This is one of the restaurant which is not exactly in the city central but has us coming back every time we are in Kuala Lumpur. About 20 mins ride away, the restaurant is a hot favorite in the neighborhood as it gets extremely crowded during dinner times.
The restaurant has 2 entry point, one is the original one which is non air conditioned and the newer one is leading to the air conditioned side. When it gets extremely crowded, tables are set up along the external corridor as well as the front car park area too.
The interiors of the restaurant is typical of a coffee shop Chinese restaurant where they have basic red plastic chairs and round tables which can be expanded by adding a table topper.
There are rows and rows of editorial write ups on one side of the wall at the non air conditioned side.
Also note the pictures of famous celebrities visiting the restaurant.
Once you are seated, the servers will bring out their special chilli sauce which is very good with all the dishes and this is limited so they keep it once you are done scooping your portion onto the sauce plate. The chilli is thick and savoury with strong sambal and shrimp flavours.
The kitchen and entrance of the kitchen is not the most enticing sight as you will see various cooking ingredients, gas cylinders and baskets stacked up all over the place. As they say, some of the best food come from places where you do not want to visit their kitchen.
Yoke Heng doesn’t really have a menu so you can either ask for recommendations from the servers or try your luck to order dishes you are familiar with and see if they can cook the same dish. There are 2 dishes we always order and we feel is the best. This prawn fried noodles is very similar to the seafood fried noodles in Singapore except the gravy is much more flavourful and delicious.
The noodles are first fried to golden crispy perfection before being topped with the fresh prawn and gravy. The gravy is very thick and creamy with egg whites and yolks whisked into the sauce skillfully. There are at least 3 to 4 prawns in each plate ( medium size ) and the prawns are those huge ones like the size of your palm.
See the succulent meat and sinful roe from each prawn and the sheer size of each prawn given. The meat is springy and fresh and sweet at each bite that it almost taste as good as lobsters.
This next dish is the clay pot rice vermicelli( bee tai mak version). This gooey pot of goodness is cooked with bee tai mak which is a kind of rice vermicelli and corn flour added to thicken the soup. Some of the ingredients include fried pork lard, mushrooms as well as minced meat.
This dish is almost like eating thick congee except you can still see and each the bee tai mak itself. The soup has become so thick it is almost like a starchy gravy which has captured the entire flavour of the soup tasting of mushroom, pork and a tinge of egg. When you add vinegar to the noodles, it becomes much more appetizing just like how you add vinegar to fish maw soup. It adds on another layer of tangy taste.
With just 2 dishes, we were too full to explore the other dishes the restaurant has to offer although we do see many other interesting dishes ordered by neighboring tables. We usually finish off our meal with plain stir fry vegetables which is quite general in taste.
Overall, Yoke Heng is a restaurant which provides good Chinese dishes with great wok hei ( heat of the wok) and we had a couple of other dishes before like pork ribs and fried clams and they were equally great. ( I can’t find the old photos) With the travelling distance, I will continue to visit Yoke Heng until I find a replacement closer to town.
Address: 31 & 33, Jalan Serdang Raya 8/4, Taman Putra Indah, 43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia
Operating hours: 10.30 am to 2.30 pm and 5.30 to 10.30 pm ( Closed on Mondays)
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