoon, we were at Restaurant Star Chef at the gracious invitation of Alex, the boss.

Unlike the air conditioned premises at Skudai, here at Gelang Patah, Star Chef is an open concept restaurant, airy and more spacious. The ambiance is informal, relaxed and comfortable - the perfect setting for easy, casual dining with buddies and family.

Locating Restaurant Star Chef was a breeze as it is along the same stretch of road with many seafood restaurants. Restaurant Star Chef is highly accessible from Singapore via the Second Link at Tuas/ Gelang Patah. As good foodies, once we arrived, we quickly got down to the serious business of eating without much ado :)

When at Restaurant Star Chef, I always have their braised duck and roast duck as Star Chef is one of the few places that still uses live ducks for cooking. And, as always, Star Chef's ducks always pleases. The braised duck was tender, savoury and naturally sweet. The roasted duck had that herbal taste and flavour, was tender and the skin was nicely crispy. (Update: Live ducks are no longer available in Johor.)

Plate of braised duck, roast duck and char siew RM15

Today, Alex also wanted us to try his char siew. I purposely indulged in a couple of slices of the fatty pieces and they were well worth the cholesterol. Soft and luscious with BBQ pork flavour.

When ordering crabs, we decided to be adventurous - rather than the usual safe choices of chili crab, black pepper crab, and crab cooked with salted egg yolks we tried two styles that we never had before. These were Restaurant Star Chef's signature crabs.

This was on the menu as the King of Crab - well, with a delicious name like this, we just got to put it to the (taste) test :P The crab arrived in a puffy bag made with aluminium foil.

The staff carefully slit the bag open with a pair of scissors and tah... dah.... there was.... another bag. This time made with a large dried lotus leaf.

Alex then personally cut open the lotus leaf bag, and inside was the large crab baked with a spicy, tangy sauce and lots of pepper corns, onions and a bit of chili. Most of us liked the spicy, tangy taste with the juicy crab meat though one of us felt it might be an acquired taste.

This was the Butter Cream Crab with Coconut Milk. The taste and flavour was similar to butter crabs and with the twist of fragrant touches of fresh coconut milk and shredded coconut flesh. The butter and coconut based gravy was creamy, tacky and sweet. We all liked this as it went very well with the thick and juicy crab meat.

Crab prices are, of course, seasonal. For today, it's RM68/ kg for the medium sized ones.

Tong Po Pork RM13

One of us had a craving for classic Tong Po pork and ordered it immediately on seeing it on the menu. When the Tong Po pork arrived, I was thrilled by the glazed and giggly tender look of the braised pork. We were all mouth watering but everyone had to indulge me as I took my usual amount of time to get my best pictures. Sorry guys, I know, I am slow :P

When we finally got the chance to sink our teeth into the Tong Po pork, we were all well rewarded by the savoury sweet soft meat.

Alex offered us this Seafood in Pumpkin soup which was an off menu item at RM36 (for 4 to 5 persons). It's savoury sweet creamy pumpkin soup with chunky pieces of button mushrooms, grouper fish meat, scallops and fish maw. It's like seafood chowder with cream of pumpkin soup.

Fried Yee Mee RM12

To round up our meal, we had an obligatory carbo dish - a simple Fried Yee Mee cooked with seafood broth. I liked this el dente noodles so much that I unknowingly ate more than what was necessary and polite :P

Our meal came with this complimentary herbal broth. I was not crazy about this, though the ladies were full of praise for it. They loved the  dang gui 當歸 flavour in the soup.



Gelang Patah is a very crowded field with more than a dozen seafood restaurants established in the area. Now, lucky foodies from Johor and Singapore are further spoilt with another attractive choice with the entrance of Restaurant Star Chef.

Click on the pictures to view my earlier posts on Star Chef Restaurant (when they were located in Skudai).

Click on the map to see my earlier posts when Star Chef Restaurant was in Skudai

Restaurant name: Restaurant Star Chef 星名廚
Address: 51, Jalan Gelang Emas 1, Taman Gelang Emas, Gelang Patah, Johor Bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/qTJV6
GPS: 1.450726,103.585367
Hours: 09:30am to 10:30pm (Closed on alternate Thursdays)

Non Halal

Date visited: 28 Oct 2012

Return to Johor Kaki homepage.

Johor Seafood · Tian Lai Seafood Garden 天来 @ Gelang Patah, Johor (near Legoland)

The six of us were on our way back to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur on a Sunday evening and decided to swing over to Gelang Patah near the Second Link (between Johor and Singapore) to try out the famous Tian Lai 天来 Seafood Garden. Tian Lai 天来 Seafood Garden is the most popular and best known seafood restaurant in Gelang Patah.

Restaurant name: Restoran Tian Lai

Address: 158 Jalan Leong Bee, Gelang Patah, 81550 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Tel: +607 510 1521

Hours: 12 noon - 10:30pm (Mon off)

Anjung Senibong Malay Sea Food at Kampung Senibong, Permas Jaya, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

We went to Senibong Seafood Village with our long time buddies for Halal seafood. Senibong Seafood Village is a stretch of six or seven seafood restaurants in Kampung Senibong in Permas Jaya. All the seafood restaurants here have dining sections over the beach and face the Straits of Johor. We can see Singapore on the other side.

 

 

As there were several seafood restaurants here, we took our time to look at each of them. We looked at their seafood on display for freshness, had a glimpse of their kitchens, their customers and what were on their tables.

 

After a couple of rounds, we settled on Anjung Senibong Malay Sea Food although there was really nothing that clearly told the restaurants apart, without first trying their food.

 

Anjung Senibong Malay Sea Food is very well appointed, and like the rest, it also had an outdoor dining area on stilts. As the weather was excellent and breezy that evening, we naturally opted for al fresco dining to enjoy the view and sea breeze.

We enjoyed our company and we were all happy with our choice of restaurant that evening. Here's what the four of us had that night.

La la RM15

First, the la la (shellfish). The la la fried in spicy sambal were fresh and well cleaned. No trace of sand or dirt at all. The la la were not plump but were nicely chewy and the spicy sambal was savoury, fragrant and not overly spicy hot. All of us liked this dish.

 

Cereal prawns RM20

The cereal prawns won the most praise. The flesh was fresh, thick, firm yet tender. The cereal batter was crispy and helped brought out the naturally sweet flavours of the fresh succulent flesh very well. The deep fried cereal batter was crisp and not oily.

 

Seafood mee goreng RM9

The seafood mee goreng or noodles fried in seafood stock had that much appreciated distinct seafood umami flavour.

 

The accompanying mussels, sotong and prawns were fresh and juicy. The noodles went so fast, I actually didn't have a chance to sample it and had to rely on my companions' feedback for these comments :P By the looks of the noodles and the expressions on my friends' faces as they quickly slurped up the noodles, they must be yummy :)

 

Chili crabs RM51

The chili crab was fried in sambal chili and was the dry type, not the syrupy textured gravy type which I am more used to. This dry style turned out to the nice too.

 

The crabs were fresh and meaty, and naturally sweet too. This crab dish also got high marks from all of us.

 

Sotong RM28

The sotong was naturally sweet and the delicately flavoured curry spices brought that out well. The dish was in the drier style. Personally, I prefer my sotong to be served with a more drippy gravy that would help keep the sotong flesh soft while retaining its spring.

 

Fried kai lan RM10

The simple fried fresh leafy greens were tasty and all disappeared very fast. We liked the savoury gravy though one of my friends felt it was a little on the salty side.

We enjoyed our dinner at Anjung Senibong Malay Sea Food. The total bill with drinks came to RM145 which we felt was reasonable for the amount and quality of food we had, in a nice seaside restaurant with sea view and breeze.

Restaurant name: Anjung Senibong Malay Sea Food
Address: 4, Persisir Pantai Senibong, Kampung Senibong, Permas Jaya, Johor Bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/TNNV4
GPS: 1.484986,103.817496
Hours: 6:00pm to midnight
Halal

Date visited: 4 Oct 2012